A
Amtrak rider-lurker
Guest
It was a nice bright sunny day at Baltimore's Penn Station when the southbound Silver Star (#91) rolled into the station on track 7 about 15 minutes early. I had a sleeper for Tampa, as I have some business down there. (In fact, I'm writing from Tampa right now.) Alas, CSX decided that Monday Feb 7 would be a good day to do some trackwork near Lakeland, so I had gotten a call that the schedule was changed, we were detraining at Orlando, and riding a bus to Tampa. Oh well, that's what I'm doing on my retrun trip on the Silver Meteor, in order to get home earlier in the day. It would have been nice to have a singel seat, but I've never taken zany Silver Service train, and I've never been south of Raleigh on Amtrak, so I was still pumped about the trip.
With the 2 PM departure and the trip to the station, my wife and I had a discussion about whether I'd get lunch. Well after settling me into my roomette, the attendant took me forward to the diner (the sleepers were at the rear of the train), and set me up for the last lunch sitting of the day. I had the curried chicken plate. The train left Baltimore at 2PM on time, and made it to DC by 2:30. In other words, that rattling collection of 30 year old Amfleet II coaches, 20 year old Viewliner sleepers and a 60 year old diner made Baltimore-Washington as fast as an Acela Express. We pretty much arrive early at most stations until somewhere south of Snaford Florida, we sat on the tracks for a while and got into Orlando about 5 minutes late. (But the train left Orlando on time, as far as I could see,)
This was not my forst time in a Viewliner roomette, but it was the longest trip I've taken in one. I'm not sure how I'd compare them to Superliner roomettes. They're better about some things, like you can stand up in one with the bed set up and the door closed. On the other hand, you have to be able to do that, because the toilet is in the roomette. I don't think I like that. Traveling alone, using the toilet where you are sitting/sleeping was tolerable, but if I had to share the place, I think it would be very difficult, especially as there aren't any public restrooms except up in Coach. I did like the fold-down sink, though. Following suggestions I've seen here, I asked to have the upper berth made up at night. That way I was able to use the seats and sleep, too. And in the Viewliners, the upper berths have windows. Climbing up was a bit of a problem, though. It's laid out so that the steps are at the foot end of the berth, so once you're up, who have to drag yourself into position instead of just swinging your legs up. They could use a couple of extra handholds in the ceiling and in a few other places to make it a bit easier to get in and out. I did have to get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, and it was a bit of a nuisance, whereas in a Superliner, I'd be in the lower Berth, and I'd just put on a robe and go down the hall.
The route is not the most scenic in the world, but interesting nonetheless, as we left Baltimore covered in snow and ice and I woke up looking at palmettos as we rolled into Jacksonville. As we went south into Florida, it was interesting seeing the flora change some more with more and more plams trees and other subtropical stuff visible. Anyway, being consistently early was a new long-distance experience for me, most of my long-distance Amtrak trips are on the Capitol Limited, and I remember one or 2 on-time arrivals, but never being 5-15 minutes early at every station.
When we arrived at Orlando, there was quite a crowd for the Tampa bus. In fact, I've never been on a Thruway bus with this high of a load factor. And the driver was hassling people who had been ticketed before Amtrak changed the schedule and thus didn't have a bus ticket. It was one of the more disorganized thruway bus connections I've been on. They eventually got to ride, I'm not sure whether the station agent straightened him out, of his common sense finally kicked in. Anyway, we got the full tour of "Orlampa," the dystopian vision of some of the most godawful suburban sprawl in the USA (which means in the world), including all the theme park stuff (A glimpse of a reconstruction of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem at the HolyLand Experience right off I-4, Universal studios, sea world, the exits for Disney world, and home high voltage power line towers shaped like Mickey Mouse's ears.) Then we had to get off the interstate to get into Lakeland, which was more conventional suburban sprawl, but it turned a one-hour ride into a 2-hour ride. I guess I'll get to do the reverse when I return to catch the Meteor. And the most infuriating thing was this evening, from my hotel room in Ybor City, I saw the northbound Silver Star running into the Tampa station! I guess by the afternoon, CSX had finished the track work for the day. The Tampa station, by the way, seems to be very attractive and well kept up for a station that only gets on trains a day (and a bus) in each direction. But hen, all the stations in Florida that I say, from Jacksonville t Orlando looked in fairly decent shape. Given the amount of growth and population density I saw, I'm surprised the locals driving themselves nuts trying to build 200 km/hour high speed rail, when they could do very well expanding the existing infrastructure and running conventional corridor service between Jacksonville -- Orlando -- Tampa -- Miami.
Well, when I do the return segment, I'll give you my impressions of the Silver Meteor as compared to the silver Star.
So long for now.
With the 2 PM departure and the trip to the station, my wife and I had a discussion about whether I'd get lunch. Well after settling me into my roomette, the attendant took me forward to the diner (the sleepers were at the rear of the train), and set me up for the last lunch sitting of the day. I had the curried chicken plate. The train left Baltimore at 2PM on time, and made it to DC by 2:30. In other words, that rattling collection of 30 year old Amfleet II coaches, 20 year old Viewliner sleepers and a 60 year old diner made Baltimore-Washington as fast as an Acela Express. We pretty much arrive early at most stations until somewhere south of Snaford Florida, we sat on the tracks for a while and got into Orlando about 5 minutes late. (But the train left Orlando on time, as far as I could see,)
This was not my forst time in a Viewliner roomette, but it was the longest trip I've taken in one. I'm not sure how I'd compare them to Superliner roomettes. They're better about some things, like you can stand up in one with the bed set up and the door closed. On the other hand, you have to be able to do that, because the toilet is in the roomette. I don't think I like that. Traveling alone, using the toilet where you are sitting/sleeping was tolerable, but if I had to share the place, I think it would be very difficult, especially as there aren't any public restrooms except up in Coach. I did like the fold-down sink, though. Following suggestions I've seen here, I asked to have the upper berth made up at night. That way I was able to use the seats and sleep, too. And in the Viewliners, the upper berths have windows. Climbing up was a bit of a problem, though. It's laid out so that the steps are at the foot end of the berth, so once you're up, who have to drag yourself into position instead of just swinging your legs up. They could use a couple of extra handholds in the ceiling and in a few other places to make it a bit easier to get in and out. I did have to get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, and it was a bit of a nuisance, whereas in a Superliner, I'd be in the lower Berth, and I'd just put on a robe and go down the hall.
The route is not the most scenic in the world, but interesting nonetheless, as we left Baltimore covered in snow and ice and I woke up looking at palmettos as we rolled into Jacksonville. As we went south into Florida, it was interesting seeing the flora change some more with more and more plams trees and other subtropical stuff visible. Anyway, being consistently early was a new long-distance experience for me, most of my long-distance Amtrak trips are on the Capitol Limited, and I remember one or 2 on-time arrivals, but never being 5-15 minutes early at every station.
When we arrived at Orlando, there was quite a crowd for the Tampa bus. In fact, I've never been on a Thruway bus with this high of a load factor. And the driver was hassling people who had been ticketed before Amtrak changed the schedule and thus didn't have a bus ticket. It was one of the more disorganized thruway bus connections I've been on. They eventually got to ride, I'm not sure whether the station agent straightened him out, of his common sense finally kicked in. Anyway, we got the full tour of "Orlampa," the dystopian vision of some of the most godawful suburban sprawl in the USA (which means in the world), including all the theme park stuff (A glimpse of a reconstruction of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem at the HolyLand Experience right off I-4, Universal studios, sea world, the exits for Disney world, and home high voltage power line towers shaped like Mickey Mouse's ears.) Then we had to get off the interstate to get into Lakeland, which was more conventional suburban sprawl, but it turned a one-hour ride into a 2-hour ride. I guess I'll get to do the reverse when I return to catch the Meteor. And the most infuriating thing was this evening, from my hotel room in Ybor City, I saw the northbound Silver Star running into the Tampa station! I guess by the afternoon, CSX had finished the track work for the day. The Tampa station, by the way, seems to be very attractive and well kept up for a station that only gets on trains a day (and a bus) in each direction. But hen, all the stations in Florida that I say, from Jacksonville t Orlando looked in fairly decent shape. Given the amount of growth and population density I saw, I'm surprised the locals driving themselves nuts trying to build 200 km/hour high speed rail, when they could do very well expanding the existing infrastructure and running conventional corridor service between Jacksonville -- Orlando -- Tampa -- Miami.
Well, when I do the return segment, I'll give you my impressions of the Silver Meteor as compared to the silver Star.
So long for now.
