seat38a
Engineer
Back in March, my parents and I decided to take the long 4th of July weekend and go to San Francisco. I had not been up to San Francisco since High School so I figured it would be a fun quick getaway. We decided to take the Amtrak San Joaquin since my parents live on the northern edge of Los Angeles county.
Our train number 711 was scheduled to depart at 4:55 AM on 7/4/2014 so we left my parents house at 2:30 AM ish so we could get to the station with plenty of time to spare. When we arrived in Bakersfield Station, my parents and I were quite surprised at how many people were already there and waiting to board the train. We were thinking it would be an empty train leaving Bakersfield because of the early departure time but that was not to be.
Our Train:
P1000520 by seat38a, on Flickr
A small group of the number of people waiting for the train:
P1000524 by seat38a, on Flickr
My mom had me leave all the luggage with her and jump into the door as soon as it opened and grab one of the group seatings with the big table. As soon as the doors opened at 4:30, I jumped in, ran up the stairs and grabbed the first open group seating table. My parents followed along later after stashing the luggage. Secondly, the seats do NOT recline. You have to get up once in a while to stretch and give your trail bone a rest from the seats. Third, the leg rooms seem very generous for a corridor train. The seat pitch seemed almost the same as the business class seats on the Pacific Surfliners.
Couple observations about the Amtrak San Joaquin. First, the overhead storage as you can see in the picture below are the airline / bus type with a very small opening. You can't fit any rollers into that thing. On the Surfliner trains down south with the open racks, you can fit a lot of stuff including rollers.
View of our car from the door leading to the cafe.
P1000529 by seat38a, on Flickr
Seat Pitch is very generous for a corridor train.
P1000544 by seat38a, on Flickr
For the single travelers on this train, getting one of these seats seemed to be the priority:
P1000546 by seat38a, on Flickr
We settled into our seats and I went to the cafe which was already open to pick up some coffee and milk. The conductor who made announcements for this train made it clear that this would be a full train and if anyone had their belongings in an empty seat that they would be kicked off the train. The other two conductors that I saw scanning tickets seemed mellow, but the one making the announcements I never saw. Soon enough we were on our way and had breakfast of pastries from the business class of the Surfliner from earlier in the week.
For most of the morning, we tried to sleep but it was really difficult to do so with the non reclining seats. No one ever ended up seating in the fourth free seat so it was just the three of us all the way to Emeryville in our group seating area.
Our train number 711 was scheduled to depart at 4:55 AM on 7/4/2014 so we left my parents house at 2:30 AM ish so we could get to the station with plenty of time to spare. When we arrived in Bakersfield Station, my parents and I were quite surprised at how many people were already there and waiting to board the train. We were thinking it would be an empty train leaving Bakersfield because of the early departure time but that was not to be.
Our Train:
P1000520 by seat38a, on FlickrA small group of the number of people waiting for the train:
P1000524 by seat38a, on FlickrMy mom had me leave all the luggage with her and jump into the door as soon as it opened and grab one of the group seatings with the big table. As soon as the doors opened at 4:30, I jumped in, ran up the stairs and grabbed the first open group seating table. My parents followed along later after stashing the luggage. Secondly, the seats do NOT recline. You have to get up once in a while to stretch and give your trail bone a rest from the seats. Third, the leg rooms seem very generous for a corridor train. The seat pitch seemed almost the same as the business class seats on the Pacific Surfliners.
Couple observations about the Amtrak San Joaquin. First, the overhead storage as you can see in the picture below are the airline / bus type with a very small opening. You can't fit any rollers into that thing. On the Surfliner trains down south with the open racks, you can fit a lot of stuff including rollers.
View of our car from the door leading to the cafe.
P1000529 by seat38a, on FlickrSeat Pitch is very generous for a corridor train.
P1000544 by seat38a, on FlickrFor the single travelers on this train, getting one of these seats seemed to be the priority:
P1000546 by seat38a, on FlickrWe settled into our seats and I went to the cafe which was already open to pick up some coffee and milk. The conductor who made announcements for this train made it clear that this would be a full train and if anyone had their belongings in an empty seat that they would be kicked off the train. The other two conductors that I saw scanning tickets seemed mellow, but the one making the announcements I never saw. Soon enough we were on our way and had breakfast of pastries from the business class of the Surfliner from earlier in the week.
For most of the morning, we tried to sleep but it was really difficult to do so with the non reclining seats. No one ever ended up seating in the fourth free seat so it was just the three of us all the way to Emeryville in our group seating area.
No matter, we decided to go to the restaurant with the second highest rating just around the corner on Jackson street. When we got there, everyone else in the world must have read the review as well. We got a number and waited. The line went pretty quickly at the "Great Eastern Restaurant."
