Today on the Acela

[MARC Rider]

Just left Stamford. We seem to be running smoothly. One hour from Baltimore to Philly. Two Hours from Baltimore to Newark. Two hours 15 minutes from Baltimore to New York. We had some 85 mph running on Metro North between New Rochelle and Mamaroneck, but by the time we passed Rye, it was the usual slow running. Now that we left Stamford, we're running about 72 mph. Let's see how long that lasts. Whoops, we're now doing 30 mph on "America's fastest train." Now we're back to 70 mph, but we're approaching Bridgeport, so it's time for some more 30 mph.

The Acela First Class coach I'm riding in has seen better days. They can't get the new Acelas in service fast enough. On another thread, someone complained about the Amfleets being rattletraps. They should ride on this Acela if they want to experience real rattling. The worst thing is that after I spent spme effort finding an assigned seat that would allow a full recline, the recline mechanism in the seat itself isn't working. Plus, all of the alternative seats the conductor could find for me either he recline doesn't work, or it's a bulkhead seat that doesn't recline. Someone needs to take this car into the shop.

I had the empanada for breakfast, then the fruit plate after leaving New York. They were pretty good. The La Colombe coffee isn't bad, but they're serving it with non-dairy creamer, not real half and half. Of course, the doc told me to avoid dairy products, so maybe this is a Good Thing for me.

The car attendants have been fantastic, making frequent passes through the car to ask if you want something and serving the meals pretty quickly. I had no problem with having my breakfast served after we left Philly, as 5:30 AM is a little early from breakfast as far as I'm concerned. I feel bad that I don't have any small bills to give them a tip, as they deserve it. Unfortunately, since I hardly ever use cash anymore, I forgot to break a large bill yesterday, and the Dunking Donuts and newsstand at Baltimore Penn were closed at 5 AM when I arrived. I wonder if they could put something in the app to allow you to tip service attendants the way Uber and Lyft allow you to tip the drivers. But I guess that might be too much to expect from the Amtrak IT "center of excellence."

 

[daybeers]

Thanks for the nice trip report!

Whoops, we're now doing 30 mph on "America's fastest train."

Gotta love Metro-North.

On another thread, someone complained about the Amfleets being rattletraps. They should ride on this Acela if they want to experience real rattling.

That was me and oh yes, I know the Acelas are just as bad or sometimes worse, especially over 125. The First Class car I rode in December was very rattly.

I wonder if they could put something in the app to allow you to tip service attendants the way Uber and Lyft allow you to tip the drivers.

What a cool idea!

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

I am enjoying your trip reports so much!

I haven’t done any traveling for several months (although I have a couple of short trips planned for this spring), and your trips often are along my usual routes.

It’s nice to read about familiar places that I’m missing right now (plus you seem to find much more to see than I usually do)!

What a mood booster! Thank you!

 

[MARC Rider]

Now on the trip back. We left at 2 PM. Seem to be moving right along. Just passed Old Saybrook.

 

[MARC Rider]

OK, overheard a great conversation a few seats behind me. Apparently, the guy works as some kind of financial advisor and he's talking to a guy who seems like he's a business partner or at least a colleague. Unfortunately, this guy decided to conduct his conversation with his speakerphone turned on. Now I understand that the Acela First Class car isn't the Quiet Car, and as a price for the free food and open bar, one needs to tolerate a certain amount of "master of the universe" cellphone calls, but do we, the traveling public have to endure both sides of what might turn out be a sensitive business discussion that really shouldn't be broadcast about in the First Class carriage of the Acela Express.

In this case, I don't think any secrets were spilled. But it sure seemed at times like they might.

"Hey Bob [not his real name], This Russia stuff is hitting the fan. We'd better get our clients out of any Russia investments before they're not worth anything at all. Hey, how many of our clients have Russian investments?

Bob: "I don't know. I think most of them had the sense to sell before things got this bad. But I'll check though everybody and get them to sell quick, quick, quick."

That's when I expected the conversation to turn to more sensitive business matters. But it didn't and thankfully, the person involved finished his business quickly, and hasn't made a peep since then.

 

[Dakota 400]

OK, overheard a great conversation a few seats behind me. Apparently, the guy works as some kind of financial advisor and he's talking to a guy who seems like he's a business partner or at least a colleague. Unfortunately, this guy decided to conduct his conversation with his speakerphone turned on. Now I understand that the Acela First Class car isn't the Quiet Car, and as a price for the free food and open bar, one needs to tolerate a certain amount of "master of the universe" cellphone calls, but do we, the traveling public have to endure both sides of what might turn out be a sensitive business discussion that really shouldn't be broadcast about in the First Class carriage of the Acela Express.

In this case, I don't think any secrets were spilled. But it sure seemed at times like they might.

"Hey Bob [not his real name], This Russia stuff is hitting the fan. We'd better get our clients out of any Russia investments before they're not worth anything at all. Hey, how many of our clients have Russian investments?

Bob: "I don't know. I think most of them had the sense to sell before things got this bad. But I'll check though everybody and get them to sell quick, quick, quick."

That's when I expected the conversation to turn to more sensitive business matters. But it didn't and thankfully, the person involved finished his business quickly, and hasn't made a peep since then.

Maybe the gentleman didn't know that his speakerphone was on. I have been surprised when I somehow hit the button to turn the speakerphone on and didn't intend to do so.

 

[MARC Rider]

We're pulling ito NYP. Three hours 45 minutes BOS - NYP. And that included the slow running on Metro-North between New Haven and New Rochelle.

 

[MARC Rider]

Just passed the site of the derailment at Perryman. Right north of the Bush River Bridge. Lots of work lights up, but I couldn't really see anything. We crept through the work zone, now we're doing 120 mph.

 

[MARC Rider]

We got into Baltimore about 5 minutes behind schedule. I think probably because of the slow moving around the derailment site. BOS to BAL in 6 hours 25 minutes. The northbound train I took on Wednesday did the BAL-BOS run in 6 hours 15 minutes.

 

[MARC Rider]

I had a decent time up in Maine, but a little bit of excitement of the sort I could do without.

I arrived on Wednesday, no problem, called Enterprise, and they came by and picked me up. I had to go back to their office in South Boston to do the paperwork and return the driver who picked me up. I had reserved a "compact SUV" and I had called the day before to ask them to do what they could about making sure it was all-wheel drive. What they gave me was a Volkswagen Atlas. Now we boomer who grew up with Volkswagens remember them as little mini-cars. Not this model, it was a full-sized honking big SUV worthy of all of the hubris that came with the design. You'd think it was the proud product of Detroit excess, not a German import. One problem it had was that closing the tailgate was a bit tricky. In fact, it was so tricky that about 5 minutes after driving off, I noticed that it seemed the road noise was a lot louder. Then I looked more closely at the rear view mirror and didn't see the rear wiper or the defroster wires. My brain finally realized that maybe something was off, so I slowed down and puller over, not necessarily in the best location, as I was on the South Boston bypass. But, yep, the tailgate had popped open, and, more concerning was that although my big gear duffle was still there, my backpack appeared to be gone.

Well, this was no fun. I managed to find a place to turn around and retraced my drive, which, fortunately, wasn't that far. No sign of the backpack. This was not good. The backpack had my laptop, my new fancy camera and a down sweater and rain shell I was planning to use on my ski/snowshoe trip. It also had my cellphone charger, but, fortunately, I had already taken out the EZ-Pass transponder, and that was up front.

I went to the police station and reported the missing items. Then I did one final walk on foot, tracing where I had driven just to make sure I didn't miss anything. No luck. After killing the afternoon wandering around South Boston, I finally left town around 3 pm and headed for Portland, with one stop at the New Hampshire state liquor outlet in I-95 to get something to drown my sorrows, and then another stop at a Walmart near Portsmouth to get a new cellphone charger. I did get into Portland before it got dark, though.

When I got to my hotel room in Portland, I checked my calls, and lo and behold, there was a voicemail message from a nice lady in Boston who said that she saw my backpack fly out of my car and that she had it, and could I call her. Which I did, and found out that she checked inside, saw my travel itinerary which includes my cellphone number (I always keep a paper copy on hand), and thus she took the backpack to the downtown hotel in Boston where I was going to stay on Monday night and had them hold it for me. I soon got a call and an email from the hotel confirming this. And, indeed, when I checked in on Monday, my backpack was waiting for me. Considering that the thing flew out of a moving car on to the street, I'm amazed that all the fragile stuff inside (like my laptop and camera) were unharmed by what happened.

Of course, this left me with a problem about what to wear on the trail, and the temperatures in the Maine mountains were in the single digits. Well, L.L. Bean in Freeport wasn't too far out of the way, and I found what I thought were some great buys in the outlet store. Only problem was that once I got to the cabin and tried them on, they were way too small, especially considering they were in the size I usually wear. Which meant that I still had a problem. I tried the ski shop at Sugarloaf, but the stock was a little thin on the ground, especially in my size. After all, this is March already, so it's not like new skiwear is constantly being delivered. I had to end up killing the morning driving down to Rangeley to a boutique I know that stocks outdoor clothing, and, would you believe it, the first item I picked off the rack fit me and was exactly what I needed. It turned out that I even had a choice of colors for my size. It was a Patagonia waterproof/breathable shell with a zip-out lining that was a stand-alone jacket. Normally a good bit above my price point, but it was 30% off (Hooray for buying ski gear in March!) We went and found a nice scenic snowshoe trail to try it out, and it was great.

Otherwise, it wasn't a bad trip, though Sunday and Monday were plagued by rain. I'm certainly happy I didn't lose everything with my backpack, and I enjoyed my rides on the Acela.

 

[Old MM]

This is AMAZING! And talk about restoring faith in humanity!!!!