Considering two route options and would appreciate advice and comments.

1. WB Cleveland,OH to Chicago to LaJunta, CO. EB Denver to Chicago to Cleveland.
2. WB Cleveland,OH to Chicago to Denver. EB Denver to Chicago to Cleveland.

As indicated in the subject line this is the first time on Amtrak. Traveling with wife and three kids, ages 10, 8 & 6. Should we pay the additional cost to upgrade to a family bedroom or go coach all the way?

[This message has been edited by hehcooh (edited 01-25-2005).]

Whether to ride #3 Chief or #5 Zephyr depends upon your undisclosed destination. If anywhere South of Pueblo, #3. North of there #5.

Be not afraid of coach. Mr. Norman, a well respected member of this group, has clear preferences, but they are not shared by all.

Coach is far from luxurious, but if cost is a concern it is a reasonably comfortable way to go. Coach seats are designed with overnight travel in mind, offering tons of leg room, a foot rest, leg rest, and they recline. I generally don't recommend it for more than one night, however, as sleeping is not exactly easy. If you can afford it, a sleeper upgrade is a definite improvement, but not, to my mind, essential. In fact, the majority of Amtrak's overnight passengers are in coach, not sleepers.

When comparing the cost of sleepers and coach, remember that sleeper fares include meals. Add $30-40 per person per day to your coach fare to make a more accurate comparison. Coach passengers can, however, save some money taking your own food, or if you buy the cheaper prepackaged stuff from the lounge.

I'm a little puzzled as to how La Junta figures into the itinerary if the destination is Denver. If you are trying to make a loop via the SW Chief, Amtrak has a bus connection between Raton and Denver.

BTW, the really nice part about taking the train, is it takes you right into downtown Denver.

I know. not great choices. We'll probably do the 4:21 departure in order to cut down the layover time in chicago.

"'m a little puzzled as to how La Junta figures into the itinerary"

Final destination is my Dad's farm/ranch in eastern Colorado but we want to sightsee in the mountains west of Pueblo and La Junta is only a couple of hours away by car.

Car rental in LaJunta is still unknown.

"Ralph von dem Hagen, Chief Operations Planning Officer in Amtrak's
Operations Planning Department in Washington, DC, spoke at the Rail Users
Network (RUN) meeting on January 8, 2005. Here is a partial and condensed
summary of his remarks.

- Amtrak must have one train (either the Lake Shore or Capital Limited)
depart Toledo after 6 AM, to Chicago or completely lose the Ohio market.
Currently the Capital Limited does this, but starting in April 2005,
theLake Shore will serve this market, as the Capital Limited will operate
earlier and the Lake Shore later, to Chicago.

For April 2005 Amtrak Schedule Changes:

- The Capitol Limited (Train 29) will run earlier from Washington, DC,
departing mid-afternoon, instead of 5:20 PM.

- The Lake Shore Limited (Train 49) will depart NYP at 3:50 PM (one hour
LATER than today).

Some say a "car rental concern is a car rental concern"; one guy's "wind up toy' is the same as the others.

La Junta Enterprise Car Rental is not open on weekends, and unlimited free mileage applies only if you do not leave Colorado. If you are not arriving on a weekend, La Junta would be a hassle-free location to drive from compared to Denver. Hertz services the depot in Denver, as does Enterprise at La Junta.

The depot at La Junta has checked baggage service, and is a long stop for (crew change point) on the Southwest Chief. Unlike Denver, you can park practically trainside which makes toting your luggage and kids easier.

I have traveled both in coach and family bedroom with my wife and two kids. Coach is doable if you prepare for the overnight. Extra pillows and blankets help. Dinner runs about $11-18 and breakfast $7-10 so you would be getting about $100 worth of food and a shower with your bedroom for 1 night. The family room also has windows on both sides of the train.

Thank you, Mr Norman and TwinStarRocket, for looking into car rentals in LaJunta. I was going to look into rentals in LaJunta on the web but you have saved me some time and for that I thank you both.

Your right that LaJunta would offer less hassle than compared to Denver. We're planning to go Canon City the weekend we arrive and LaJunta is closer. My wife wants to see Pueblo (I don't know why, I've been there, seen it, got the T-Shirt). LaJunta offers variety to our trip. As for EB departure my Dad's place is closer to Denver, so that's probably what we'll do.

I looked at the added cost of a family room. The cost for it is nearly what our tickets would cost. Since it's needed for only one night I think we can coach it and pay for the meals. But I appreciate all the advice.

Both lines that stop in Cleveland do so at uncivilized hours. I decided we would like a sleeper on our trips, but since my night's sleep is ruined by the arrival and departure times for Cleveland, I plan to get coach tickets to and from Chicago, then a sleeper to points further west. As I played around the AMTRAK web site, it allowed me to have different classes of tickets on different legs, so I will save some money doing that. The leg to Chicago is also relatively short, so it's not like we will miss my afternoon nap.

I haven't visited the AMTRAK station in Cleveland yet, but I used to work just up the hill, so I know the area. I don't think it is a good place to leave one's car. I believe you can get there, or very close, on the new rapid line, but I think a cab is probably the best way to get there.

Beyond that, I was surprised at the relatively low cost of a sleeper, given that it includes meals. I'm not sure it would be as cost effective for someone with very young kids, but I think having a place to put them down for naps would be well worth it. One think I noticed was that the sleepers seem to sell out quickly; I don't know if they add cars in that situation, but on the booking site a number of categories always seemed to be marked sold out.

Let us know how your trip went when you get back. What's your destination.

I'm not even sure where the Amtrak station is in cleveland. I got the address from the Amtrak website but when the address was fed into a couple of websites nothing popped up. Can you pinpoint it from a few landmarks. Ditto when you wrote "both lines that stop in Cleveland do so at uncivilized hours". We're coming up from the Akron area. We'll get a family member or bribe a friend to take us up and drop us off when it's time to travel. If your traveling from Cleveland what are your plans for getting to and from the station?

We've decided to forget La Junta as a WB destination. Our plans now are to take the #5 Zephyr all the way to Glenwwod Springs. I don't think we'll get another chance to travel the moffat road and tunnels, Byers, Gore and Glenwood canyons for some time, so we're going for it. The additional cost to Glenwood instead of getting off at Denver is minimal. I would think that by May repairs on the main Zephyr route should be repaired west of Grand Junction but I read on another discussion forum tonight that repairs are going to be scheduled for the Moffatt Tunnel this summer. (http://forums.amtraktrains.com/index.php?act=ST&f=3&t=2123&hl=moffat&s=2bfbdb37b2fd256a6ea0f7b2fd59c810)
Will definitely research this story.

I agree that the trip to Chicago is too short for a sleeper compartment. Maybe we'll get a small sleeper compartment on the Zephyr or we'll do coach to CO and spend the money on a hotel room at the Hot Springs pool in Glenwood Springs.

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Over 20,000 miles aboard Amtrak trains.

If you are approaching from the west, on the shoreway, take the East 9th Street exit, but do not go up the ramp to East 9th; rather turn sharply right toward the tracks, and the station will be on your right. The 9th Street exit is always an adventure, as people leaving the Amtrak station to get on the shoreway headed east cannot see the exiting traffic, so there are often some very dramatic mergings.

Coming from the East on the Shoreway, exit at East 9th and turn left (south)at the top of the ramp onto East 9th, cross the bridge over the shoreway, and turn left (east) at the stoplight at the end of the first bridge. Note that you are now heading away from the station. Reenter the shoreway headed east and exit at the first exit, at the end of a rather large parking lot. The entrance gates for the parking lot are on your right. Pass them headed south and the road dead ends at the access road along the tracks. Turn right, pass the parking lot and garage, then under the East 9th street bridge, and the station will be ahead of you, with a few kinks in the road there to make it interesting.

If you drive up from Akron, you will probably want to get off the interstate at the East 9th street exit and head north on East 9th, past the stadium on your left. Keep going until you get to Lakeside Avenue, where the last large buildings are. After you cross Lakeside, be in the right lane. Just after you cross the short bridge over the tracks, you will see a gaudy RTA stop on the left, and a public garage on the right. There is a stoplight there and signs pointing you onto the shoreway east. Just as above, enter the shoreway, exit at the first exit past the parking lot, drive to the tracks, turn right to get under East 9th, and the station is just ahead of you.

I plan to take a cab there, but I live in the near suburbs, so a cab doesn't cost much.

quote:

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Originally posted by RRRICH:
hehcooh - The Cleveland AMTRAK station is located at 200 Cleveland Memorial Shoreway -- right in front of (and in view of) the Cleveland Indians ball park

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quote:

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Originally posted by clevelandbrown:
The Amtrak station in Cleveland is on the memorial shoreway, a limited access road, west of East Ninth Street.

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Great directions to the station. Thanks.

Now a question to anyone regarding train arrival/departure status. Going online it seemed that A/D information is sometimes not timely. Can "Julie" at Amtrak's 800 number provide more up to date information for the departure date's train. As an example: say we're scheduled on the Capitol Limited for a 4:21 AM departure. It's scheduled arrival is 4:09AM. Could we call Julie, say about 2:30 AM to determine if it left Pittsburg on time at 1:22 AM. The idea is if it's a couple of hours late then than means a little more sack time at home for the
family before we need to leave to get to the station.

quote:

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Originally posted by hehcooh:

Now a question to anyone regarding train arrival/departure status. Going online it seemed that A/D information is sometimes not timely. Can "Julie" at Amtrak's 800 number provide more up to date information for the departure date's train. As an example: say we're scheduled on the Capitol Limited for a 4:21 AM departure. It's scheduled arrival is 4:09AM. Could we call Julie, say about 2:30 AM to determine if it left Pittsburg on time at 1:22 AM ?

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Yes.

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Over 20,000 miles aboard Amtrak trains.

Strangely enough, Glenwood Springs has no major car rentals in town other than Enterprise (and they are expensive). The Eagle County Regional Airport, 25 miles east up the beautiful canyon, has all the major car rentals and last time I was there they allowed you to drop cars in Denver. They close around 4-5pm. Transportation there may require a cab.

Obviously, the best known hostelry in Glenwood Springs is the Hotel Colorado, but if you are looking for an alternative at a considerably lesser rate, try the Hotel Denver.

Glenwood Springs Ford (970) 384-2400
Silver Wheels (970) 945-7107
(Enterprise is (970) 945-8360)

None of these is close to the Amtrak station, but I imagine they would pick you up with prior arrangement as the CZ arrives at a decent midday hour.

One other option is the Eagle County Airport (about 35 miles) or the Aspen Airport (also about 35 miles). There is scheduled bus service from Glenwood Springs to the Aspen Airport (every hour), and charter service to the Eagle County Airport (Colorado Mountain Express 800-525-6363).

Mr. Norman's suggestion re the Hotel Denver is an excellent one. It is literally right across 7th Street from the Amtrak station. Accommodations are reasonable and the restaurant is good and inexpensive. Most Glenwood Springs hotel packages can include a pass to the hot springs pool, which is a short walk across the UP tracks, the Colorado River and the I-70 freeway via a pedestrian bridge.

quote:

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Originally posted by mikesmith:
I, too, highly recommend the Family room sleeper. With your group, you should come out ahead after counting your meals on the train.

Also, just for fun, check the cost of traveling to a stop or two past your destination. It might be cheaper to book yourselves to Grand Junction or Green River, instead of Glenwood Springs. {Or I could be totally wrong on the cost savings...}

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I checked on Amtrak about booking further than intended destination. Cost to Grand Junction is the same as to Glenwood Springs. I was very surprised at the cost for a family room. It was considerable. Looks like coach for us. I am looking into transferring mileage from my Continental OnePass membership to Amtrak Guest Reward. I've got enough to upgrade to a bedroom assuming one is available.

As for a car rental once we get to Glenwood it will have to be with someone that will let us drop off auto in Denver.

Mr Norman, Thanks for the suggestion for a hotel. We will consider.

Once again thanks to all for suggestions.