About 10 days before Thanksgiving, my dad decided he wanted to do some sightseeing in Kansas City. This was a surprise to me. We knew the air fare would be ridiculous (we usually fly, I take the train when I travel), and that driving would be long. I suggested Amtrak knowing that the Chief provided a direct, fast, reliable link between Chicago and KC. Dad agreed, and I called Amtrak. We wanted to depart on Thursday and return Sunday. Coach was sold out on Sunday, but a roomette was available. We took it. Round trip for the two of us 416.
On thanksgiving, I picked up dad, and we had lunch before driving to Union station. He is 83 years old, and I wanted to make things as easy as possible. The garage was empty, I took my favorite parking location, and we walked down to the waiting room which was not that busy. We had pre-boarding priveleges because of my dad. He spent some time analyzing the inefficiency of Amtrak boarding policy in Union Station. This over-controlled hand holding boarding process will have to be eliminated when Chicago becomse the hub for a high speed service. In fact, IMHO, they will need to totally redesign the boarding area. Ideally, Unon station should be rebuilt, or a new station built based on the Penn Station/30th street station model with a waiting room over the tracks which would allow run through operations, and eliminated this boarding silliness which does not exist at either of those too stations.
We boarded 3 and were placed in the last coach. The train had 3 coaches, a lounge, and a diner. I assume that there were 3 sleepers. I never got around to checking. We left on time and proceeded briskly to the west end of Cicero yard where we came to a stop and sat and sat. After a 20 minute wait I sent a scathing text message to Kevin and Alan lambasting the BNSF dispatcher. A few minutes later I had to take back my words. The conductor announced that we were stuck behind a freight which had struck a pedestrian. The total delay lasted 88 minutes, which was actually pretty good considering what could have happened.
The coach attendant made a brief appearance to hand out pillows. Her personality was not nice. I am glad she disappeared for the rest of the trip. Otherwise Amtrak might have been looking for a replacement after I helped her to "disappear." The LSA did not make reservations. Due to the light load there would be open seating. At 4:45 pm we moved up to the lounge so we could get into the diner. A few minutes after 5 the call was made, and we entered. Some sleeping car passengers were seated. We were seated with two lladies. Despite warnings and reminders about community seating, my dad did the senior citizen fussing routine and got scoled by the LSA for his efforts. I reminded him again, and things settled down. We both ordered the flat iron steak. The server was very friendly, worked well with my dad, and had things settled down. She called him sweetie a few times, and smiled, and was efficient in doing her job. This is an example of excellent service and excellent employees managing a challenging situation. The LSA even came back and was nice. As the salads arrived, we began moving. The steaks were delicious. We both had pumpkin pie for dessert. My dad enjoyed the meal, and he is a fussy eater. Of course I liked it because we were on the train. We finished dinner before arriving Mendota. The train did not lose any more time during the rest of the trip to Kansas City.
We arrived about 11:45 p.m, and made our way to the elevator, along a long elevated walkway, and through the Amtrak waiting area which is attatched to the main area of Kansas Union Station. The old waiting area had Xmas trees, a huge model train set, and tourist services. We caught a cab and made our way to the fairfiled Inn Union Hill. This hotel is excellent for a short stay. It is about a mile from the staton. Be careful about relying on taxis to take you back to the staton. We had to walk back on Sunday. It is doable in nice weather, but annoying in cold/snowy weather.
Kansas City is hard to get around without a car. If you can get a good rate at the Westin, it is across the street from the station. You do need a rental car to get around KC, but it is woth the effort if you can work with the limited rental car office hours of the locations ind downtown. Getting to the airport to pick up a renal car is time consuming and expensive. Cabs are 50 dollars one way. Supershuttle is 18 dollars each way and annoying to deal with.
If you stay in the downtown area at the Westin, and are a walker, you could see the WWI museum and have dinner at Pierpoints in Union station. We had an excellent steak dinner there on Friday night. The prix Fiixe dinner at 50 per person is a good deal. I think lunches theire are cheaper. If you rent a car, the Truman library and Nelson Atkins Art mueseum are worth the effort. There is a great RR art exhibit at the art museum until January 18.
On Sunday, we had difficulty getting back to the station. The cab dispatcher told us the night before that we could call in the morning and it would be a 10 minute wait. Of course we called, waited 15 minutes, and I called. The dispatcher was snotty, and then told me it would be another 10 minutes . I explained that I wanted a straight answer about cab availabilty as we had a train to catch. She said 10 minutes and hung up. This was the yellow cab company. Granted that it was snowing a little, and that it was a holiday weekend. The dispatcher on Saturaday night should know this and take that into account when talking to callers. If cab availabilty is going to be an issue, then we should have been encouraged to book it the night before. In any event we walked to the station and made it.
4 was early, arriving shortly after 7. The station was crowded, but the staff got the crowd boarded onto the St. Louis train efficiently, and then boarded 4. I saw people walking up to buy tickets at the last minute on the St. Louis train. This surprised me. I assumed that it would be sold out. We made our way out the 431 car. We had room 13. There was no attendant. I boarded us, and we went directly to the diner. The conductor had lifted our tickets in the station.
The diner was open and we were seated immediately. I had the RR french toast, and dad had the Omlette. He learned once again that eggs are not the things to eat on trains. The crew was efficient. We returned to our room. We had left KC about 15 minutes for reasons not known. The Chief has a very fast run across Missouri with only one stop at La Plata. I had my GPS out, and we were moving at 89 miles per hour for most of the morning. As we rounded curves, I noted htat there were two private cars on the back. They were Budd cars with the fluted sides. I think they were of Santa Fe vintage since there were no other coloring on them. We continued running 15 minutes late all the way across the Missouri, Iowa, and Illinois. We had the 12 pm lunch seating. Lunch was good. I enjoyed my Angus burger, and Dad enjoyed his Salad. He had cheesecake for desert, and I had the choclate bar. The cheesecake was good, according to dad. My chocalate bar was mediocre.
I perused the timetable and saw that with padding we could be early into CUS. We left Mendota 20 minutes off the advertised and pulled into Naperville 4 minutes early. We made a quick run into CUS, arriving 3:07, 13 minutes early. The entire ride was perfect. With the snow, excellent, service, and 4's relentless progress through the elements in land scape, the trip could nave been commemorated in a Norman Rockwlell painting. Perhaps a painting of my dad dozing in the compatment with me looking out my window with the GPS showing 90 mph as the snow falls outside the window.
Excellent job Amtrak and BNSF
On thanksgiving, I picked up dad, and we had lunch before driving to Union station. He is 83 years old, and I wanted to make things as easy as possible. The garage was empty, I took my favorite parking location, and we walked down to the waiting room which was not that busy. We had pre-boarding priveleges because of my dad. He spent some time analyzing the inefficiency of Amtrak boarding policy in Union Station. This over-controlled hand holding boarding process will have to be eliminated when Chicago becomse the hub for a high speed service. In fact, IMHO, they will need to totally redesign the boarding area. Ideally, Unon station should be rebuilt, or a new station built based on the Penn Station/30th street station model with a waiting room over the tracks which would allow run through operations, and eliminated this boarding silliness which does not exist at either of those too stations.
We boarded 3 and were placed in the last coach. The train had 3 coaches, a lounge, and a diner. I assume that there were 3 sleepers. I never got around to checking. We left on time and proceeded briskly to the west end of Cicero yard where we came to a stop and sat and sat. After a 20 minute wait I sent a scathing text message to Kevin and Alan lambasting the BNSF dispatcher. A few minutes later I had to take back my words. The conductor announced that we were stuck behind a freight which had struck a pedestrian. The total delay lasted 88 minutes, which was actually pretty good considering what could have happened.
The coach attendant made a brief appearance to hand out pillows. Her personality was not nice. I am glad she disappeared for the rest of the trip. Otherwise Amtrak might have been looking for a replacement after I helped her to "disappear." The LSA did not make reservations. Due to the light load there would be open seating. At 4:45 pm we moved up to the lounge so we could get into the diner. A few minutes after 5 the call was made, and we entered. Some sleeping car passengers were seated. We were seated with two lladies. Despite warnings and reminders about community seating, my dad did the senior citizen fussing routine and got scoled by the LSA for his efforts. I reminded him again, and things settled down. We both ordered the flat iron steak. The server was very friendly, worked well with my dad, and had things settled down. She called him sweetie a few times, and smiled, and was efficient in doing her job. This is an example of excellent service and excellent employees managing a challenging situation. The LSA even came back and was nice. As the salads arrived, we began moving. The steaks were delicious. We both had pumpkin pie for dessert. My dad enjoyed the meal, and he is a fussy eater. Of course I liked it because we were on the train. We finished dinner before arriving Mendota. The train did not lose any more time during the rest of the trip to Kansas City.
We arrived about 11:45 p.m, and made our way to the elevator, along a long elevated walkway, and through the Amtrak waiting area which is attatched to the main area of Kansas Union Station. The old waiting area had Xmas trees, a huge model train set, and tourist services. We caught a cab and made our way to the fairfiled Inn Union Hill. This hotel is excellent for a short stay. It is about a mile from the staton. Be careful about relying on taxis to take you back to the staton. We had to walk back on Sunday. It is doable in nice weather, but annoying in cold/snowy weather.
Kansas City is hard to get around without a car. If you can get a good rate at the Westin, it is across the street from the station. You do need a rental car to get around KC, but it is woth the effort if you can work with the limited rental car office hours of the locations ind downtown. Getting to the airport to pick up a renal car is time consuming and expensive. Cabs are 50 dollars one way. Supershuttle is 18 dollars each way and annoying to deal with.
If you stay in the downtown area at the Westin, and are a walker, you could see the WWI museum and have dinner at Pierpoints in Union station. We had an excellent steak dinner there on Friday night. The prix Fiixe dinner at 50 per person is a good deal. I think lunches theire are cheaper. If you rent a car, the Truman library and Nelson Atkins Art mueseum are worth the effort. There is a great RR art exhibit at the art museum until January 18.
On Sunday, we had difficulty getting back to the station. The cab dispatcher told us the night before that we could call in the morning and it would be a 10 minute wait. Of course we called, waited 15 minutes, and I called. The dispatcher was snotty, and then told me it would be another 10 minutes . I explained that I wanted a straight answer about cab availabilty as we had a train to catch. She said 10 minutes and hung up. This was the yellow cab company. Granted that it was snowing a little, and that it was a holiday weekend. The dispatcher on Saturaday night should know this and take that into account when talking to callers. If cab availabilty is going to be an issue, then we should have been encouraged to book it the night before. In any event we walked to the station and made it.
4 was early, arriving shortly after 7. The station was crowded, but the staff got the crowd boarded onto the St. Louis train efficiently, and then boarded 4. I saw people walking up to buy tickets at the last minute on the St. Louis train. This surprised me. I assumed that it would be sold out. We made our way out the 431 car. We had room 13. There was no attendant. I boarded us, and we went directly to the diner. The conductor had lifted our tickets in the station.
The diner was open and we were seated immediately. I had the RR french toast, and dad had the Omlette. He learned once again that eggs are not the things to eat on trains. The crew was efficient. We returned to our room. We had left KC about 15 minutes for reasons not known. The Chief has a very fast run across Missouri with only one stop at La Plata. I had my GPS out, and we were moving at 89 miles per hour for most of the morning. As we rounded curves, I noted htat there were two private cars on the back. They were Budd cars with the fluted sides. I think they were of Santa Fe vintage since there were no other coloring on them. We continued running 15 minutes late all the way across the Missouri, Iowa, and Illinois. We had the 12 pm lunch seating. Lunch was good. I enjoyed my Angus burger, and Dad enjoyed his Salad. He had cheesecake for desert, and I had the choclate bar. The cheesecake was good, according to dad. My chocalate bar was mediocre.
I perused the timetable and saw that with padding we could be early into CUS. We left Mendota 20 minutes off the advertised and pulled into Naperville 4 minutes early. We made a quick run into CUS, arriving 3:07, 13 minutes early. The entire ride was perfect. With the snow, excellent, service, and 4's relentless progress through the elements in land scape, the trip could nave been commemorated in a Norman Rockwlell painting. Perhaps a painting of my dad dozing in the compatment with me looking out my window with the GPS showing 90 mph as the snow falls outside the window.
Excellent job Amtrak and BNSF
