RailFanLNK
Conductor
Hello All,
Well..... I just took my second trip on Amtrak. It took me 42 years of my life to ride a train, and now its only taken 3 months for me to climb aboard again and with my girlfriend. We left Lincoln Nebraska on #5 Saturday morning with our destination being the little resort/mountain town of Glenwood Springs CO. We were scheduled to depart at 12:20am and we ended up leaving around 12:50am. That wasn't a bad wait at all. When we went to CA in March we had a deluxe bedroom. We were going "coach" this time and to my girlfriends surprise, I snagged a roomette at the cost of $116.00!!!!! We have dated now for 2 years and this trip was our "anniversary" trip. She opened a card at my house as we were getting ready to go and in the card was a "surprise" envelope with the info that we had a roomette. She continually thanked me for the little "surprise". It was only "TO GSC" and we wanted to experience coach on the way back. We have now experienced coach, a roomette and deluxe bedroom so we have pretty much experienced every accomodation on the Superliner. (that I know of)
The crew on #5 to GSC was exceptional. Not that the crew in March wasn't, but they just simply did there job and was businesslike, this crew was a hoot. My congrats go out to two individuals that "stood out" above the rest and that was room attendent "J.C." (I think was his name) he lives in Mississippi and has been with Amtrak for 32 years. When I tried to tip him at the very start of the trip, he politely declined and said, "this is my job, do that to me when we get to GSC." He was funny, lively, knowledgeable and most of all kind. We sat and visited with him in Denver during the small layover and he told us some of the "woes" of Amtrak and how they are going to "fix" them. The "fix" really is with people who are running Amtrak at this moment and none of them have any railroad background. :unsure: He also told us that the ridership has been up significantly and that he hopes people keep finding the "treasure" of train travel as a option to airline hell! I believe the cars we were in were older but on the way back, we had a "refurbished" lounge and sightseer car. The sightseeing car had actual booths in it. We had never seen those and the car was in real good shape. As we left Denver both my girlfriend and I noticed that the train was at full capacity from what we could tell. Another employee that was exceptional was Ronald, he was a dining car steward and was just a blast to be with. The dining car crew on our trip in March was quite "blah", but these guys "rock and rolled". They took the neatest part of the train and really made it even more "cool" with there professonalism and attitude. We were "dozing" in our roomette when we finally decided to eat lunch. We didn't know that that #5 had been GAINING time from Denver. We finally had our number called since the dining car was so busy and to our surprise learned we were almost to GSC. We told Ronald that we were getting off in GSC and he politely told the people we were sharing our table with that he would be "right back" and he went and put in our order. WE got our food real quick, ate and by the time we got back to our roomette, we were pulling into the Depot. We arrived in GSC 12 minutes EARLY!!!!! Every facet of this trip the timing was "perfect". Wether it was with Amtrak, a restaurant we went to, church or even a 12 Step Support group meeting I decided to go to when I heard #6 was running one hour late and it gave me the time to go to a meeting at 12:30pm at the church we just attended 1 hour earlier that was 1 1/2 blocks from the train station!!!!!
The GSC depot is just a small gem. It has a railroad musuem, 3 Amtrak employees and an old hotel just across the street called the Hotel Denver. We opted to stay at the Glenwood Springs Hostel. It cost us $30.00 total. All the hotels were minimum of $100 or more and you had to book two nights on Memorial Day weekend. In just 24 hours my girlfriend and I went and enjoyed the Hot Springs Pool where Doc Holliday and Teddy Roosevelt came to either get well or vacation. We ate a "Juicy Lucy's" where I had the best ribeye I have had in quite some time. (I'm sorry, but I live in Nebraska, we are the Beef State and most steaks outside of Nebraska are kinda lousy) We didn't rent a car either so everything we did was within 6 blocks of the GSC depot. (plus it kept our trip cost to the bare minimum) We met friends at the Hostel too. Between the train and Hostel, I made 10 more friends in life. One individual at the Hostel was from Ireland. (I'm Irish American and fly the Irish Flag at my home) Another person was from Dublin on the train and we conversed with him as well.
We got on #6 on the way back on Sunday at 1:40pm. It was running about 55 minutes late. The train was again at full capacity and sat beside a woman in coach who had been from NY to SF and now was on her way back. She said she was doing it for $600.00 and was a single parent. Even though her children were a little noisy, they were well behaved. My girlfriend and I couldn't imagine how many hours that would have been. I think she took the Lakeshore from NY (correct me if I'm wrong) and then connected to the Zephyr in Chicago. She was on her way back. OUR BIGGEST SURPRISE WAS THAT COACH WASN'T THAT MUCH OF A DRAG!!!! Remember, we started out in the deluxe bedroom on our first Amtrak trip, then did the roomette and then did coach on the way back. I didn't sleep the greatest (thank God for Tylenol PM) But I did sleep! We were surprised on how much room there was and how comfortable the seats were. The only downside was when we went to get ready to sleep, my girfrends seat didn't have the lounge part of the reclining chair. It just had the footrest and not the part that you fold out and make the seat a little bigger. She hadn't used it and the train was full again. On our way back we again hooked up with a very nice couple from Lincoln NE that we had breakfast with in the dining car. They were going to Denver and back and we ended up sitting near them on the return to Lincoln after they got back on in Denver. The return trip was interesting and we had a female lounge car attendent that was nice but kinda a control freak. She wouldn't tell us what movie she was going to play and some people were remarking that she had a little bit of "military" in her. We were in the lounge car alot with the big windows and watching a pretty good movie.
When I got onboard in GSC to return home I saw a family. I could tell the "father" looked "put out" and he was standing with his suitcase/luggage in hand about 1 hour outside of Denver in the aisle. He was snipping at his wife and kid and then I heard him remark, "I"m never taking the train again". They then preceeded to go down to the lower part of the coach car as we were pulling into Denver. But I have gotten to know that it takes another 15-20 minutes to actual get off at the station. I told my girlfriend that I wanted to "feel the guy out" on why he was so "put out". The wife and son seemed to be having a good time and he was just a sour puss. He remarked to me below that "we are almost an hour late" getting into Denver. I found out they were from Sacramento and that they had did coach the whole way and it was there first trip. I told them thats a little far to go in coach and that an hour late was "good" and reminded him, "have you ever been an hour late with the airlines?" I also preceeded to tell him that this was U.P.'s last chance to jack us around since we were getting on BN rail lines after Denver. (they were getting off in Denver) They (the whole family) said, "what do you mean?" I told them about Amtraks problems with the "host" railroads. I told them we arrived 6 hours late to SF in March and only because UP put us behind to freight trains in Utah and we lost so much time. They had NO clue about that. (neither did I until I met you all)
My girlfriend and I are now in the process of booking another trip on Amtrak to GSC with her two children. We are going to stay at the Hostel for $50.00 for two days with her kids. We plan a trip just like this on Labor Day and I plan on using my GRP to get us one free ticket. I LOVE RIDING THE TRAIN!!!! The people I meet are always really fun or cool. The coach car was remarkably "quiet" the whole trip. I'm just gonna be sick if they do away with this form of transportation.
Well..... I just took my second trip on Amtrak. It took me 42 years of my life to ride a train, and now its only taken 3 months for me to climb aboard again and with my girlfriend. We left Lincoln Nebraska on #5 Saturday morning with our destination being the little resort/mountain town of Glenwood Springs CO. We were scheduled to depart at 12:20am and we ended up leaving around 12:50am. That wasn't a bad wait at all. When we went to CA in March we had a deluxe bedroom. We were going "coach" this time and to my girlfriends surprise, I snagged a roomette at the cost of $116.00!!!!! We have dated now for 2 years and this trip was our "anniversary" trip. She opened a card at my house as we were getting ready to go and in the card was a "surprise" envelope with the info that we had a roomette. She continually thanked me for the little "surprise". It was only "TO GSC" and we wanted to experience coach on the way back. We have now experienced coach, a roomette and deluxe bedroom so we have pretty much experienced every accomodation on the Superliner. (that I know of)
The crew on #5 to GSC was exceptional. Not that the crew in March wasn't, but they just simply did there job and was businesslike, this crew was a hoot. My congrats go out to two individuals that "stood out" above the rest and that was room attendent "J.C." (I think was his name) he lives in Mississippi and has been with Amtrak for 32 years. When I tried to tip him at the very start of the trip, he politely declined and said, "this is my job, do that to me when we get to GSC." He was funny, lively, knowledgeable and most of all kind. We sat and visited with him in Denver during the small layover and he told us some of the "woes" of Amtrak and how they are going to "fix" them. The "fix" really is with people who are running Amtrak at this moment and none of them have any railroad background. :unsure: He also told us that the ridership has been up significantly and that he hopes people keep finding the "treasure" of train travel as a option to airline hell! I believe the cars we were in were older but on the way back, we had a "refurbished" lounge and sightseer car. The sightseeing car had actual booths in it. We had never seen those and the car was in real good shape. As we left Denver both my girlfriend and I noticed that the train was at full capacity from what we could tell. Another employee that was exceptional was Ronald, he was a dining car steward and was just a blast to be with. The dining car crew on our trip in March was quite "blah", but these guys "rock and rolled". They took the neatest part of the train and really made it even more "cool" with there professonalism and attitude. We were "dozing" in our roomette when we finally decided to eat lunch. We didn't know that that #5 had been GAINING time from Denver. We finally had our number called since the dining car was so busy and to our surprise learned we were almost to GSC. We told Ronald that we were getting off in GSC and he politely told the people we were sharing our table with that he would be "right back" and he went and put in our order. WE got our food real quick, ate and by the time we got back to our roomette, we were pulling into the Depot. We arrived in GSC 12 minutes EARLY!!!!! Every facet of this trip the timing was "perfect". Wether it was with Amtrak, a restaurant we went to, church or even a 12 Step Support group meeting I decided to go to when I heard #6 was running one hour late and it gave me the time to go to a meeting at 12:30pm at the church we just attended 1 hour earlier that was 1 1/2 blocks from the train station!!!!!
The GSC depot is just a small gem. It has a railroad musuem, 3 Amtrak employees and an old hotel just across the street called the Hotel Denver. We opted to stay at the Glenwood Springs Hostel. It cost us $30.00 total. All the hotels were minimum of $100 or more and you had to book two nights on Memorial Day weekend. In just 24 hours my girlfriend and I went and enjoyed the Hot Springs Pool where Doc Holliday and Teddy Roosevelt came to either get well or vacation. We ate a "Juicy Lucy's" where I had the best ribeye I have had in quite some time. (I'm sorry, but I live in Nebraska, we are the Beef State and most steaks outside of Nebraska are kinda lousy) We didn't rent a car either so everything we did was within 6 blocks of the GSC depot. (plus it kept our trip cost to the bare minimum) We met friends at the Hostel too. Between the train and Hostel, I made 10 more friends in life. One individual at the Hostel was from Ireland. (I'm Irish American and fly the Irish Flag at my home) Another person was from Dublin on the train and we conversed with him as well.We got on #6 on the way back on Sunday at 1:40pm. It was running about 55 minutes late. The train was again at full capacity and sat beside a woman in coach who had been from NY to SF and now was on her way back. She said she was doing it for $600.00 and was a single parent. Even though her children were a little noisy, they were well behaved. My girlfriend and I couldn't imagine how many hours that would have been. I think she took the Lakeshore from NY (correct me if I'm wrong) and then connected to the Zephyr in Chicago. She was on her way back. OUR BIGGEST SURPRISE WAS THAT COACH WASN'T THAT MUCH OF A DRAG!!!! Remember, we started out in the deluxe bedroom on our first Amtrak trip, then did the roomette and then did coach on the way back. I didn't sleep the greatest (thank God for Tylenol PM)
But I did sleep! We were surprised on how much room there was and how comfortable the seats were. The only downside was when we went to get ready to sleep, my girfrends seat didn't have the lounge part of the reclining chair. It just had the footrest and not the part that you fold out and make the seat a little bigger. She hadn't used it and the train was full again. On our way back we again hooked up with a very nice couple from Lincoln NE that we had breakfast with in the dining car. They were going to Denver and back and we ended up sitting near them on the return to Lincoln after they got back on in Denver. The return trip was interesting and we had a female lounge car attendent that was nice but kinda a control freak. She wouldn't tell us what movie she was going to play and some people were remarking that she had a little bit of "military" in her. We were in the lounge car alot with the big windows and watching a pretty good movie.When I got onboard in GSC to return home I saw a family. I could tell the "father" looked "put out" and he was standing with his suitcase/luggage in hand about 1 hour outside of Denver in the aisle. He was snipping at his wife and kid and then I heard him remark, "I"m never taking the train again". They then preceeded to go down to the lower part of the coach car as we were pulling into Denver. But I have gotten to know that it takes another 15-20 minutes to actual get off at the station. I told my girlfriend that I wanted to "feel the guy out" on why he was so "put out". The wife and son seemed to be having a good time and he was just a sour puss. He remarked to me below that "we are almost an hour late" getting into Denver. I found out they were from Sacramento and that they had did coach the whole way and it was there first trip. I told them thats a little far to go in coach and that an hour late was "good" and reminded him, "have you ever been an hour late with the airlines?" I also preceeded to tell him that this was U.P.'s last chance to jack us around since we were getting on BN rail lines after Denver. (they were getting off in Denver) They (the whole family) said, "what do you mean?" I told them about Amtraks problems with the "host" railroads. I told them we arrived 6 hours late to SF in March and only because UP put us behind to freight trains in Utah and we lost so much time. They had NO clue about that. (neither did I until I met you all)
My girlfriend and I are now in the process of booking another trip on Amtrak to GSC with her two children. We are going to stay at the Hostel for $50.00 for two days with her kids. We plan a trip just like this on Labor Day and I plan on using my GRP to get us one free ticket. I LOVE RIDING THE TRAIN!!!! The people I meet are always really fun or cool. The coach car was remarkably "quiet" the whole trip. I'm just gonna be sick if they do away with this form of transportation.
