Teamfour
Train Attendant
My train ride from Washington DC to Slidell, LA.
October 26/27, 2008
Aside from taking a train from New Orleans to Houston when I was five years old in 1964, and a two hour ride last year from DC to Philly, this is my first real adventure on Amtrak.
The reason for this trip is to return home to Madisonville LA after moving my 24 year old daughter to Sterling VA. Just three weeks ago I flew from Burlington, VT to New Orleans and that trip took 24 hours due to mechanical problems and a missed connection. So I figured if I was going to spend 24 hours traveling, I might as well try the train.
I purchased the ticket online just two weeks prior to the trip. This resulted in a slightly higher fare; $125 coach fare plus $293 for a roomette. The roomette is basically a triple-sized phone booth. More on that in a minute.
I took the DC Metro from the Vienna/Fairfax station to Union Station in downtown DC. I went to a kiosk, scanned my computer-printed ticket and received my boarding pass. I stopped by the information desk to ask what track the train left from and was directed to go sit in the Acela lounge. I did not realize I was considered to have a first-class ticket, so this was a welcome surprise. The lounge had free drinks and snacks and was very nice.
The Crescent train #19 was scheduled to leave at 6:30 pm, but was running about twenty minutes late. When the train arrived, an Amtrak employee gathered up all the passengers and took us to track #26. I proceeded to the sleeper car #1911/Prarie View where I was greeted by Mark who was also my room attendant. He directed me to my room, #4. I stored my overnight bag in the cubbyhole above the hallway ceiling.
Prior to departure, the conductor came by and checked my ticket and ID. Shortly after, Mark came by to introduce himself and give me the grand tour of the roomette. He was extremely helpful and explained every feature of the room, described the services, and explained where he could be found if I needed anything. There was free juice and coffee available. He also told me once we were moving to just go to the dining car whenever I wanted to eat dinner.
We left the station right at 7:00 pm and proceeded through what appeared to be a tunnel. This caused a slight smell of exhaust fumes to enter the room via the ventilation system but that quickly disappeared once we were moving.
OK, about the roomette. As I said, it is about the size of three phone booths (if anyone can even remember what a phone booth is). All of the lights worked perfect. The ventilation was very good, and the A/C blew cold if needed. Mark had told me earlier that the sound system did not work, but that was OK since I brought my MP3 player. The seats are very comfy and recline if you want. There were two bottles of water in the room. I had read some discussions about the quality of the roomettes on Viewliner cars. I can’t say that I found any problems. There were curtains over the hall window and door and the Velcro worked fine for securing them. The door closed and latched fine and did not rattle hardly at all.
At about 7:45 I went to the dining car. The dining car attendant was named and D’Alesio and she directed me to sit anywhere. The car was ¾ full so I grabbed the first empty table. I was joined shortly by a very nice lady named Eunice who hailed from Greensboro NC. Within minutes the dining car was full. I ordered the flat iron steak. Knowing that it would come out rarer than ordered, I asked for it medium since I like my steak pink. I was served iced tea, a roll, and a nice salad first. The steak with baked potato and veggies followed. As expected the steak came rare and was delicious. Soon after the meal commenced, the engineer must have tried making up time because the train was flying. We rocked back and forth pretty good, making the meal an adventure. I finished up with a delicious raspberry cheesecake. The service was professional, quick, and good, although not overly friendly. I think the full dining car probably kept the staff pretty busy. Even with the rocking, I managed not to spill anything. Eunice provided some good conversation and I returned to my room about 55 minutes later taking advantage of a station stop so I could walk to the room without looking drunk.
I then made what is probably a common rookie mistake that had me laughing to myself. I figured while the train was stopped I would take the time to relieve myself without risk of “hosing” down my room. I very carefully arranged the hall curtains and fasted them so no one could walk by and see me. Only after I was done did I turn around to notice I hadn’t bothered to close the curtains to the outward facing windows. Thankfully my room wasn’t facing the station platform. Oh well, live and learn.
Mark came by at about 9:00 pm to ask me what time did I want the bunk setup. I told him now was fine. After experiencing the occasional rocking of the train, I decided to use the lower bunk. I had visions of me being propelled out of the top bunk and onto the floor. Besides, I wasn’t going to use the seats during the night anyway. Mark setup the bunk and I laid down to read the paper.
At about 10:30 pm I decided to call it a night. I quickly realized that the bed is just big enough for a 6 foot tall, 200 lb. man. There isn’t much room to roll around. Nonetheless, I slept pretty well with the occasional awakening when we hit a rough spot or pulled into a station. I had kept the outward curtains open to see the stars but quickly realized that the bright lights at stations woke me up. So I closed the curtains and slept until 7:00 am.
I used the facility (curtains closed) and lowered the sink to freshen up. The sink folds down from the wall and I must say I thought it was cleverly designed. I headed for the dining car and ran into Mark who said he would setup my seating again while I ate. I was one of about six people up for breakfast and was told to sit anywhere. The young man who waited on me was very friendly, but the lady from the night before was still a little brusque. I had scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage, and a biscuit. It was a standard, but good breakfast.
I then retired to the lounge car to continue my trip report. I was a little disappointed to find that the lounge was just a bunch of booths similar to the dining car. I had visions of a window filled car with nice easy chairs. I guess the Viewliners are not like that. Each booth had an electrical outlet, so if you are riding coach, this is the place to get your power. Right about now we were pulling into Atlanta, so we were running a little behind schedule.
We pulled into Atlanta about 30 minutes late. We were held up at a signal which seemed to negate the time we had made up overnight. At the station I took the time to get off the train and stretch my legs. I walked to the head of the train where I found two engines. I spoke with Mark for a few minutes where I learned the crew was New Orleans based. I also learned that the coach section was filled to capacity leaving DC and that there were only two sleepers not used. Mark said the train would arrive in New Orleans with about 60 passengers. The Crescent left Atlanta about 9:10 am, or about 30 minutes behind schedule.
Well, you can’t say the train isn’t exciting. At about 10:15 we stopped in a little town called Villa Rica, GA. Within minutes we were surrounded by police, fire, and ambulance vehicles. Turns out some lady, possibly pregnant, collapsed and they had to remove her from the train. A little inconvenient, but not nearly as much as it would have been on a plane which would have probably made an unscheduled landing. We were held up maybe 20 minutes.
Shortly before noon I asked Mark what time we would be served lunch. He said an announcement would be made about noon. However, seeing how we had switched to Central time, I now had about another hour to wait. I went back to my room and decided to fire up my Garmin C550 Streetpilot GPS unit. As long as the tracks followed a street I was able to see our route. Once the tracks strayed from a street, it looked like we were traveling through unchartered wilderness except for a few areas where the tracks had actually been entered into the map database. At least the unit gave me the speed, which just outside of Anniston AL was 60mph.
So far the ride from Atlanta southward had been very relaxing. The scenery was beautiful with many of the trees turning red, orange, and yellow. We passed many little towns and tiny cabins out in the woods. At times, due to the curve of the tracks, I could see either the engines or tail of the train out of my window.
We finally pulled into Birmingham AL exactly one hour late. Mark told me we may make up some time and that some of the fastest (and roughest) parts of the route were coming up. I was in no hurry though, otherwise I wouldn’t have taken the train. Also, it was 12:45 pm and still no call for lunch. I guess we needed to wait for the train to move away from the station.
While we were sitting at the station, I asked Mark if I could look at the larger rooms. He showed me a regular bedroom which was nice. However, once the lower bed is made up, you can’t get in or out of the room without crawling over the bed to the door. He then showed me a handicap room. It was real nice with lots of room even with the bed setup. The bathroom is real big. Mark told me the handicap room is first come first serve; you don’t have to be handicapped to use it. I asked him if a non-handicap person would get bumped if a handicap person needed it. He said no, but something tells me the ADA may prescribe otherwise.
We left Birmingham about 50 minutes behind schedule just before 1:00 pm. I went to the dining car to find lunch in full swing since noon. So much for waiting for an announcement. As soon as I starting eating, the not-so-friendly lady announced last call for lunch. I sat with two other young folk from New Orleans and we had a good conversation during lunch. Sure beats eating alone. I had the Angus burger with cheese, potato chips, pickle, and tea. I declined the dessert.
Well, we arrived in Meridian MS at 3:53 pm, 59 minutes late. I was hoping we had gained some time seeing how my GPS showed our average speed right around 60mph between Birmingham and Meridian. We actually hit a top speed of 82.9mph for a brief moment. The trip was looking like it would run a little late overall. Amtrakdelays.com has showed the Crescent about 30 minutes late on average arriving in Slidell, my final destination.
5:30 pm came and I should have been 25 minutes from Slidell. Instead I found myself in the dining car for the one and only dinner call. I had the Jambalaya. Although it was very good, it was more of a Creole sauce than the real thing. The same (now rude) server barked orders and got everyone served in record time. They were out of chicken and most desserts; in fact I got the last cheesecake. The engineer kept the speed pegged at 79mph trying to make up time. This made for quite a rocky ride.
I returned to my room and prepared my stuff for getting off. We made a brief stop in Picayune MS and then roared into Slidell, LA right under an hour late. Mark came and got me and I tipped him $20 since he had taken the time to patiently explain everything and show me the other rooms. He really made my first long distance trip on Amtrak painless. One little note: when I got on the train a very dapper conductor came by to collect my ticket. Somewhere along the trip, we must have gotten a new conductor, because the one that let me off the train looked disheveled, no coat, tie, or hat, and looked like he hadn’t slept in days.
All-in-all this was a very good experience. Would I do it again? You bet! Could my wife and I co-exist in a roomette for 24 hours? Probably not. I would consider a larger room for the two of us.
Thanks for all of the help from the great folks on this forum. I’m sure I would have been a little more intimidated by a few things had I not asked questions here prior to my trip.
October 26/27, 2008
Aside from taking a train from New Orleans to Houston when I was five years old in 1964, and a two hour ride last year from DC to Philly, this is my first real adventure on Amtrak.
The reason for this trip is to return home to Madisonville LA after moving my 24 year old daughter to Sterling VA. Just three weeks ago I flew from Burlington, VT to New Orleans and that trip took 24 hours due to mechanical problems and a missed connection. So I figured if I was going to spend 24 hours traveling, I might as well try the train.
I purchased the ticket online just two weeks prior to the trip. This resulted in a slightly higher fare; $125 coach fare plus $293 for a roomette. The roomette is basically a triple-sized phone booth. More on that in a minute.
I took the DC Metro from the Vienna/Fairfax station to Union Station in downtown DC. I went to a kiosk, scanned my computer-printed ticket and received my boarding pass. I stopped by the information desk to ask what track the train left from and was directed to go sit in the Acela lounge. I did not realize I was considered to have a first-class ticket, so this was a welcome surprise. The lounge had free drinks and snacks and was very nice.
The Crescent train #19 was scheduled to leave at 6:30 pm, but was running about twenty minutes late. When the train arrived, an Amtrak employee gathered up all the passengers and took us to track #26. I proceeded to the sleeper car #1911/Prarie View where I was greeted by Mark who was also my room attendant. He directed me to my room, #4. I stored my overnight bag in the cubbyhole above the hallway ceiling.
Prior to departure, the conductor came by and checked my ticket and ID. Shortly after, Mark came by to introduce himself and give me the grand tour of the roomette. He was extremely helpful and explained every feature of the room, described the services, and explained where he could be found if I needed anything. There was free juice and coffee available. He also told me once we were moving to just go to the dining car whenever I wanted to eat dinner.
We left the station right at 7:00 pm and proceeded through what appeared to be a tunnel. This caused a slight smell of exhaust fumes to enter the room via the ventilation system but that quickly disappeared once we were moving.
OK, about the roomette. As I said, it is about the size of three phone booths (if anyone can even remember what a phone booth is). All of the lights worked perfect. The ventilation was very good, and the A/C blew cold if needed. Mark had told me earlier that the sound system did not work, but that was OK since I brought my MP3 player. The seats are very comfy and recline if you want. There were two bottles of water in the room. I had read some discussions about the quality of the roomettes on Viewliner cars. I can’t say that I found any problems. There were curtains over the hall window and door and the Velcro worked fine for securing them. The door closed and latched fine and did not rattle hardly at all.
At about 7:45 I went to the dining car. The dining car attendant was named and D’Alesio and she directed me to sit anywhere. The car was ¾ full so I grabbed the first empty table. I was joined shortly by a very nice lady named Eunice who hailed from Greensboro NC. Within minutes the dining car was full. I ordered the flat iron steak. Knowing that it would come out rarer than ordered, I asked for it medium since I like my steak pink. I was served iced tea, a roll, and a nice salad first. The steak with baked potato and veggies followed. As expected the steak came rare and was delicious. Soon after the meal commenced, the engineer must have tried making up time because the train was flying. We rocked back and forth pretty good, making the meal an adventure. I finished up with a delicious raspberry cheesecake. The service was professional, quick, and good, although not overly friendly. I think the full dining car probably kept the staff pretty busy. Even with the rocking, I managed not to spill anything. Eunice provided some good conversation and I returned to my room about 55 minutes later taking advantage of a station stop so I could walk to the room without looking drunk.
I then made what is probably a common rookie mistake that had me laughing to myself. I figured while the train was stopped I would take the time to relieve myself without risk of “hosing” down my room. I very carefully arranged the hall curtains and fasted them so no one could walk by and see me. Only after I was done did I turn around to notice I hadn’t bothered to close the curtains to the outward facing windows. Thankfully my room wasn’t facing the station platform. Oh well, live and learn.
Mark came by at about 9:00 pm to ask me what time did I want the bunk setup. I told him now was fine. After experiencing the occasional rocking of the train, I decided to use the lower bunk. I had visions of me being propelled out of the top bunk and onto the floor. Besides, I wasn’t going to use the seats during the night anyway. Mark setup the bunk and I laid down to read the paper.
At about 10:30 pm I decided to call it a night. I quickly realized that the bed is just big enough for a 6 foot tall, 200 lb. man. There isn’t much room to roll around. Nonetheless, I slept pretty well with the occasional awakening when we hit a rough spot or pulled into a station. I had kept the outward curtains open to see the stars but quickly realized that the bright lights at stations woke me up. So I closed the curtains and slept until 7:00 am.
I used the facility (curtains closed) and lowered the sink to freshen up. The sink folds down from the wall and I must say I thought it was cleverly designed. I headed for the dining car and ran into Mark who said he would setup my seating again while I ate. I was one of about six people up for breakfast and was told to sit anywhere. The young man who waited on me was very friendly, but the lady from the night before was still a little brusque. I had scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage, and a biscuit. It was a standard, but good breakfast.
I then retired to the lounge car to continue my trip report. I was a little disappointed to find that the lounge was just a bunch of booths similar to the dining car. I had visions of a window filled car with nice easy chairs. I guess the Viewliners are not like that. Each booth had an electrical outlet, so if you are riding coach, this is the place to get your power. Right about now we were pulling into Atlanta, so we were running a little behind schedule.
We pulled into Atlanta about 30 minutes late. We were held up at a signal which seemed to negate the time we had made up overnight. At the station I took the time to get off the train and stretch my legs. I walked to the head of the train where I found two engines. I spoke with Mark for a few minutes where I learned the crew was New Orleans based. I also learned that the coach section was filled to capacity leaving DC and that there were only two sleepers not used. Mark said the train would arrive in New Orleans with about 60 passengers. The Crescent left Atlanta about 9:10 am, or about 30 minutes behind schedule.
Well, you can’t say the train isn’t exciting. At about 10:15 we stopped in a little town called Villa Rica, GA. Within minutes we were surrounded by police, fire, and ambulance vehicles. Turns out some lady, possibly pregnant, collapsed and they had to remove her from the train. A little inconvenient, but not nearly as much as it would have been on a plane which would have probably made an unscheduled landing. We were held up maybe 20 minutes.
Shortly before noon I asked Mark what time we would be served lunch. He said an announcement would be made about noon. However, seeing how we had switched to Central time, I now had about another hour to wait. I went back to my room and decided to fire up my Garmin C550 Streetpilot GPS unit. As long as the tracks followed a street I was able to see our route. Once the tracks strayed from a street, it looked like we were traveling through unchartered wilderness except for a few areas where the tracks had actually been entered into the map database. At least the unit gave me the speed, which just outside of Anniston AL was 60mph.
So far the ride from Atlanta southward had been very relaxing. The scenery was beautiful with many of the trees turning red, orange, and yellow. We passed many little towns and tiny cabins out in the woods. At times, due to the curve of the tracks, I could see either the engines or tail of the train out of my window.
We finally pulled into Birmingham AL exactly one hour late. Mark told me we may make up some time and that some of the fastest (and roughest) parts of the route were coming up. I was in no hurry though, otherwise I wouldn’t have taken the train. Also, it was 12:45 pm and still no call for lunch. I guess we needed to wait for the train to move away from the station.
While we were sitting at the station, I asked Mark if I could look at the larger rooms. He showed me a regular bedroom which was nice. However, once the lower bed is made up, you can’t get in or out of the room without crawling over the bed to the door. He then showed me a handicap room. It was real nice with lots of room even with the bed setup. The bathroom is real big. Mark told me the handicap room is first come first serve; you don’t have to be handicapped to use it. I asked him if a non-handicap person would get bumped if a handicap person needed it. He said no, but something tells me the ADA may prescribe otherwise.
We left Birmingham about 50 minutes behind schedule just before 1:00 pm. I went to the dining car to find lunch in full swing since noon. So much for waiting for an announcement. As soon as I starting eating, the not-so-friendly lady announced last call for lunch. I sat with two other young folk from New Orleans and we had a good conversation during lunch. Sure beats eating alone. I had the Angus burger with cheese, potato chips, pickle, and tea. I declined the dessert.
Well, we arrived in Meridian MS at 3:53 pm, 59 minutes late. I was hoping we had gained some time seeing how my GPS showed our average speed right around 60mph between Birmingham and Meridian. We actually hit a top speed of 82.9mph for a brief moment. The trip was looking like it would run a little late overall. Amtrakdelays.com has showed the Crescent about 30 minutes late on average arriving in Slidell, my final destination.
5:30 pm came and I should have been 25 minutes from Slidell. Instead I found myself in the dining car for the one and only dinner call. I had the Jambalaya. Although it was very good, it was more of a Creole sauce than the real thing. The same (now rude) server barked orders and got everyone served in record time. They were out of chicken and most desserts; in fact I got the last cheesecake. The engineer kept the speed pegged at 79mph trying to make up time. This made for quite a rocky ride.
I returned to my room and prepared my stuff for getting off. We made a brief stop in Picayune MS and then roared into Slidell, LA right under an hour late. Mark came and got me and I tipped him $20 since he had taken the time to patiently explain everything and show me the other rooms. He really made my first long distance trip on Amtrak painless. One little note: when I got on the train a very dapper conductor came by to collect my ticket. Somewhere along the trip, we must have gotten a new conductor, because the one that let me off the train looked disheveled, no coat, tie, or hat, and looked like he hadn’t slept in days.
All-in-all this was a very good experience. Would I do it again? You bet! Could my wife and I co-exist in a roomette for 24 hours? Probably not. I would consider a larger room for the two of us.
Thanks for all of the help from the great folks on this forum. I’m sure I would have been a little more intimidated by a few things had I not asked questions here prior to my trip.
