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If I recall, cancellation penalties were one of the 'new deals' from Anderson, when he took the reigns a few years ago. It was 'easy money', just like the airlines do. As Zephyr17 noted, back in the pre-online booking days, one would call 1-800-USA-RAIL number and make reservations. They'd...

If you haven't had contemporary dining yet, harking back to a TV commercial 30 years ago: "Try it! You'll like it!" I did, once. As a resident in suburban Springfield, if the Lakeshore is in my plans, I buy both dinner and breakfast at the Subway in the refurb'ed Springfield station. I buy...

One of the advantages of a roomette in a Superliner. If you're traveling alone, is the ability to switch seats to see things 'forward'. In a bedroom or the family room, a forward facing couch is strictly chance.

Call me a Portland OR 'lover'. Great old station and fantastic architecture. It's big enough to be 'big' and it still feels 'cozy' at the same time. In the late '70s/early '80s, I must have switched from #14 to #28 at least a dozen times traveling on business. These days, I consider the...

I'm glad to see CN effectively out of the battle. Merging with KCS+CP makes far more sense as they'd each have 'T' shaped railroads that compete more or less equally between all major destinations. Getting the KCS and its Mexico business is the BIG and perhaps the only reason, in my opinion...

Other than as a lad accompanying my father on some of his business trips in the 1950s, I've always traveled solo. The one exception being when I all but broke my wifes' arm the day after our wedding to abandon the EWR-WAS connecting plane that was late for a metroliner in 1988. We divorced 5...

Disclaimer: author is NOT responsible for physical, logical, or consequential damages (perceived or actual) including but not limited to: computer reboot failure, missing missing, lost passwords and and/or form data, throwing computer across the room, punching the screen, and hitting it with a...

Do a Google for Pittsburgh TV stations and then go to their respective web sites. Unless it's something fairly minor, the local news web sites will report whatever happened as the 'big bad train' was involved, not necessarily the Cap.

Maybe 2 years ago, there was an AGR 'problem' for some folks but not others. My memory is 'out to lunch' on what the problem was. It may have been the same problem as the OP is experiencing. However, I DO remember the fix. The problem was due to someone being coded/listed as 'senior' rather...

Living in suburban Springfield, MA I can attest to the fact that the Post Road cutoff was super rough as I'd be on 448/449 several times per year. Walking down the aisle or even keeping from sloshing a beverage all over oneself was impossible. Running at perhaps 50-60 mph only made it worse...

The only times I've arrived in a roomette and departed in coach was making Hiawatha connections to Milwaukee. The graciously announced the track number ahead of time, so I was one of the first in line at the gate. As for outbound LD trains, from what I've seen in perhaps 15+ times in the new...

Given the number and breadth of wildfires out west, I'd avoid planning/booking any same-day connections between LD trains. So, consider spending a night in LAX, SFO, SAC, PDX or SEA when making connections there. 6-7 years ago, I arrived LAX on #3 and shortly thereafter on a train to San...

I was thinking one of the restrooms was being used for luggage storage until I read the 'stink report' above. I've witnessed that a couple of times when the downstairs rack was full 'into the aisleway'. But that was mostly 5+ years ago. In recent years, I've seen giant items in the vestibule...

I've only ridden Amtrak once so far this year, but have now loosened up a bit and booked 2 one-day Acela trips in the next 5 weeks to get a boost on achieving AGR Select Plus status for 2022. So, for the first time this year, I looked at my AGR points posting from January to today, August 8. I...

For the price of Acela First Class, one would think they'd have something more like 'meat and potatoes' than fancy-smancy 'haute cuisine'. I'll be riding them in less than 2 weeks. I may just pass on the lunch/dinner menu.

Not shady at all. It's a way to not increase their 'exposure' (how much money they stand to lose) in case one can't keep up with timely payments and as a means to increase their potential future interest income. 30+ years ago, I wrote a group of programs for a 4-state regional bank for...

My personal choice for NEC BC is row 12, or row 10, followed by 11 and 14. Row 12 and 10 have a full window view, and 11 and 14, nearly so. They are at the far end from the restrooms as well, allowing odor-free and door slamming sound-free travel. As they are always on the rear of the train...

For what it's worth, I first obtained Select Exec status in late 2018, largely due to the 'double TQP points' promo they ran for a couple of months. I made SE again in 2019, partly due to using my Amtrak CC to get a 'freebie' 1000 TQPs every $5000 spent. So it's not necessary to spend $10K on...

Living in south suburban Springfield MA, I usually board NEC trains at Windsor Locks to save the $10/day parking charges downtown. Although I don't usually compare prices to/from SPG and WNL, I think a trip between the two (15 mi per TT) used to be $3-4. However, since the startup of CTRAIL...

While it would be great to have level-boarding bilevels for LD trains, it's not going to happen any time soon, if at all. #1 - First and foremost, as all or nearly all stations west of Chicago have low level platforms only. There would be at least a 5 year overlap from when the first high...