- Joined
- Jan 15, 2012
- Messages
- 44
Living in one of the towns serviced by the Hoosier State and having the good fortune to grab a good deal early on on the Travel Pullman service to New Orleans I was quite interested and excited to see Iowa Pacific handling the Hoosier State. Though truth be told, I was really just glad to see the service continue at all, such is the low bar here in Indiana.
Iowa Pacific is trying a great many things to increase service and awareness of the train. One of these is dollar fares like what Mega Bus offers, specifically the first two fares are sold at 1$. Being a bit of planner, liking to ride trains, and always loving a good deal I looked out into Amtrak's calendar and found two tickets on a Sunday for 1$. I booked them for myself, and my 5 year old daughter. I was able to get dollar tickets going both directions, when combined with the kids discount that meant round trip cost of 3$.
We boarded in Lafayette, I was unaware the station waiting room was unavailable. There were two nice volunteers there who let us know the train was 10 min. behind that we could wait in our cars and that they would signal us. This all went smoothly and we boarded easily. The elevators were working despite the construction.
After boarding and getting situated we headed to breakfast in the bottom of the dome car. The seating area itself was very cold. The staff wasn't particularly forthcoming with information but there was definitely some sort of heating issue (given it was 7 degrees out maybe some thing froze up who knows). Still we just chalked up to "these things happen". The food came out delicious, my daughter had the french toast, I had eggs. The food really was great, and cheaper than Amtrak's. I do feel bad to compare as I know IP and Amtrak operate under different models but it's kind of hard not to compare. Additionally it was great to even have the option for food as the old Hoosier State was just two coaches, really made the trip easier and the train a more desirable option.
As I said the train was 10 min. late into Lafayette but we actually arrived early into Chicago.
After a day in Chicago we boarded the train for home. One thing I noticed was the new lounge in Chicago (the one you have to pay for I can't remember the name) seemed to be getting heavy use judging by the line of people walking out to one of the departing trains.
After about a half hour we were notified that they would now serve dinner to our coach. We made our way back to the lower level of the dome car. The heat still wasn't fixed, but again these things happen. They unfortunately were out of the individual pizzas which bummed out my daughter, but she rolled with it and had grilled cheese with chips. I had the blue plate special which on this night was chicken breast, mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, and a roll. Again the food was great, and reasonably priced. As I said above it really is nice to have the food option on the train, in the past I've hurriedly grabbed something before departure.
We arrived back in Lafayette 10 minutes early.
Some notes on the equipment. I noticed that at least on our trip the train was only running with one locomotive, in the past they had one on each end. I kept forgetting to ask about the car behind the dome, Durant I believe, I'm not sure if it was business class only, if it was a ticketed car. I saw online that it had tables and that would have been handy when we were playing go fish/skip bo or when my daughter was coloring. Perhaps someone here will know.
The coach cars themselves are very spacious, the old Hoosier State cars had us packed in but these were very comfortable. That said while the cars are very nice the are also quite noticeably very old. Luggage racks look smaller, things like seat lighting of an older style (the reading light is quite bright and lights up both seats so might not be good if both riders don't want the light on). The bathrooms were very nice. The cars don't have automatic doors so a little bit harder for the smaller crowd.
They really pushed the business class on board with my daughter informing me that next time she'd like to ride in the dome which I got a good laugh at, I told her for the record, maybe this summer as 30$ extra for your meals and drinks included isn't bad at all in my book.
Overall I'd give the new Hoosier State an 8/10 they seem to still be figuring things out but it is large improvement over the old Hoosier State (again kind of an unfair comparison since Indiana wasn't paying for the old one) and I look forward to riding it again.
Oh, and the few conversations I overhead were all very positive so hopefully this will be reflected in ridership.
Iowa Pacific is trying a great many things to increase service and awareness of the train. One of these is dollar fares like what Mega Bus offers, specifically the first two fares are sold at 1$. Being a bit of planner, liking to ride trains, and always loving a good deal I looked out into Amtrak's calendar and found two tickets on a Sunday for 1$. I booked them for myself, and my 5 year old daughter. I was able to get dollar tickets going both directions, when combined with the kids discount that meant round trip cost of 3$.
We boarded in Lafayette, I was unaware the station waiting room was unavailable. There were two nice volunteers there who let us know the train was 10 min. behind that we could wait in our cars and that they would signal us. This all went smoothly and we boarded easily. The elevators were working despite the construction.
After boarding and getting situated we headed to breakfast in the bottom of the dome car. The seating area itself was very cold. The staff wasn't particularly forthcoming with information but there was definitely some sort of heating issue (given it was 7 degrees out maybe some thing froze up who knows). Still we just chalked up to "these things happen". The food came out delicious, my daughter had the french toast, I had eggs. The food really was great, and cheaper than Amtrak's. I do feel bad to compare as I know IP and Amtrak operate under different models but it's kind of hard not to compare. Additionally it was great to even have the option for food as the old Hoosier State was just two coaches, really made the trip easier and the train a more desirable option.
As I said the train was 10 min. late into Lafayette but we actually arrived early into Chicago.
After a day in Chicago we boarded the train for home. One thing I noticed was the new lounge in Chicago (the one you have to pay for I can't remember the name) seemed to be getting heavy use judging by the line of people walking out to one of the departing trains.
After about a half hour we were notified that they would now serve dinner to our coach. We made our way back to the lower level of the dome car. The heat still wasn't fixed, but again these things happen. They unfortunately were out of the individual pizzas which bummed out my daughter, but she rolled with it and had grilled cheese with chips. I had the blue plate special which on this night was chicken breast, mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, and a roll. Again the food was great, and reasonably priced. As I said above it really is nice to have the food option on the train, in the past I've hurriedly grabbed something before departure.
We arrived back in Lafayette 10 minutes early.
Some notes on the equipment. I noticed that at least on our trip the train was only running with one locomotive, in the past they had one on each end. I kept forgetting to ask about the car behind the dome, Durant I believe, I'm not sure if it was business class only, if it was a ticketed car. I saw online that it had tables and that would have been handy when we were playing go fish/skip bo or when my daughter was coloring. Perhaps someone here will know.
The coach cars themselves are very spacious, the old Hoosier State cars had us packed in but these were very comfortable. That said while the cars are very nice the are also quite noticeably very old. Luggage racks look smaller, things like seat lighting of an older style (the reading light is quite bright and lights up both seats so might not be good if both riders don't want the light on). The bathrooms were very nice. The cars don't have automatic doors so a little bit harder for the smaller crowd.
They really pushed the business class on board with my daughter informing me that next time she'd like to ride in the dome which I got a good laugh at, I told her for the record, maybe this summer as 30$ extra for your meals and drinks included isn't bad at all in my book.
Overall I'd give the new Hoosier State an 8/10 they seem to still be figuring things out but it is large improvement over the old Hoosier State (again kind of an unfair comparison since Indiana wasn't paying for the old one) and I look forward to riding it again.
Oh, and the few conversations I overhead were all very positive so hopefully this will be reflected in ridership.
