Recent content by Mackensen

I was on #132 yesterday and observed track work near the Maryland/Delaware border which caused a twenty-minute delay. Whether that's related is another matter.

I don't see what relevance this has. No one's saying it can't be done--obviously it can. However, implementing this change would require capital expenses upfront--investment in IT to enable this procedure when ticketing, training for on-board service personnel, training for call-center...

I wouldn't plan on lunch into Jackson. My memory is that lunch service starts at 11 or 11:30 AM. There's quite a bit of slack in the schedule at Jackson going south; when I took the train in January 2012 we hit Jackson a good 30 minutes early and wandered around near the station.

Though if you're staying in the Garden District you're still better off walking down Howard Avenue to Lee Circle and picking up the St. Charles Line there.

The westbound Lake Shores have been running late for the last couple days. I gather from posts on other forums that it's a combination of weather and CSX trackwork in Central New York. I'm heading out on 49 (24) in a few hours and we'll see how it goes.

Consolidating the city buses was part of the grant; I don't remember if we had the opportunity to vote on it or not. The real trick was luring Greyhound/Indian Trails back from the airport after the renovation finished. I remember that the city had to do some arm-twisting but I don't recall the...

It could be that it's sold out for the date in question.

Unless something changed in the last month or two the Blue Water uses the same equipment as the Wolverine: 3-5 Horizon coaches and either an Amfleet or Horizon Club/Dinette. Superliner equipment usually only shows up in the winter when the Horizons are down for maintenance, and then not every day.

I was in Chicago about three weeks ago and I just showed them my phone. No problem whatsoever.

When Amtrak did this a few years ago for Labor Day the equipment set was parked opposite Western Michigan University's football stadium after the late night/early morning arrival. It's double-track there and of course there isn't any local traffic to worry about.

I've seen it ONCE in 40,000 miles, and it was a young mother with several children. The conductor was very helpful, but I think he was also anxious to get the whole family out of coach (Lake Shore Limited-Boston section). This would seem to be another change flowing from eticketing and ought to...

I was in Tacoma back in 2008 and at the time it seemed like there was enough space at Freighthouse. It's not like the Amshack a few blocks over is all that capacious.

I'm not sure it's possible to make a fair judgement. My impression of the Viewliner is colored by the fact that Amtrak doesn't have good single-level lounge cars. Compounding this, I usually only occupy a Viewliner on either the New York or Boston section of the Lake Shore Limited, which means...

At Kalamazoo you tell the conductor you're BC and you board at the cafe car directly, proceeding to your seat. It'll be obvious to the attendant that you're BC. It's no big deal.

Huh, you're right. PDX->DET doesn't give the same routings as SEA-DET. You can get PDX-CHI-DET via Multi-City. That's very strange.