Search results

A grant doesn’t get repaid. It has conditions that must be fulfilled, but if the conditions are satisfied, the money never has to be repaid.

The Crescent leaves ridiculously late out of Atlanta. An earlier departure from New Orleans is needed. NS doesn’t handle it well anyway, so it’s routinely late. Leaving Atlanta at 1:30 in the morning is kind of bad.

I think it was because he made a point of slamming Amtrak as part of his sermon. The fact that he was large may have made the delay all the more unpleasant for him. Just surmising from what I got out of the story. “The large pastor from Texas won’t ride Amtrak again.”

This has been happening on other trains around the system. I know it’s happened on the Capitol Limited. There really is no excuse for it.

I agree. I’ve had many miserable air trips, including sleeping on airport floors. Yet the train is held to an extremely high standard.

Yes. Try flying from Kansas City to Springfield. The train would be very competitive.

As part of the effort to kill the national network, Amtrak got rid of many station agents which of course reduced the use of checked baggage service. They also got rid of Amtrak Express which was a well used service that served communities with economical express shipping by train and literally...

I live in the most beautiful part of the country which is served by the Sunset. I’ll never understand how people don’t find the mountains and high desert of the Southwest beautiful. I think it’s some of the most beautiful in the country. Right out of a western movie and largely unspoiled. Right...

A fat fryer is totally unnecessary, and many people are eating healthier. As you said, it isn’t 1940 anymore. Diets have radically changed.

I too enjoyed the Slumbercoach back in the day, but I wouldn’t like them now. That very narrow bed in a teeny tiny room with no meals or lounges? I think you would have to be a monk to appreciate that. I would much prefer a more comfortable coach product, although I like the Amtrak coach, and...

The Amtrak roomettes are basically enclosed sections.

People are also bigger today. I don’t think people really remember how tiny the Slumbercoach really was. Is there a market for really itty bitty rooms with tiny beds? No. The number of unsatisfied passengers this product would create would be self defeating.

Amtrak doesn’t with sleepers because you really can’t. I only got off one stop before and had paid the full fare to my destination, so my position was both morally superior and fair and just to all concerned. I did not cheat to get a cheaper fare to another’s detriment. I like to sleep at night.

Continuing my answer, the first bilevel dining cars were the Santa Fe Hi Level diners built for the all-coach Chicago-LA El Capitan which entered service in 1955. Amtrak’s Superliner’s are based on the Hi Levels although the sleepers are an Amtrak creation as Santa Fe never had Hi Level sleepers...

I’ll try to answer your questions: 1. Dinner reservations did exist, but not on most trains. I remember very well standing in the corridor along the kitchen for seats in the diner. The diner did not differentiate between sleeper and coach passengers. Since the diners were operated by the...

There is nothing the matter with what you did except from a climate change perspective, but I question your sanity. Extending an already long trip, the price of gas, meals and hotels to save a buck or two on the airline fare seems kind of ridiculous. But then people camp out in the freezing cold...

But you could lose your miles, and the airline could refuse carriage in the future. Then you would bear the cost of arbitration to try to get your miles back. You would also lose because you knowingly breached your contract for a few bucks. Not to mention driving up fares for others and wasting...

I would be laughing when the airline rerouted the person through a different city than the hidden destination city due to a delay or schedule change. It’s just unethical, and karma is going to get them.

At first impression, I had no issues with this although I personally wouldn’t do it. As I wrote this though, I reconsidered. I think it’s wrong. If you don’t have the money to travel, then take a holiday closer to home. Since you raised morality, you are potentially taking a seat from another...

Privatization in the UK has been a total failure, and it’s largely over. Sadly, profitable freight will still be contracted so profits are privatized but losses are socialized. Privatization in Britain led to the highest fares in Europe and service meltdowns. When Labour gets back in, the system...