Recent content by fillyjonk

Honestly customer service everywhere is so much worse in recent years. I will admit once or twice when traveling on Amtrak when one of those inexplicable things happened and we got snapped at and given very little information it was bad enough that I wound up in tears - travel is stressful...

"First class" means something VERY different from what it once did.. I take the eastbound leg of the TE and I'm not sure how many more flex meals I can choke down. (Next travel is in May). The meatballs and pasta in the earlier days of Flex weren't so bad, and I had fried cod once that was...

On my Thanksgiving trip up, it was that way - I kind of like it, quieter (less horn/whistle) and no chance of diesel fumes, though you do have to troop through the coaches to get to the diner. Coming back home (on Friday after Thanksgiving) the sleeper was in the usual place, just before the...

Yeah, on the trip up on the Texas Eagle, that's what they did with the "Continental Breakfast" stuff - just put it out on a central table and said "This trip terminates at Chicago, so have at it." hot meals were still possible upon request so I had pancakes and sausage. Coming home, they still...

To me, it feels like the eastern leg of the TE is very much the afterthought train. Like we're not good enough for real meals and often not even good enough for properly heated flex meals. I think the northbound time this time was one of the few times the flex meal was actually kinda good, and...

I had the enchiladas on the TE last week. On the leg up, with Rachel (who is one of the best dining car workers I've seen) they were really quite good - properly heated and all. Coming back the edges were burnt and they seemed to have been left in the oven too long. That may be the issue with...

I travel next week and was hoping for news of traditional dining being back on the eastern leg of the Eagle, but oh well. I was willing to put up with it during the pandemic when fewer were traveling and we mostly ate in our rooms but now? the whole "slopped into a single bowl" thing, yeah. Also...

Yeah I suspect if the Eagle EVER gets trad dining back on the eastern leg, they'll be the last one to. I just looked up the new menu (am traveling next week for T-giving) and will have to, I guess, decide between enchiladas or chicken parm - a lot of the other things MIGHT include allergy/food...

Its been bad here. I lost part of a tree (southern Oklahoma) last week in a storm, we had bad storms again several days later in the week.. I didn't sleep much Saturday night because of loud severe thunderstorms. Much of Shreveport was out of power earlier last week, and now NE Oklahoma is...

Must have been that attendant, every time I've taken the Eagle recently I've gotten either yogurt plus muffin or oatmeal plus yogurt for breakfast and been asked if I don't want the other two things that come with it (the sandwich and then either oatmeal or muffin). Still, I wish we could get...

I get that conductors are busy and stuff, but I can't imagine not seeing someone get off with a dog for a relief break and then not get back on and go "welp, okay, might as well leave" I understand "passengers have to take some responsibility" but if you're partially-sighted (or totally blind)...

Eagles have really been catching the lateness bug recently. I was on 22 (MIN-BNL) on the 14th/15th and we were something like 6 hours late getting in to BNL. Granted, this was not Amtrak's fault - apparently a gravel washout near Carlinville that had to be fixed and then checked before we could...

the brownies/butter cakes are often the best part of Flex (as an eastern-leg TE rider, I expect to be eating Flex forever on the train)

YES. I remember the "old days" on the Eagle, the crews were (usually) good, the food was good. Now the dining car often has one overworked person (and maybe someone downstairs to run the microwave). It's a disservice to the travelers using this train - I doubt the fares are any cheaper than on a...

Rural university town in the South. Most of our restaurants are fast-food stuff but we do have a good mom-and-pop Italian place and a nicer than average bbq restaurant. I guess the Tribal casino also has a v. fancy steakhouse where $45 for a steak, sides extra would be the norm, but I'm a...