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Yes, I see that the bustitution's last scheduled day is Jan 31, 2012--the day our trip starts. Wondering if we will get breakfast on the train before the bussing starts at 8:30 am. I am already seeing we may miss dinner (if the train into STL is late) the evening before. Then if we miss...

I considered doing the Southwest Chief--actually did that trip about 15 years ago in coach--NEVER AGAIN in Coach!-- I chose the Texas Eagle to have 3 nights instead of 2 nights, which the SW Chief would be--and wanted to do the warmer, more southern trip. I know the views are beautiful on the...

Fairly new with Amtrak travel. Did do one trip last year in a roomette and loved it, so planned another, longer trip for this winter. Wanted to get away from the cold and snow, so decided to take a 3 night trip on the Texas Eagle. I planned this months ago, so got low buckets for my hubbie and...

Thanks, Misty. 321 and 421 are both cars on the Texas Eagle, so it would just be a matter of changing cars in the consist. Is that the same or different than what you are describing?

Thank you, thank you, for this information. It makes perfect sense. I definitely do not want to be on a bus if possible! So we will leave our ticket reservations as CHI-STL (coach) and STL-LAX (sleepers). Glad I didn't go ahead and change that yesterday. I was checking train fares again...

OK, so it sounds like you are suggesting the SCA will hold a dinner reservation for us in anticipation of us boarding in STL. I didn't realize they held reservations for future passengers. So if the train is on time (leaves STL around 8 pm), we can plan on getting dinner. Correct?

I never thought about the trains possibly taking alternative routes. No matter what, we plan to board the Texas Eagle in Chicago. That way, if they reroute at any point it won't affect us. Actually, in terms of value, I typed in the cities between CHI and STL and found that the best time to...

Yay! Thanks for the reassurance! Maybe they'll let us make the switch in Springfield--guessing that's a longer stop! Good idea--we will talk to the SCA in CHI and see what he suggests. Fretting about the minutest details of our Amtrak trip is actually lots of FUN for me! :)

So now I'm thinking that if the Texas Eagle DOES leave late during the winter months, we should make the switch to a sleeper in Carlinville (around 5:45) if we want to eat dinner in the dining car at a reasonable hour. If we take very little luggage (like duffle bags) with us, do you think we...

We decided to take the southern Texas Eagle instead of the northern Empire Builder because it was in the winter. Hoping to feel some warm, Texas sunshine! We are hoping for acceptable weather, but surprised that even a dusting of snow could impact travel--a tornado, yes! Good to know the train...

Ewww...don't want to take a bus! We are currently scheduled on 321 from CHI to STL and 421 from STL to LAX,--picking up the sleeper in StL. We will be going the end of January. Is track work typically done in the winter? The alternate (and even a bit cheaper) route is CHI to Carlinville on...

What a great idea, daveyb99! I typed in all the numbers and the rail fare and sleeping accomodations and surprised to find out they are identical to my planned itinerary. Oh, goodness....even less expensive out of Carlinville, IL--which arrives at 5:49! Thanks for the suggestion to check out...

Even assuming the Texas Eagle is on time, we don't depart St. Louis until about 8 pm. I was thinking that if I made an 8 or 8:30 pm reservation at around 6 pm while still riding in coach, I'd be more likely to get a dining reservation for that later time than if I waited for the SCA to obtain...

Thanks for the information! It would be great if we could get into our roomettes early, but I highly doubt that will be offered to us. We'll enjoy the time in the observation car. Also, didn't think about the dining car being between coach and the sleeper car. I agree and think we will need...

...and this was on the Texas Eagle, as well.

We just did this last week. We made 2 roomette reservations on-line and got roomette 2 and roomette 5. I thought I would just go ahead and reserve on-line and see what we would get--just in case they were across from each other. Since they weren't, I called Amtrak and spoke to an agent and she...

Actually I just checked, and we arrive in St. Louis around 7:30 pm. Still time for dinner, I'm hoping, as long as we are on time. This raises 2 questions for me: 1. Can we just walk through the train to the sleeper car and ask to be admitted when we arrive in St. Louis, or will be have to...

Old timers probably know this well...but I was pleased to find out how much I saved picking up our roomettes in the evening instead of from the get go. We are leaving Chicago on the Texas Eagle to LAX at 1:45pm and arriving in St. Louis at 6:30p or so. Instead of paying $417 from Chicago, our...

I had the exact same experience booking a trip on the Texas Eagle from Chicago to LAX. You are right--hit ADD TO CART to get the total price, rather than assuming the initial estimation is accurate. On my selected day, if I added 2 roomettes, the price went up to the next bucket for both...

I did coach once on a long distance trip and never again! Could not sleep in coach, kids fussy, people snoring, couldn't get comfortable in the seat. Did a roomette and loved it for meals, privacy, peace and quiet, looking out the window at night in bed, am coffee and newspaper, and comfort...