# Southwest Chief - Interesting Diner Crew



## TVRM610 (Feb 5, 2015)

Albuquerque - Chicago

Arrived at the station about 20 minutes before scheduled arrival, upon walking up to the platform an Amtrak Agent came up and said "where are you traveling today" I said Chicago and she said "alrighty the train is a few miles out, however it's currently stopped due to a fallen power line, so just sit tight and we'll let you know when it's moving" she also gave me an approximate area my sleeper would be in. She was very friendly and low key. I liked that.

The train finally arrived about 12:20 (10 minutes after scheduled departure, and Albuquerque is a service stop where they water the train and fuel the locomotives.). The red white and blue striped heritage unit was in the lead. Sleeper attendant greeted me and told me to sit in room 12 on the lower level while he cleaned up my room. When it was ready he came and got my bag and carried it to my room, gave me the whole layout of the car, and also.... gave me my plastic wrapped blanket! ha.

The attendant also gave me a meal reservation slip for a 12:45 lunch, and said they would call the seating. Sure enough they called about 12:50 for the seating, fortunately on the way to the diner I passed the Conductor and pointed out my new ticket, he was very friendly and scanned my ticket.

The dining car was operated in a unique way. One LSA, one server. The server was on the sleeper side and handled everything (seating, filling out tickets, and serving) and the LSA was on the Coach side and handled everything there. The server was very nice, refilled my iced tea 3 times. Before leaving the server came by to give us dinner reservations.

After Dinner I went to the lounge car for the best views of traveling through the Canyon and watching for semaphores. Semaphores are indeed being replaced... there were several new signals installed next to the still operating semaphores that are obviously headed into service soon. Glad I could see them one last time.

The conductor stopped by in the lounge and chatted with me a little bit... very nice guy. The full moon coming over the various rock formations (mesas?) was just breathtaking. I was hoping for a moonlit raton pass however the clouds would not cooperate, and hid the moon for the trip through the pass.

I headed for my sleeper after sunset, and the LSA stopped me on the way through. This was my first interaction with him.... "Can I help you" - "I'm just passing through" - "Do you have a sleeper?" - I then showed him my ticket and he looked at it and then let me pass. I wanted to say something to the effect of "If you were doing your job as LSA you would already know I was in a sleeper cause you would have handled my ticket at lunch time" - but I didn't. 

Came to Dinner when my 7 pm reservation was called. Of course I got sent to the LSA / Coach side... things were ok. The LSA wasn't crazy friendly, made certain to let the coach passenger I was seated with know that he was doing him a favor by "letting him" order the mac n cheese (he wanted the mac n' cheese and a side salad... seems like reasonable request).

Food was good.... I had the Tillapia... was much better than my previous Amtrak Tillapia a few years ago... but not nearly as good as the mahi mahi or crab cake dishes Amtrak had previously. Cheesecake for dessert.

Overnight the old jointed rail tried to get the best of me. We were doing 60 most of the night... little bit of a ride!

Woke up, had breakfast. Sat with a very nice lady and we got to see large flocks of snow geese that were migrating. The fields were filled with these birds and many of them would fly off when the train came by.

Eggs for breakfast.... oh yes and I should mention I had the waiter again for Breakfast.

Now... I finished my breakfast at a normal pace... I don't eat particularly fast, and I even sat for a few moments chatting before I left... no one in the diner ever mentioned that I should make a lunch reservation. I go back to my sleeper and at 12:35 or so the LSA comes and knocks on my door and says "you didn't make a reservation for lunch, if you want to eat it's now or never" and I said "oh so I can come now" and he says "yes please do, you never made a lunch reservation"

Now I will say... I did hear them call an 11:30 12, and 12:30 reservation time, but I also figured they would make a last call for lunch around 12:4 5 or 1 and that I would just go then. Yes, I should have just gone to the diner when they made the first call and asked.. but should this really be my responsibility? Let me make it clear, the LSA did not come through the train for lunch reservations, or for dinner reservations the night before, it is simply this LSA's policy that you should get the next meals reservations while still in the diner.

He sat me at the very far end of the diner, and he served me. I wasn't the last table in the diner, however he was very busy cleaning up tables, taking all the salt and pepper shakers off all the tables (including occupied ones).

I had the veggie burger with swiss cheese for lunch on both days. I should mention they had a garden burger instead of the black bean burger, the waiter said the black bean burgers were recalled because there were traces of peanuts found in them or something. The garden burger was actually quite good as well (still a quality patty, not a simple boca burger).

Lots and lots and lots of snow on the way into Chicago, we never slowed down but the double track next to us was completely burried in fresh snow for much of the ride and at times you could see nothing but white outside the window. It was actually fun seeing the river valleys and small towns covered in fresh snow as we zipped by streets that were only fit for snow plows!

Arrived into Chicago about 30 minutes late. The agent at the Metropolitan lounge was very friendly, and I waited to board the Capitol Limited.


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## oregon pioneer (Feb 5, 2015)

Nice trip report, thank you! I have also had diner crews that were more interested in efficiency (of their time, LOL!) than in customer service. It just lacks warmth.


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## crabby_appleton1950 (Feb 5, 2015)

How did you tip throughout the trip, based upon the service from various crew members?


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## Bob Dylan (Feb 5, 2015)

Nice trip report! Sounds like the LSA was one of those "control freaks" that fortunately are rare on Amtrak trains!

Was Union Station freezing cold like it can be, since Chicago is starting to have some rough winter days? Big plans to rehab/update it, but it's Amtrak so may take awhile!


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## TVRM610 (Feb 5, 2015)

crabby_appleton1950 said:


> How did you tip throughout the trip, based upon the service from various crew members?


Well the waiter was great, he got $4 for lunch, $3 for Breakfast.

The LSA served me professionally enough for dinner, so I left $5. For lunch.. I left $1.

My sleeper attendant got $10. He did a fine job, nothing special but he was always around when I needed him. Literally no need to ring a call button, just look down the hall and he was around.


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## TVRM610 (Feb 5, 2015)

jimhudson said:


> Nice trip report! Sounds like the LSA was one of those "control freaks" that fortunately are rare on Amtrak trains!
> 
> Was Union Station freezing cold like it can be, since Chicago is starting to have some rough winter days? Big plans to rehab/update it, but it's Amtrak so may take awhile!


He wasn't as bad as some I've seen... the worst was my diner crew on the starlight a few years ago who called passengers to the diner by name (grade school teacher style), and told everyone multiple times that no cell phones or cameras were allowed in the diner. (Her name was "Tricia" - I certainly hope she's gone by now).

What bothered me the most about this LSA on the Chief was both negative experiences of mine would have been completely avoidable if he just operated the diner like Amtrak asks him to. He would have known I was in a sleeper, and he would have come to my room and asked for my lunch reservation. When he was actually serving me he was quite professional, still a little cold but no complaints about his actual service.

Anyways! back to your question - Actually Union Station wasn't too bad. They had lots of portable air vents (those big white collapsible tubes) scattered around and it wasn't nearly as bad as I've read about. The great hall was actually quite comfortable.


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## JayPea (Feb 5, 2015)

As of last August, Tricia was still on the Starlight, doing her thing with her little white eraseable board. At least she was in uniform; no hoodie this time. She wasn't quite as obnoxious as I've seen her either.


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## TVRM610 (Feb 6, 2015)

I had actually forgotten about her hoodie! I'll never forget her marker board though.

Someone who rides regularly should make a list of the various systems that LSA's invent. Perhaps we can even publish a guidebook where we can reference which system will be in place once we find out the LSA's name.


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## TVRM610 (Feb 6, 2015)

oh an addition to the trip report - in my sleeper coffee and juice was available all day long, and waters were also available for the taking. no ice. (I didn't request any but it was never offered either).


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## crabby_appleton1950 (Feb 6, 2015)

TVRM610 said:


> in my sleeper coffee and juice was available all day long, and waters were also available


Is the juice/coffee all on the upper level with none downstairs ?

Thanks


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## Ryan (Feb 6, 2015)

Correct.


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## OlympianHiawatha (Feb 6, 2015)

JayPea said:


> As of last August, Tricia was still on the Starlight, doing her thing with her little white eraseable board. At least she was in uniform; no hoodie this time. She wasn't quite as obnoxious as I've seen her either.


Now I am most curious-what does she do with the Marker Board?


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## JayPea (Feb 6, 2015)

OlympianHiawatha said:


> JayPea said:
> 
> 
> > As of last August, Tricia was still on the Starlight, doing her thing with her little white eraseable board. At least she was in uniform; no hoodie this time. She wasn't quite as obnoxious as I've seen her either.
> ...


She uses it to keep track of who eats when. As previously noted, she gets everyone's name when taking meal reservations. She writes the names on the board, and when it is time for your meal, she reads your name off the board.


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## TVRM610 (Feb 7, 2015)

JayPea said:


> OlympianHiawatha said:
> 
> 
> > JayPea said:
> ...


Yup. She walks around the train with it and physically shows you when the open slots are for eating, then fills your name into the slot. Then calls out over the PA when you should come to the diner. I don't understand how an LSA can do something so far from Amtrak policy for so long and no one cares.


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## TinCan782 (Feb 7, 2015)

TVRM610 said:


> I had the veggie burger with swiss cheese for lunch on both days. I should mention they had a garden burger instead of the black bean burger, the waiter said the black bean burgers were recalled because there were traces of peanuts found in them or something. The garden burger was actually quite good as well (still a quality patty, not a simple boca burger).


MorningStar Farms issued a recall a while back. I was notified through Costco of the recall - I had purchased a package of frozen Chipolte Black Bean Burgers there.


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## Dave Van (Feb 17, 2015)

On my trip West Chicago Union was COLD!

But it was -2 with -42 wind chill......like 50 mph winds.

The Lounge was fine......I had layers and like it cool....not cold!!

The one thing was the doors from the platforms were closed and locked with no directions on how to get to the lounge. Not a HUGE issue but for those of us with mobility issues lots of extra walking is tough.

The cold also delayed us 6 hours....but that's another story.....

My crew experence has been very positive.....only had one member I'd consider less than friendly and polite in all my trips.


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## rrdude (Feb 17, 2015)

Dave Van said:


> On my trip West Chicago Union was COLD!
> 
> But it was -2 with -42 wind chill......like 50 mph winds.
> 
> ...


Keep riding, you'll get hit with a "Crew from Hell" sooner or later. I must have a Target on my forehead, or high(er) standards than some, 'cause I get "mediocre to average" (at best) quite frequently. Doesn't help that I used to work for Amtrak, or have been in the Hospitality business for nearly 30 years either......


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