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Hi, Does anyone have experience with how busy the Surfliner is on 12/31 and 1/2? I’m staying in San Diego for a while but want to head up to LA (and eventually Pasadena) the Rose Bowl. I know it will be busy - I’m mainly wondering if it will be so busy I’m likely to be standing the whole way if...

This has been discussed a bit in the commuter rail forum, as Metrolink was the first to announce anything about this: https://www.amtraktrains.com/threads/metrolink-los-angeles-outage-in-december-2023.86339/ Anyway, in addition to Metrolink, the Pacific Surfliners and Amtrak long-distance...

For a while, I’ve been wanting to use the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel Bus to make a cross-border connection to VIA Rail. Living in Ann Arbor, this first became a realistic possibility when D2A2 bus service from Detroit to Ann Arbor started. That was in 2020, and ultimately everything shut down...

Just saw news of a new plan for Amtrak/VIA connecting Chicago-Detroit-Toronto service. As part of the plan, Amtrak train 350 would split from the existing route after Dearborn, serve Michigan Central Station in Detroit, and then use the CP tunnel and a new connecting track to reach the existing...

I’m on my way home from the Gathering now - departed after the Sunday morning activities. While doing PATCO would have been fun, I wanted to take the train back and didn’t want to spend an extra day. My original plan was to take Northeast Regional 88 in coach departing at 1:19pm, but I was a bit...

I’m in Philadelphia right now for the Gathering, and I’m going to be departing on Sunday early afternoon. I won’t have time to go to my hotel and back after the morning rides to store them there, and I’d prefer not to have to drag them on SEPTA all morning (but may do that if it’s the only...

Today, I set off on my trip to the Gathering via Amtrak. I haven’t been on any eastern long distance trains in a while (the NY gathering was the last), so I’m doing a bit of a loop (bus+Capitol Limited+Regional there, Acela+Lake Shore Limited+bus back). It’s also my first sleeper train and first...

After visiting the Pacific Northwest on last year’s Canadian-Empire Builder loop trip, I’m back again! This time, I’m going to take the Rocky Mountaineer from Vancouver to Banff - but first, I‘m doing some island hopping in the Pacific Northwest. The trip began last Saturday, when I flew Delta...

Recently, Greyhound has shifted away from its own longtime reservation system to one similar to that used by Flixbus. In the process, it seems that at least some interlining agreements with other carriers have ended, including the one with Indian Trails in Michigan. When I’ve used their website...

I thought I was going to follow up my previous Tri-Rail/Brightline trips by going all the way to West Palm Beach and back using Tri-Rail one way and Brightline the other. However, I ended up getting food poisoning on my trip, which kept me from going anywhere for a couple days. In retrospect, I...

After having taken Brightline up for the NHL All-Star Beach Festival in Fort Lauderdale, I decided to take a combination of buses and Tri-Rail up to see the actual game itself in Sunrise, FL - I wanted to check out Tri-Rail, and with the weather kind of gloomy I wasn’t missing anything at the...

I’m in Miami Beach for a couple weeks to escape the Michigan winter, and wanted to go up to Fort Lauderdale for the NHL All-Star Beach Festival. As such, I decided to take Brightline, something I had long wanted to do - have been intrigued by it being the only privately-operated passenger train...

I’ve been wanting to check out the new Venture cars on the Wolverine, and finally got the opportunity today. I had previously booked train 350 as my return from the Empire Builder trip after they started using Ventures on that, only for equipment to be swapped around due to a service disruption...

Took a video of Wolverine train 353(17) arriving at the Ann Arbor station. Was hoping to see some Ventures on the consist, but alas, it was running all Horizons. Was running only a few minutes late, and a decent number of passengers were waiting to board when I was there. Hoping to catch a...

Looks like no Surfliner service between Oceanside and Irvine until further notice due to emergency track work: https://www.pacificsurfliner.com/plan-your-trip/alerts/travel-advisories/ This is because of safety concerns along the right of way. Wonder how long this is going to last - sounds...

I had booked a roomette on the Empire Builder, and just noticed that the Accessible Bedroom opened up for $400 or so more than my roomette cost (I believe that’s the low-bucket bedroom cost, and mine was the high bucket roomette price). Any thoughts as to whether switching would be worth it? I...

For a while, the two long-distance trains I’ve most wanted to ride have been the Canadian and the Empire Builder - a pair of trains that work quite nicely as a round-trip loop - and despite planning this late I finally managed to put it together this year. My trip started with me making my way...

Hi, As you may know from my other trip, I’m going to be taking the Canadian soon - will be just me in a cabin for 2 for the whole route Toronto-Vancouver. While I’ve taken Amtrak sleepers before (including the 3 day Texas Eagle LAX-CHI, presently the longest trip in a single sleeper) and have...

I was looking at taking a trip on the Canadian, and one thing I noticed is the luggage allowance on the Canadian for Sleeper Plus passengers. Whereas on Amtrak and VIA Corridor service (and even Economy on the Canadian) passengers are allowed to bring a large bag up to 50lb, only smaller (25lb...

From @loucapwell on Twitter: I’ve heard there have been some issues with the new Venture cars being used on Midwest state corridors, though this seems like a particularly big one. Does anyone know more about this? For the trains currently using Venture cars, are they really going to have...