printman2000
Engineer
This was just a short "get to know Amtrak while I am in the Dallas area" trip for my family. We booked 4 coach seats from Fort Worth to Dallas last Tuesday (3/14/06).
We arrived at the Trinity Railway Express(TRE) Centrepoint/DFW (free parking) station 45 minutes early for our trip to Fort Worths Intermodal Station to catch train 22 to Dallas Union Station. I decided to call Julie to see the status and she said there was a problem and connected me with an agent. They informed me they were busing people to Dallas to catch 22. DOH! The whole point of this was to ride the train. I quickly had her change the reservations to 21 from Dallas to Fort Worth. Fortunately for me, 21 was running 3 hours late so we could still catch it in Dallas.
So instead of going West on TRE, we boarded the Eastbound TRE 7 minutes later to Dallas Union Station. We ended up having to kill like an hour and a half. We walked over to Dealy Plaza and checked out where Kennedy was shot. We then went back and waited on the platform. It was scheduled to arrive at 1:40. Actual arrival was a little after 4:00. This was the first time in a LONG time I got to experience the "arrival." It is exciting to see the train coming and see what cars are where as it passes you.
We immediately boarded one of the coaches. I asked the attendant if we could go straight to the lounge. He said we would have to wait until after the tickets were picked up. We grabbed four seats together that had signs reserving them for couples. They announced very clearly that this was not A TRE train, that is was Amtrak. I guess that has been a problem before. They quickly picked up our tickets and the train was off.
We moved to the lounge car for the duration. Only about 4 other people were in there. I had a good time talking trains with my 7 year old. Along the route (which is quite a ways south of the TRE lines) I saw us pass 22. This was confusing to me as to why they were busing people to Dallas when the train just went by. I figured it out later. See below.
I never looked at the time, but the trip was way too short. Seemed like less than an hour before I saw us pass the Fort Worth Station. That's right, pass. I immediately realized that we would be backing into the station. TRE passes through without having to back in so I was not expecting this. However, all the tracks Amtrak uses are south of the station so this requires backing in. This also told me why they were busing to Dallas. They were trying to make up time by skipping Fort Worth and the time consuming stop. By consolidating all the passengers to Dallas (which they can pass through without backing), they probably saved tons of time.
We proceeded back to the coach to deboard. We only had a few minutes before our TRE back to Centrepoint would arrive. The Heartland Flyer was also in the station. The HF in all pictures I have seen used only three cars. Do of the old SF Hi-Level cars and one Superliner Coach/Snack car. This time, they had THREE Hi-Level cars on it along with the one superliner. It makes me wonder if they have anymore of those cars sitting around waiting to be used.
Our TRE train arrived very shortly and in no time we were back at out car.
This was a fun little trip. It gave us a small taste of our trip we will be having in July on the Capitol Limited.
We arrived at the Trinity Railway Express(TRE) Centrepoint/DFW (free parking) station 45 minutes early for our trip to Fort Worths Intermodal Station to catch train 22 to Dallas Union Station. I decided to call Julie to see the status and she said there was a problem and connected me with an agent. They informed me they were busing people to Dallas to catch 22. DOH! The whole point of this was to ride the train. I quickly had her change the reservations to 21 from Dallas to Fort Worth. Fortunately for me, 21 was running 3 hours late so we could still catch it in Dallas.
So instead of going West on TRE, we boarded the Eastbound TRE 7 minutes later to Dallas Union Station. We ended up having to kill like an hour and a half. We walked over to Dealy Plaza and checked out where Kennedy was shot. We then went back and waited on the platform. It was scheduled to arrive at 1:40. Actual arrival was a little after 4:00. This was the first time in a LONG time I got to experience the "arrival." It is exciting to see the train coming and see what cars are where as it passes you.
We immediately boarded one of the coaches. I asked the attendant if we could go straight to the lounge. He said we would have to wait until after the tickets were picked up. We grabbed four seats together that had signs reserving them for couples. They announced very clearly that this was not A TRE train, that is was Amtrak. I guess that has been a problem before. They quickly picked up our tickets and the train was off.
We moved to the lounge car for the duration. Only about 4 other people were in there. I had a good time talking trains with my 7 year old. Along the route (which is quite a ways south of the TRE lines) I saw us pass 22. This was confusing to me as to why they were busing people to Dallas when the train just went by. I figured it out later. See below.
I never looked at the time, but the trip was way too short. Seemed like less than an hour before I saw us pass the Fort Worth Station. That's right, pass. I immediately realized that we would be backing into the station. TRE passes through without having to back in so I was not expecting this. However, all the tracks Amtrak uses are south of the station so this requires backing in. This also told me why they were busing to Dallas. They were trying to make up time by skipping Fort Worth and the time consuming stop. By consolidating all the passengers to Dallas (which they can pass through without backing), they probably saved tons of time.
We proceeded back to the coach to deboard. We only had a few minutes before our TRE back to Centrepoint would arrive. The Heartland Flyer was also in the station. The HF in all pictures I have seen used only three cars. Do of the old SF Hi-Level cars and one Superliner Coach/Snack car. This time, they had THREE Hi-Level cars on it along with the one superliner. It makes me wonder if they have anymore of those cars sitting around waiting to be used.
Our TRE train arrived very shortly and in no time we were back at out car.
This was a fun little trip. It gave us a small taste of our trip we will be having in July on the Capitol Limited.
