I'm in New York and need to get to Texas. I've taken the Northeast Corrider quite regularly for years, but I've never taken a non-electric Amtrak train.
I was thinking of taking the Texas Eagle from Chicago and the Lake Shore Limited to Chicago. I understand it is a long trip, I'd be sitting in coach.
Anyway, I'll have my laptop with me, with the national broadband. Do those who have taken this trip find that every once in a while you can get cell phone service? Or is it for the most part completely dead?
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Mr. Juszczak, unless you are seeking an adventure, and especially since you comtemplate such in Coach, my best advice to you is fly.
Those at other Forums that have expected the same speed and reliability, let alone frequency, that is offered in the Corridor, found very quickly when off-Corridor were in for a sore disappointment.
Quite simply, and some here will quickly disagree, the Corridor is the only place Amtrak provides needed passenger transportation, and the region is well benefitted from such. Off-corridor, the trains such as what you would ride to Texas are operated for little more than to provide the catylist to receive Federal level funding for what in all honesty must be considered a regional operation.
But if you are an inveterate traveler, adventurer, railfan, or part of the "can't fly" cadre, then go for it, but my best advice is don't even think of doing so in Coach.
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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Matt, To answer your question: yes, you should be able to use your laptop on that trip. It gets sticky in places like the second night out on the eastbound SW Chief which puts it in SE Colorado...there's nothing there, so clearly no cell phone service. But your trip should be able to pick up the National Broadband signal in most places.
Just to give you some options: you could go NY to New Orleans on the Cresent and west from there on the Sunset. You didn't say which part of Texas you were going to.
Finally, I, too, tend to be of the G. Norman school of travel. But we're old and maybe your not. Coach is tough on us veterans.
Posts: 518 | From: Maynard, MA, USA | Registered: Sep 2000
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Amtrak's long distance trains generally do NOT have electrical outlets in coach. These cars were built long before anyone had ever heard of laptop computers. There are a handful of Superliner coaches that have had outlets installed as an "add-on" but they are few and far between, so it is unlikely you'll get one.
Mr. Norman is a well respected member of this forum, but his aversion to overnight coach travel is well documented. Many people do it quite happily. However, in this case I think he has a point. Personally, I would not recommend coach travel for more than one night. You don't get much sleep. On multi-night trips it can be draining.
Thus I would highly recommend getting a Roomette, at least for the Texas Eagle portion of your journey. A Roomette offers a bed, a table, a power outlet and three square meals. Remember when calculating costs that meals are NOT included in coach fares, but ARE included in sleeper fares, making the cost difference less than it appears on paper. Figure adding about $40 per day to quoted coach fares to cover food.
Posts: 2649 | From: California's Monterey Peninsula | Registered: Dec 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Matt Juszczak: Why not in coach?
Would business class be better?
Mr. Juszczak, Business Class is not offered on any of the trains, be such via Chicago or New Orleans, you could ride.
Further, here are additional reasons not to even think about the rail journey in Coach. In Sleeper, you WILL have that apparently precious electrical outlet - and there will be a much greater chance that you will be fit for duty to accomplish your necessary work en route.
In Coach (and yes I have done it - when a Sleeper once had to be set out en-route) your mental state will be more that of a zombie than humanoid.
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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I can't afford a sleeper or a roomette. I am 22 years old. If I can't get electricity for my laptop (or find a place where I can charge it when the battery runs out) that will be a deal breaker for me.
I just don't want to fly Posts: 6 | Registered: Jun 2007
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Hate to be trite, but come on, your 22 years old!! Go for it!!!. You only live once. It will be an adventure and there is only so much time that you get to do crazy things before you have to grow up and fake like your a normal human being and do only rational things. It sounds like fun to me. As far as electrical outlets I think there are a few in the lounge and maybe interspersed occasionaly in the coachs, but I could be wrong.
If not, this is only a couple of day trip, you could get some work done at Chicago Union Station if there is a layover.
Only you know how important the work truly is, but if it is like most work, one can slag off and procrastinate now and then and not have the world come to an end.
I do know there is stuff that actually is essential, but if it's not life and death, I say, to heck with it for a couple of hours of your life.
Just my two cents, with due respects to the other posters.
Posts: 38 | Registered: Dec 2006
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Well, it seems that there are electric outlets in the lounge car, no? Could I go there to charge up the lappy when needed?
Posts: 6 | Registered: Jun 2007
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Matt, if you're 22 years old and in NY, you should have the chutzpah to make the trip in coach. Stake out a good spot in the lounge car as soon as possible and "move in" with your laptop. I spent almost the entire 20-hour trip from Palatka, FL to NYP last month in a lounge seat, and even slept in it. They only threw me out of it the last 45 mins. or so as we arrived in NY. Met lots of people in the lounge car, and a few of them were even sober (more or less).
-------------------- Ocala Mike Posts: 1530 | From: Ocala, FL | Registered: Dec 2006
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Matt, Mike is absolutely right. You should do quite well in coach. I traveled coast to coast and back several times in my 30s and was comfortable.Now thatI am 49 and holding and can afford a sleeper that;s the way I go. Just take a small blanket or cover of some sort along as it tends to get cold at night. With leg rests and reclining seats you will be much more comfortable than in an airline seat. At your age I was doing primative camping and sleeping on the ground in a sleeping bag. You could too. So...go ahead and look at it as an adventure.
Posts: 1577 | From: virginia | Registered: Jun 2005
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Matt, if you have a high tolerance for sleep deprivation, and don't need the laptop in service at all times, you may yet find ways to make it work in coach.
Coaches do have outlets in the rest rooms, but it would be inadvisable to leave it in there long enough to charge the battery. I don't know where power is in the lounge. I am aware that each coach does have one outlet at or near one pair of seats by the stairwell, which is used by cleaning crews for vacuuming. Out of 70-some seats in a Superliner, the chances of getting that seat for yourself is almost zero, but you may be able to access it for recharging while keeping your precious electronics within sight. However, as previously advised, the only guarantee of access to power would be to get a Roomette.
Whatever you do, if you decide to go by train, get a small surge suppressor to go between your laptop and the outlet. I don't know how even the voltage is on the train.
Posts: 2649 | From: California's Monterey Peninsula | Registered: Dec 2000
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I've made many long trips in long distance coaches. I did that a number of times in the late 80s and 90s when Amtrak had the All Aboard America fares. I was able to see a lot on a limited budget. Even then, usually two days and nights (Chicago to the West Coast, for example) was the most I wanted to spend on the train before having at least one night with a shower and a bed. In some cases, I purposely scheduled a "misconnect" to get a night off the train without losing one my three stopovers on that fare plan.
Long distance coach seats are quite spacious, wide seats with leg rests and lots of leg room, comparable in space to first class airline seats. Even with these relatively large seats, sleeping is some times a bit of an art. Eye shades and ear plugs are good to pack. As others have mentioned, electrical outlets are limited, mostly enough to service the cars. If I were boarding at an endpoint, I'd board early and search for a seat near one of these limited outlets.
Posts: 41 | From: San Diego, CA, USA | Registered: Jul 2000
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One note about electrical outlets in public spaces that I have observed: They go fast. Very fast. Almost before you can climb aboard, someone has staked them out to charge cell phones and the like. Yes, it is POSSIBLE to grab one--I lucked out with the one outlet in the middle of an Amfleet coach for my "suitcase" SX-64 on the Broadway Limited in 1985--but such in my experience has been the exception, not the rule.
I have traveled coach several times in the past (more than I can recall, off the top of my head). I have had a sleeper for four trips that I can easily remember (two one-way, two round-trip). I know that at that age, budget is critical. But I have often, thinking back on a coach trip, wished that I had taken a sleeper. I have never yet, after a sleeper trip, wished that I had traveled coach.
-------------------- --------Eric H. Bowen
Stop by my website: Streamliner Schedules - Historic timetables of the great trains of the past! Posts: 413 | From: Houston, Texas | Registered: Mar 2006
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G0 for it, and don't worry about the naysayers. At 22 should be no problem at all. I did cross country in 1971 (age 26) when I came back from Nam. Did buy a sleeper Denver to Chicago, otherwise, all coach. Was completely relaxed at completion of the trip.
Go with the flow and enjoy the experience.
You may just have to suffer a period of withdrawal symptoms due to lack of laptop. Carry and extra battery.
Posts: 2808 | From: Olive Branch MS | Registered: Nov 2002
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In the Superliner (Texas Eagle) Sightseer Lounge, there is usually a double AC outlet inside the unused serving station near the stairs on the upper level. This can become very much in demand for recharging as more people discover it. If you or anyone has a power strip that will multiply the outlets, it will help. I have usually found it available in the early morning hours. Amtrak will not allow you to run cords across the aisle.
A cable lock for your laptop is essential. I have left mine cabled on the floor inside the unused service station as it recharges. (If you have a remodeled lounge, I don't know if this info is still valid.) You are not likely to find a place you can run your laptop on AC alone for most of your trip. But I have always eventually found an outlet. Most Superliner coaches do have a single outlet, but it is hard to find and behind a seat where someone is usually sitting.
My Verizon cell phone has had service for most of my western trips. Exceptions are usually when you are far from an Interstate or sizable town.
I find GPS software to be entertaining when you don't have the internet. You can watch your train move along the map and watch speed and altitude.
Coach has always worked fine for me, and I am 61 years old. Bring an extra travel pillow to pad the hard spots. I also find a hooded sweatshirt handy for the chilly cars and cushioning my head from the window. You can also usually sleep in the lounge car at night when the cafe is closed.
Posts: 1572 | From: St. Paul, MN | Registered: Dec 2002
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Suffice to say, I have little use for the author's style and his points are likely "overblown'. But after a read, and considering I have some 350K lifetime rail miles (most pre-Amtrak or overseas), there are bases of fact within.
I will however acknowledge that I as a person am pretty well stereotyped within Point #5, being of such personna, that is why I stay with Sleeper. If no dough? then it is no go.
Be sure to take special note of the author's tribulations regarding both seat assignment and on-board electric power sources.
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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Cute, Gilbert -- I could have sworn you were the author of that!!!!!!! (just joking!!!) Posts: 2428 | From: Grayling, MI | Registered: Mar 2002
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I rather enjoyed Cardhouse's ironic postmodern style.
He's right about the power outlets. I've found them where he says they are, and also on the lower level of the Superliner lounge car near the outside access door -- those never seem to be in use, at least when I've ridden the trains.
Posts: 2236 | From: Evanston, Ill. and Ontonagon, Mich. | Registered: Feb 2007
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Someday but not today, I'll understand what this fuss over electrical outlets is all about.
The only active computer I own is located in a "workstation" carrel adjacent to the desk in my home office (another is being deactivated; awaiting a friend to have time to come and 'wipe' its C drive clean so I can then take it for a donation to Computers for Schools).
Laptop, what's that? (OK, I used one once in this life at an internet cafe in downtown Ocala FL - 'on the square' for benefit of you locals).
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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Well, we do need outlets to charge those digital cameras that take all those great pictures we share. And of course, the ubiquitous cell phones, sigh. And I did rather like Cardhouse's style, a bit sarcastic but very colorful.
I leave tomorrow on my long trip on the SWC, EB and CS. Two weeks from now I shall return and report in. No laptop for me so you won't hear from me until I am home again. (Barring free internet access at a hotel but it must be free or I pass on it.) Wish us luck!
-------------------- Vicki in usually sunny Southern California Posts: 951 | From: Redondo Beach, CA | Registered: Aug 2006
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I m 58 and have taken dozens of cross country trips in coach. When I can afford sleepers I ll do it, but its not as bad as some people think, especially if you are only 22.
If you can get two seats to yourself, thats a bonus, but the likelihood of that is not so great. As others have said, the seats recline and there is plenty of leg room. Don t force sleep. In time it will come. Of course you ll feel like a zombie if you spend three nights in coach, but its not the end of the world. Once you arrive at your destination, a bed and hot shower should put you back to normal in no time. Of course, when you are on the train you really have no responsibilites, and you don t have to drive,obviously, so the zoned out feeling you will have by sleeping in coach is not so bad.
As far as electrical outlets, the Eastern trains have them usually at every seat. As others have mentioned, there are only one or two outlets in the superliner cars, but you can plug in in the sightseer car. Its only two days from Chicago to the West coast, and you ll probably be too tired anyway by that point to do any serious work, so just enjoy the trip, look out the window, make new friends and discover the primitive joys of cross country coach travel.
It s not so bad, and at 22 its an adventure. I ll be in coach from Albuquerque to New York in a couple of months. Really, its not so bad. Just look at it as an adventure. You ll be fine.
Posts: 176 | From: Bloomsburg Pa | Registered: Jul 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Matt Juszczak: I was thinking of taking the Texas Eagle from Chicago and the Lake Shore Limited to Chicago. I understand it is a long trip, I'd be sitting in coach.
Anyway, I'll have my laptop with me, with the national broadband. Do those who have taken this trip find that every once in a while you can get cell phone service? Or is it for the most part completely dead?
since i tend to travel mostly between new york and austin, i have become fairly familiar with the eagle and LSL over the past year or so. i also happen to be a verizon wireless BroadbandAccess customer which i have found invaluable. not everyone can take off three days of travel time, so i work remotely on-route.
leaving from new york via the lake shore is a great choice -- but you may have difficulty securing AC power for your laptop. lately we've been seeing quite a few refurbished amfleet coaches on #49 which have outlets everywhere. unfortunately, you aren't guaranteed one of these cars in your consist, and since the lounge car's outlets on the LSL are nearly always occupied, you may not have the ability to charge when you want. the LSL is almost always packed to the gills, so if you don't get a refurbished coach, you most likely won't have convenient outlets for your use.
that having been said, the coach crowd on the LSL seems to be fairly young and you'll doubtless make several friends while on board. we always did. people share the outlets freely and usually someone has six-plug brick to share (you might bring your own). the verizon coverage along the route is fairly good, especially once you cross into ohio.
most on this board would certainly never travel coach, but we always found the amfleet coach seats exceptionally comfortable and very roomy. you'll be amazed if you're used to airline travel. in addition, if you bring ear plugs and a mask, you'll probably be able to sleep just fine. if you can sleep in a college dorm or in a car on a roadtrip, you'll get plenty of sleep.
the texas eagle is another story altogether. sharing its consist with the city of new orleans, it doesn't have nearly the patronage of most of the western long-distance routes outside of chicago - st. louis. so your chances of getting a refurbished superliner coach (with electrical outlets throughout) are quite slim. as mentioned in above posts, you should be able to charge in the lounge. the train isn't especially crowded south of st. louis, and i've never been without a free outlet somewhere on board.
in fact, it probably won't matter anyway. verizon coverage along the route is woeful. getting sufficient signal is going to be difficult except in certain segments (temple - san antonio, between ft. worth and dallas, outside chicago, etc.). so you'll be on happily for a few minutes and then, boom, it's dead. and then it comes back up and dies again. and so on.
i will say that a roomette is a better choice (for many reasons), but i realize how expensive these sleepers are for folks just starting out. not everyone is over forty and has the spare cash, and the prices for the LSL are quite high if you don't book early. upgrading on board is always a possibility, but mostly just on the eagle. a spare roomette on the LSL is usually hard to come by.
i would be happy to answer any further questions you have on these routes if you have any. hope this works out for you!
Well, I've decided to skip the Texas Eagle for 2 months. This is a forced round trip to visit a friend. What I'd like to do instead, is PLAN a trip where I can take the Lake Shore Limited, Texas Eagle, and then a train from Texas to the West Coast, and then FLY home. I'll do the whole thing in coach, but at this point, doing a round trip just to visit a friend for two days is not necessarilly the best option for me. I'd LOVE the way down there, but the way back in Coach might be too much of a headache.
This change only came because my friend has now agreed to drive with me to Texas tonight. With her and I driving alternating, I can get there tomorrow night, and I won't have to spend a lot of money for the train for her and I.
I WANT to do this But I'm going to do it in August, when I can take time off JUST to take the train only, and not have to worry about a schedule or being alert for work. (I can't take time off of work right now, which is why I needed to "work from the train").
Laptop, what's that? (OK, I used one once in this life at an internet cafe in downtown Ocala FL - 'on the square' for benefit of you locals).
Gil, I was just at the square, and didn't know you were a former visitor. The next time you stop by, I'll treat you to a couple of New York style hot dogs (not those Chicago thingies) served up by my friend, Judy Havican, the "hot *** lady" of Ocala, who parks her wagon on the square just about every day.
-------------------- Ocala Mike Posts: 1530 | From: Ocala, FL | Registered: Dec 2006
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