Cardinal, Zephyr, Starlight trip

[Phil S]

Hi folks - Just thought I'd share the story with anyone interested. Cardinal CVS/CHI was lovely as usual, departing last Wed. As many of you will be aware, however, a 20-yr old male Purdue student killed himself by stepping in front of 51 as it pulled into the Lafayette station, in plain view of everyone on the platform. Finals week at Purdue. Amtrak bused us to Chicago -- unpleasant, my bus was freezing cold because driver could not close her window and I broke a rib helping pax get their bags on and off the bus (the driver was just not physically capable of dealing with the bags w/o a lot of help). . But we all made our connections in Chicago (Flyer, Zephyr, Builder, Chief). I gather I'm due a refund for the LFT/CHI portion of my roomette fare, but so far, despite two tries, I haven't been able to get through to refunds part of Amtrak.

Zephyr was great. I was in second sleeper, which was very quiet and stable. Richard, the SCA, was a delight. He even fixed the toilets in our car which "crapped" out as went across the Rockies. Figured out which one had the vacuum leak, stuffed a water filled plastic bag into it to seal it, reset the breaker and voila - we had **** flowing downhill as per specs. BNSF slowed us down about 3 hrs in Iowa, none of which we could make up until Utah, so we missed a little bit of Colorado canyon, but not much. Into MTZ about 2 hrs late. Turns out there's a quite good Thai restaurant about 3 blocks from the station (Royal Thai - recommended). Even after dinner had 4 hr wait in the station. In geenral, CZ dinners were great, bfast was adequate, lunch was sketchy.

Starlight was about 40 minutes late into MTZ so I was delighted to get to my roommette, find the bed all made up. Jaime, the SCA, was very nice. Bfast again adequate, but 2 of us made the mistake of ordering the meatloaf/mashed potato lunch, and both of us left most of it behind. I think Amtrak really does need to work on its lunch menu. One neat feature of #14 was the Pacific Parlour car. Reserved for sleeper pax it had a small meal service, upstairs observation area, and a completely empty downstairs area with seats. Anybody know the history of this? Also present was a mixed pax/crew sleeper at the very front. First of thise I had seen.

All told, a great trip --- except for the bus ride.

And already trying to figure out my next trip.

Cheers to all.

 

[johnny.menhennet]

The mixed pax/crew sleepers are called transdorms... They have a door at the front at the same level as the baggage car, so that crew may walk between... They are on every single double-deck train w/sleepers across the country

 

[Phil S]

The mixed pax/crew sleepers are called transdorms... They have a door at the front at the same level as the baggage car, so that crew may walk between... They are on every single double-deck train w/sleepers across the country

Johnny -- Really? Zephyr and Builder (the only double-deck ones I've been on recently other than Starlight) have the sleepers at the rear, not the front. So how would these have transdorms? In fact I walked to the front of these and and, if there was a transition sleeper, the sleeper part was not in use.

 

[johnny.menhennet]

The mixed pax/crew sleepers are called transdorms... They have a door at the front at the same level as the baggage car, so that crew may walk between... They are on every single double-deck train w/sleepers across the country

Johnny -- Really? Zephyr and Builder (the only double-deck ones I've been on recently other than Starlight) have the sleepers at the rear, not the front. So how would these have transdorms? In fact I walked to the front of these and and, if there was a transition sleeper, the sleeper part was not in use.

Well there are two sections of the Builder, there is the Seattle section, and the PDX section. The Seattle section has the transdorm connected to the baggage car

 

[AmtrakBlue]

The mixed pax/crew sleepers are called transdorms... They have a door at the front at the same level as the baggage car, so that crew may walk between... They are on every single double-deck train w/sleepers across the country

Johnny -- Really? Zephyr and Builder (the only double-deck ones I've been on recently other than Starlight) have the sleepers at the rear, not the front. So how would these have transdorms? In fact I walked to the front of these and and, if there was a transition sleeper, the sleeper part was not in use.

IIRC, the transdorm was on the front of the Zephyr hit by the truck and the next car was a coach and I believe the revenue sleepers were at the rear.

 

[zephyr17]

The mixed pax/crew sleepers are called transdorms... They have a door at the front at the same level as the baggage car, so that crew may walk between... They are on every single double-deck train w/sleepers across the country

Johnny -- Really? Zephyr and Builder (the only double-deck ones I've been on recently other than Starlight) have the sleepers at the rear, not the front. So how would these have transdorms? In fact I walked to the front of these and and, if there was a transition sleeper, the sleeper part was not in use.

Most Superliner trains run with the sleepers in front, the Zephyr is the only complete exception.

The Empire Builder runs with the Seattle sleepers in their usual place in the front. Only the Portland sleeper is on the rear.

The trans-dorm is always right after the baggage car, regardless of whether or not a sleeper is the next car, and the Zephyr certainly carries one. I don't know if they sell space in the Zephyr's trans-dorm, because it is away from the sleepers on that train, but they certainly do on the Empire Builder.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Correction: The Texas Eagle/CONO now travel with the Sleeper on the rear due to switching changes in SAS. The TransDorm is still @ the front of the Train (in front of the CCC)as usual! Also, I rode in the TransDorm on the Zephyr last Summer from EMY-CHI, so they do sell Revenue Space in the TransDorm @ least in the Summer!

 

[Donctor]

You broke a rib?

 

[Phil S]

Broke a rib getting bags out from the huge 2 ft high compartment under the bus. My fault, though it wouldn't have happened had the dirver been willing/able to do her job. Bus unloading by the curb next to Union Station with traffic going by 3 ft away didn't help either.

 

[cbqbill]

Last year I was on #51 when it struck a pickup truck parked on the tracks killing the driver. We were bussed to Chicago from east of Cincinnati and arrived with little time to spare for the westbound departures. The train conductor assurred us that someone from Amtrak would meet the buses to give us directions to our trains and there would be red cap service to help with luggage. When we pulled up to CUS there was no one from Amtrak in sight and there were no red caps. The coach attendant from the train was on the bus, but he was the first person out the door and disappeared. Draw your own conclusions about the quality of Amtrak's Chicago operation and people.

 

[AlanB]

The coach attendant from the train was on the bus, but he was the first person out the door and disappeared.

Not entirely surprising, seeing as how Amtrak stopped paying him the second that bus pulled up at the station. Same thing with all the trains, once that train reaches the final stop, the attendants are clocked out. Anything that they do after that point, they're doing on their own time.

Draw your own conclusions about the quality of Amtrak's Chicago operation and people.

Yes, Chicago probably should have been better prepared for your arrival, someone clearly dropped the ball there.

 

[Phil S]

Re Chicago station ops, yup, three of the four busses from Lafayette arrived within minutes of each other. Zero help from Amtrak at the Chicago end. Even so I had lots of time before CZ boarded so I went over to Passenger Services or some such to ask about partial refund for sleeper fare. They sent me across to ticket counter, but as I walked out the door Amtrak employee came in saying loudly "We just got three busloads of people in from the Cardinal. We could really use some help here." At ticket counter I explained to the agent that I'd been told I was due a refund. He replied that there's nothing written on your ticket stub by the conductor. I explained that we'd had "suicide by Amtrak" in Lafayette and that the conductor had more important things to deal with than my refund. The agent's mouth dropped and he said "I didn't know anything about that!" Anyway, it does seem that the coordination in the CHI station could improve.

 

[cassrr]

I had a similar experience this past summer when the Cardinal "bus-tituted" from CIN to CHI. This bus was the worst they could find. Every time the driver would open his window it would draw fumes from the restroom thru the bus, gagging nearly every passenger. I thought the driver was listening to a radio the whole trip, but it turned out he was talking on a cell phone the entire time! Arrived in Chicago at CUT with no help to remove baggage from the bus. I was lucky I didn't break a rib getting everbody's luggage out just to reach mine. Always great service from Amtrak, huh?