Late connecting trains at Chicago: Amtrak hotels

[unitedstatesfan]

If one's connecting train is hours late arriving in Chicago and the next one on the second leg is not until the next day, what are the names of hotels that Amtrak typically uses to put passengers up in?

Is this typically on a bed and breakfast basis only, bed only (no breakfast) or bed plus full board?

I am not objecting to it but do passengers typically walk or use transit (rail or bus) to get to and from such layover hotels?

 

[PVD]

If Amtrak puts you in a hotel due to a broken guaranteed connection, there are a number of different hotels used depending on availability. You generally get a voucher for cab fare and a snall amount of meal money, this is converted to cash at the ticket counter. My last overnight was at the Swissotel, a pretty nice place, but like I said before, others have been to a number of different places.

 

[tim49424]

If Amtrak puts you in a hotel due to a broken guaranteed connection, there are a number of different hotels used depending on availability. You generally get a voucher for cab fare and a snall amount of meal money, this is converted to cash at the ticket counter. My last overnight was at the Swissotel, a pretty nice place, but like I said before, others have been to a number of different places.

First time I was put up in Chicago back in December, 2008, I was put up at the Inn of Chicago, given a voucher for $30 cab fare and $30 meal money to be cashed out at the ticket counter.

Second time, was at Swissotel, the hotel had their own cab service, and given a $10 voucher to be spent at the food court. This was last November.

 

[hessjm]

Nowadays you get put up in a Superliner sleeper at the station.

 

[willem]

Nowadays you get put up in a Superliner sleeper at the station.

I recall there was a thread about this recently, but I was unable to find it.

Isn't it likely that there are many more passengers who need overnight accommodations than will fit in the spare Superliners? I hope Amtrak isn't putting sleeping car passengers in a sleeper and sending coach passengers to hotels. Also, how are meals handled if passengers spend the night in a Superliner? As others have noted, Amtrak has provided meal money in the past.

Pertinent to the OP's questions, Amtrak bought a room at the Homewood Suites for me once upon a time, and I have also stayed at the fully satisfactory but pretentiously named Inn of Chicago on Amtrak's dime. In both cases, I received money for cab fare and meals.

 

[hessjm]

The last I knew, Amtrak had 2 Superliner sleepers set aside on ground power in the station for passengers that missed connections. My understanding is that there is an attendant stationed there too. I don't think they are sending anyone to hotels any more, if they need additional rooms, they just add another sleeper. Sleeper cars probably are abundant overnight since the arriving attendant needs to have everything set up.

 

[PVD]

We certainly did discuss it at length in a thread, but I don't recall that anyone actually had it happen, and at that point it was still conjecture. Be interesting to hear from someone who experienced it, since one of the points made was that parts of the station were closed overnight, and you can't really ask someone to be locked in for the night if they wanted to go out.

 

[acelafan]

Last month when the Builder was 6 hours late Amtrak chartered a bus and put us in Wyndham Glenview Suites near O'Hare. It was about 35 minutes by bus. They picked us up the next morning at 11 and we had the day in Chicago. I saw on the hotel paperwork the rate was $74 or so, we were on our own for breakfast. Hotel was good except you were in the middle of suburbia and far removed from downtown.

 

[hessjm]

Here is a picture of a couple of sleepers on the the tracks in CHI that are used as hotels for missed connections. Wake up people, this is how missed connections in Chicago are being handled. Geez, more than one of use have posted about this.

 

[MikefromCrete]

I don't think the use of Superliners at CUS will last. It's a gross waste of equipment.

 

[PVD]

I'm not saying it isn't happening, I am saying that nobody has posted on this site that it has happened to them. Look at the whole string of things said about what was going to happen at the Metropolitan Lounge, from people we generally get good intel from, and it just didn't turn out that way.

 

[SarahZ]

I'm not saying it isn't happening, I am saying that nobody has posted on this site that it has happened to them. Look at the whole string of things said about what was going to happen at the Metropolitan Lounge, from people we generally get good intel from, and it just didn't turn out that way.

The posters on this site represent about 0.01% of Amtrak riders. Add into that the fraction of riders who miss connections, and how likely is it that somebody is going to post about their experience?

 

[PVD]

There are enough posters on this site who are active LD train riders that connect in Chicago. Over the last few years, there have been issues with certain trains that made blown connections much more common than anyone would like. Some guaranteed connections were eliminated (think EB one way) just because they were always blown The majority of Amtrak riders are not on LD trains, the CUS connection is not relevant to them. Over time, I would say that if something happened on Amtrak, someone here has probably experienced it. While certainly true that their numbers may not be large, they are likely statistically significant in terms of experiences such as this.

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

I have never miss a Chicago connection.

Of course by stated that I am never ever going to make a connecting train again.

 

[PVD]

I've been lucky because going back to NYP, LSL leaves pretty late. You can be rerouted from a missed CL or Card. I've only gotten stuck in Chicago because sleepers were sold out on LSL after missing the CL. Actually I offered to go out in coach once if they would give me a letter saying I could take a shower, but that was apparently out of the question.

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

I don't think the use of Superliners at CUS will last. It's a gross waste of equipment.

Back of the napkin math.

Roomettes 14 per car price buckets are:

487

414

341

273

Bedroom 5 per car price buckets are:

1059

900

741

593

Ok putting the two sleeper in use Chicago to Denver. Using the lowest bucket multiply by the space in car.

Bedrooms income $2965

Roomettes income $3822

Total at lowest bucket $ 6787 per car per day.

So if your try to save money by using the two cars in Chicago each compartment replacing a hotel room at 357 dollars a night. Transportation and room. Meals should not change.

Compartment price Amsnag Aug 5 to 29. Skipped the Family and H room. Sleeper sitting in Chicago are staffed. Still need to be serviced, moving or sitting still.

In recap: Waste of equipment IMHO. Pretty sure hotel and ride to the hotels are not $357 per night, even for Chicago. Sure you may not sell ever space ever night on a drop sleeper, but using the lowest bucket as the income point say this is a bad idea.

 

[PVD]

Add the extra pay for the SCA, and the linens, and the water and waste service labor. The cars on the incoming consist would be serviced for its next trip, these cars would require separate staff and service at the station.

 

[jis]

Just-thinking-51 - But how do you put the Sleepers that came in that afternoon on a train going out that afternoon? Currently those Sleepers earn no revenue for that night so no loss there. Your logic is flawed since all the sleepers that came in from the west that afternoon overnight in Chicago.

They will require an additional set of linen and an SCA or two I suppose.

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

Do you really think they pull sleepers off a inbound trainset for late connection bed and breakfast.

One thinks there using spares sitting in the yard.

But yes I did forget the drop sleeper for Denver would require three sleepers. Past my bedtime....

 

[unitedstatesfan]

Probably like the airlines worldwide, Amtrak would have 'contract rates' with in its case a couple of hotels that give lower than 'best available rate.'

Hotel rooms ('inventory') are perishable, just like Amtrak sleeping berths and seats and airline seats. If an hotel is filling rooms thanks to Amtrak that would otherwise be unoccupied, the hotel wins if it charges above its variable costs (housekeeping staff, laundry, electricity and gas, cleaning supplies, consumables such as shampoo and minimal extra wear on the room fixtures and fittings).

 

[PVD]

What you just said is exactly how it has been. Another poster brought up the use of a set of SL sleepers in Chicago as an alternative solution by Amtrak. Still waiting to hear from someone who has actually had it occur. It doesn't seem like an economical use of a scarce commodity (SL sleepers) and costly labor, but it is Amtrak we are talking about. I would wonder if it was even legal to do that in Chicago.

 

[Tennessee Traveler]

Do you really think they pull sleepers off a inbound trainset for late connection bed and breakfast.

One thinks there using spares sitting in the yard.

But yes I did forget the drop sleeper for Denver would require three sleepers. Past my bedtime....

When did you last travel? There is no longer a drop sleeper for Denver. The third sleeper goes all the way to Emeryville and returns to Chicago and has for the last three summer seasons.

 

[jis]

Do you really think they pull sleepers off a inbound trainset for late connection bed and breakfast.

One thinks there using spares sitting in the yard.

But yes I did forget the drop sleeper for Denver would require three sleepers. Past my bedtime....

Do you have any definitive information to support your claim? Or do you just find that your claim serves your argument better, and therefore that is the way it is?

What the heck does a Denver drop Sleeper that has not existed for the last several years have to do with any of this?

There are about ten or eleven Sleepers that sit around in Chicago every night even not counting spares, and there is no way for them to earn any revenue. if a few are repurposed to save some cost, that seems to be quite logical, except apparently to a few here.

 

[PVD]

My real question is whether it would save enough to be worth it, presuming that it would also lower customer satisfaction.

 

[JoeBas]

Do you really think they pull sleepers off a inbound trainset for late connection bed and breakfast.

One thinks there using spares sitting in the yard.

But yes I did forget the drop sleeper for Denver would require three sleepers. Past my bedtime....

Do you have any definitive information to support your claim? Or do you just find that your claim serves your argument better, and therefore that is the way it is?

What the heck does a Denver drop Sleeper that has not existed for the last several years have to do with any of this?

There are about ten or eleven Sleepers that sit around in Chicago every night even not counting spares, and there is no way for them to earn any revenue. if a few are repurposed to save some cost, that seems to be quite logical, except apparently to a few here.

I think the disconnect here is that some are thinking that these are DEDICATED sleepers where all they're doing is sitting at CHI plugged in and waiting for late trains 24/7.

The concept is, the sleepers that came in on that day's train, aren't leaving until tomorrow anyway. Unless the car needs shopping for some *ahem* "work" in the Chicago yard, that car is going to spend the night dark, cold, and empty in the yard anyway. Why not use it?