This trip had been postponed earlier and was now back on track, coinciding with the kids' Spring Break. Train 3 CHI-LAX-LAS and then 4 on the way back, this time from Vegas to Kingman AZ and onwards.
The good: With or without flowers, newspapers or cranberry juice, Amtrak's LD trains are an exhilerating visual journey and are staffed by superlative employees who are knowledgeable, hardworking and put care and thought into everything they do.
The bad: Years go by and the Wolverine service is still wildly inconsistent at best.
The ugly: Shared restrooms. Once quaint and serviceable, part of the adventure, nowadays nasty.
The weather was still cold but had cleared from the previous day’s rain and the sunrise seemed to preview the weather that awaited in the Southwest. We arrived at the Ann Arbor Amtrak station with high hopes and keen anticipation of the adventure ahead. The AM Wolverine to Chicago is generally reliable for those who need to be there by a certain time, and the onboard experience is pleasant and low key. Amtrak has evidently trained employees to apologize for delays and provide explanations. Personally I can live without the perfunctory “We apologize for the inconvience” especially having spent years in the travel industry, knowing how little those words mean, but the general public sets great store by apologies and I think that is why you hear them so freely given. I’d rather have good information. And, sometimes you get both. This particular morning, an announcement was made that due to a signal problem, the train was stopped to let the conductor off at the crossing, and would then move forward a little and then stop again to pick him up. Well I don’t know what the “signal problem” was but that conductor must have been one heck of a runner because the train never stopped after the crossing. You can create your own visual there The train continued through pretty western Michigan countryside, still with thin patchy crusts of snow in places. Amtrak's new onboard Wifi was easy to connect with, but useless after that. Email wouldn't load, weather channel site wouldn't load. It may have been a lot of people using limited bandwith. My son was able to connect to his favorite ESPN site so the countryside held no interest for him, and I didn't care about my email enough to troubleshoot further. Enjoying coffee with scenery was enough, and my daughter was brimming with barely suppressed excitement about the trip. She wanted to order her own beverage from the cafe car and pay for it with her money. Since we were in the front row of BC and I could see the adjacent counter, I said sure. Although, the beverage is free in BC, I told her just to give him a tip as I signed the sheet for her already. The café car attendant, depending on your perspective, could be described as either reticient, uncommunicative or surly. When my daughter went to ask him for a cup of herbal tea, he replied that he only had regular tea, and did not say another word. If it were me, and a little kid asked for something like that, I’d have suggested something else, maybe hot chocolate. I also would have cracked a smile. My kind hearted little girl took some change out of her coin purse and went back to the counter to give him a tip even though she didn’t get anything, because she thought it might "cheer him up". I didn't want to discourage this display of compassion and sensitivity so I just told her how proud I was of her doing a nice thing for someone. And as always, I'd brought stuff to snack on and some bottled waters. We arrive in Chicago with plenty of time before the SW Chief is scheduled to depart. The Metropolitan lounge is teeming with passengers. Son gets connected on his laptop and we girls take a walk around Chicago, sunny but still very brisk. We pick up some essentials, and head back to the lounge. LD trains are called, starting with the Texas Eagle, then the EB and the Zephyr, gradually the crowd thins somewhat and the moment of magic arrives when they make the announcement for Train 3. The gracious Metropolitan lounge attendants walk us out to the track to the mightly Southwest Chief and our journey to the West is truly underway. Goodbye, cold, ice and snow! We board Car 331, Family Room 15 and get settled as the train glides out of Union Station.
Our room is on the lower level, and is remarkably spacious. Capacity is 2 adults and 2 children, so the 3 of us have more than enough space to hang out in, and windows on both sides of the train. The first mini-crisis occurs when the kids start looking around for outlets to plug their various electronics into. The room contains only one outlet. "How can this be?" my son asks. When the SCA stops by to introduce himself, he confirms that yes, there is only one plug, as these cars were designed 45 years ago. It simply means that a shared charging schedule must be devised, and that a power strip would be handy to have on future trips. Paul is a wonderful SCA, with old-school professionalism and courtesy. He is also training a new hire on his first day on the job. Being new, I don't think it's quite right to give his name, but I will say the young man was enthusiastic, hardworking and was clearly being trained by the best. He is bound to enjoy a great career in his new role, plus I'm pleased to see that Amtrak is secure enough to be hiring.
Late afternoon sunshine illuminated Chicago buildings, the highrises and the more pedestrian urban landscape as we rolled along, and then the train stopped. Moments later, a familiar apology for the delay and then an interesting explanation: We were stopped because the train impacted "a piece of equipment near the track" which "took off a piece of engine." After maybe 20-30 minutes to give people time to speculate on how vital a piece of engine this was, the train started moving again with no additional explanation. The dining car attendant came by to take our reservation and we headed for the diner early, to try and acclimate slowly to the time changes.
Dining car staff on this trip was outrageously friendly and fun. They were on Day 3 of a five day tour of duty and were clearly a little punchy. Yet they were having so much fun with their jobs, the passengers and their coworkers, that a botched order or dropped plate here and there only added to the fun. I loved these guys. I did notice, as a change from our EB trip of a couple years ago, that the community seating aspect was enforced to the point where the diner could be 3/4 empty and they would seat a single person with us every time. It didn't matter, though, we were there to go with the flow, and met some very interesting people. For this first meal onboard the train, our dining companion was a woman traveling to Kansas City from the east coast, for a family health issue. Her family did not accompany her on this trip, and both she and her husband were always busy with work and their kids, so she thought the train might be a low-stress alternative to flying. He stayed home with the kids so she could take the time needed for this trip. I wish she had booked a sleeper, because that probably would have been more relaxing for her, as her coach car was evidently loud and populated with unsupervised children. We had lots of common ground to discuss and she seemed to enjoy the meal and being able to chat with us as the sun set over fields in Illinois. As our meal drew to a close, a compliment from her on my well behaved children sent MM's heart soaring.
After dinner we head back to our room and relax for a while before getting ready for bed. Going down the hall to the restroom, I notice that the liquid soap dispenser has vanished. Not a problem on the sleeper as I steal a bar of soap from the shower room, and when we see Paul and his trainee, mentioned that there was no liquid soap for handwashing. Paul said that people do take these for the Amtrak logo... I find that more than a little weird... but no matter, the soap dispensers are replaced and manage to stay put for the remainder of the journey.
Our SCA trainee helps us get the room ready for night and we are then ready to take care of the room ourselves for the duration of the trip. Having showered in the morning, we all change, clean up with washclothes, brush teeth and son climbs up into the top bunk. He's a lanky kid and was able to stretch out comfortably with no one in the adjacent upper bunk. I marvel at the good sized adult lower bunk and my daughter is delighted with her own little space which includes her own window. We fall asleep early and don't even wake up for major stops like Kansas City.
Next up: Sunday, full day on the train
The good: With or without flowers, newspapers or cranberry juice, Amtrak's LD trains are an exhilerating visual journey and are staffed by superlative employees who are knowledgeable, hardworking and put care and thought into everything they do.
The bad: Years go by and the Wolverine service is still wildly inconsistent at best.
The ugly: Shared restrooms. Once quaint and serviceable, part of the adventure, nowadays nasty.
The weather was still cold but had cleared from the previous day’s rain and the sunrise seemed to preview the weather that awaited in the Southwest. We arrived at the Ann Arbor Amtrak station with high hopes and keen anticipation of the adventure ahead. The AM Wolverine to Chicago is generally reliable for those who need to be there by a certain time, and the onboard experience is pleasant and low key. Amtrak has evidently trained employees to apologize for delays and provide explanations. Personally I can live without the perfunctory “We apologize for the inconvience” especially having spent years in the travel industry, knowing how little those words mean, but the general public sets great store by apologies and I think that is why you hear them so freely given. I’d rather have good information. And, sometimes you get both. This particular morning, an announcement was made that due to a signal problem, the train was stopped to let the conductor off at the crossing, and would then move forward a little and then stop again to pick him up. Well I don’t know what the “signal problem” was but that conductor must have been one heck of a runner because the train never stopped after the crossing. You can create your own visual there The train continued through pretty western Michigan countryside, still with thin patchy crusts of snow in places. Amtrak's new onboard Wifi was easy to connect with, but useless after that. Email wouldn't load, weather channel site wouldn't load. It may have been a lot of people using limited bandwith. My son was able to connect to his favorite ESPN site so the countryside held no interest for him, and I didn't care about my email enough to troubleshoot further. Enjoying coffee with scenery was enough, and my daughter was brimming with barely suppressed excitement about the trip. She wanted to order her own beverage from the cafe car and pay for it with her money. Since we were in the front row of BC and I could see the adjacent counter, I said sure. Although, the beverage is free in BC, I told her just to give him a tip as I signed the sheet for her already. The café car attendant, depending on your perspective, could be described as either reticient, uncommunicative or surly. When my daughter went to ask him for a cup of herbal tea, he replied that he only had regular tea, and did not say another word. If it were me, and a little kid asked for something like that, I’d have suggested something else, maybe hot chocolate. I also would have cracked a smile. My kind hearted little girl took some change out of her coin purse and went back to the counter to give him a tip even though she didn’t get anything, because she thought it might "cheer him up". I didn't want to discourage this display of compassion and sensitivity so I just told her how proud I was of her doing a nice thing for someone. And as always, I'd brought stuff to snack on and some bottled waters. We arrive in Chicago with plenty of time before the SW Chief is scheduled to depart. The Metropolitan lounge is teeming with passengers. Son gets connected on his laptop and we girls take a walk around Chicago, sunny but still very brisk. We pick up some essentials, and head back to the lounge. LD trains are called, starting with the Texas Eagle, then the EB and the Zephyr, gradually the crowd thins somewhat and the moment of magic arrives when they make the announcement for Train 3. The gracious Metropolitan lounge attendants walk us out to the track to the mightly Southwest Chief and our journey to the West is truly underway. Goodbye, cold, ice and snow! We board Car 331, Family Room 15 and get settled as the train glides out of Union Station.
Our room is on the lower level, and is remarkably spacious. Capacity is 2 adults and 2 children, so the 3 of us have more than enough space to hang out in, and windows on both sides of the train. The first mini-crisis occurs when the kids start looking around for outlets to plug their various electronics into. The room contains only one outlet. "How can this be?" my son asks. When the SCA stops by to introduce himself, he confirms that yes, there is only one plug, as these cars were designed 45 years ago. It simply means that a shared charging schedule must be devised, and that a power strip would be handy to have on future trips. Paul is a wonderful SCA, with old-school professionalism and courtesy. He is also training a new hire on his first day on the job. Being new, I don't think it's quite right to give his name, but I will say the young man was enthusiastic, hardworking and was clearly being trained by the best. He is bound to enjoy a great career in his new role, plus I'm pleased to see that Amtrak is secure enough to be hiring.
Late afternoon sunshine illuminated Chicago buildings, the highrises and the more pedestrian urban landscape as we rolled along, and then the train stopped. Moments later, a familiar apology for the delay and then an interesting explanation: We were stopped because the train impacted "a piece of equipment near the track" which "took off a piece of engine." After maybe 20-30 minutes to give people time to speculate on how vital a piece of engine this was, the train started moving again with no additional explanation. The dining car attendant came by to take our reservation and we headed for the diner early, to try and acclimate slowly to the time changes.
Dining car staff on this trip was outrageously friendly and fun. They were on Day 3 of a five day tour of duty and were clearly a little punchy. Yet they were having so much fun with their jobs, the passengers and their coworkers, that a botched order or dropped plate here and there only added to the fun. I loved these guys. I did notice, as a change from our EB trip of a couple years ago, that the community seating aspect was enforced to the point where the diner could be 3/4 empty and they would seat a single person with us every time. It didn't matter, though, we were there to go with the flow, and met some very interesting people. For this first meal onboard the train, our dining companion was a woman traveling to Kansas City from the east coast, for a family health issue. Her family did not accompany her on this trip, and both she and her husband were always busy with work and their kids, so she thought the train might be a low-stress alternative to flying. He stayed home with the kids so she could take the time needed for this trip. I wish she had booked a sleeper, because that probably would have been more relaxing for her, as her coach car was evidently loud and populated with unsupervised children. We had lots of common ground to discuss and she seemed to enjoy the meal and being able to chat with us as the sun set over fields in Illinois. As our meal drew to a close, a compliment from her on my well behaved children sent MM's heart soaring.
After dinner we head back to our room and relax for a while before getting ready for bed. Going down the hall to the restroom, I notice that the liquid soap dispenser has vanished. Not a problem on the sleeper as I steal a bar of soap from the shower room, and when we see Paul and his trainee, mentioned that there was no liquid soap for handwashing. Paul said that people do take these for the Amtrak logo... I find that more than a little weird... but no matter, the soap dispensers are replaced and manage to stay put for the remainder of the journey.
Our SCA trainee helps us get the room ready for night and we are then ready to take care of the room ourselves for the duration of the trip. Having showered in the morning, we all change, clean up with washclothes, brush teeth and son climbs up into the top bunk. He's a lanky kid and was able to stretch out comfortably with no one in the adjacent upper bunk. I marvel at the good sized adult lower bunk and my daughter is delighted with her own little space which includes her own window. We fall asleep early and don't even wake up for major stops like Kansas City.
Next up: Sunday, full day on the train
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