VentureForth
Engineer
Took the kids on a quick ride to Salisbury from Kannapolis this morning. The staff on both trains was quite cordial, and fun to deal with. No complaints whatsoever. Train 74 coming back was about 20 minutes late into SAL and an additional 10 minutes or so late getting into KAN. Still, for $14 RT for the three of us, it was well worth it. Spent the hour and a half in SAL drinking hot cocoas and a latte from up the street.
Interesting observations:
Lot of folks riding. I'd say my coach on 80 was 75%-80% full. Was a very nice refurbished 'blue' coach. That's the one that I'm going to take when I go to Savannah next week. Attendant said that Business Class is well worth it. They have a full-length coach that I wish the Palmetto would run. Train 74 was a nice Piedmont trainset. Etched glass was reminicient of Coast Starlight lore... Cafe car was nice, but could use a rehab on the outside. Only other person in the cafe car was a train host grabbing a snack. Heh heh. I could do that kind of volunteering.
The Piedmont has grown since I first rode it back in '04. If I recall correctly, that train used to only have two coaches, and snacks were brought to you by the attendant. Today I think there were four coaches plus the full length cafe car. My coach was about 95% full. Rumor is that they will add an earlier Piedmont so that people could actually use it to commute to Charlotte.
Overall, a very fun morning.
Interesting observations:
Lot of folks riding. I'd say my coach on 80 was 75%-80% full. Was a very nice refurbished 'blue' coach. That's the one that I'm going to take when I go to Savannah next week. Attendant said that Business Class is well worth it. They have a full-length coach that I wish the Palmetto would run. Train 74 was a nice Piedmont trainset. Etched glass was reminicient of Coast Starlight lore... Cafe car was nice, but could use a rehab on the outside. Only other person in the cafe car was a train host grabbing a snack. Heh heh. I could do that kind of volunteering.
The Piedmont has grown since I first rode it back in '04. If I recall correctly, that train used to only have two coaches, and snacks were brought to you by the attendant. Today I think there were four coaches plus the full length cafe car. My coach was about 95% full. Rumor is that they will add an earlier Piedmont so that people could actually use it to commute to Charlotte.
Overall, a very fun morning.