Recent content by PME

I travelled in late May/early June on the Lake Shore Limited (NY), Empire Builder, Coast Starlight, Southwest Chief, Cardinal - all routes end-to-end In a sleeper. My experience was one included alcoholic beverage / day, paid for anything beyond that.

My experience over that last 10 days was mixed. On the EB and CS, diner seating was as you describe - blocked off tables and seating by traveling group. On the SWC (which was the first train i took that originated after June 1), seating was not blocked, although we still sat alone or with our...

On the CS as we speak - next station is San Luis Obispo. I am traveling the length - SEA to LA. I am booked in a Roomette - I have not found the dining car to be a challenge at all and understand that all sleepers are booked for at least a portion of the journey. The dining attendant surveys...

They were concerned that since the train only had power for a few minutes at a time, restrooms and HVAC were not functioning consistently on a 90 degree day to wait for the tow back to NYP.

Thanks for the welcome - I’m doing the trip in roomettes all the way (well except for the unexpected switch on the ride to Albany). The area where they did the transfer is a multiple track section just north of the exit from the west side tunnels in Manhattan. They pulled the second train (a...

Do you mean Wednesday 26th or Thursday 27th? If Thursday, I’m on that train, and it was only about 35 minutes late as they held it for our connection from the 4-1/2 hour late 49 train.

For context, LSL runs north from NYP along the Hudson River to Albany, picks up cars from Boston in Albany, then heads west across NYS then along the southern lake shores and up to Chicago. The thinking they described was rather than having us wait another hour on 49 for the tow back to NYP...

Amen to that! I just started a big circuit (LSL, EB, CS, SWC, Cardinal) over the next 10 days. It was not an auspicious start! EB seems to be going smoothly so far thankfully.

I was on that train last night. 49 originally left NYP about an hour late, no explanation. Then, shortly after leaving the west side tunnels, the train died. Despite many attempts over the next hour and a half, power would only stay on for a few minutes at a time. Amtrak pulled a scheduled...