Search results

(Day 2: May 22nd) I was up a little after 6:15 a.m. (It was just two weeks ago today that we’d begun our May rail adventure.) After showering and dressing, I set up the GPS device to find out where we were. It came on-line just as we were arriving in Garden City. When we departed at 6:56 a.m...

Stage 2: Chicago to Los Angeles (Day 1: May 21st) When we’d arrived at Chicago Union Station on Southwest Chief No. 4 eleven days earlier, a Red Cap had driven us to the Metropolitan Lounge using a circuitous route through the construction zone that we doubted we could have retraced had we had...

Part 2: Toledo, Ohio to San Diego, California Stage 1: Toledo to Chicago (May 21st) Catching westbound Capitol Limited No. 29 in Toledo requires some advanced preparations on our part. The day before, we check out of our hotel in Findlay and check into the Comfort Inn in Maumee which is only 8...

Michigan Mom, Once again, thank you so much for your kind comments about our trip report. We always look forward to reading and rereading your trip reports, so knowing that you’ve read and enjoyed one of our trip reports means a great deal to us. We’re optimistic that our return trip to San...

To everyone who has read our May trip report, and especially those who have left favorable comments, thank you so much! We always enjoy reading the trip reports submitted by others and this is our way of making some sort of contribution of our own. (Knowing that our efforts are appreciated is...

It wasn't until we’d reached our destination that we learned that, on the day prior to our crossing the Fort Madison Bridge over the Mississippi River, a barge had collided with the bridge, causing damage and disrupting Southwest Chief train service for about four and a half hours. Then on May...

Be sure to call Amtrak Customer Relations and give them the full details of this deplorable event. Be sure to mention that it was an Amtrak employee who told you to wait for the second bus which never arrived (and maybe never was supposed to.) Calling is always a better option than sending an...

On occasion we've departed on train trips when San Diego was experiencing heat waves with temperatures in the '90's. Even then, the breezes from San Diego Bay made standing out on the platform just cool enough to require wearing long pants and a light jacket to be comfortable. Inside Los...

Another advantage to this idea is that those people with bedroom or roomette reservations could continue to have them once their train was coupled onto the rear of the following day's train. (Amtrak would probably have to put them up in a hotel and feed them until the next day's train arrived.)...

While one would hesitate to suggest that Amtrak would engage in deliberate mendacity, the train status page shows SWC No. 3 departing from Chicago today (May 15) as scheduled and continuing through to Los Angeles with no service disruptions. (I must assume that the derailment in Dodge City has...

We were onboard the SWC No. 4 that crossed the bridge on Friday, May 10th and there were no problems. When we departed Fort Madison, someone radioed "Twenty at the bridge.” Traveling at 20 mph, it took us two minutes to cross the Mississippi River.

Stage 3: Chicago to Toledo (May 10th) Prior to our departure from home, we’d been following an Amtrack Unlimited discussion thread regarding how construction work both inside and outside of Chicago Union Station was making it somewhat more difficult to negotiate one’s way from the south...

(Day 3: May 10th) We were up a little before 6:00 a.m. Central Time so that we’d be packed before breakfast was delivered. Outside it was sunny and the day promised to be a beautiful one. After the departure from Topeka at 6:38 a.m., we moved some of our carryon items from our bedroom down to...

(Day 2: May 9th) It was already light outside when our train arrived in Flagstaff one hour and thirty-five minutes behind schedule. When we’d made our first trip onboard Southwest Chief No. 4 twenty-five years ago, copies of the “Arizona Daily Sun” were still being loaded aboard the sleeping...

Stage 2: Los Angeles to Chicago (Day 1: May 8th) After detraining, we descended to the wide underground pedestrian tunnel that runs underneath the tracks and made our way into the station and to the elevator that goes up to the Metropolitan Lounge. After she had let us in, the attendant put...

Part 1: San Diego, California to Toledo, Ohio Stage 1: San Diego to Los Angeles (May 8th) Our rail adventures all begin with our arrival at our “home station,” the historic Santa Fe Depot in downtown San Diego. With plenty of time before our train would begin boarding, we settled in to wait on...

Prologue Even before we’d returned home from our summer 2023 Amtrak trip to Ohio, we were planning on making a second trip in September contingent upon our being able to book bedrooms on Southwest Chief trains Nos. 3 & 4. A little over a week after our return, we called Amtrak, only to learn...

This was in Pre-COVID days and I think that there were four (4) coaches (mostly filled to capacity since it was a sold out train) in the consist. There were a lot of Scouts onboard for that trip, and many of them were in the Sightseer level of the coach. It was quite full, and we had to check...

Back in late June 2018, we were on Southwest Chief No. 4 heading east for Chicago. It was a full train and the conductor asked passengers to please limit their stay in the Sightseer Lounge Car to two hours as many people wanted to have the opportunity to spend some time there, too. This request...

As has been discussed in the past, speaking to a live agent is always preferable to sending an e-mail.