Hello,
My brother and I recently took a round-trip on the City of New Orleans and Capitol Limited, and I thought I would post about the experience.
Our itinerary began with the CONO on the 8th of this month. We took it north to Chicago, and then spent a couple of days at a motel in Aurora. We then took the Capitol Limited east to DC on the 10th, and returned on the westbound back to Chicago the next day. As some of you may have seen in another post, we were originally booked on the Southwest Chief, but were downgraded from a bedroom to coach, so we booked bedrooms on the Capitol Limited instead.
We boarded the City of New Orleans at Effingham about 3 hours late. I did not pay too much attention to the consist of the northbound, but I do know that it had a single P42, 2 full sleepers, and a diner/lounge. I'm not sure if it had 2 or 3 coaches.
Both Capitol Limited trips were relatively on-time, with the westbound arriving in Chicago about an hour late. Both of them consisted of a single P42, a baggage car, 2 full sleepers, a diner/lounge, and 3 coaches. The line at the snack bar was fairly long nearly every time we attempted to get to it. Most of the time, we could see that it stretched at least halfway through the first coach, with no practical way to get to the back of it. We were able to visit it once on each trip. On the eastbound, the credit/debit card machine was down for nearly the entire trip, so I would imagine that accounted for part of the backup. On the westbound, the sleeper we were in wasn't very full at all. For several hours after leaving Washington, there appeared to only be 2 or 3 rooms occupied other than ours.
I happened to be at Union Station in Chicago during the severe weather and tornado warnings on the 13th, which was a first for me. All trains arriving into and leaving the station were delayed, and the staff made an announcement asking everybody in the Metropolitan lounge to stay off of the second level. From the lower level, we could hear lots of thunder and roaring from the storm. The TV's in the lounge all lost signal. The southbound City of New Orleans that we were waiting to board would ultimately end up leaving around 3 hours late. On an unrelated note, I noticed that the eastbound California Zephyr was something like 12 hours late at the time. The southbound City of New Orleans had a conventional diner and had a lounge/obs car, with the cafe on the lower level being used for service. The northbound did not have a lounge/obs car.
All in all, other than the earlier disappointment of the downgrade on the SWC, it wasn't a bad experience. Every staff member we encountered was courteous and helpful. I will also say that I was pleasantly surprised by how good the braised beef was. It wasn't as good as the steak, but it wasn't terrible in my experience. The microwaved version of the french toast wasn't bad either. For the amount of money that a room costs, though, it would be nice to see full-service dining return to the eastern trains.
My brother and I recently took a round-trip on the City of New Orleans and Capitol Limited, and I thought I would post about the experience.
Our itinerary began with the CONO on the 8th of this month. We took it north to Chicago, and then spent a couple of days at a motel in Aurora. We then took the Capitol Limited east to DC on the 10th, and returned on the westbound back to Chicago the next day. As some of you may have seen in another post, we were originally booked on the Southwest Chief, but were downgraded from a bedroom to coach, so we booked bedrooms on the Capitol Limited instead.
We boarded the City of New Orleans at Effingham about 3 hours late. I did not pay too much attention to the consist of the northbound, but I do know that it had a single P42, 2 full sleepers, and a diner/lounge. I'm not sure if it had 2 or 3 coaches.
Both Capitol Limited trips were relatively on-time, with the westbound arriving in Chicago about an hour late. Both of them consisted of a single P42, a baggage car, 2 full sleepers, a diner/lounge, and 3 coaches. The line at the snack bar was fairly long nearly every time we attempted to get to it. Most of the time, we could see that it stretched at least halfway through the first coach, with no practical way to get to the back of it. We were able to visit it once on each trip. On the eastbound, the credit/debit card machine was down for nearly the entire trip, so I would imagine that accounted for part of the backup. On the westbound, the sleeper we were in wasn't very full at all. For several hours after leaving Washington, there appeared to only be 2 or 3 rooms occupied other than ours.
I happened to be at Union Station in Chicago during the severe weather and tornado warnings on the 13th, which was a first for me. All trains arriving into and leaving the station were delayed, and the staff made an announcement asking everybody in the Metropolitan lounge to stay off of the second level. From the lower level, we could hear lots of thunder and roaring from the storm. The TV's in the lounge all lost signal. The southbound City of New Orleans that we were waiting to board would ultimately end up leaving around 3 hours late. On an unrelated note, I noticed that the eastbound California Zephyr was something like 12 hours late at the time. The southbound City of New Orleans had a conventional diner and had a lounge/obs car, with the cafe on the lower level being used for service. The northbound did not have a lounge/obs car.
All in all, other than the earlier disappointment of the downgrade on the SWC, it wasn't a bad experience. Every staff member we encountered was courteous and helpful. I will also say that I was pleasantly surprised by how good the braised beef was. It wasn't as good as the steak, but it wasn't terrible in my experience. The microwaved version of the french toast wasn't bad either. For the amount of money that a room costs, though, it would be nice to see full-service dining return to the eastern trains.
