posted
My wife and I actually took that trip (see http://www.railforum.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi/topic/11/5113.html) on the new "Coast Daylight" - or half of it, at least. I'm currently in LA writing this; we're returning to San Jose on Saturday. We've ridden the Starlight more times than either of us can remember, and my wife was wearing her old "Coast Starlight" polo shirt that we got about ten years ago. I think the ticket agent must have noticed - he was very friendly and spent a while chatting with us about the Starlight.
The train arrived at SJC about ten minutes early and was just one locomotive (a nice shiny GE Genesis - that'll be important later), a coach, the lounge car, and two more coaches. They only boarded passengers in the middle coach car at SJC; the third coach car already had a few passengers, presumably from Sacto, and I think the forward coach was empty. There was no baggage car but they did take checked bags, so I assume they were stuffing the bags in the downstairs of the first coach. I don't know where else they could have put them.
My wife is blind and travels with a Guide Dog, so we got to sit downstairs in the lower level seats because the dog likes to lie in the middle of the aisle, and that way he doesn't block the passenger traffic. We were the only people downstairs, which was doubly handy since there's only one AC outlet downstairs on a Superliner coach and we wanted to use our computers. Later on I got a chance to walk the upstairs of the two coaches and I don't think either was even half full.
It turns out that there was only one car attendant on the entire train - he, along with two conductors, were the only onboard Amtrak staff. The LSA, Scott, was really good - his primary job was to run the store in the cafe car, but he somehow found time to come back and chat with us and ask if we wanted anything. I think the conductor must have told him that there was a blind woman on board and Scott made a special effort to see if she wanted anything from the cafe. We actually thought Scott was our coach attendant; we didn't find out until later that he was also the cafe car attendant and the attendant for the other coach too.
I'm afraid Scott's visit was the high point of the trip. Just outside of Salinas (about two hours from San Jose), we stopped, sat for a while, the conductor told us on the PA that there was a mechanical problem, and we sat for another hour. The conductor made another announcement to say that the "parking brake" on the engine was stuck and that they were going to bring out a mechanic to work on it. No mechanic ever showed up that I could see out the windows, but after another hour we finally started moving again. It was pretty clear that we still had a problem because we never went faster than about 5-10 MPH, and we limped to a siding just outside of King City. At that speed it took about another hour to get there.
The conductor opened the doors and let people stretch their legs. We were just parked in the middle of a grassy field with a little road next to the tracks - no station or anything - but the dog, for one, was glad for a chance to go! Several passengers decided to have a little picnic outside while we waited for news. Around 4PM the train was declared Tango Uniform and the conductor announced that Amtrak would be sending busses.
We did have a chance to chat with Scott and the conductors while were standing around waiting for the bus bridge. It turns out that the service attendants from the Starlight have been reassigned to other long distance trains, assuming they have enough seniority, which I would assume also means the low seniority attendants from those trains have been furloughed. We also chatted with a couple that was making a big circle of the USA on Amtrak with their son; as it turns out this was their fourth bus bridge on the trip so far.
Finally, around 6PM, a lone bus arrived and all the SLO and Santa Barbara passengers were dispatched. Around 6:30 another locomotive arrived - not an Amtrak engine but a Union Pacific SD40, I believe, and badly in need of a fresh paint job at that. For a while there was some hope that Amtrak might just tow the Starlight's carcass to LA, but it was not to be. Around 7PM the second bus arrived and all the remaining passengers were loaded. Yes, it only took two busses to load the entire Starlight, including Scott, and our bus wasn't even half full. I overheard the bus driver give the conductor a head count of 29 people.
Six hours on the bus later and we're finally in LA. It turns out that the bus driver - Dave, also a friendly guy - normally drives tour buses around the LA area. He was great at driving the bus, but since train stations aren't usually on the tour, he had some trouble finding the Amtrak stations in Oxnard, Simi Valley and Van Nuys. That slowed us down a little bit, but we made good time on the freeways and finally rolled into LA Union Station around 1:30AM.
I have to add that all the Amtrak service personnel we really helpful and nice to us, but this whole Starlight situation is just pathetic. We're gonna give our return tickets back to Amtrak and either drive or fly back home this weekend.
Posts: 14 | Registered: Mar 2007
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Thanks for the report. It reinforces an observation I made on my last trip, over a year ago. Amtrak employees really want Amtrak to be successful, and they do their part, but they often feel their efforts are impeded by their own employer.
posted
Thanks for sharing that. On our trip to Fresno last year, the service was excellent, but one of our car attendants on the Chief made a few thinly veiled comments in line with Mr. Toy's observations.
-------------------- Chuck
“Adventure is just bad planning.” - Roald Amundsen Posts: 80 | From: Wisconsin | Registered: Feb 2007
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posted
In all honesty I have to post a followup and admit that my wife talked me into keeping the Amtrak tickets and actually taking the Starlight back yesterday. To make a long story short, the trip back was much more crowded and without any breakdowns.
The train consist was exactly same - three coaches, one lounge/observation car, and one Genesis engine. This time, however, it was much more crowded and the rear two coaches were almost entirely full, including the lower level seating. And this time there was an attendent just for the cafe car and another one for the rear two coaches. We were consistently early into the stations for the whole trip and got to San Jose around 8:15.
Posts: 14 | Registered: Mar 2007
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