Any advice from the old hands around here on how to handle the delays for first time train travellers? I mean other than maintaining the best attitude we can.

I was thinking of questions like "what shoud we expect if we're put on busses?" (for example in the areas of meals, frequency of stops, overnight accommodations, ...) and "what happens when a train is really late and you're stuck in the station" (does Amtrak pick up hotel accommodations and meals while you're stuck on a "guaranteed" connection?). And "can we get compensation for a "bad trip"?" (cash instead of vouchers for the sleepers, maybe part of the fare, extra expenses incurred, etc). Anything we should remember to ask for or about if problems arise?

The rest of our planned excursion (Coast Starlight, California Zephyr, Capitol Limited, Silver Star) looks like it will be great fun and I think we'll be fine with any "normal" delays and missed connections along those routes, but the Sunset has had a particularly rough last few weeks and may be the most "memorable" part of the trip. Any advice from the old hands on what to expect and how to handle/negotiate the smoothest trip possible would be appreciated.

Considering that the average arrival at destination appears to be 8 hours late, and en route annullments with resulting bustitutions seem to be "part of picture", that if you are not prepared to accept all of these exigencies, I would suggest arranging other transportation. I guarantee you that I certainly would be doing that, as I would "not exactly" be a happy camper if I were rousted at 3AM from my sleeper and were looking at a 500 mile bustitution.

Secondly, I hope that you have not planned a same day connection at LA with the Starlight. All to often, there is bustituting from Palm Springs to Bakersfield, a San Joaquin train to Sacramento, thence boarding the Starlight there. Amtrak has performed the transportation contract with you, as they are not obligated to transport you by the trains on which you have booked space. They are not even obligated to transport you by train and then regardless of what means are used, they are only obligated to transport you with "reasonable dispatch". If you are "rousted" from your sleeping accomodations en route, then I believe they are obligated to make an adjustment to your accomodation charges.

But then, there always is a "trackside lawyer" out there who has different ideas about what I have just set forth.

Other than the 3am wakeup call, I _think_ we're prepared for the likely contingencies - we've got a couple of days extra time before we need to be at our destination in California, we've packed a snack or two, extra reading material, etc, but I suspect something will come up that we haven't anticipated anyway.

I guess we're going to try it anyway, though we may revisit the issue while we laying over in Houston - I suppose if the situation hasn't begun to sort itself out by next week (ever the optimist), we can look at switching to a plane from Houston to LA.

Thanks for the policy info. Does Amtrak usually adhere to the letter of their policy or do they usually cut the passengers some slack? For example, if our "guaranteed" connection in Jacksonville winds up being overnight, do they put us up somewhere or is it "have a nice night in the station" as far as they are concerned?

Jon

[This message has been edited by geojon (edited 08-03-2004).]

Even if "train unknown' is the "Meteor" #97, scheduled to arrive JAX at 1210P, and it is late, the 530P Sunset departure should still be safe. I think more people than not will tell you that Amtrak will "go many more miles' to "look out for you" than will an airline, especially Sleeper when things go wrong. The liklihood of a night at "Camp Clifford Lane" is pretty remote.

You are indeed wise to have scheduled a 28hour overnight layover in LA. As I previously noted, Amtrak has performed their transportation contract with repsect to reasonable dispatch if they "bustituted/San Joaquined' you "up the Valley" with their efficient "from anywhere in the LA Basin" to "anywhere in Northern California (they even have a bus connection to Eureka - look at a map if need be to resolve any "huhs")" bus/rail service. You would get there, but you would be deprived of the Starlight's on-board amenities, and the magnificient Coast Line scenery.

I've been following it's performance since last March when I booked a Guest Rewards deluxe sleeper trip for September from Arizona to Glacier Park on trains #1-#14-#28.

I've given up any hope of taking that train, booked airline tickets, and I'm gonna throw away the TUS-LAX tickets.

Gone are the days when the SL's "normal" delay was only 2-3 hours. I read that the average delayd arrival at LAX in June was 6+ hours. Just one train last month is gonna add 4 hours to the average for July!

This morning, checking the status of the westbound SL I get the ol' "Due to a service disruption, we are unable to provide......" message.

We figure with the long layover in Jacksonville, we'll have most of the day to do something besides hang around the train station. Maybe we'll visit the zoo or find a park to walk around in.

Thanks for the comments. When we get back, I'll post to let you know how the whole trip went.

Possibly what follows is "verboten' and accordingly could be killed by this Forum's Moderator, but here is a link to another rail forum at which Membership has an annual dues assessment.

However, I believe guests are permitted to read.
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,769243

I think you should be mindful that even though "Clifford Lane" has an idyllic "ring" to it, be assured there is "nothing" around it. Venturing outside its fenced "compound" should only be done with caution. However, you will find that Jacksonville "proper" is an attractive city and as an aside, is the largest city in Florida (they annexed most of Duval County). Further, Jacksonville will host Super Bowl XXXVIV (39, think I got it right). That crowd does "not exactly" frequent "dumps".

I think you are prepared to approach your Sunset journey in "adventure mode", 91-JAX-1 has got to be safe, and you wisely scheduled a next day departure from LA on #14.

Enjoy!!!!

quote:

---

Originally posted by geojon:
Thanks for the policy info. Does Amtrak usually adhere to the letter of their policy or do they usually cut the passengers some slack? For example, if our "guaranteed" connection in Jacksonville winds up being overnight, do they put us up somewhere or is it "have a nice night in the station" as far as they are concerned?

---

At least it looks like the Sunset Limited is going to make it to Florida this time, though about 12 hours late at the moment. Hopefully the turnaround will be fairly quick and can get us to Houston on Friday night or Saturday within 12 hours or so of the planned schedule.

If I can get to a computer somewhere along the week, I'll post how the first leg went here. Otherwise, I'll let y'all know how we did when we get back home again towards the end of the month.

The challenge will be next week when we are taking the Sunset Limited (again) from Houston to LA. Hopefully we'll make it past Tucson next week!

Thanks for the advice and suggestions.

Jon