My Return to Amtrak (Hiawatha, November 2022)

[NEPATrainTraveler]

Part 1

Last year, I took my first Amtrak trip since lockdown. It may not have been the most epic of Amtrak journeys, but it was a nice ride and it was so nice just to be on Amtrak again. The events of the current decade so far (COVID, lockdowns, riots in the cities, rising crime rates, etc.) made me feel trapped and that I would never be able to travel to the cities that I love ever again. I came up with so many different trip ideas in the hopes that one day I would be able to travel again, but they fell apart for some reason or other and when that happened it contributed to the feelings of hopelessness. I would think about things like using Amtrak to connect with Southwest airlines due to their cheap prices and Amtrak-like checked bag policies or attempting to ride the LSL in coach again. None of these plans came to fruition.

2022 would be the year things started to feel more normal for me as more pandemic-era restrictions went away and travel outside my local area became less restrictive. I took a trip in June out to the Chicago suburbs for a convention, but the only trains involved in that trip was a brief ride on the blue line from Rosemont to O'Hare and ORD's ATS. The second solo trip I took was in November and it was that trip where I would return to Amtrak for the first time since 2019.

The trip I took in November was, like the October 2018 trip before it, a trip to Milwaukee for a convention. While I had fun on that 2018 trip, I missed out on most of my planned Milwaukee and Chicago sightseeing due to a combination of lack of sleep and motion sickness (not to the point of throwing up, I was able to keep food down, but enough to make me feel uneasy and dizzy). I had so many different ideas for getting to Milwaukee in 2022 including repeating my 2018 route by taking the LSL to Chicago again. The memories of my bad night in coach on that train made me very reluctant to try it again, however. I had an opportunity for a low bucket roomette, but I didn't take it, because I was afraid of being dizzy and sleep deprived again. So, I ended up flying to Chicago instead with the only Amtrak portion of the trip being the Hiawatha. I took public transit to reach my home airport of AVP for the second time that year. It still amazes me how small it is compared to ORD. I had a snack from the Dunkin' Donuts and then waited for my flight. I used United for my June trip, but for this trip I went with American Airlines as they had a better deal than United had at the time. Leg room on both flights was the same in that there isn't much for a tall guy like me, but it was tolerable, especially given that it is only about a 2 hour flight from AVP to ORD.

Once I got off the plane at ORD, I grabbed my suitcase from baggage claim and called up my hotel to arrange for their shuttle to pick me up. What I didn't realize is that I had to make my way to the van/shuttle drop off/pick up area first and then call the hotel. Once I found that out, I made my way to the van/shuttle drop off/pick up area by going down to the O'Hare blue station, but making a right just before I got to the Ventra machines and taking an elevator one floor up to reach the van/shuttle area. I could have also just walked in a straight line from the baggage claim area through the taxi lanes, but I would have had to deal with cars coming every which way. I called again and a few minutes later the hotel shuttle picked me up. I was amazed to see so many hotel shuttle vans outside.

The hotel was really nice, friendly staff, great prices, and the Pizzeria Uno attached to the hotel was great. After getting some good sleep I took the shuttle the next morning and the driver accepted my request to be dropped off at the Rosemont CTA instead of the airport. I had initially thought of asking the driver to take me to the nearest Metra station, but I felt that the big suitcase I foolishly decided to bring instead of my usual small one, would have trouble fitting on Metra's luggage racks, so I opted for the blue line instead since I've seen people with similarly sized suitcases to the one I was bringing on subway trains before. The Rosemont CTA station is okay. A bit drab looking, but its got a Dunkin' Donuts, so that's cool, though the Dunkin' Donuts is passed the fare gates to the blue line, so only blue line passengers get to have access to the Dunkin'. I got my breakfast from Dunkin' and then made my way up the escalators to the platform where I ate my meal. The next Forest Park bound train came maybe about 10 minutes later. I was able to find a single seat and a had a good view. It's a pretty cool route, riding down in your own lane in the middle of a busy expressway, some above ground running in the outskirts of the city with some underground running mixed in and then it's all underground once you get to the loop. I got off at Clinton, which I believe is the last station before the blue line goes back to running above ground. Clinton is admittedly less impressive than Rosemont. No Dunkin' here, LOL. There was some good signage though telling me which street exit to use for CUS. The walk to CUS was fine, taking about 4-5 minutes. I entered through the great hall entrance, despite having luggage as I really wanted to see it again. The great hall looked beautiful just like before. After admiring the hall I made my way to baggage claim and checked my luggage to MKE. The guy working at baggage claim asked if I wanted to be put on an earlier Hiawatha, but I declined. I still wanted to explore Chicago. As I was in the bathroom I heard the announcement of 49/449's arrival and I felt nostalgic. I will always have mixed feelings about my LSL journey, but I can't deny that there wasn't at least some nice parts.

Anyway, I went out and explored Chicago for the next couple of hours until my Hiawatha came. I rode around the loop using a combination of the orange and pink lines. I started and ended my loop around the loop at Quincy, stopping at State/Lake and Adams/Wabash along the way. I visited the radio and TV museum and it was a short, but nice museum. My favorite exhibit had to be the Svengoolie exhibit. I like that show a lot, so it was cool to see the old coffin and other props and photos from the show. I also visited Millennium Park and finally got to see The Bean. The Bean is really cool and the park was nice as well. The foilage in Chicago wasn't as good as 2018, but then again I was traveling in early November instead of late October. I visited a record shop and a comic book shop as well. I didn't buy anything from the record shop, but I did buy a few comics at the comic book shop. I was going to look inside Macy's, but I was running out of time. Speaking of Macy's I heard someone sing Christmas songs just outside the store. I'm not sure if she was a street performer or if she worked for Macy's, but either way she sang really good. This is probably the closest I will get to seeing Chicago at Christmas time and I have to say it was pretty neat, though it also made me miss NYC. With my loop around the loop completed, I went back to CUS and got in line for the Hiawatha.

 

[NEPATrainTraveler]

Part 2

The line to get on the Hiawatha was long, as I expected. I loved to see it though, as it made things feel more normal, that demand for travel hadn't completely vanished, that people still wanted to ride Amtrak. The coaches were the same Horizon ones like in 2018, but I think we had one of the newer locomotives. The coaches were the same inside too, except I remember the fabric on the seats being blue in 2018, yet in 2022 they were now a gray leather. The seats were still comfortable though and the legroom was way better than the plane or Martz bus for that matter. I would say that the legroom is pretty comparable to NER coach. Like last time, my seat faced in such a way that it felt like the train was moving backwards. If there were any seats that faced the opposite way, I didn't see them. Our train left pretty much on time and soon we made our way out of CUS. In terms of scenery, things start off urban and then things become less and less dense transitioning into suburbia.

The first stop is Glenview and from where I was sitting the station looked pretty nice and based on some videos I have seen the inside looks pretty nice too. As we made our way further and further out into the suburbs we started getting slowed down by train traffic up ahead. The conductor made an announcement explaining that we shared tracks with freight and Metra, the local commuter rail, and that it was a Metra train that was causing us to go slowly. I appreciated that detailed explanation, even though I already knew that Amtrak shares the tracks with Metra and freight. I feel like other conductors would have either just said nothing or something short like "there's a train ahead of us" and left it at that. Once we got out of Metra territory, we were able to pick up speed again. I don't remember much about the next stop, Sturtevant, other than that I could see a railroad themed restaurant nearby and that it was our first stop in Wisconsin. There are parts of this route that have areas that are quite rural, reminding me of the Ohio farmlands that I had seen on the LSL years ago. At some point, the farmland gives way to more built up areas leading us to our next stop of General Mitchell airport. I have sometimes thought of flying into General Mitchell and connecting with the Hiawatha here, but finding a flight from the northeast that matches up with the northbound Hiawatha's arrival is tricky. The scenery becomes increasingly more urban and soon we arrive in downtown Milwaukee. As I exit the train I find myself in the modern, yet familiar station that I hadn't seen in 4 years. It's a nice looking station, but it lacks the character that CUS has. There's no announcement for when the checked baggage is ready to be picked up at MKE, so I just sit around in the waiting area for a good five minutes or so before I go up and ask for my bags. Once I got my bags, I stepped outside and walked to my hotel.

Along the way, I saw one of the Hop trolleys leave the intermodal stop. The Hop was still under construction in October 2018, but there it was in 2022 running its route. I had intended to take a ride on it at some point, but I forgot. After checking into the hotel, I had a late lunch at 3rd Street Market Hall. It has a hipster vibe, kind of like the food court at the Steamtown Mall over in Scranton. It's strange, but Milwaukee kind of reminds me of Scranton at times. Anyway, Milwaukee's food court is much larger than Scranton's and unlike Scranton, you can even play games there too. Not many shops inside Milwaukee's mall anymore though. Only one accessible from the inside coming from the food court was a Walgreen's. Many former storefronts were walled off and there was a security guard on the second floor blocking access to the rest of the mall. I had a cheeseburger from one of the vendors in the food court. The burger was okay, but it was just a more expensive version of a Big Mac. After that I walked around Milwaukee and finally found the bronze Fonze statue. I had seen pictures of it online and thought it looked cool enough to seek out. After that, I went back to my hotel and was in "convention mode" until Monday, so I didn't do any other touristy stuff or go shopping. As far as food goes, I did eat at Build-a-Breakfast, where I had some nice French toast, but the Miller Time Pub was my favorite place I ate at the whole trip and the one I frequented most. The food at Miller's was excellent and the service was the best I have ever had at a restaurant. I did visit the mall food court again too, but the upscale hot dog that I had didn't live up to my expectations.

On Monday, I checked out of the hotel and had breakfast from the convenience store inside MKE. The muffin I had was pretty good and so was the orange juice. When I went to the luggage counter and I asked to check my suitcase, the lady at the desk was confident that there would be room in the oversized luggage area of the train and that it would be a long wait in Chicago to get my suitcase back. I thought back to my Northeast Regional trips and remembered how full the oversized area would get, so I went ahead and checked the suitcase anyway. The line to get on the Hiawatha was out the door and down the street as usual, but I once again was able to get a window seat and for a time I had no seatmate. Only thing that stood out to me about the consist was the presence of am amfleet car towards the back of the train. Axel count car perhaps? I had a seatmate once we got to MKA and he stayed on for the rest of the ride into Chicago. Once at Chicago, I had to wait a good 10 minutes or so for my suitcase to arrive at the baggage carousel. I forgot how many times I saw the same 24 pack of water bottles go around and around the carousel before my suitcase finally turned up. Once my suitcase arrived, I grabbed it and made my way back to the Clinton blue line stop. The blue line was more crowded than it had been on my previous ride and as a result I felt more cramped than I did that time, making the 50 minute ride to ORD less fun. I rode the ATS to terminal 3 and I made it to my flight on time and was even able to have time for a late lunch. I unfortunately lost my Ventra card in one of the bins at the security checkpoint and to this day I can't decide whether I should wait until my next Chicago trip to buy a new one or to buy a new one online now and have it sent to me in the mail. It frustrates me to no end that I don't have my Ventra card anymore. I had it since my June trip. I had my late lunch at the terminal 3 Chili's. We used to have a Chili's in Wilkes-Barre, but it went out of business just before the pandemic. Given that my June trip to Chicagoland also involved an ORD Chili's, it's kind of become a tradition now just like the Nuts on Clark popcorn, a bag of which I picked up at CUS before I got on the Hiawatha and lasted me until a few days after I came home. The flight was uneventful, I got picked up at AVP and that's the end of the trip.

Overall, this was not the epic return to Amtrak I had envisioned, but a fun one nonetheless. The Hiawatha doesn't have breathtaking scenery, but it gets the job done and offers a comfortable ride. This trip has also allowed me to compare and contrast arriving in Chicago via Amtrak vs arriving via flying. I ended up arriving at Union Station the same time I would have had I taken the LSL, but I felt much more well rested and was able to enjoy my Thursday morning/afternoon in the windy city. The downsides for me, aside from the whole going through security thing, would have to be that more transferring was involved once landing at ORD (shuttle to hotel, shuttle next day to Rosemont, blue line to Clinton, 4-5 minute walk to Union Station) and the lack of good scenery on flights. Between the 50 minute blue line ride, the 2 hour rule, and the earlier (compared to 2018) flight time I felt like I was on a bit of a time crunch on my Monday trip to get back home. At least in 2018, I had enough time to go to Grant Park and back, but not this time. Had I taken the CL + Pennsylvanian/NER + Martz combo to get back home, I would have felt less pressured by time and could have fit in some more shopping or touristy stuff. It's for this reason that I am strongly considering taking Amtrak for the return trip home if I am able to go to that Milwaukee convention this year. Only things holding me back are the early arrival of the CL into PGH and the idea of traveling so close to Thanksgiving if I decide to stay in the NEC overnight after getting off the CL in WAS instead of PGH.

I'm glad I made this journey and hope to do more Amtrak trips in the future.

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

All I have to say is Ber-Wyn (and glad you enjoyed the trip)!

 

[railiner]

One difference is that each airline seems to approach Chicago differently. With United, you go over Lake Michigan and can see skyscrapers like the Sears Tower and the Hancock Tower, but I couldn't see either of those with American.

Enjoyed reading your detailed trip report. Thanks for post!

One comment…airline flights don’t “choose” their approach routes to airports…they are vectored by air traffic controllers according to weather and air traffic at the time of their approach. It is just a matter of “luck” which way any flight will go, normally.

 

[NEPATrainTraveler]

Enjoyed reading your detailed trip report. Thanks for post!

One comment…airline flights don’t “choose” their approach routes to airports…they are vectored by air traffic controllers according to weather and air traffic at the time of their approach. It is just a matter of “luck” which way any flight will go, normally.

Okay. I removed that section from my post.