Crescent roomette Hattiesburg to DC and back?

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We completed the round-trip (HBG-WAS-HBG) yesterday, with no serious problems. The train arrived in HBG about one hour late. Since we were just going home, the delay was not a big deal. I think our largest single issue with Amtrak, at least on this route, is how rough the ride is. The train took a lurch while we were passing between the sleeper and dining car and my wife whacked her hip on some protruding thing on the inter-car connection. Following that, she was very careful to use the hand-holds when transiting from car to car. Generally, even on a ship, I'm asleep within a few minutes of my head hitting the pillow but I found sleeping on a bouncing, lurching train to be pretty unrestful. The crew on the trip up was pretty nice but on the way back not so much. One of the dining car attendants was brusque to the point of rudeness. She made it clear that she was soon to retire and didn't like her job. I'm also old-fashioned enough to consider chewing gum in a public service position to be very unprofessional. We used the lounge (Club Acela) at WAS. It was OK but the chairs are in serious need of a reupholstering.

All in all, the trip was OK provided you ignore 2nd rate service. It's not that everyone provided sub-par service. Al & Jon in the dining cars were great and worked very hard but the few who are surly or sloppy in their work are like the proverbial bad apples.
 
Don Newcomb said:
We completed the round-trip (HBG-WAS-HBG) yesterday, with no serious problems. The train arrived in HBG about one hour late. Since we were just going home, the delay was not a big deal. I think our largest single issue with Amtrak, at least on this route, is how rough the ride is. The train took a lurch while we were passing between the sleeper and dining car and my wife whacked her hip on some protruding thing on the inter-car connection. Following that, she was very careful to use the hand-holds when transiting from car to car. Generally, even on a ship, I'm asleep within a few minutes of my head hitting the pillow but I found sleeping on a bouncing, lurching train to be pretty unrestful. The crew on the trip up was pretty nice but on the way back not so much. One of the dining car attendants was brusque to the point of rudeness. She made it clear that she was soon to retire and didn't like her job. I'm also old-fashioned enough to consider chewing gum in a public service position to be very unprofessional. We used the lounge (Club Acela) at WAS. It was OK but the chairs are in serious need of a reupholstering.

All in all, the trip was OK provided you ignore 2nd rate service. It's not that everyone provided sub-par service. Al & Jon in the dining cars were great and worked very hard but the few who are surly or sloppy in their work are like the proverbial bad apples.
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My experience is that the dining crews are anywhere from what you describe to extremely good and even entertaining. There is no consistency.
 
Going along with sleeper questions, are sleeping car attendants still making the beds and leaving the blankets in bags on top of the bed? Has anyone asked their attendant to make the beds with the blanket?
 
They continue to present the blanket in the bag. This is a "sanitation" thing to assure you that you have clean blanket. It's not that big of a thing to put the blanket out over your bed.
 
JoeRids said:
Going along with sleeper questions, are sleeping car attendants still making the beds and leaving the blankets in bags on top of the bed? Has anyone asked their attendant to make the beds with the blanket?
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The blankets were wrapped in plastic. It didn't concern me because I often sleep with just a sheet over me. Of more concern to me was the stiffness of the mattress. Not much different from sleeping on the floor.
 
The "Mattresses" are more like a foam pad or a yoga mat, not really a Mattress!

For real sleep comfort on a Train check out VIAs Canadian, even the Sections have great bedding and Mattresses!
 
I think the sections on the Canadian have the best mattresses on any train that I have ever traveled -- in now more than 15 countries.
 
west point said:
It may be time to start a thread on how to walk on a moving train especially between cars.
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It's not a skill that one can just write off as "common sense", not when you have first timers and folks who have not traveled by train for 30 years. I remember being essentially passed from one parent to another when passing between cars as a child.
 
I'm envious of your trip. We rode train 20 on 12/22 and were an hour and a half late getting into NYP. Currently we're sitting on 19, trying to get to Hattiesburg, and pushing 3 hours late. I just hope we make it home soon. Like you, I think I'm done with Amtrak at this point.
 
striker64 said:
I'm envious of your trip. We rode train 20 on 12/22 and were an hour and a half late getting into NYP. Currently we're sitting on 19, trying to get to Hattiesburg, and pushing 3 hours late. I just hope we make it home soon. Like you, I think I'm done with Amtrak at this point.
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You delay today is likely related to the severe weather in AL and MS. If you were flying, it would be worse.
 
We actually haven't moved through too much bad weather, just some rain. Currently, we're sitting at Meridian, MS and were told we will sit here for another 30 minutes at least on orders from Norfolk Southern.

The problem is, every time we've ridden this train, we've been late. It's never on time and it's not worth it anymore.
 
striker64 said:
We actually haven't moved through too much bad weather, just some rain. Currently, we're sitting at Meridian, MS and were told we will sit here for another 30 minutes at least on orders from Norfolk Southern.

The problem is, every time we've ridden this train, we've been late. It's never on time and it's not worth it anymore.
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Bad luck. I can assure you that the weather down on The Coast has been absolutely horrendous. Flights all across the South have been canceled today. At least you should be warm, dry and well fed.
 
Storms bring down trees on rail lines but also trees on roads. Stuff happens in bad weather. Unfortunately the RRs do not consider cutting back trees from the ROW a high priority. Only a push from various entities will help.

A cutting back example is Amtrak is aggressively trying to cut back trees to their ROW's property lines but really get push back from various nimby's complaints. Biggest complaint usually is a private tree hanging over property line onto Amtrak gets cut back to property line. Perfectly legal but you wouldn't believe it from the number of lawyers try to sue. Where they have cut back Amtrak plants low height plants that choke out regular trees.

Good reason for ROW to be at least 50 foot from CL of track(s).
 
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