I’ve been wanting to check out the new Venture cars on the Wolverine, and finally got the opportunity today. I had previously booked train 350 as my return from the Empire Builder trip after they started using Ventures on that, only for equipment to be swapped around due to a service disruption. Then I was planning to do a weekend trip to Chicago, only to find no Ventures were running on the two operating Wolverine consists (and had to go to the station when the trains arrived to find that out), and the third (350/355) had its return delayed. When I saw a video online of 350’s return with Venture cars in tow this past Wednesday, I figured I had to do a trip. While I initially was thinking of doing a weekend trip to Chicago, seeing how late 350 was departing on Friday (after a 2+ hr delay the day before that turned into 4+, resulting in 355 getting to CHI at 1:30am) gave me second thoughts. Instead, I decided to do a day trip from Ann Arbor to Troy (where there was a nearby mall I could kill time at) and back via 350 and 355.
This morning, I took the local bus to the Ann Arbor Amtrak station, and arrived shortly before noon, bringing a sandwich to eat while I waited. While the train was on time when I left, it came to a stop somewhere around Albion, likely due to a meet with 353. My train ended up being about a half hour late, with the consist including 3 Venture cars and also 2 cafe cars (one weirdly Northeast Regional branded). The video of 350 earlier in the week had 4 Venture cars, and I recall hearing something about there being issues with one of the cars. Guessing the extra cafe car has something to do with that - perhaps it’s there for axle count reasons. Was surprised to see quite a few people boarding at ARB to go eastbound, something I don’t recall seeing before - guessing some of it had to be people there for the Michigan-Michigan State game. The conductor quickly came by to scan my tickets, and right then I could hear their radio with the same voice saying “no defects” that I heard in the diner on the Empire Builder this summer.
The Venture cars basically looked what I expected - new, and more like what you expect on more modern trains rather than typical Amtrak. Noticed the wide aisles and push button entrances that make these trains better for accessibility than the Horizons, and the more convenient location of power plugs between the seats (so aisle passengers don’t have to run cords over their seat neighbor). However, I also noticed the drawbacks many have discussed. The seats do not recline (despite having a button on the right side of the seat - couldn't get it do anything), and the seats are far more firm than the Horizons or other typical Amtrak equipment. This is not a huge deal on a short ride like this one, though I’d probably prefer the older seats on a ride to Chicago (and certainly wouldn’t want these on a long-distance train). On the positive side, the ride did seem smoother than what I recall on the Wolverine previously.
Despite the delay getting to Ann Arbor, we made up time en route, and we’re only 10 minutes or so late once we got to Troy. When we arrived in Detroit I could see the QLine (streetcar) approaching - the Amtrak station being adjacent to it. Could have done my day trip there, but wanted a longer ride. While we approached, I used the local transit service’s SMART Flex microtransit service to request a ride to the mall. It showed that the next fixed-route bus was like over an hour away, but I was able to request a flex ride arriving in 30 min (while still 15 min away or so on the train). Arrived at the station, and my wait was down to 12 min or so. The vehicle showed up as expected, though I had to go flag it down as it pulled into a neighboring shopping center instead of the station. Spent a few hours at the mall, and eventually decided to head back to the station after grabbing dinner to go - the Flex app kept showing no vehicles (and the next fixed-route bus would arrive at the station too late to make the train, being worse than hourly), so I ended up just getting an Uber.
The ride back on 355 was as expected - train was on time at Troy as it‘s the station right after the origin in Pontiac. Got on the train and was going to walk a car or two down to a less crowded car, only to find the other cars locked (which I don’t recall being a thing on Wolverines before, though sometimes they direct you to a particular car). Took a seat in the one car we could get in, and heard the conductor making announcements about this being a sold-out train. As we stopped in Royal Oak and then Detroit, more passengers got on, and I ended up getting a seatmate. I did notice some old Canadian National Railway signage and one train sign with a “GT” (Grand Trunk, I assume) at Royal Oak. At Dearborn more passengers filed on, and I saw an overhead pedestrian bridge that apparently connects to the Henry Ford Museum (I had heard you could walk there from the new Dearborn station, though Google Maps shows a 1 mile walk out to a street and back). That would also be a good option for a day trip. As we approached Ann Arbor, it got dark out - had I taken this to Chicago on Friday, the whole trip would have been like this.
Arrived in Ann Arbor only a few minutes late, with a large crowd of people waiting to get on (also perhaps there for the Michigan-Michigan State game). Though I had hoped we were exactly on time - could have taken a bus home then, but that few minutes meant I had to Uber as that was the last bus of the day. All in all, a good trip - I got to ride in the Venture cars I had been trying to ride for months. I ended up paying $36 for the trip - the Ubers combined cost almost as much (wish we had better transit in Michigan - though Ann Arbor just passed a millage that should help, and Oakland County (home of Troy) has something on the ballot in November). Would have used my Amtrak voucher, had their system not corrupted it and given them no option but to replace it with a one-time-use only voucher. Still cost less than spending a few nights in Chicago - may do a longer trip at some point soon, but don’t feel like I have to anymore since I accomplished my goal of riding the Ventures (and I may prefer a better time/more comfortable seats for that anyway).
This morning, I took the local bus to the Ann Arbor Amtrak station, and arrived shortly before noon, bringing a sandwich to eat while I waited. While the train was on time when I left, it came to a stop somewhere around Albion, likely due to a meet with 353. My train ended up being about a half hour late, with the consist including 3 Venture cars and also 2 cafe cars (one weirdly Northeast Regional branded). The video of 350 earlier in the week had 4 Venture cars, and I recall hearing something about there being issues with one of the cars. Guessing the extra cafe car has something to do with that - perhaps it’s there for axle count reasons. Was surprised to see quite a few people boarding at ARB to go eastbound, something I don’t recall seeing before - guessing some of it had to be people there for the Michigan-Michigan State game. The conductor quickly came by to scan my tickets, and right then I could hear their radio with the same voice saying “no defects” that I heard in the diner on the Empire Builder this summer.
The Venture cars basically looked what I expected - new, and more like what you expect on more modern trains rather than typical Amtrak. Noticed the wide aisles and push button entrances that make these trains better for accessibility than the Horizons, and the more convenient location of power plugs between the seats (so aisle passengers don’t have to run cords over their seat neighbor). However, I also noticed the drawbacks many have discussed. The seats do not recline (despite having a button on the right side of the seat - couldn't get it do anything), and the seats are far more firm than the Horizons or other typical Amtrak equipment. This is not a huge deal on a short ride like this one, though I’d probably prefer the older seats on a ride to Chicago (and certainly wouldn’t want these on a long-distance train). On the positive side, the ride did seem smoother than what I recall on the Wolverine previously.
Despite the delay getting to Ann Arbor, we made up time en route, and we’re only 10 minutes or so late once we got to Troy. When we arrived in Detroit I could see the QLine (streetcar) approaching - the Amtrak station being adjacent to it. Could have done my day trip there, but wanted a longer ride. While we approached, I used the local transit service’s SMART Flex microtransit service to request a ride to the mall. It showed that the next fixed-route bus was like over an hour away, but I was able to request a flex ride arriving in 30 min (while still 15 min away or so on the train). Arrived at the station, and my wait was down to 12 min or so. The vehicle showed up as expected, though I had to go flag it down as it pulled into a neighboring shopping center instead of the station. Spent a few hours at the mall, and eventually decided to head back to the station after grabbing dinner to go - the Flex app kept showing no vehicles (and the next fixed-route bus would arrive at the station too late to make the train, being worse than hourly), so I ended up just getting an Uber.
The ride back on 355 was as expected - train was on time at Troy as it‘s the station right after the origin in Pontiac. Got on the train and was going to walk a car or two down to a less crowded car, only to find the other cars locked (which I don’t recall being a thing on Wolverines before, though sometimes they direct you to a particular car). Took a seat in the one car we could get in, and heard the conductor making announcements about this being a sold-out train. As we stopped in Royal Oak and then Detroit, more passengers got on, and I ended up getting a seatmate. I did notice some old Canadian National Railway signage and one train sign with a “GT” (Grand Trunk, I assume) at Royal Oak. At Dearborn more passengers filed on, and I saw an overhead pedestrian bridge that apparently connects to the Henry Ford Museum (I had heard you could walk there from the new Dearborn station, though Google Maps shows a 1 mile walk out to a street and back). That would also be a good option for a day trip. As we approached Ann Arbor, it got dark out - had I taken this to Chicago on Friday, the whole trip would have been like this.
Arrived in Ann Arbor only a few minutes late, with a large crowd of people waiting to get on (also perhaps there for the Michigan-Michigan State game). Though I had hoped we were exactly on time - could have taken a bus home then, but that few minutes meant I had to Uber as that was the last bus of the day. All in all, a good trip - I got to ride in the Venture cars I had been trying to ride for months. I ended up paying $36 for the trip - the Ubers combined cost almost as much (wish we had better transit in Michigan - though Ann Arbor just passed a millage that should help, and Oakland County (home of Troy) has something on the ballot in November). Would have used my Amtrak voucher, had their system not corrupted it and given them no option but to replace it with a one-time-use only voucher. Still cost less than spending a few nights in Chicago - may do a longer trip at some point soon, but don’t feel like I have to anymore since I accomplished my goal of riding the Ventures (and I may prefer a better time/more comfortable seats for that anyway).
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