dan72
Lead Service Attendant
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2006
- Messages
- 418
After our trip out on the EB/SWC back in May, I stil had about 9,000 points to redeem with AGR. My wife had a conference on San Diego with one day off, so we decided to make a day of it and take the Pacific Surfliner up to LA. We took train #769 out of San Diego which departed promotly at its scheduled time of 9:30 a.m. I had enought points for us to ride in the Business class car, which was about 1/3 full. There was great legroom, however the seats could have used more thigh support. The Surfliner cars are bright aid airy inside with an ocean blue theme (the seats even have an ocean wave pattern in the the upholstery). The business class cars also had monitors built into the seatbacks, but were not in service as, according to our attendant, they are upgrading to wifi instead. There was a small counter at the engine end of the car which had apple juice and pastries available along with the Sunday San Diego newspaper. I opted for pop in the coach/cafe. The PS cars are similar to Superliners with several notable differences. There are two stairways which are much wider than the Superliners. The lower level has a very large accessible restroom and 2-1 seating. The upper level has one restroom with 2-2 seating. Each half of the car faces towards the middle with the meeting seats forming a four person seating area with a table. There are also displays which tell you the next station stop. The Caoch/cafe has the cafe area in the lower level of the car with a simiar setup as the lower level of a superliner sightseer lounge.
It was an interesting sensation being pusehd up to LA. The lead car was a coach/cab. Our car was right in front of the engine which was the stardard f59phi for Amtrak California. We had to wind around Soledad Canyon on our way out of San Diego, but after we were north of LA Jolla, we made our way along the beach until San Juan Capistrano. We also passed the San Onfre nuclear power plant and the De Mar race track. I was also impressed that our Anaheim stop right by the Angel stadium. The trip went very well and we arrived at LA 5 minutes early.
LA Union station is a beautiful station with it's art deco design. One whole area, which looked like the old ticketing area was closed off, but you could easily look in and imagine how busy it must have been back in the 40's and 50's. I was disaapointed the Traxx restaraunt was not open and was kind of suprised that the station was not air conditioned (it was well into the 90's that day). We walked around the vicinity of the station for awhile, but decided to switch our tickets (which is a long process with AGR tickets)and board the 2:00 train (#578) back to San Diego. I'm sure if we would have struck off in the right direction, we would have found some nice shops and restaurants. Oh well, I need to plan a little better next time.
On the platform, we spotted the Texas Eagle and another LD train waiting for departure (not sure which one as I didn't get a chance to check). However the Sunset Limited had arrived about 1:15 (about three hours late).
We were pulled back and our consist also had a Superliner just before the coach/cab car. Since we really didn't have time to find a restaurant, we grabbed something to eat in the coach/cafe. Give that it was microwave food (cheeseburger for me, cheese pizza for my wife), it left something to be desired, but sustained us for the trip back. Our attendant on the way down was great and brought us drinks and a snack pack. I thought the Amtrak staff overall were great on both trips.
We arrived back in San Diego pretty much on time, if not five minutes late, but no big deal. It was a great experience as it was different from other Amtrak LD trains. I realized, too, that we missed the mooning event by one day, but I think it happens further north than what we traveled Anyway, I hope we can repeat this trip again someday and perhaps head further north of LA. Overall, a really nice trip.
Dan
It was an interesting sensation being pusehd up to LA. The lead car was a coach/cab. Our car was right in front of the engine which was the stardard f59phi for Amtrak California. We had to wind around Soledad Canyon on our way out of San Diego, but after we were north of LA Jolla, we made our way along the beach until San Juan Capistrano. We also passed the San Onfre nuclear power plant and the De Mar race track. I was also impressed that our Anaheim stop right by the Angel stadium. The trip went very well and we arrived at LA 5 minutes early.
LA Union station is a beautiful station with it's art deco design. One whole area, which looked like the old ticketing area was closed off, but you could easily look in and imagine how busy it must have been back in the 40's and 50's. I was disaapointed the Traxx restaraunt was not open and was kind of suprised that the station was not air conditioned (it was well into the 90's that day). We walked around the vicinity of the station for awhile, but decided to switch our tickets (which is a long process with AGR tickets)and board the 2:00 train (#578) back to San Diego. I'm sure if we would have struck off in the right direction, we would have found some nice shops and restaurants. Oh well, I need to plan a little better next time.
On the platform, we spotted the Texas Eagle and another LD train waiting for departure (not sure which one as I didn't get a chance to check). However the Sunset Limited had arrived about 1:15 (about three hours late).
We were pulled back and our consist also had a Superliner just before the coach/cab car. Since we really didn't have time to find a restaurant, we grabbed something to eat in the coach/cafe. Give that it was microwave food (cheeseburger for me, cheese pizza for my wife), it left something to be desired, but sustained us for the trip back. Our attendant on the way down was great and brought us drinks and a snack pack. I thought the Amtrak staff overall were great on both trips.
We arrived back in San Diego pretty much on time, if not five minutes late, but no big deal. It was a great experience as it was different from other Amtrak LD trains. I realized, too, that we missed the mooning event by one day, but I think it happens further north than what we traveled Anyway, I hope we can repeat this trip again someday and perhaps head further north of LA. Overall, a really nice trip.
Dan
