I was glad to get off Texas Eagle today

[Gingee]

This was one time I was glad to get off Texas Eagle. We picked it up in Dallas (ran two hours late due to a freight engine breaking down in Fort Worth. Okay, we get on there late. Drive a few feet. Wait a little longer. Okay, they can't help that. Quiet time announcement at ten p.m. Two women in the front of my car continue to talk and talk and talk. After thirty minutes or so I go to one of the workers and tell them these two women keep talking. One follows me at a distance. She passes me up in my seat. I told her where these women were. Nothing is said to them. Now these women were probably two or three rows ahead of me. Then two guys keep talking behind me. Finally we are able to fall asleep (between the car door opening and closing bringing people in and out so many times). Then around two or three a.m. a conductor brings someone up and he is talking loud too. Then a baby cries on and off (baby can't help that). Now when we picked this train up in Bloomington, they sorted people into different cars based on where they were going. This was not a quiet train.

 

[MrEd]

I have used headphones to cancel out talking and crying on the train, worked for me.

 

[nolatron]

Foam Earplugs work wonders. I used them in my sleeper to drown out ambient sound (car rattles, track noise, people, train horn, etc..).

 

[daveyb99]

Another tip to help resolve this: Sleeper

 

[jdcnosse]

I understand the complaint about people talking especially when it is quiet time, but I agree with the people here that sometimes you just have to ignore it/deal with it. I use headphones/music to drown out the other people, sounds of the door opening and closing, etc

 

[Blackwolf]

The time difference aside, at least on a train you can get *some* relief from a noisy individual(s) in coach. You're not trapped in a tiny cardboard box of a seat, strapped in and stuck like you are with the seat-kicking and screaming kid on a plane!

And yeah. I'm so spoiled on sleeper now, to the point of not really considering an overnight train trip without it. Last did coach on VIA on the Ocean several times this last spring, and yeah... Want to Avoid!! (at least Amtrak cars don't rattle apart at the seams every single time the vestibule doors are opened like the Renascence carriages do!)

 

[me_little_me]

I have used headphones to cancel out talking and crying on the train, worked for me.

I just turn off my hearing aids.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

I have used headphones to cancel out talking and crying on the train, worked for me.

I just turn off my hearing aids.

One of the advantages of being deaf. . I've done the same in noisy places.

 

[Gingee]

The train was sold out (so they said). We could not get a sleeper. Trust me. I usually go sleepers but the price of them was so high that I thought this would be all right. I think I will think twice to do this again.

 

[Caesar La Rock]

I fell asleep in the Amfleet Lounge car of train 97. At least I didn't hear no one crying there. That's what I did.

 

[SarahZ]

My boyfriend and I argued coach vs. roomette for our recent trip to ABQ. He argued, "It's only one night; paying for a room doesn't make sense." I argued, "Do you remember how many noisy trips we've had in coach?" And so on. I finally conceded since he's the most stubborn person I know.

On the trip to ABQ, we had a HUGE family (approximately thirty people) get on in Kansas City. They talked while the children ran around all night. They departed in La Junta, CO, just in time for the sun to come up and the other passengers to wake up. We got maybe twenty minutes of sleep.

On the way back from ABQ, the young man next to us (who'd slept all day), spent the entire night laughing at a movie and eating something wrapped in approximately 27 layers of cellophane. That, and the guy behind me kept kicking my seat in his sleep. After getting approximately two hours of sleep, my boyfriend woke up and started complaining about the noise. Then he looked at me and asked if I'd slept at all. (I hadn't.) I glared at him and said, "We are never doing this again. We are getting a room for all overnight trips. I'll pay for it. I don't care. I am not doing this again, and if you argue with me next time, I'll remind you of this trip." He was too sleepy to argue and just nodded in agreement.

 

[FunNut]

I wouldn't even consider an overnight train trip unless I had a roomette or better. I'm sorry the OP had such a miserable trip.

 

[Mackensen]

My boyfriend and I argued coach vs. roomette for our recent trip to ABQ. He argued, "It's only one night; paying for a room doesn't make sense." I argued, "Do you remember how many noisy trips we've had in coach?" And so on. I finally conceded since he's the most stubborn person I know.

On the trip to ABQ, we had a HUGE family (approximately thirty people) get on in Kansas City. They talked while the children ran around all night. They departed in La Junta, CO, just in time for the sun to come up and the other passengers to wake up. We got maybe twenty minutes of sleep.

On the way back from ABQ, the young man next to us (who'd slept all day), spent the entire night laughing at a movie and eating something wrapped in approximately 27 layers of cellophane. That, and the guy behind me kept kicking my seat in his sleep. After getting approximately two hours of sleep, my boyfriend woke up and started complaining about the noise. Then he looked at me and asked if I'd slept at all. (I hadn't.) I glared at him and said, "We are never doing this again. We are getting a room for all overnight trips. I'll pay for it. I don't care. I am not doing this again, and if you argue with me next time, I'll remind you of this trip." He was too sleepy to argue and just nodded in agreement.

Funny, replace SPG with ABQ and that's the exact argument my wife and I had (with me caving ).

 

[Shanghai]

You often get some real "winners" in coach.

I don't mind the noise, but I very much dislike the smells!!

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

You often get some real "winners" in coach.

I don't mind the noise, but I very much dislike the smells!!

One of the nastiest things I've seen in Coach was overnight on the Texas Eagle when some maggot couple with a sick baby were letting it spit up and vomit right there on the floor! That was beyond nasty!

 

[SarahZ]

Funny, replace SPG with ABQ and that's the exact argument my wife and I had (with me caving ).

Yup. It doesn't help that I can't sleep on my back. I was able to get on my side for a little while, but it hurt my neck something awful since the seats don't recline all the way.

Never. Again.

 

[Guest 2]

Were you on the 22-30 train?? That sounds about right because i rode the train Austin-Longview that day and i remember sitting on a siding 4 miles outta FTW for 2 hours due to a broken down freight with mechanical issues. Then sitting another 4 miles outta Dallas due to freight interference. I even remember the 2 women because one was drinking a few on board talking to her daughter(??) and they were some loud folks so i figured they'd get complained on after they went to their coach(i was in lounge whole trip) or kicked off down the road after i got off sadly.

 

[Anderson]

I'd only consider an overnight trip without a sleeper in messy circumstances. A "late" trip? Sure...I'd actually consider the "Midnight Special" Amtrak runs on the Cascades at Thanksgiving as a way to get from A to B, especially if a food service car would be open at least partway, and I actually didn't mind a post-midnight arrival in NPN on a late Regional one time. But as far as trying to get a night's sleep on an overnight train in coach? I've done it three times (twice on my first true LD train trip, RVR-DLD, and once while getting out of a painfully unpleasant Model UN conference...I'm not a party person, I wasn't in the running for an award, and nobody was having fun, so the team head gave me permission to grab train 67 back from NHV to WBG). It is...not an experience that I relish if I can help it.

 

[Gingee]

Sounds like we were on the same train. Yes we waited right outside of Dallas (kind of by a interstate or something - there was some guy getting his bed ready for the night under the underpass. It could have been the same two women - I don't know.

To the one with the trip with the boyfriend, we got a good laugh out of that.

Another thing during the night was the opening and closing of the train doors (between train cars).

Our next trip we are in a sleeper and for next year, I am going to start looking at prices eleven months ahead.