neroden
Engineer
None of this was joyriding, believe it or not... two and a half week trip, and I had reasons to be at each stop.
Syracuse-NY, Empire Service. Went smoothly. Was able to check luggage through to DC. Cafe car routinely runs out of food on this route, and closes bizarrely early -- but I got to it early.
Overnight in NY, dealt with some business in the morning.
NY-DC, Northeast Regional. I don't ride these very often. They're crowded. It was nice; of course, the cafe car ran out of hot dogs (and several other things). Red Caps helped us to the train, but barely (Red Caps in New York are a bit half-assed.)
Was in DC for several days for a wedding. DC Union Station is quite nice. The Red Caps were SUPER helpful, picking up our checked luggage and driving us all over the station. Big contrast to NY.
Took a taxi to Silver Spring where the wedding was because we had too much luggage for walking. Also back. I find myself wishing that the Red Line were more luggage-friendly.
DC-CHI on the Capitol Limited, first time on that train. (Checked some bags through to MSP.) The DC Metro Lounge is cramped and dark but quite nice, and again the Red Caps there are *super* helpful. The sleeping car attendant was also great -- after hearing about my allergies, he even went down into the dining car interior and found package labels for me, which only one other Amtrak employee has ever been willing to do. So I got breakfast.
Unfortunately, we got a "renovated" Superliner I roomette (my first time in one of those at night), and the lights in those simply do not turn off at night. I didn't have enough duct tape to cover it over completely so I couldn't sleep properly. These are a blatantly defective design, the worst I've seen on Amtrak -- I'm not sure how they can sell a sleeping compartment where the lights don't turn off at night and I'm going to ask for compensation.
The WAS-PIT segment of track, the original B&O route, is very, very slow. I wonder if there is anything which can be done to speed it up. Top speeds seemed to be 50 for much of the way and as low as 30 for long distances. It felt much slower than any of the other routes I have taken -- slower than the NEC obviously, but also slower than the LSL which cruises at 79 mph most of the way,. and slower than the EB, CZ, or SWC, or the Surfliner. It looked like the speed restrictions were due to curves, so maybe tilting trains would help? There wasn't much freight traffic.
Overnight in CHI (planned to avoid misconnects); hotel was very annoying, changed my later hotel reservation...
CHI-MSP on the Empire Builder (during the day!) went great. This was actually my first trip on the regular route; it's been on detours every previous time I've taken it. Wis Dells are sort of interesting to look at. The people at SPUD were very confused and called us about our luggage (which was a day ahead of us) while we were on the train -- we never have trouble with this at Syracuse, where they expect to get day-early luggage.
SPUD is nice, but my goodness there's a long walk from the train to the baggage claim -- we had to stop and rest twice. Then get the baggage claim woman to go back and dig our bags out. Expensive taxi from SPUD to Bloomington where the convention was.
I won't belabor you with the details of the event I was organizing at the convention, but it went really well. Afterwards, I managed to spend a morning riding the length of both of the light rail lines in MSP and getting some proper photos of SPUD.
Dropped off by a friend at SPUD to catch the eastbound EB from MSP-CHI. Checked baggage back to SYR. Loading/unloading procedure is slow since they get everyone off before letting anyone on, and the platform is connected to the stair at only one end. Perfectly nice trip; ate hot dogs out of the cafe car because the sleeping car attendant didn't go above-and-beyond like the last one. EB is still using heritage baggage cars.
Higher-quality hot dogs at Gold Coast Dogs for dinner. Overnight at CHI in a different hotel; very nice hotel where everything is 100% cotton (good for my allergies); took a taxi there.
And a taxi back in the morning, stored our bags with the Red Cap all day. Managed to wander the L and the bus system a little in the afternoon. Had Dim Sum in Chinatown with a relative. Made it to the Chicago History Museum to see the first L car (which is really pretty). More Gold Coast Dogs for dinner...
There were nowhere near enough Red Caps to load all the disabled people (at least 12) from the Metropolitan Lounge into the Lake Shore Limited (there was apparently only one on duty and he was repeatedly telling them they had a problem). Despite this, they must have come up with something, because they only left 3 minutes late. The LSL had two Viewliner baggage cars, looking very spiffy, and the #8400 dining car. I peeked in through the back door of my sleeper and the lower shelf was in use. There weren't very many bags. In fact, passenger load was unusually light -- I think the disaster caused by NS's dispatching failures last winter is still hurting ridership on the LSL and it probably won't recover for a year. It's still a 60-axle train, and I'd say all the coaches and sleepers were about half full.
As usual, I slept extremely well in the Viewliner, had a perfectly nice omelette for breakfast (no questions about ingredients in an omelette) -- and we arrived at Syracuse on time. The drive back to Ithaca was uneventful, and thank goodness it was finally above freezing (it had been well below freezing when we left).
Syracuse-NY, Empire Service. Went smoothly. Was able to check luggage through to DC. Cafe car routinely runs out of food on this route, and closes bizarrely early -- but I got to it early.
Overnight in NY, dealt with some business in the morning.
NY-DC, Northeast Regional. I don't ride these very often. They're crowded. It was nice; of course, the cafe car ran out of hot dogs (and several other things). Red Caps helped us to the train, but barely (Red Caps in New York are a bit half-assed.)
Was in DC for several days for a wedding. DC Union Station is quite nice. The Red Caps were SUPER helpful, picking up our checked luggage and driving us all over the station. Big contrast to NY.
Took a taxi to Silver Spring where the wedding was because we had too much luggage for walking. Also back. I find myself wishing that the Red Line were more luggage-friendly.
DC-CHI on the Capitol Limited, first time on that train. (Checked some bags through to MSP.) The DC Metro Lounge is cramped and dark but quite nice, and again the Red Caps there are *super* helpful. The sleeping car attendant was also great -- after hearing about my allergies, he even went down into the dining car interior and found package labels for me, which only one other Amtrak employee has ever been willing to do. So I got breakfast.
Unfortunately, we got a "renovated" Superliner I roomette (my first time in one of those at night), and the lights in those simply do not turn off at night. I didn't have enough duct tape to cover it over completely so I couldn't sleep properly. These are a blatantly defective design, the worst I've seen on Amtrak -- I'm not sure how they can sell a sleeping compartment where the lights don't turn off at night and I'm going to ask for compensation.
The WAS-PIT segment of track, the original B&O route, is very, very slow. I wonder if there is anything which can be done to speed it up. Top speeds seemed to be 50 for much of the way and as low as 30 for long distances. It felt much slower than any of the other routes I have taken -- slower than the NEC obviously, but also slower than the LSL which cruises at 79 mph most of the way,. and slower than the EB, CZ, or SWC, or the Surfliner. It looked like the speed restrictions were due to curves, so maybe tilting trains would help? There wasn't much freight traffic.
Overnight in CHI (planned to avoid misconnects); hotel was very annoying, changed my later hotel reservation...
CHI-MSP on the Empire Builder (during the day!) went great. This was actually my first trip on the regular route; it's been on detours every previous time I've taken it. Wis Dells are sort of interesting to look at. The people at SPUD were very confused and called us about our luggage (which was a day ahead of us) while we were on the train -- we never have trouble with this at Syracuse, where they expect to get day-early luggage.
SPUD is nice, but my goodness there's a long walk from the train to the baggage claim -- we had to stop and rest twice. Then get the baggage claim woman to go back and dig our bags out. Expensive taxi from SPUD to Bloomington where the convention was.
I won't belabor you with the details of the event I was organizing at the convention, but it went really well. Afterwards, I managed to spend a morning riding the length of both of the light rail lines in MSP and getting some proper photos of SPUD.
Dropped off by a friend at SPUD to catch the eastbound EB from MSP-CHI. Checked baggage back to SYR. Loading/unloading procedure is slow since they get everyone off before letting anyone on, and the platform is connected to the stair at only one end. Perfectly nice trip; ate hot dogs out of the cafe car because the sleeping car attendant didn't go above-and-beyond like the last one. EB is still using heritage baggage cars.
Higher-quality hot dogs at Gold Coast Dogs for dinner. Overnight at CHI in a different hotel; very nice hotel where everything is 100% cotton (good for my allergies); took a taxi there.
And a taxi back in the morning, stored our bags with the Red Cap all day. Managed to wander the L and the bus system a little in the afternoon. Had Dim Sum in Chinatown with a relative. Made it to the Chicago History Museum to see the first L car (which is really pretty). More Gold Coast Dogs for dinner...
There were nowhere near enough Red Caps to load all the disabled people (at least 12) from the Metropolitan Lounge into the Lake Shore Limited (there was apparently only one on duty and he was repeatedly telling them they had a problem). Despite this, they must have come up with something, because they only left 3 minutes late. The LSL had two Viewliner baggage cars, looking very spiffy, and the #8400 dining car. I peeked in through the back door of my sleeper and the lower shelf was in use. There weren't very many bags. In fact, passenger load was unusually light -- I think the disaster caused by NS's dispatching failures last winter is still hurting ridership on the LSL and it probably won't recover for a year. It's still a 60-axle train, and I'd say all the coaches and sleepers were about half full.
As usual, I slept extremely well in the Viewliner, had a perfectly nice omelette for breakfast (no questions about ingredients in an omelette) -- and we arrived at Syracuse on time. The drive back to Ithaca was uneventful, and thank goodness it was finally above freezing (it had been well below freezing when we left).
