Home at last. I really can't remember an Amtrak trip that I was so glad to be home from. It was a disaster from the moment I arrived at Union Station in Los Angeles. The train was an hour late departing and 5 hours late into San Antonio. There was mass confusion there as nobody informed the passengers of the arrangements made for continuing to Chicago. Passengers were told to detrain at San Antonio & board busses for the ride to Dallas & intermediate points. After finding the busses, there was no one on the platform to direct the passengers, no one seemed to know which of the two busses was going where. After shuffling passengers back and forth between the two busses, we finally departed one hour after the arrival into San Antonio. The bus ride was terrible, traveling along an interstate, I believe I-35, that was under repair the whole distance to Dallas. We made a stop at a MacDonalds where we were given about 45 minutes to purchase food or beverages before we continued on to Dallas. We departed out of Dallas at 5:55 PM, down about 1&3/4 hours. Arrived Longview 1&1/2 hours late. Sometime during the night we were detoured through Illinois on the Chester sub? I remember hearing the conductor announce that we might lose a little time or even be able to make up some time (NOT). It was a ride on some trackage that I normally would never experience & that was the only good thing about it. We proceeded at a snails pace having to stop frequently to manually reset switches as we traveled along a very angry looking Mississippi River. We were, after all was said & done, about 9 hours late into Chicago. The only train that was left to New York was the Pennsylvanian, which would get me to New York after 10 PM, with a connection in Philadelphia & without a sleeper. I passed on that alternative & the Greyhound alternative which was also offered. I opted to remain in Chicago & was put up in Chicago at Amtrak's expense & given taxi fare & meal money. I would have to take my chances in the morning as far as getting to New York. (to be continued) Reggie
Posted by reggierail (Member # 26) on :
After having breakfast at the hotel in Chicago, I proceeded to Union Staion to try and arrange my trip to New York. Needless to say train 48, 448, 40 & even 30 had no sleeper space available. My choices were the Pennsylvanian or the Cardinal. Not wanting an overnight in coach I booked space on the Cardinal, which would put me in New York at 1:30 AM after connecting with train #66 in Washington. Although the sleeper was sold out on #66, I was hoping to find a room if there was any no shows. I would have gone on to Boston & returned on the next train to New York. I wasn't real excited about spending the wee hours in Penn Station. Well, so much for that idea as we were 3 hours late into DC. They held #198 to New York 7 that would have put me in at 2:01 AM if we could make up the delay in departing from DC. The customer service agent in DC would not agree to putting me up for the night & then I could just continue on the Crescent the next day. He did give me $20 for meal money in DC & I was able to get something to eat at the MacDonalds in the station just before it closed. I opted to wait for #190, with a group of passengers heading to Boston, which would depart at 3AM arriving NY at 7AM. I could then spend a little time at the lounge in NY and catch up on my e-mails, as they have 2 computers in the Acela Lounge, with internet access. The train to New York was on time & the interior & exterior were spotless, with even the windows being clean. Quite a change from the long distance trains which for the most part were filthy. I did get a little caught up on clearing out my mailbox & even got a couple of naps, at this point I was very tired & ready to make my next train, The Crescent, bound for the Big Easy. (to be continued) Reggie
Posted by reggierail (Member # 26) on :
Guess we could all use a little good news after all the disasters I encountered on the first part of my trip. With one exception, my trip on the Crescent couldn't have been better. The one exception was that the coffee pot in my sleeper had not been on the train & a replacement was not available. If I wanted a cup of coffee in the morning, I had to get dressed, as opposed to just donning my robe, to head for the lounge car. The coffee was free for sleeper passengers, but it was a big inconvenience to have to go all the way to the lounge to get it. I find it hard to believe a replacement could not be found, if not in NYP, then at WAS. The crew on the Crescent was among the most professional, courteous and hardest working crews I encountered on my entire trip. I will certainly bring this to the attention of Amtrak as I believe good service as well as bad needs to be addressed. I thoroughly enjoyed the Crescent portion especially after such a bad start of my trip. The train was early or on time the whole trip, the cars seemed cleaner than elsewhere on my journey and the employees seemed genuinely happy to have you on their train. I enjoyed a brief layover in the Big Easy, getting up early to ride on the streetcars on St. Charles Av., always a special treat. My travel on train #58 was once again a very pleasant journey. Great crew again, as on the Crescent, both crews based out of New Orleans. Departed from NOL on time & arrived into CHI only a few minutes late. The new national menu was by now getting a little old. I really don't care if I ever eat string beans or baby carrots again. I did sample just about everything on the menu & aside from a small variation in the preparation, they were all the same. The only thing on the menu that changed at all was the seafood selection. The choices were halibut, catfish and salmon. Seems like different trains have different seafood items. I tried both the catfish & salmon & although nothing to write home about, they were tasty & attractively presented. (to be continued)
Reggie
Posted by reggierail (Member # 26) on :
I guess you could say I'm officially on my way home now. I checked into the Metro Lounge in Chicago and stowed my bags after switching clean for dirty clothes from my big bag that I check, to my carry-on. I then checked my big bag to Seattle. I walked the few blocks to the Giordano's on Jackson for a memorable stuffed pizza. I ordered the smallest pizza on the menu & barely got half way through it. I brought the rest back to the station & gave it to a very nice agent in the Metro Lounge. I heard a rumor that there was a problem with one of the sleepers on the Seattle train & became anxious once again. There was indeed a problem with one of the sleepers on our train, but fortunate for me, it was the Portland sleeper. The bathrooms were bad ordered & although the sleeper was still in the consist, the car was closed to passengers. No replacement sleepers were available & the passengers who held space in that car were offered a flight to Portland. Some of the passengers took that alternative although many chose to continue on the train. Most of the passengers were accomodated in the crew car & some in coach. I'm not sure what happened in Spokane when the train split up & the crew car went with the Seattle section. I'm sure there would be a lot of service vouchers issued on this trip. Everything went well on the Empire Builder, the food & service was good. The train was on time for most of the trip & arrived into Seattle just a few minutes late. The new national menu was becoming very old by now & I don't care if I ever eat string beans & baby carrots again. That is the only vegetable available anywhere on the national system. One other thing I noticed was that the portions on the trains had been cut back somewhat. Still plenty of food though & I never went away hungry. I checked into the Kings Inn in downtown Seattle ($65) and headed toward the Space Needle & Seattle Center. Enjoyed my last night off the train & was eagerly awaiting the Superior Service I have always experienced on the Coast Starlight, which I was to board the next day. (to be continued) Reggie
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Posted by dilly (Member # 1427) on :
Reggierail, what's the King's Inn in Seattle like? Is it a total dump? Or okay for the price?
And did the train crews you encountered seem any "happier" now that Amtrak's future looks a bit more hopeful?
[This message has been edited by dilly (edited 05-28-2002).]
Posted by mho357 (Member # 1204) on :
Reggie,
Did you have any problems with checked baggage? I had been planning on checking our bags through from FTW to BOS until all of the cutbacks began. Since then, I figured that the safest thing to do was to lug my own on and off of each train.
Mark
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
OUCH!!!!
Obviously, Mr. "Reggierail" will be back for more, but I must wonder about that lady whom posts here under screenname of "Scared Rider" should she encounter same.
Posted by royaltrain (Member # 622) on :
I'm sorry that your Amtrak trip was so problem prone. What is particularly outrageous is that stunt they pull in San Antonio by throwing off passengers on the through Chicago sleeper and putting them on a bus to Dallas. This is clearly false advertising by Amtrak. They lure passengers on this train by pretending that they have a through sleeper on the Sunset/Texas Eagle, and then when you arrive in San Antonio out you go and on to the unspeakable bus (and did you say that you had to buy your own food at a Macdonalds?) Amtrak has a clear contractual obligation to transport you (other then in emergencies) by the advertised service i.e. a sleeping car on a train. As there was no emergency in your situation, Amtrak was requiried to transport you as they promised. Amtrak should be liable to you for damages, not just a voucher. As I posted on this forum before, I sued Amtrak succesfully when I was ejected from the w/b Texas Eagle in Dallas almost two years ago. I admit that suing, even in small claims court, is a very time consuming process. However if more people took legal action, perhaps Amtrak would finally get the message that they must not treat their passengers so shabbily. Let us hope that David Gunn is listening to passengers' complaints.
Posted by Mr. Toy (Member # 311) on :
Sounds like Amtrak provided "try weakly" service. I guess the cutbacks have really hurt things on many routes.
You comment about getting tired of the same food was something I anticipated when I heard they were standardizing the menus. The least they could do is have different menus for trains going in opposite directions. Some of you may recall circa 1984 Amtrak resorted to microwaved frozen dinners (think Swanson) to save money, which was a PR disaster. Ridership actually declined as a result. No matter how good or bad the other services are, it is the quality of food service can make or break people's impressions of Amtrak (or any other similar business). A well fed passenger can overlook minor problems, but a poorly fed passenger will notice every little glitch.
I leave tomorrow on the Starlight. I'll try to check in sometime Friday night or Saturday to report on my northbound trip.
------------------ Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth. -Mr. Toy
[This message has been edited by Mr. Toy (edited 05-29-2002).]
Posted by reggierail (Member # 26) on :
The King's Inn in Seattle isn't the Hilton, but it is clean, near several major hotels, nice downtown area and a little noisy as it is right on a busy street. Had no problem sleeping at night as downtown traffic dies down at night. The price is a great value for such a close in location. For the first time in several years I noticed a problem with employee morale. The employees have been keeping Amtrak running for many years while having less & less support from Amtrak. Now that the layoffs have begun and the baggage situation on the trains has become critical due to cutting of checked baggage at some stations, I've noticed more & more employees upset with the situation. I have never had a problem with checked baggage & had none on this trip. Even with the bus transfer from San Antonio to Dallas, my bags arrived in Chicago & were ready to be picked up a few minutes after arriving in Chicago. Do make sure checked baggage is available at your station of arrival & departure. You can also check bags on other trains to your destination if the particular train you are traveling on doesn't have baggage service. This can be useful on the corridors such as Boston to Washington. Reggie
Posted by reggierail (Member # 26) on :
Got up about 6AM (0600)& got my overnight bag ready for my two day trip on the Coast Starlight. Had a cup of coffee at the motel in Seattle & took a taxi to King St. station. There used to be a stand there that sold coffee & various pastries, but that wasn't there any more. I knew that there would be a nice layout in the Pacific Parlor Car & was just going to wait for that. I checked my bag back to Bakersfield & with about an hour left before departure took a walk down the platform to check out the train.
Guess what, no Pacific Parlor Car!!!
No diner or lounge car to replace it either, I have seen that happen. Most likely in LA, where they would have more equipment available. This was adding insult to injury & I was sorely disappointed. I would have spent a considerable amount of time in the Pacific Parlor Car & it's being badordered really made the roundabout trip back to LA pointless. We were told that after departure we could go to the lounge car & would be given complimentary pastries & cold cereal. I did so & waited in line for about 30 minutes to be served. There were coach passengers in line also & they were delayed because of all the sleeper passengers not normally there. We were told that the wine tasting would be in our sleeper cars & the attendant would come around to the rooms with wine, cheese & crackers. After lunch they called all the sleeper passengers to the diner & had more cheese, crackers & wine available. They were pouring very freely too. We were running about an hour and 30 minutes late leaving Eugene. I headed to bed right after dinner & awoke in the station at Sacramento. We had arrived about 30 minutes early, must have really had the pedal to the metal overnight. I had a pleasant breakfast & after talking with the conductor decided to cut my trip short in Oakland & catch the next San Joaquin back to Bakersfield. I had originally planned to go on to LAX & wait for the 1 something AM (0100) bus getting me to Bakersfield at about 4:30 AM. Without the Parlor Car, I just blew it off & figured I'd head back home, getting there at a little after 4 PM (1600). This was the worst trip I have ever experienced and hope never to experience another like it again. What would be worse would be to have a client experience some of the problems I had. I boarded the San Joaquin in Oakland & the conductor invited me to the dining car foe a free meal. That was considerate of her. I did take her up on the offer later in the afternoon & had a very nice piece of salmon, albeit airline style. Got into Bakersfield about 30 minutes off the scheduled & was never so glad to be at the end of my journey.
Reggie
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Posted by RRRICH (Member # 1418) on :
Reggie- sounds like you had the classic "trip from hell!" I have had a few trips like that over the years, but, as I am sure you will agree, most of my trips have been quite pleasant experiences. On one occasion, back in the early 80's, I had planned to ride the now long-defunct "Shenandoah," from Washington to Cincinnati, but it was backed up from Grafton, W.V. to Cumberland due to flooding in W.V., then the crew left and offered people a bus ride to Cincinnati. I was allowed to stay on the train, however, in an "experimental economy class room" (this was before Superliners), so I did, in an otherwise empty train. The morning conductor came in then as they headed the train back to D.C. as the morning "Shenandoah," I believe (they bussed passengers back from CIN to CUM), and needless to say, he was surprised to see me! No problem though. I then rode a NE Corridor train, hoping to get to Boston, but that train was annulled in New Haven due to flooding in Rhode Island, so I took the old "Night Owl" back to D.C., and had to reroute several segments of my trip. Oh well, s**t happens!!!!
Keep the faith!! I know you will! In general, AMTRAK is a lot better now than it was in the 70's and 80's, but with the layoffs, etc., who knows what future trips will hold? I leave for my trip on June 28th.
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
Mr. Atwell WILL be back; I guarantee it.
But if you are in a position to do so, it just seems like less goes wrong during "off season". My CHI-WAS-ORL-NOL-CHI trip this past February had more positives than negatives - things could not have deteriorated THAT much in only three months.
I willing to bet that when Ms. "Scaredrider" reads this, she will be "scared".
Posted by vthokie (Member # 1456) on :
How's this for an Amtrak experience - I was on a train last summer from New York to DC and just south of the Baltimore tunnels, we crept past the scene of an apparent suicide. First I saw a northbound Amtrak train stopped with crew members and police standing next to it, and a little further down was a body (what was left of it - the head was pretty much destroyed). Probably the most gruesome thing I've seen in person. At least I wasn't eating in the cafe car at the time! I thought it was kind of strange that we rolled past before the body was removed or at least covered up.
Posted by trainman1 (Member # 1392) on :
quote:Originally posted by Gilbert B Norman: But if you are in a position to do so, it just seems like less goes wrong during "off season". My CHI-WAS-ORL-NOL-CHI trip this past February had more positives than negatives - things could not have deteriorated THAT much in only three months.
My LAX-EMY-(PDX)-CHI-LAX trip that lasted from May 11th to 26th was marred by only three things:
1. The Empire Builder being about an hour and 45 minutes late into CHI because of having to detour between La Crosse and CHI over the BNSF via Prairie du Chien, Savanna, Rochelle, and Aurora due to a derailment on the north side of Union Station. (This wasn't even that bad from my perspective, because of the chance to pick up some rare mileage, although now I have to go back sometime and pick up the actual mileage between La Crosse and Chicago! )
2. The Southwest Chief being 4 hours and 45 minutes late into LAX for various reasons including a mechanical problem with one of the freight cars, bad weather causing signal problems and the threat of flash floods in Iowa and Missouri, and paramedics meeting the train in Lawrence to check on a passenger.
3. The new national dining car menu getting repetitive very fast. (If not for the Starlight and the Chief having a couple "off-the-menu" items available, plus the surprisingly good cold box dinner on the Builder leaving Portland, things would have been worse.)
But everything else about the trip was positive, including the Amtrak employees I dealt with on all the trains, especially my sleeping car attendants on the Builder and the Chief; the Starlight even managed to be close enough to "on time" that I actually connected to the Builder in Portland, albeit without seeing the inside of the station.
So I don't know if it has anything to do with the off-season versus the peak season. I guess it's just the alignment of the stars, or the phase of the moon, or something like that.
Posted by BTrain (Member # 1687) on :
Coming from Bakersfield, myself I'm familiar with the San Joaquin Route. I've always received top-notch friendly service by crew members on that train: reggie, I'm happy to hear that a San Joaquin conductor tried to compensate you somewhat (I've tried the salmon; it's pretty good---but it's no Starlight meal, I know :/.
Part of the problem with the Starlight is that it appears to me that UP is ridiculously behind on promised rail maintenance. At least that's what I've heard. If this is the case, I would imagine this causes burdensome speed restrictions.
I can speak from personal experience from the last time I was on the 14 NB (also termed the "Coast StarLATE" between LAX and SAC. Everything looked good up through San Luis Obispo. We pulled into SLO about 3:25-well ahead of schedule The 3x I've taken the 14 beyond SLO, we've lost time between SLO and PRB. Last time we were stopped just short of PRB at a red signal waiting for what turned out to be a 'phantom train'(something must have tripped the signal-I verified this with a conductor)
We were thirty minutes late into PRB (Paso Robles). Ten minutes go by-hmm we're not moving. Yep, mechanical trouble with the lead locomotive (F59 #2005-which they eventually cut-off in Oakland). Everything shut down-toilets and all-(hope nobody has to go :{ ). All the while the crews working franticly to get the loco fired back up, one guy desides he's going to verbally take out his frustrations on crew a few assistant conductors-he had some choice words that would not even be appropriate on cable TV! For better or for worse the Head Conductor would have zero tolerance for this and contacted Paso Robles PD. The crew finally got the engine back on line-crews got everybody on board except mr.Pottymouth. We waited an extra 10 minutes for the PD to show up-and yes they did and yes they cuffed the guy and WE were finally off and running-now 1hr 35 minutes late.
Well, if your a die-hard rail fan like I am, you see small to moderate delays as a priviledge-somewhat as a baseball fan looks at extra innings--hey, I'm getting more than I paid for . BONUS!!!! An Hour and half is BONUS zone for me-two hours is tolerable,but not so enjoyable-especially since I had an early morning return trip through the valley.
Well, I'm at my final destination for me-Sacramento and it's around 2:45a-almost three hours late-I zonked out somewhere in the Salinas Valley and woke up to an idle train in Jack London Square-Oakland. We were two hours late there-The train stayed put at least 20 minutes (I know I'm telling the story out of order). I assume this was because we were dropping our lead locomotive off.
I got to see a little bit of everything on this trip. A train can be delayed by a number of things-some things Amtrak can control, some things they cannot(like idiots who decide to act up). No matter what happens, for the most part Amtrak crews are friendly and try to keep passengers informed to the best of their knowledge. I had one bad experience and it was on a Surfliner between LAX and San Diego-Amtrak tries to put their best, most experienced employee's on the long distance trains-I've observed.
Yes-Amtrak sometimes leaves much to be desired-but then again you can encounter freeway gridlock, cancelled or delayed flights, and even the dreaded smells aboard a Houndpound-oh, I mean Greyhound bus. Pick your poison.
Oh, what do you think the chances are that UP will ever put a second track in a few given areas between Paso Robles and Salinas-that might help matters a bit.
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