henryj
Conductor
I guess the first question would be how did this come about. That’s easy for me. I had always wanted to ride the Cardinal from Chicago to New York because it goes through the New River gorge and is supposed to be a very scenic ride(which it was). That train is very hard to get a room on as it only carries one sleeper and runs just three times a week. After searching for some time, I finally found a roomette on the train of December the 8th. The rest just fell in place around that date. I had always wanted to ride one of the Florida trains and also an Acela so that rounded out the trip.
I made my reservations Sept 24th. Leaving Houston Dec. 7th on the bus connection that is the Eagle here in Houston. The Cardinal gets into New York rather late, around 10pm and is often late. So rather than spend the night in a hotel I opted to take the late night train 66 to Boston and return the same morning on an Acela, train 2159 and then boarding the Meteor for Florida. I won’t do that again. But it saved me a hotel room and got me an Acela ride. The only motel I needed was an overnight in Ft Lauderdale before my SWA flight the next day to Houston.
The trip really started to jell Thursday the 6th when I checked the Amtrak Status Maps and found that #2 was running over two hours late. That was going to delay my train #22 because it carried the connecting cars from California. So Friday morning the first thing I checked before leaving my house was #22’s status. But the Sunset had made up some time and the Eagle left San Antonio only about 10 minutes late. I was relieved and made my preps to leave the house. The plan was to drive to Hobby Airport, leave my car at the Parking Spot and take the Super Shuttle from Hobby to the Amtrak depot. The #22 bus leaves Houston Amtrak station at 1:05pm. I thought I could get a quick lunch at Hobby before going to Amtrak as there is nothing at the Amtrak depot nor anywhere near it to eat. But Hobby has been redesigned with all the food courts beyond the security gates so I couldn’t do that this time. I just got a bag of chips at the Amtrak depot.
I have never met a Super Shuttle driver that actually knows where the Amtrak depot is in Houston, but we finally got there and I checked in. The bus arrived about thirty minutes before it’s scheduled departure and started boarding. The bus is a very nice one as buses go, run by Lone Star Bus Company under contract with Amtrak to pose as train #22 from Houston to Longview where it connects with the ‘real’ #22 coming over from San Antonio and Dallas. Lone Star also operates the Longview to Shreveport buses. By now I was noticing on my Blackberry that #22 was running later and later, finally leaving McGregor an hour and 40 minutes late. I began to think this was going to be ‘one of those trips’. As we began to board the bus driver warned each passenger to use the depot rest room before boarding as the bus one was for emergencies only. After we all boarded he gave us one more lecture about that and then pointed out the large trash cans he had on board and let us know that he would not tolerate any trash being thrown on his floors. Interesting that people now days have to be lectured on how not to be pigs. The bus takes over four hours to get to Longview, but as I was to find out, it’s only three hours driving time. The old MP Texas Eagle took five hours to make the trip with a thirty minute switching move in Palestine. We only had 12 passengers on our bus so I am guessing it will be a long time before we see a real Eagle train again from Houston. While we were waiting to leave the #21 bus came in and it appeared to be about the same load. Amtrak does nothing to promote these connections nor do the buses stop anywhere between Houston and Longview to pick up or let off passengers in any of the other many little towns we pass through. Our first stop was 2 ½ hours up the road in Nacogdoches, Tx for a potty break. The driver warned us not to stock up on food there as we would stop again in Longview at a much better place to eat. The stop was for 40 minutes. It then took about an hour to get to Longview where we stopped again at a major truck stop for another 30 minutes. They had everything from hot food to sandwiches or whatever. The coach passengers stocked up. There were only two of us going sleeper so we held out as we had a free dinner coming after Longview. The old MP depot in Longview is still in tack even though Amtrak only uses one end. But there were ample chairs and benches outside to accommodate us and the weather was balmy. Longview bills itself as the entertainment capitol of east Texas. I guess, lol. Number 22 had made up some time and was only an hour late getting in. We saw three north bound freights go by while we sat there. An auto rack train, a container train and the last a tank train, which waited for us to pass it. Once on board I went immediately to the diner to eat as it was last call. Alfred was my car host and did a fine job and even had my dinner reservation waiting for me as I boarded. Both of us had been booked in the Transition dorm car. But as the regular sleeper was not full and had been hurriedly tacked onto the back of the train, many car lengths from the transition dorm, the conductor put us in roomettes in the regular sleeper so the attendant didn’t have to walk through the train to take care of us. Food on board the Eagle was mediocre at best. Even the RR French toast was soggy and stale the next morning. We had two coach passengers as company on the diner, the only coach people I saw in a diner the whole trip. They were two young guys on a business trip. I asked them why they just didn’t fly. The answer was the train was much cheaper. It turned out they worked for a non-profit organization. The diner on this train is one of Amtrak’s so called ‘Diner Lites’ and is staffed with only three people, a chef, a waiter and the dining car steward. But they didn’t really need any more as hardly anyone goes to the diner on these trains other than sleeping car passengers. Amtrak has just priced themselves out of the diner business. Most coach passengers just get junk food from the sightseer lounge(SSL) attendant or bring their own. The diner is only open on one side. The other side, designed as the lite end was unstaffed and hardly used by anyone. Really Amtrak could save some money by taking the SSL off this train and moving the attendant to the café/lounge end of the diner lite and sell his stuff there. The SSL was never heavily occupied. The track on this route was good and we made good time, arriving in St Louis almost on time and Chicago early. I think the freight main leaves at Poplar Bluff and goes over to the east side of the river. After that we experience some rougher track and jointed rail on the old passenger main entering St Louis. Leaving St Louis the next morning, we rocked and rolled over shaky track all the way to Alton, 27 miles, never getting over 30mph. Once past Alton we hit the newly refurbished track and took off. However, this train, being all superliners, is not allowed faster than 79mph. Fastest I clocked it at was 83mph even on the 110mph segment. My Blackberry has GPS maps which gave speeds and showed our location.
In Chicago I had a four hour layover before leaving on the Cardinal at 5:45pm. I got some light lunch after passing on another meal on the Eagle and took a walk. I stopped at a Starbucks on the corner of Wells and Adams and had a Mocha while watching the El trains go by. Chicago was cold and rainy. I had stashed my bag at the first class lounge. When I got back they boarded us on the sleeper from there. It felt good to finally be on board the nice warm car in my own private room. Jan was the car host on the Cardinal sleeper. She has 30 years with Amtrak and was professional in every way. She was also entertaining and fun to talk too. The Cardinal has only a diner lite or café lite or whatever they call it. It has a formal diner on one side and a café lite on the other. With only one sleeper the diner side was lightly used. As such they just let us sit where ever we wanted, not forcing people to crowd onto one table as they did on the Eagle. I had dinner late and went to bed. The next morning we added two private cars at Huntington, WV while I ate breadfast. Shortly after that we enter the scenic part of the trip which lasts all most all the way to Charlottesville. I rode most of the way in the lounge car taking pics and talking to other passengers. After Charlottesville darkness fell and I retired to my private room. We were more or less on time most of the way after briefly falling behind in Huntington. I clocked us at 111mph on the NEC. We got into NY early. I have watched the Cardinal off and on for some time and #50 is usually late into NY. Getting in early means I now had an almost 5 hour wait for train #66 to Boston. The Acela lounge was closed at 10pm so I had to sit out in the waiting area in Penn Station. Fortunately it was monitored and only passengers with tickets could sit there. As the night wore on we became the only people there other than the usual homeless and bums hanging out in the station. I would not do this again even though Penn Station has a good security presence at all times. The Cardinal is a fun train and is heavily used by people in all the little towns going through WV. It should be run daily, even as a coach only train if they do not have enough sleepers as most rode there anyway.
Finally #66, the overnight regional from DC to Boston came in and I boarded the business class car. If this train is in any way typical of the other regionals, they are in my opinion, junkers. It rode rough and loud and the roof leaked water on the seat in front of me. These cars are just worn out. Then in New Haven they took off one of the electrics and put on a diesel helper. Is this normal in electrified territory? I ate breakfast in Boston’s South Station and boarded my Acela express #2159 for New York. In contrast this train was really nice, full of mostly business people, and rode smooth and quite as you would expect. I clocked us at 149mph on several occasions. Boston to NY in three and half hours. I had about two and ½ hours to lay over before boarding the Meteor to Florida. So I checked my bag at the Acela lounge, grabbed some lunch and took a walk around. At each exit door to the outside of Penn Station I found the usual beggars, homeless and panhandlers so I finally just retired to the first class lounge and took a nap in one of the nice soft chairs.
They called sleeping car passengers from the lounge at around 2:45pm and boarded us first. My car host here was Sonny, a 14 year veteran of Amtrak and a very professional and friendly guy. He did get excited when I asked him for a towel to clean off my roomette window on the outside. As it turned out I had the only clean window on the whole train. Lol. Riding the Meteor, or a Florida train, was my third and final goal of this trip and I wasn’t disappointed. I think the food is somewhat better than I had experience on the other trains. I again clocked us at 111mph on the NEC to DC using my Blackberry. This is just my opinion, but I believe Amtrak is really missing the boat in this market. This should be one of their premier markets, NY to Florida. Instead they run just another generic train just like all the others. Boring and plain. I went to the so called lounge car after leaving NY and found just another diner lite or café lite or whatever you call them, with an attendant. I had my bloody mary and sat down for a while and just pondered what Amtrak was missing. The car was just blasé Amtrak blue with nothing but plain tables and benches at both ends. No lounge chairs, no Florida ambiance, no nothing. What a disappointment. How did they ever break this mold with the Pacific Parlor car on the Coast Starlight? After dinner with Penny K(I forgot to mention, she found me on the way to the diner) in the heritage diner and a nice conversation with her until we got run out of the diner, I retired to my private room and crashed after the all night thing to Boston. I had a late breakfast the next morning and then just retired to my room to watch the Florida scenery go by, getting off for some exercise in Jacksonville where they serviced the train and in Orlando and West Palm Beach. I had no desire to return to that depressing ‘lounge car’. I took a cab, driven by a Hatian, to my motel in Ft Lauderdale to await my SWA departure for Houston the next morning. He managed to turn a short drive into a $15 cab fare and didn’t even want to give me change for my twenty. I hate tourist trap towns.
I stayed at the Rodeway Inn which is near the airport and has a free airport shuttle hourly. The Ft Lauderdale airport is busy and SWA is their usual self. The trip was three hours gate to gate and uneventful. The contrast between train travel, which is stuck in the past and flying is just striking. I was just about tipped out from riding those trains, tipping in the diner, tipping the car host, tipping the baggage handlers, etc. flying cost me nothing extra and was quick and painless. Parking Spot was waiting for me at Houston Hobby and I got in my car and drove home in less than an hour. Overall it was an enjoyable trip.
Finally Amtrak, think about what I said. Long distance train travel should be something special, not just another bland generic Amtrak-blue train. Where is the ambiance? Where have all the amenities gone? The Florida Sun Room lounge, the Pride of Texas Coffee Shop, the French Quarter Lounge, the Cable Car Lounge, the Traveler’s Rest Lounge, the Lewis & Clark Lounge, the Turquoise Room just to mention a few. When people are paying premium prices for travel they should expect something different. The lounge and dining cars would be the place to show off that something. And if you are going to charge $25 for a steak dinner then at least have a decent steak and a baked potato that hasn’t been micro-waved to death.
The Amtrak employees I encountered on these trains were hard working, dedicated, and enjoyed their work and did their best to make their passengers feel welcome. They deserve some better, newer and more inspirational equipment to work with.
I made my reservations Sept 24th. Leaving Houston Dec. 7th on the bus connection that is the Eagle here in Houston. The Cardinal gets into New York rather late, around 10pm and is often late. So rather than spend the night in a hotel I opted to take the late night train 66 to Boston and return the same morning on an Acela, train 2159 and then boarding the Meteor for Florida. I won’t do that again. But it saved me a hotel room and got me an Acela ride. The only motel I needed was an overnight in Ft Lauderdale before my SWA flight the next day to Houston.
The trip really started to jell Thursday the 6th when I checked the Amtrak Status Maps and found that #2 was running over two hours late. That was going to delay my train #22 because it carried the connecting cars from California. So Friday morning the first thing I checked before leaving my house was #22’s status. But the Sunset had made up some time and the Eagle left San Antonio only about 10 minutes late. I was relieved and made my preps to leave the house. The plan was to drive to Hobby Airport, leave my car at the Parking Spot and take the Super Shuttle from Hobby to the Amtrak depot. The #22 bus leaves Houston Amtrak station at 1:05pm. I thought I could get a quick lunch at Hobby before going to Amtrak as there is nothing at the Amtrak depot nor anywhere near it to eat. But Hobby has been redesigned with all the food courts beyond the security gates so I couldn’t do that this time. I just got a bag of chips at the Amtrak depot.
I have never met a Super Shuttle driver that actually knows where the Amtrak depot is in Houston, but we finally got there and I checked in. The bus arrived about thirty minutes before it’s scheduled departure and started boarding. The bus is a very nice one as buses go, run by Lone Star Bus Company under contract with Amtrak to pose as train #22 from Houston to Longview where it connects with the ‘real’ #22 coming over from San Antonio and Dallas. Lone Star also operates the Longview to Shreveport buses. By now I was noticing on my Blackberry that #22 was running later and later, finally leaving McGregor an hour and 40 minutes late. I began to think this was going to be ‘one of those trips’. As we began to board the bus driver warned each passenger to use the depot rest room before boarding as the bus one was for emergencies only. After we all boarded he gave us one more lecture about that and then pointed out the large trash cans he had on board and let us know that he would not tolerate any trash being thrown on his floors. Interesting that people now days have to be lectured on how not to be pigs. The bus takes over four hours to get to Longview, but as I was to find out, it’s only three hours driving time. The old MP Texas Eagle took five hours to make the trip with a thirty minute switching move in Palestine. We only had 12 passengers on our bus so I am guessing it will be a long time before we see a real Eagle train again from Houston. While we were waiting to leave the #21 bus came in and it appeared to be about the same load. Amtrak does nothing to promote these connections nor do the buses stop anywhere between Houston and Longview to pick up or let off passengers in any of the other many little towns we pass through. Our first stop was 2 ½ hours up the road in Nacogdoches, Tx for a potty break. The driver warned us not to stock up on food there as we would stop again in Longview at a much better place to eat. The stop was for 40 minutes. It then took about an hour to get to Longview where we stopped again at a major truck stop for another 30 minutes. They had everything from hot food to sandwiches or whatever. The coach passengers stocked up. There were only two of us going sleeper so we held out as we had a free dinner coming after Longview. The old MP depot in Longview is still in tack even though Amtrak only uses one end. But there were ample chairs and benches outside to accommodate us and the weather was balmy. Longview bills itself as the entertainment capitol of east Texas. I guess, lol. Number 22 had made up some time and was only an hour late getting in. We saw three north bound freights go by while we sat there. An auto rack train, a container train and the last a tank train, which waited for us to pass it. Once on board I went immediately to the diner to eat as it was last call. Alfred was my car host and did a fine job and even had my dinner reservation waiting for me as I boarded. Both of us had been booked in the Transition dorm car. But as the regular sleeper was not full and had been hurriedly tacked onto the back of the train, many car lengths from the transition dorm, the conductor put us in roomettes in the regular sleeper so the attendant didn’t have to walk through the train to take care of us. Food on board the Eagle was mediocre at best. Even the RR French toast was soggy and stale the next morning. We had two coach passengers as company on the diner, the only coach people I saw in a diner the whole trip. They were two young guys on a business trip. I asked them why they just didn’t fly. The answer was the train was much cheaper. It turned out they worked for a non-profit organization. The diner on this train is one of Amtrak’s so called ‘Diner Lites’ and is staffed with only three people, a chef, a waiter and the dining car steward. But they didn’t really need any more as hardly anyone goes to the diner on these trains other than sleeping car passengers. Amtrak has just priced themselves out of the diner business. Most coach passengers just get junk food from the sightseer lounge(SSL) attendant or bring their own. The diner is only open on one side. The other side, designed as the lite end was unstaffed and hardly used by anyone. Really Amtrak could save some money by taking the SSL off this train and moving the attendant to the café/lounge end of the diner lite and sell his stuff there. The SSL was never heavily occupied. The track on this route was good and we made good time, arriving in St Louis almost on time and Chicago early. I think the freight main leaves at Poplar Bluff and goes over to the east side of the river. After that we experience some rougher track and jointed rail on the old passenger main entering St Louis. Leaving St Louis the next morning, we rocked and rolled over shaky track all the way to Alton, 27 miles, never getting over 30mph. Once past Alton we hit the newly refurbished track and took off. However, this train, being all superliners, is not allowed faster than 79mph. Fastest I clocked it at was 83mph even on the 110mph segment. My Blackberry has GPS maps which gave speeds and showed our location.
In Chicago I had a four hour layover before leaving on the Cardinal at 5:45pm. I got some light lunch after passing on another meal on the Eagle and took a walk. I stopped at a Starbucks on the corner of Wells and Adams and had a Mocha while watching the El trains go by. Chicago was cold and rainy. I had stashed my bag at the first class lounge. When I got back they boarded us on the sleeper from there. It felt good to finally be on board the nice warm car in my own private room. Jan was the car host on the Cardinal sleeper. She has 30 years with Amtrak and was professional in every way. She was also entertaining and fun to talk too. The Cardinal has only a diner lite or café lite or whatever they call it. It has a formal diner on one side and a café lite on the other. With only one sleeper the diner side was lightly used. As such they just let us sit where ever we wanted, not forcing people to crowd onto one table as they did on the Eagle. I had dinner late and went to bed. The next morning we added two private cars at Huntington, WV while I ate breadfast. Shortly after that we enter the scenic part of the trip which lasts all most all the way to Charlottesville. I rode most of the way in the lounge car taking pics and talking to other passengers. After Charlottesville darkness fell and I retired to my private room. We were more or less on time most of the way after briefly falling behind in Huntington. I clocked us at 111mph on the NEC. We got into NY early. I have watched the Cardinal off and on for some time and #50 is usually late into NY. Getting in early means I now had an almost 5 hour wait for train #66 to Boston. The Acela lounge was closed at 10pm so I had to sit out in the waiting area in Penn Station. Fortunately it was monitored and only passengers with tickets could sit there. As the night wore on we became the only people there other than the usual homeless and bums hanging out in the station. I would not do this again even though Penn Station has a good security presence at all times. The Cardinal is a fun train and is heavily used by people in all the little towns going through WV. It should be run daily, even as a coach only train if they do not have enough sleepers as most rode there anyway.
Finally #66, the overnight regional from DC to Boston came in and I boarded the business class car. If this train is in any way typical of the other regionals, they are in my opinion, junkers. It rode rough and loud and the roof leaked water on the seat in front of me. These cars are just worn out. Then in New Haven they took off one of the electrics and put on a diesel helper. Is this normal in electrified territory? I ate breakfast in Boston’s South Station and boarded my Acela express #2159 for New York. In contrast this train was really nice, full of mostly business people, and rode smooth and quite as you would expect. I clocked us at 149mph on several occasions. Boston to NY in three and half hours. I had about two and ½ hours to lay over before boarding the Meteor to Florida. So I checked my bag at the Acela lounge, grabbed some lunch and took a walk around. At each exit door to the outside of Penn Station I found the usual beggars, homeless and panhandlers so I finally just retired to the first class lounge and took a nap in one of the nice soft chairs.
They called sleeping car passengers from the lounge at around 2:45pm and boarded us first. My car host here was Sonny, a 14 year veteran of Amtrak and a very professional and friendly guy. He did get excited when I asked him for a towel to clean off my roomette window on the outside. As it turned out I had the only clean window on the whole train. Lol. Riding the Meteor, or a Florida train, was my third and final goal of this trip and I wasn’t disappointed. I think the food is somewhat better than I had experience on the other trains. I again clocked us at 111mph on the NEC to DC using my Blackberry. This is just my opinion, but I believe Amtrak is really missing the boat in this market. This should be one of their premier markets, NY to Florida. Instead they run just another generic train just like all the others. Boring and plain. I went to the so called lounge car after leaving NY and found just another diner lite or café lite or whatever you call them, with an attendant. I had my bloody mary and sat down for a while and just pondered what Amtrak was missing. The car was just blasé Amtrak blue with nothing but plain tables and benches at both ends. No lounge chairs, no Florida ambiance, no nothing. What a disappointment. How did they ever break this mold with the Pacific Parlor car on the Coast Starlight? After dinner with Penny K(I forgot to mention, she found me on the way to the diner) in the heritage diner and a nice conversation with her until we got run out of the diner, I retired to my private room and crashed after the all night thing to Boston. I had a late breakfast the next morning and then just retired to my room to watch the Florida scenery go by, getting off for some exercise in Jacksonville where they serviced the train and in Orlando and West Palm Beach. I had no desire to return to that depressing ‘lounge car’. I took a cab, driven by a Hatian, to my motel in Ft Lauderdale to await my SWA departure for Houston the next morning. He managed to turn a short drive into a $15 cab fare and didn’t even want to give me change for my twenty. I hate tourist trap towns.
I stayed at the Rodeway Inn which is near the airport and has a free airport shuttle hourly. The Ft Lauderdale airport is busy and SWA is their usual self. The trip was three hours gate to gate and uneventful. The contrast between train travel, which is stuck in the past and flying is just striking. I was just about tipped out from riding those trains, tipping in the diner, tipping the car host, tipping the baggage handlers, etc. flying cost me nothing extra and was quick and painless. Parking Spot was waiting for me at Houston Hobby and I got in my car and drove home in less than an hour. Overall it was an enjoyable trip.
Finally Amtrak, think about what I said. Long distance train travel should be something special, not just another bland generic Amtrak-blue train. Where is the ambiance? Where have all the amenities gone? The Florida Sun Room lounge, the Pride of Texas Coffee Shop, the French Quarter Lounge, the Cable Car Lounge, the Traveler’s Rest Lounge, the Lewis & Clark Lounge, the Turquoise Room just to mention a few. When people are paying premium prices for travel they should expect something different. The lounge and dining cars would be the place to show off that something. And if you are going to charge $25 for a steak dinner then at least have a decent steak and a baked potato that hasn’t been micro-waved to death.
The Amtrak employees I encountered on these trains were hard working, dedicated, and enjoyed their work and did their best to make their passengers feel welcome. They deserve some better, newer and more inspirational equipment to work with.
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