I recently took my first cross-country Amtrak trip. I'm going to post this in parts since it's so long. My trip consisted of the Acela Express from NYP to WAS, train 29 (Capitol Limited) from WAS to CHI, and train 5 (California Zephyr) from CHI to EMY. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, my return trip was a flight back from San Francisco to New York.
Leg #1 - Acela Express - NYP to WAS
I arrived at Penn Station about 40 minutes before the train was scheduled to depart. I figured I might as well wait in the Club Acela Lounge in the station since I'd never seen it before and since I had access due to both my sleeper ticket and the fact that I was traveling first class on the Acela. The lounge was nice and much bigger than I expected. I found a comfortable seat and waited in there for about 20 minutes before they made an announcement regarding which track the train would be arriving on. This was nice since they usually don't announce the train until 10 minutes or so before it's going to depart - which results in a mad cattle rush to the stairs.
Anyway, after they let us down the escalator, I boarded the first class car and was disappointed to see that most of the seats had "reserved for group" signs on them. The conductor was telling everyone that some group had reserved the seats, but he didn't know who. Luckily I got the last single seat. Others who boarded after me (and at Newark, Metropark, and Trenton) were very unhappy to find out that they would be forced to sit with other groups. I can't say that I blame them - the first class fare is pretty steep. For these people, business class would probably had been more comfortable.
The attendant came around right away to see if I wanted anything to drink. There were two attendants, but only one came over to me. Then, I got a lunch menu and ordered the lasagna. It came out about 20 minutes later and was quite good. When we pulled into Philadelphia, we learned what group had reserved the seats - Joe Biden and about 30 others - that was interesting. We made it to Washington only a few minutes late. The trip was nice and first class was very comfortable. The new leather seats are really nice and there was ample legroom. It was nice to get served a hot meal, but I'm not sure that first class is really worth it - especially if it is crowded like it was since there's only one first class car.
Here are some pictures from this leg of the trip:
Interior of first class on the Acela Express
Menu onboard Acela Express first class
Lunch onboard Acela Express first class
The next post will be for the Capitol Limited.
Leg #1 - Acela Express - NYP to WAS
I arrived at Penn Station about 40 minutes before the train was scheduled to depart. I figured I might as well wait in the Club Acela Lounge in the station since I'd never seen it before and since I had access due to both my sleeper ticket and the fact that I was traveling first class on the Acela. The lounge was nice and much bigger than I expected. I found a comfortable seat and waited in there for about 20 minutes before they made an announcement regarding which track the train would be arriving on. This was nice since they usually don't announce the train until 10 minutes or so before it's going to depart - which results in a mad cattle rush to the stairs.
Anyway, after they let us down the escalator, I boarded the first class car and was disappointed to see that most of the seats had "reserved for group" signs on them. The conductor was telling everyone that some group had reserved the seats, but he didn't know who. Luckily I got the last single seat. Others who boarded after me (and at Newark, Metropark, and Trenton) were very unhappy to find out that they would be forced to sit with other groups. I can't say that I blame them - the first class fare is pretty steep. For these people, business class would probably had been more comfortable.
The attendant came around right away to see if I wanted anything to drink. There were two attendants, but only one came over to me. Then, I got a lunch menu and ordered the lasagna. It came out about 20 minutes later and was quite good. When we pulled into Philadelphia, we learned what group had reserved the seats - Joe Biden and about 30 others - that was interesting. We made it to Washington only a few minutes late. The trip was nice and first class was very comfortable. The new leather seats are really nice and there was ample legroom. It was nice to get served a hot meal, but I'm not sure that first class is really worth it - especially if it is crowded like it was since there's only one first class car.
Here are some pictures from this leg of the trip:
Interior of first class on the Acela Express
Menu onboard Acela Express first class
Lunch onboard Acela Express first class
The next post will be for the Capitol Limited.
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