Having thousands upon thousands of unused Amtrak Guest Rewards points, and only weekends off thanks to my new job, led me to decide to take a quick trip to Washington, DC, and back. By quick, I mean that literally.
I flew from Midway Airport to BWI Saturday morning, arriving around 10:30. At BWI, I rode the B30 bus (which either was not air conditioned, or had defective air conditioning, not sure which) to Greenbelt, and boarded a Green Line train. The second car in that consist also had defective air conditioning, so I repositioned myself into the first car.
DC Metro has changed their subway announcements since the last time I was there. They got pretty annoying after the first or second time hearing them (I miss the old, "Doors closing; DOOO dooo"). After picking up my ticket and checking in at the Metropolitan Lounge, I returned to Metrorail (to get my money's worth out of the day pass), finding lunch in Virginia before returning via the Blue and Yellow lines. Having spent the last couple of months riding CTA's rail lines, the rides I took on the DC subway were such a nice, refreshing change.
I had my camera with me, and took photographs of planes, Metro buses, and even inside the Metro subway system. The *only* time I was bothered by anyone and told that photography wasn't allowed was by the Amtrak attendant that took us from the Metropolitan lounge to the track level at Washington Union Station. I'm not sure what the actual rule is regarding photography on track level at that station, but as my own way of giving the finger either to that employee or to the actual policy makers that made the rule (if the rule, in fact, exists), I took a photograph anyway after I walked by her. (It wasn't a very good photograph, but still, it's the principle of the matter.)
As outgoing DOT secretary Norman Mineta would say, nobody boarded the train, and it ran empty all the way to Chicago, serving places people didn't want to go to (like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Toledo, and Chicago). As I would say, having ridden the train, it was pretty full. The train had two sleepers and three coaches. Sometime before dinner, I walked through the coaches, and found that the first two coach cars were about 75% full of passengers traveling all the way to Chicago. The third coach had the "shorts," and was about 1/3 to 1/2 full. The sleepers appeared to be full, but I didn't really pay too close attention to which rooms had passengers and which ones didn't (I was in 05/2901).
As for "simplified dining service," as others have stated, the food quality is pretty good. One complaint would be the salad (which out SA brought out late, after our food, simply because he forgot) consisted of about four pieces of lettuce and a quarter slice of a cherry tomato. The ranch dressing wasn't very good. I had the roast chicken, and it was delicious. Mashed potatoes were good. Carrots were a little dry, but not too, too bad.
Service was spotty. The SA serving my table seemed to be new. He was slow at taking my order, and nearly walked away without taking my drink order. My table didn't have silverware. I already mentioned that the "salads" came late. Also, I had to ask him for dessert, as it was apparent that he wasn't going to ask anyone at the table if we wanted any. Oh, and BRING BACK THE CHOCOLATE PYRAMIDS.
We were on time from Washington, DC, all the way into Rockville, MD. Then we lost about 25 minutes due to a CSX switch problem. That led to us losing about a half hour waiting for a freight. I went to sleep after we left Pittsburgh (00:54, just over an hour late), and woke up shortly before we arrived into Toledo, an hour and a half late.
The sleeper had a new shower head/control unit installed (no more "push button, let water run for 30 seconds" setup). I don't specifically remember if this is the way it is on the remanufactured cars or not. Nevertheless, the instructions inside the shower on how to operate the unit still referred to the old setup.
Breakfast was good. Faster service, stuff served properly. Only complaint would be the lack of pancakes on the menu. Syrup was in little single-half-serving cups in a basket on the table (I forget how syrup was served before).
Stayed about 1:30 late through Elkhart, IN. I dozed off in my room for a while, and woke up as the car attendant was announcing arrival into Chicago. We were delayed crossing the state line as the drawbridge was raised.
Ultimately, we arrived 2:10 late into Chicago, at 10:40.
Interestingly, for both meals, when I told them that I flew into Washington just to take the train back, the guy sitting next to me said "You must be a railfan." At dinner, the couple across from us was retired, and interested in advocacy. The guy next to me told them about the Midwest High Speed Rail Association and the National Association of Railroad Passengers, and I gave them the address for NARP's website.
And, finally, for those keeping score at home:
99
69
1755
39045
32030
32047
38011
33032
34085
34065
34077
74051
74101
I flew from Midway Airport to BWI Saturday morning, arriving around 10:30. At BWI, I rode the B30 bus (which either was not air conditioned, or had defective air conditioning, not sure which) to Greenbelt, and boarded a Green Line train. The second car in that consist also had defective air conditioning, so I repositioned myself into the first car.
DC Metro has changed their subway announcements since the last time I was there. They got pretty annoying after the first or second time hearing them (I miss the old, "Doors closing; DOOO dooo"). After picking up my ticket and checking in at the Metropolitan Lounge, I returned to Metrorail (to get my money's worth out of the day pass), finding lunch in Virginia before returning via the Blue and Yellow lines. Having spent the last couple of months riding CTA's rail lines, the rides I took on the DC subway were such a nice, refreshing change.
I had my camera with me, and took photographs of planes, Metro buses, and even inside the Metro subway system. The *only* time I was bothered by anyone and told that photography wasn't allowed was by the Amtrak attendant that took us from the Metropolitan lounge to the track level at Washington Union Station. I'm not sure what the actual rule is regarding photography on track level at that station, but as my own way of giving the finger either to that employee or to the actual policy makers that made the rule (if the rule, in fact, exists), I took a photograph anyway after I walked by her. (It wasn't a very good photograph, but still, it's the principle of the matter.)
As outgoing DOT secretary Norman Mineta would say, nobody boarded the train, and it ran empty all the way to Chicago, serving places people didn't want to go to (like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Toledo, and Chicago). As I would say, having ridden the train, it was pretty full. The train had two sleepers and three coaches. Sometime before dinner, I walked through the coaches, and found that the first two coach cars were about 75% full of passengers traveling all the way to Chicago. The third coach had the "shorts," and was about 1/3 to 1/2 full. The sleepers appeared to be full, but I didn't really pay too close attention to which rooms had passengers and which ones didn't (I was in 05/2901).
As for "simplified dining service," as others have stated, the food quality is pretty good. One complaint would be the salad (which out SA brought out late, after our food, simply because he forgot) consisted of about four pieces of lettuce and a quarter slice of a cherry tomato. The ranch dressing wasn't very good. I had the roast chicken, and it was delicious. Mashed potatoes were good. Carrots were a little dry, but not too, too bad.
Service was spotty. The SA serving my table seemed to be new. He was slow at taking my order, and nearly walked away without taking my drink order. My table didn't have silverware. I already mentioned that the "salads" came late. Also, I had to ask him for dessert, as it was apparent that he wasn't going to ask anyone at the table if we wanted any. Oh, and BRING BACK THE CHOCOLATE PYRAMIDS.
We were on time from Washington, DC, all the way into Rockville, MD. Then we lost about 25 minutes due to a CSX switch problem. That led to us losing about a half hour waiting for a freight. I went to sleep after we left Pittsburgh (00:54, just over an hour late), and woke up shortly before we arrived into Toledo, an hour and a half late.
The sleeper had a new shower head/control unit installed (no more "push button, let water run for 30 seconds" setup). I don't specifically remember if this is the way it is on the remanufactured cars or not. Nevertheless, the instructions inside the shower on how to operate the unit still referred to the old setup.
Breakfast was good. Faster service, stuff served properly. Only complaint would be the lack of pancakes on the menu. Syrup was in little single-half-serving cups in a basket on the table (I forget how syrup was served before).
Stayed about 1:30 late through Elkhart, IN. I dozed off in my room for a while, and woke up as the car attendant was announcing arrival into Chicago. We were delayed crossing the state line as the drawbridge was raised.
Ultimately, we arrived 2:10 late into Chicago, at 10:40.
Interestingly, for both meals, when I told them that I flew into Washington just to take the train back, the guy sitting next to me said "You must be a railfan." At dinner, the couple across from us was retired, and interested in advocacy. The guy next to me told them about the Midwest High Speed Rail Association and the National Association of Railroad Passengers, and I gave them the address for NARP's website.
And, finally, for those keeping score at home:
99
69
1755
39045
32030
32047
38011
33032
34085
34065
34077
74051
74101
