Dovecote
OBS Chief
My wife and I just completed a trip from St. Paul (MSP) to Jacksonville (JAX). We were visiting family for Thanksgiving in Western Wisconsin. The trip would consist of taking a bustituted Empire Builder (EB), Capitol Limted (CL), and Silver Meteor (SM). The travel was on an AGR redemption award with roomettes on each train.
We arrived in MSP at 6:30 AM and were informed about the change of itinerary. The EB was running approximately 6 hours late. No mention of the delay was given but it was obvious that a snowstorm and cold weather was the reason why. The bustitution consisted of two motorcoaches. One was destined to make local stops along the EB route. The other was considered to be an express bus but would make stops to pickup passengers in Portage (POG) and Columbus (CBS). The express bus consisted of passengers going to Chicago (CHI) and Glenview (GLN). Passengers traveling to GLN would travel to CHI first and then travel by train via the Hiawatha service.
The first leg of the trip on the bustituted EB began around at 8:00 AM. We were seated in the express route which had 31 passengers in a 57 capacity bus. Our driver was Larry and he announced that donuts, bottled water, and newspapers were available to passengers in the front of the bus. As we traveled along I-94 we exited the highway in Tomah (TOH) to change drivers. Pete took over the route and would drive the bus for the duration into CHI. Around 11:30 AM we exited the highway again for our Burger King grab and go meal break in Wisconsin Dells (WDL). All passengers were given a $5 limit on their purchase. Any amount exceeding that limit was the responsibility of the passenger. At approximately 12:15 PM we arrived early to the station in POG. We were to pickup three passengers but they were nowhere to be found. Since we arrived early we had to wait until train departure time. Our next stop was in CBS and this time there were five passengers waiting for pickup and one person finishing their trip. We then traveled nonstop to CHI arriving around 4:20 PM.
The bus ride was a poor substitute to the train ride on the EB. We traveled along interstate highways instead of the Mississippi River and other scenic areas. Scenery on the bus on I-94,90, etc. was certainly below the standard of traveling on the EB route. The bus had less leg room than a train and there was problems with the heat. It was not until after WDL that the heat was properly regulated. There were passengers nearby that were constantly on their cell phones annoying other passengers. Peace and quiet was nonexistent. This would not have been an issue to us had we have been traveling in our private sleeping car room. There turned out to be three smoke stops (TOH, WDL, and POG) along the route. Having asthma I was unforunate to have the passenger in front of me participate in these breaks. Cigarette odor does not bode well with me. Traveling by bus as a whole was well below the standard of traveling by train.
When we arrived in CHI our luggage was received from the bus compartment area. We wanted to use a Redcap but they were nowhere to be found on the street level. We proceeded with our luggage inside to the downstairs ticketing area and checked our bags to our final destination. Then it was off to the Metropolitan Lounge to wait for our next leg of our trip. Jennifer greeted us in the lounge and took our dinner reservation for the CL. She was very pleasant. Our time in the lounge was uneventful and seats were plentiful. We boarded on the CL around 6:00 PM and was greeted at sleeping car 3001 by Carlos and was directed to roomette #3. Carlos looked familiar as I happen to travel the CL often in my 8 years of living in Harpers Ferry (HFY). I confirmed with Carlos that he was frequently my coach attendant when traveling the CL to and from HFY. He was recently promoted to a sleeping car attendant (SCA). Frankly I was surprised of that since he never impressed me as a motivated coach attendant. As it turned out, he provided the expected services of a SCA and has the potential of being a good one. In our car there were four empty roomettes for the entire train route. We knew of at least one coach passenger in our car that upgraded on board to a roomette.
We arrived to the dining car around 6:45 PM for our 6:30 reservation having heard the "second" announcement. There never was a first announcement although our greeter/server, Paula, claims there was. Paula took our order and fortunately for us Erin was our server. Unlike Paula, Erin was a pleasant individual and likes her job. It was obvious on the otherhand that Paula does not like her job and was not friendly at all. Our seating companions were a retired couple from Mystic, CT who were returning home after visiting family outside St. Louis. We all ordered the steak selection and none of us were dissapointed. At the conclusion of the meal, I purposely asked the Dining Car Steward, Manny, the serving hours for breakfast. I was expecting Manny to correct me and inform me that they serve brunch instead of breakfast. However, Manny specifically informed me that "breakfast" seating begins at 6:30 AM. Our train during the night was on schedule.
As usual it was difficult sleeping the first night on the train. I got up during our stop in Pittsburgh and took a shower. We arrived to the dining car promptly at 6:30 AM. The couple from CT were already seated and we joined them for breakfast. Fortunately again Erin waited on us. At the conclusion of the meal, I asked Manny the serving hours for lunch and he stated that the dining car will serve lunch until 11:00 AM. The train lost about two hours of time between Connellsville and Cumberland (CUM). Once moving we enjoyed excellent scenery. Around 10:00 AM there was a surprise announcement that the dining car was closed. We asked Carlos for an explanation and he informed us that it would reopen after departing CUM. True to his word after departing CUM around 11:30 AM, Carlos received word that lunch was being served. Our seating companions were a retired couple from Salisbury, MD heading home from Los Angeles after visiting family in Pasadena. Erin again was our server. The meal selection was very limited between pizza, cheeseburger, and veggieburger with pathetic potato chips served on the side. As usual, as the final meal of the eastbound CL, dessert was not served. We returned to our room around 12:30 PM and learned later that the dining car closed at 1:00 PM. The train arrived into WAS at 3:15 PM and upon our exit we proceeded to the Club Acela lounge for our final leg of the trip.
Our late arrival in WAS would give us an approximate 4 hour layover. We quickly learned of the service disruption in the Northeast Corridor service into and out of Penn Station due to overhead wire problems in the immediate area. Our connecting SM train was posted as "delayed" and I inquired at the lounge desk on the length of the delay. I was told about 30 minutes but as it turned out it was delayed about 90 minutes. We boarded on the SM about 8:45 PM. Derrick was our room attendant in car 9711 roomette #5. We departed about 20 minutes later and soon afterwards Derrick came by and was the greeter of bad news. He informed us that the dining car (car #8528) broke down enroute and was inoperable. We would receive an update later around 9:30 PM by a very apologetic Cheryl the dining car steward. Specifically three meal selections (shrimp scampi, mushroom ravioli, or mahi mahi in black bean sauce) would be offered in the cafe car. Cheryl took our order and later came by at 9:45 PM and escorted us with others to the cafe car. Tables on one side of the car were reserved for sleeping car passengers. We were seated with a quiet woman from New Rochelle. We were served around 10:15 PM and all of us chose shrimp scampi. The meal was surprisingly good. Dessert was also served. We departed around 11:00 AM. Breakfast was a disappointment. It consisted of either cold or hot cereal, donuts, and milk. The meals were well below the norm than what you would have be offered had the dining car been operable. Our seating campanion was a gentlemen from Buffalo visiting his son in Cape Coral. He provided some insight on the technical woes in NYP and was a funny guy.
Our train arrived into JAX about an hour and a half late. We waited about 15 minutes for our luggage and shortly after we were on our way to South Georgia.
Until next trip,
Dovecote
We arrived in MSP at 6:30 AM and were informed about the change of itinerary. The EB was running approximately 6 hours late. No mention of the delay was given but it was obvious that a snowstorm and cold weather was the reason why. The bustitution consisted of two motorcoaches. One was destined to make local stops along the EB route. The other was considered to be an express bus but would make stops to pickup passengers in Portage (POG) and Columbus (CBS). The express bus consisted of passengers going to Chicago (CHI) and Glenview (GLN). Passengers traveling to GLN would travel to CHI first and then travel by train via the Hiawatha service.
The first leg of the trip on the bustituted EB began around at 8:00 AM. We were seated in the express route which had 31 passengers in a 57 capacity bus. Our driver was Larry and he announced that donuts, bottled water, and newspapers were available to passengers in the front of the bus. As we traveled along I-94 we exited the highway in Tomah (TOH) to change drivers. Pete took over the route and would drive the bus for the duration into CHI. Around 11:30 AM we exited the highway again for our Burger King grab and go meal break in Wisconsin Dells (WDL). All passengers were given a $5 limit on their purchase. Any amount exceeding that limit was the responsibility of the passenger. At approximately 12:15 PM we arrived early to the station in POG. We were to pickup three passengers but they were nowhere to be found. Since we arrived early we had to wait until train departure time. Our next stop was in CBS and this time there were five passengers waiting for pickup and one person finishing their trip. We then traveled nonstop to CHI arriving around 4:20 PM.
The bus ride was a poor substitute to the train ride on the EB. We traveled along interstate highways instead of the Mississippi River and other scenic areas. Scenery on the bus on I-94,90, etc. was certainly below the standard of traveling on the EB route. The bus had less leg room than a train and there was problems with the heat. It was not until after WDL that the heat was properly regulated. There were passengers nearby that were constantly on their cell phones annoying other passengers. Peace and quiet was nonexistent. This would not have been an issue to us had we have been traveling in our private sleeping car room. There turned out to be three smoke stops (TOH, WDL, and POG) along the route. Having asthma I was unforunate to have the passenger in front of me participate in these breaks. Cigarette odor does not bode well with me. Traveling by bus as a whole was well below the standard of traveling by train.
When we arrived in CHI our luggage was received from the bus compartment area. We wanted to use a Redcap but they were nowhere to be found on the street level. We proceeded with our luggage inside to the downstairs ticketing area and checked our bags to our final destination. Then it was off to the Metropolitan Lounge to wait for our next leg of our trip. Jennifer greeted us in the lounge and took our dinner reservation for the CL. She was very pleasant. Our time in the lounge was uneventful and seats were plentiful. We boarded on the CL around 6:00 PM and was greeted at sleeping car 3001 by Carlos and was directed to roomette #3. Carlos looked familiar as I happen to travel the CL often in my 8 years of living in Harpers Ferry (HFY). I confirmed with Carlos that he was frequently my coach attendant when traveling the CL to and from HFY. He was recently promoted to a sleeping car attendant (SCA). Frankly I was surprised of that since he never impressed me as a motivated coach attendant. As it turned out, he provided the expected services of a SCA and has the potential of being a good one. In our car there were four empty roomettes for the entire train route. We knew of at least one coach passenger in our car that upgraded on board to a roomette.
We arrived to the dining car around 6:45 PM for our 6:30 reservation having heard the "second" announcement. There never was a first announcement although our greeter/server, Paula, claims there was. Paula took our order and fortunately for us Erin was our server. Unlike Paula, Erin was a pleasant individual and likes her job. It was obvious on the otherhand that Paula does not like her job and was not friendly at all. Our seating companions were a retired couple from Mystic, CT who were returning home after visiting family outside St. Louis. We all ordered the steak selection and none of us were dissapointed. At the conclusion of the meal, I purposely asked the Dining Car Steward, Manny, the serving hours for breakfast. I was expecting Manny to correct me and inform me that they serve brunch instead of breakfast. However, Manny specifically informed me that "breakfast" seating begins at 6:30 AM. Our train during the night was on schedule.
As usual it was difficult sleeping the first night on the train. I got up during our stop in Pittsburgh and took a shower. We arrived to the dining car promptly at 6:30 AM. The couple from CT were already seated and we joined them for breakfast. Fortunately again Erin waited on us. At the conclusion of the meal, I asked Manny the serving hours for lunch and he stated that the dining car will serve lunch until 11:00 AM. The train lost about two hours of time between Connellsville and Cumberland (CUM). Once moving we enjoyed excellent scenery. Around 10:00 AM there was a surprise announcement that the dining car was closed. We asked Carlos for an explanation and he informed us that it would reopen after departing CUM. True to his word after departing CUM around 11:30 AM, Carlos received word that lunch was being served. Our seating companions were a retired couple from Salisbury, MD heading home from Los Angeles after visiting family in Pasadena. Erin again was our server. The meal selection was very limited between pizza, cheeseburger, and veggieburger with pathetic potato chips served on the side. As usual, as the final meal of the eastbound CL, dessert was not served. We returned to our room around 12:30 PM and learned later that the dining car closed at 1:00 PM. The train arrived into WAS at 3:15 PM and upon our exit we proceeded to the Club Acela lounge for our final leg of the trip.
Our late arrival in WAS would give us an approximate 4 hour layover. We quickly learned of the service disruption in the Northeast Corridor service into and out of Penn Station due to overhead wire problems in the immediate area. Our connecting SM train was posted as "delayed" and I inquired at the lounge desk on the length of the delay. I was told about 30 minutes but as it turned out it was delayed about 90 minutes. We boarded on the SM about 8:45 PM. Derrick was our room attendant in car 9711 roomette #5. We departed about 20 minutes later and soon afterwards Derrick came by and was the greeter of bad news. He informed us that the dining car (car #8528) broke down enroute and was inoperable. We would receive an update later around 9:30 PM by a very apologetic Cheryl the dining car steward. Specifically three meal selections (shrimp scampi, mushroom ravioli, or mahi mahi in black bean sauce) would be offered in the cafe car. Cheryl took our order and later came by at 9:45 PM and escorted us with others to the cafe car. Tables on one side of the car were reserved for sleeping car passengers. We were seated with a quiet woman from New Rochelle. We were served around 10:15 PM and all of us chose shrimp scampi. The meal was surprisingly good. Dessert was also served. We departed around 11:00 AM. Breakfast was a disappointment. It consisted of either cold or hot cereal, donuts, and milk. The meals were well below the norm than what you would have be offered had the dining car been operable. Our seating campanion was a gentlemen from Buffalo visiting his son in Cape Coral. He provided some insight on the technical woes in NYP and was a funny guy.
Our train arrived into JAX about an hour and a half late. We waited about 15 minutes for our luggage and shortly after we were on our way to South Georgia.
Until next trip,
Dovecote
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