First Time at Train Mecca

[XHRTSP]

I'm posting from Chicago Union Station in anticipation of my first midwest train ride. I'm one week into at least eight of job training in St Louis, so this morning I jumpseated to Midway for some breakfast and study time in the Loop. In less than an hour I board the Texas Eagle back. I was hoping to do Lincoln Service, but the TE schedule was a little bit more convenient. I hear it goes pretty fast on this segment too so why not.

Union seems pretty cool, especially the great hall even though most of it is roped off while they set up some kind of event. The Amtrak waiting area not so great, kinda reminds me of some of the crappier parts of IAH.

More to come...

 

[SarahZ]

The coach waiting room is pretty awful. If you have a business class ticket, you can wait in the swanky Metropolitan Lounge.

I prefer to wait in the Great Hall. It's too bad it's roped off. I love taking pictures in there. Do you have access to the stairs? If not, you can try exiting and then re-enter from up top so you can at least see them. I love how they have depressions from all of the shoes wearing them down over the years. It's neat to picture all of the travelers who have walked down those stairs over the decades.

 

[XHRTSP]

I did go up and down the stairs as they were still free to access. Place is pretty impressive, and gives you a nice sense of history. No pictures though. I'm traveling light today, and with all the tablets, books, manuals and stuff in my bag there wasn't much room left for the SLR.

I had some good timing and got back down to the Antrak area right as boarding started. They selected me for a random bag sniff, so I had to tell the guy that I use to work alongside Cordite and Comp B and should he find anything not to automatically evacuate the station. Luckily nothing showed up. Got on board and we were wheels rolling exactly on time. So far so good.

 

[XHRTSP]

Made it to St Louis, late unfortunately. It seems like we were moving just fine most of the way but once we passed Alton it was just a crawl to the bridge. Speaking of which, I think I've seen videos on YouTube of Amtrak tranversing the bridge north of the Arch and then taking that tunnel under gateway park, but we took the bridge south of the Arch. Is the southern bridge the standard route and that video was a one off, or what is the situation exactly? And some pax decided to switch seats to a diferent car and then missed their stop. Sucks to be them.

Mostly a cool trip.

 

[Bob Dylan]

The Southern Bridge from East St. Louis is the "Regular" Route for the Lincoln Service and Eagle Trains between Chicago and St. Louis! Once in awhile they will take the Alternate Route that you mention that goes North through the Tunnel ,under the Arch and then across the Mississippi! I've never seen a Southbound Train take that Route, only the Northbounds to Chicago!

 

[jis]

The Southern Bridge from East St. Louis is the "Regular" Route for the Lincoln Service and Eagle Trains between Chicago and St. Louis! Once in awhile they will take the Alternate Route that you mention that goes North through the Tunnel ,under the Arch and then across the Mississippi! I've never seen a Southbound Train take that Route, only the Northbounds to Chicago!

Is that the MacArthur bridge you refer to? The one in the South I mean? The other route is across the Merchants Bridge I believe.

 

[Misty.]

To my recollection, MacArthur is the southern bridge, and Merchants is the northern... And I have done Merchants on a southbound Lincoln Service (though my first Texas Eagle ride north started my "fixation" on wanting to have Merchants Bridge for as many of my runs as possible), usually when I'm on 303 after points runs further north.