Recent content by scoostraw

No dorm on today's #5 out of Chicago.

So I had booked Amtrak's California Zephyr round-trip from Chicago to Roseville, CA to visit my brother and his family. My departure date was Tuesday August 8, 2023. With today's Amtrak, the bar with me is set pretty low as far as expectations go. My main concerns were that the train would...

Um.. actually that is exactly what they did. Passengers were essentially just dumped onto the ground in the middle of the night and told to fend for themselves. I wonder if you realize what you sound like trying to defend such actions.

I think what will happen ultimately is that there will be only one car. Maybe the Viewliner diner is reconfigured and becomes a cafe car for everyone - including serving limited hot food. Sleeping car pax will have meals delivered to their rooms. I think this "sleeping car lounge" idea came...

I can see the press release now. "The sleeper lounges were under-utilized and thus have been removed."

I would not expect the dining cars being in the consist to last very long at all.

At least Amtrak could have been honest in their rollout of this new "service". Something along the lines of "As a federally subsidized transportation service, we have been directed by congress to eliminate food and beverage economic losses. As such, this summer we are eliminating the dining...

No excuse for screwing up like that. Good thing it worked out for you to wait a day. Have a good trip man. Please give us a report!

Oh ok you are using the app. Yup my brother is bummed about the ride in the dark - but is happy the train is running.

Where do you see this? amtrak.com just says status unavailable for Emeryville.

It finally departed. Train left the yard at 2:55. It is due at Roseville at 5:24pm (over 6 hours late). No idea why they cancelled your ticket for today - unless they overbooked the train.

Great system Amtrak. amtrak.com still shows an estimated departure time of 2:30pm. Well it is now 3pm. So I called the 800#. They know nothing. They just look at the same screen I am - and apparently have no access to any real info.

My brother just called the 800# and was told the train is running.

Weird.

This makes sense. (Amtrak cancelling User38's reservation for today does not)