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Joined
Dec 18, 2007
Messages
1,148
Location
suburban Chicago (Deerfield)
Following up on my Amtrak travel from Chicago to New York a week ago, my wife and I are heading back to Chicago after a fun-filled week in NYC.

I'm not going into detail about that week except as it relates to transit.

The subways are busy judging from our many trips this last week, although we saw lots of standees only a couple of times. I was in a near-empty car only once, heading to Brooklyn when a ton of people got off at Whitehall by the Staten Island Ferry terminal.

Despite the national news seemingly breathless reporting every violent incident on the subway, we never felt unsafe. Mind you, we didn't really take them after 8pm, but we did go out into the boroughs to downtown Brooklyn, Coney Island, and a museum in Astoria. Walking in New York is great, but the ability to hop on a subway and cut your travel time is handy when you're trying to pack a lot into a vacation. :)

The commuter trains also seem reasonably busy but not like a pre-Covid rush hour, judging from the number of people we saw at Grand Central and Penn Station. More than I've seen at Chicago Union Station when I've been there during Covid.

Turning back to Amtrak, Moynihan Hall generally is impressive, as is the Metropolitan Lounge there. Food and drinks are very good, including hot sandwiches. Boylan sodas, buying local I imagine. No "kindergarten walk" to the platforms, but the track is announced a bit before it's shown on the screens to give the lounge users a bit of a head start.

When I stuck my head into the food hall, it seemed half the restaurants were open. I don't know if more would be open on a weekday. Plenty of tables, and the bar seemed to be doing good business.

Still a bit of work being done: the elevator from the hall level to track 5 wasn't in service. We had to take the elevator for tracks 6-7 to the long hall under the main hall, and then another elevator to platform 4-5. It's clear the work is being done, though, and there were clear signs directing how to get to platform 4-5 in the meanwhile.

I only glanced at the train while boarding, but we had the same diner as on the way out (Dover), and I'm 99% sure we're in the same sleeper (minor misalignment in the same place) but will confirm when I go for a stroll at Albany-Rensselaer.
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Our sleeper attendant is a dapper man in a bow tie and black fedora. My stroll at Albany revealed that our sleeper was the same one we took to New York, Tiffin River.

For dinner, I had the short ribs. Forgot to take a pic. ☹ Good, but not quite as good as the enchiladas.

I had the continental breakfast and my wife had the three-egg omelette. The continental is a lot of food! I saved the blueberry muffin for later. The breakfast sandwich is quite good. My wife said the omelette was good, if obviously from liquid eggs, and the potatoes and sausages were fine.

We're on-time-ish and have been throughout the trip.
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I don’t know why people would say that Amtrak is inefficient—look at all that careful planning they must have done to match you to the same sleeper and same diner both ways!😁

Or of course more realistically it was just a nice coincidence.😁

Seriously, I am enjoying your report and the pictures very much—thank you!
 
You're welcome!

We arrived in Chicago essentially on time. We were slow through Gary, Whiting, Hammond, and the south side of Chicago, after keeping up full speed most of the trip. But we had time to spare.

Going through my pics from the trip, I saw one I took because I thought people here would get a kick out of it. Specifically, the top picture on the wall.
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