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I'm not sure if there are still pandemic-related reductions in service, but pre-pandemic the food options in VIA business class were far superior to what was available in coach. BC had hot meals, stainless cutlery and glassware vs. the cold sandwiches and snacks in coach. So the upgrade might be...

So, there's no plan to restore the sleeper even from Washington north?

Well, now that they've driven away most of the passengers, the two-hour stop that was needed to process 175 people seems really absurd if they only have 30 or 40 people on board, which was a more typical number before the pandemic. When we took the Maple Leaf eastbound in the winter of 2017, the...

It's the cross-border ridership that has really plummeted over time. The long stop at the border has been a deterrent for at least the past two decades. After it was extended from 30 or 45 minutes to nearly two hours, lots of Canadian travelers began just driving across to NFL or BUF, which of...

On the couple of rides I've had in them, the full Amfleet-1 business cars really seemed barely any different from coach. It's 2-and-2 seating with a bit more legroom, but on NEC trains this hardly seems worth the extra fare. And when I booked a BC seat in one of these cars on the Pennsylvanian a...

Yeah, Second Cup was good -- much better, I thought, than the Dunkin' that Amtrak was serving at the time.

This is pretty much how I feel about it. I tolerated the schlep-off-the-train-with-your-luggage routine on my one-way solo trip in 2018, and I might put up with it again sometime if I'm traveling alone. But I remember thinking when we went through it on a family trip in 2017, "Let's not do this...

I remember that VIA snack counter setup, which had the feeling of a very temporary occupation of Amtrak's space. I'm not sure the VIA attendant had access to any of the Amtrak cupboards or fridges, so his stuff was just laid out on the surfaces. At least in recent years, the VIA menu was very...

I agree that the Pittsburgh station is a bit sad, and my wife still groans about a holiday trip in 2009 that found us waiting there till nearly 2 a.m. for the westbound Capitol to show up. But in this era of flex meals and dining cars that are closed to coach passengers, one advantage to taking...

Crescent No. 20 had another 5 a.m. departure from Atlanta this morning. (It was due out last night at 11:29.) The run started two and a half hours late out of New Orleans, I assume because of the late arrival of inbound equipment the night before. (The previous night's No. 19 arrived at NOL at...

I thought that in recent years they had made everyone pile off the train at the Maple Leaf border crossings. On my last ride on it in 2018, I had a BC seat to Toronto and was allowed back to the same seat after hauling my luggage into the VIA NFO station for a lengthy customs interview.

When we rode from BOS to ALB on Monday (6/13), the usual BC-cafe combo car was in the consist right behind the Boston sleeper, with the BC end toward the sleeper. There were two Amfleet 2 coaches on 449, and another three waiting at Albany from #49 from NYP.

Oh, I agree, you can't blame Amtrak for trespasser incidents or grade-crossing accidents -- or for the disabled freight trains that caused the Silver Star problems this week and the California Zephyr extreme delay that rippled through the system for a few days and contributed to delays on the...

Today it's the Crescent's turn. No. 20 was due out of Atlanta at 11:29 p.m. last night but didn't leave till 5:01 a.m. on account of a "trespasser incident" in Alabama. (Sounds like a fun wait at Peachtree Station.) It's currently about five hours down and seems sure to miss the last same-day...

Yeah, in some ways I'd rather have 448 be nine hours late than 4-5 hours late, especially if I have a sleeper room. At least Boston is functioning at 6 a.m. At 2 a.m., it's mostly closed, and an unplanned night's stay at one of the hotels is godawful expensive.

6:39 a.m. at NYP on a two-night haul from Florida

That particular run lost time the whole way, arriving in ALB a few minutes before 11 p.m. and reaching NYP at the attractive time of 2:55 a.m. The Boston section reached South Station at 5:56 a.m. The next night's 48, which was held at CHI till after 11:30 p.m. for delayed trains from the...

This is just how I feel about the Lake Shore at this point, at least for overnight travel. It's bad enough to have flex food for three meals at the LSL's high sleeper prices, but it somehow seems worse if you might be stuck on the train through an extra meal period or two. We did ride it from...

The eastbound Lake Shore left Chicago last night about 2:20 a.m. after what Amtrak said were mechanical problems. It finally cleared Cleveland at 11:39 this morning. The previous night's train arrived in Boston about 12:30 a.m. last night, but this one is setting up to be even later. The...

When I stopped there in 2018, there was a restaurant/bar operating in the old waiting room and concourse, which was quite a nice space with many original details preserved. I had dinner there and enjoyed it. The Amtrak waiting area was in a much more utilitarian room with a separate entrance...