Southwest Chief discussion

[Eric in East County]

Anyway, and this is why I'm here, I was idly checking the CHI to LAX route in early October--not super serious, more of a "this might be a good time to take a trip after I go to that conference" sort of thing--and there are a good number of sold out sleepers for the first two weeks of October, like maybe half already sold out. Which is unusual in my experience as an occasional Amtrak traveler (one or two LD trips annually), to have that route sold out so often this far out. Did they take away a sleeper car in October or something?

The demand for bedrooms appears to exceed the number of bedrooms Amtrak can provide. In early July, we contacted Amtrak about reserving bedrooms on SWC Nos. 3 and 4 in October and they were already sold out for the dates we had in mind. At one time, the standard SWC consist had three (3) sleeping cars per train. If that was still the case today, we might have had better luck getting bedrooms for the dates in October we wanted. We used to make our bedroom reservations at least 6 months prior to when we planned to travel. We are now doing so 11 months ahead of time.

 

[lrh442]

Just booked a roomette for mid-October and I'm in the 432 car. This indicates the SWC is running two full sleepers (430 and 431) and the 432 car is the crew dorm. I assume that the 430 and 431 cars are sold out for roomettes, otherwise they wouldn't be putting pax into the crew dorm. Yes, demand continues to be strong heading into off-peak season even at premium pricing. Makes me wonder how many sleepers they could fill at reasonable prices. Too bad they don't have enough operable equipment to capture the demand.

 

[LongHauler]

Just booked a roomette for mid-October and I'm in the 432 car. This indicates the SWC is running two full sleepers (430 and 431) and the 432 car is the crew dorm. I assume that the 430 and 431 cars are sold out for roomettes, otherwise they wouldn't be putting pax into the crew dorm. Yes, demand continues to be strong heading into off-peak season even at premium pricing. Makes me wonder how many sleepers they could fill at reasonable prices. Too bad they don't have enough operable equipment to capture the demand.

Depending on your date, the annular eclipse in mid-October that will run through ABQ may boost demand a little. I just got word of a sleeper being removed from October's 4(8).

 

[jis]

MODERATOR'S NOTE: A number of posts on logistical matters like Reserve Fleet and Retention Toilets that have little to do specifically with the Southwest Chief have been moved to their own thread under Rail Advocacy:

Reserve Fleet, Retention Toilets and such logistical matters

Terrible experience on Zephyr. Never will step foot on Amtrak again. Boarded in Emeryville on Friday, Aug. 18 2023. Train was one hour late with no explanation. When we were about 4 or 5 hours outside Salt Lake City, a vague announcement was made that the train would terminate in SLC...

www.amtraktrains.com

Please continue discussing those admittedly important matters in this new thread and leave the Southwest Chief thread to discuss matters specific to travel on the Southwest Chief.

Thank you for your Understanding, cooperation and participation.

 

[Perian]

Hello all,
My husband and I will be traveling SWC for the first time from Chicago to Arizona. It’s been on our bucket list for many years. Our tickets show car number 330 room 11 and car number 432 room 24. I can locate car 330 but I’m not able to locate car 432. Can anyone tell me about this car? The room number is 24. Also, does Vacations By Rail have an app that can go on your iPhone?

 

[lordsigma]

Hello all,
My husband and I will be traveling SWC for the first time from Chicago to Arizona. It’s been on our bucket list for many years. Our tickets show car number 330 room 11 and car number 432 room 24. I can locate car 330 but I’m not able to locate car 432. Can anyone tell me about this car? The room number is 24. Also, does Vacations By Rail have an app that can go on your iPhone?

Right now the Chief has two sleepers - a regular and a transition with numbers 330/430 and 332/432. The 432 is the transition sleeper, the 330 is a regular sleeper. If you aren’t aware the transition sleepers are sleepers that have all roomettes on the upper level, with a crew lounge on the lower level on the side that would have the family bedroom and roomettes on the regular sleeper. The other side has an accessible bedroom and restrooms/shower like the regular sleepers. When one of these cars is in the consist usually the OBS crew rooms are always in this car. Finally it’s called a transition car because at one end of the car there’s a transition stairwell that leads to a standard single level vestibule - allowing one to move between bilevel and single level equipment in the consist - usually it’s a single level baggage car. Lately Amtrak has been running them as if they’re a regular sleeper selling all available rooms and with its own car attendant. Sometimes in the past the car attendant in the adjacent sleeper covered the transition car as well.

 

[UserNameRequired]

Hello all,
My husband and I will be traveling SWC for the first time from Chicago to Arizona. It’s been on our bucket list for many years. Our tickets show car number 330 room 11 and car number 432 room 24. I can locate car 330 but I’m not able to locate car 432. Can anyone tell me about this car? The room number is 24. Also, does Vacations By Rail have an app that can go on your iPhone?

Room 24 should be the near the center of a trans-dorm, right near the stairs and near the upstairs toilet. Since it's the center it should ride as well as any roomette. The trans-dorm floor layout is here: Amtrak Car Diagrams @ CraigMashburn.com

 

[Eric in East County]

Right now the Chief has two sleepers - a regular and a transition with numbers 330/430 and 332/432. The 432 is the transition sleeper, the 330 is a regular sleeper.

If I understand you correctly, the SWC consist now only has one (1) regular sleeper with deluxe bedrooms. People who had confirmed bedroom reservations in the second sleeper are either being downgraded to a roomette or to coach. (This is essentially the same SNAFU that occurred in 2022.) Is Amtrak back to its old tricks of continuing to sell deluxe bedrooms in the second sleeper and then downgrading passengers when it gets closer to their departure date?

 

[lordsigma]

If I understand you correctly, the SWC consist now only has one (1) regular sleeper with deluxe bedrooms. People who had confirmed bedroom reservations in the second sleeper are either being downgraded to a roomette or to coach. (This is essentially the same SNAFU that occurred in 2022.) Is Amtrak back to its old tricks of continuing to sell deluxe bedrooms in the second sleeper and then downgrading passengers when it gets closer to their departure date?

Not that I have heard any reports of. I think this was a planned consist change not a last minute thing. There can always be some isolated downgrades with inventory changes but the 2022 stuff that involved Mass downgrades was when they dropped or changed planned cars due to less than planned availability. I don’t think this was an unplanned change.

 

[Eric in East County]

Not that I have heard any reports of. I think this was a planned consist change not a last minute thing. There can always be some isolated downgrades with inventory changes but the 2022 stuff that involved Mass downgrades was when they dropped or changed planned cars due to less than planned availability. I don’t think this was an unplanned change.

Last July, we attempted to book bedrooms for September and they were all sold out so this was most likely a planned consist change. I wonder how it affected those people, (my wife and I included) who make their reservations 6 to 11 months ahead of time to be sure of obtaining bedrooms. I guess the moral is insist on a bedroom in the SWC 330/430 sleepers.

 

[Edward D]

We just did Galesburg IL to L.A. and back. The train had two sleepers 330/331 and 430/431.

Ed

 

[Steve4031]

On Saturday I booked a roomette from LAX-CHI and got a roomette for 880 (approximately). I ended up with room 14 in the 430 car. I like the lower level so this is great for me.

I was checking out ASM and noticed that 4 that is due into Albuquerque today is experiencing a service disruption on the transcontinental main line just west of Albuquerque and south of Interstate 40.

 

[Steve4031]

I just read a post on trainorders that there was a passenger with a knife onboard 4. This is what caused the delay. It's now approaching Albuquerque 6 hours late.

I’m unable to post the links. The information on train orders was obtained from Amtrak alerts.
‎

 

[Willbridge]

I just read a post on trainorders that there was a passenger with a knife onboard 4. This is what caused the delay. It's now approaching Albuquerque 6 hours late.

I’m unable to post the links. The information on train orders was obtained from Amtrak alerts.
‎

It was probably just a coach passenger trying to cut open a food package in the SSL.

 

[Steve4031]

The unconfirmed reports on train orders is that it was two drug dealers who had a disagreement onboard the train. I googled news reports and checked the local Albuquerque local news and have no independent confirmation of what really did happen.

4 sat an additional two hours in La Junta and is now running 10 hours late.

 

[Steve4031]

Here is a link to a news article.
The article states that a 66-year-old man struck a 29-year-old man with an edged weapon similar to a machete. The train was stopped near mile marker 5.

State Police arrest suspect for assault on Amtrak train near Albuquerque

New Mexico State Police arrested a suspect accused of assaulting another person on an Amtrak train near Albuquerque.

www.kob.com

 

[UserNameRequired]

Here is a link to a news article.
The article states that a 66-year-old man struck a 29-year-old man with an edged weapon similar to a machete. The train was stopped near mile marker 5.

State Police arrest suspect for assault on Amtrak train near Albuquerque

New Mexico State Police arrested a suspect accused of assaulting another person on an Amtrak train near Albuquerque.

www.kob.com

It would seem that type of instrument would be prohibited by Amtrak from being carried on board.

Items Prohibited in Baggage Onboard Amtrak Trains

Plan ahead before you arrive at the station. Many items many not be transported on Amtrak trains.

www.amtrak.com

 

[Eric in East County]

It is incidents such as this that really demonstrates the value of traveling with a scanner and being able to monitor the radio traffic between crew members and between the conductor and the dispatcher.

 

[joelkfla]

It would seem that type of instrument would be prohibited by Amtrak from being carried on board.

Items Prohibited in Baggage Onboard Amtrak Trains

Plan ahead before you arrive at the station. Many items many not be transported on Amtrak trains.

www.amtrak.com

It could easily be carried on in a duffel bag, for instance.

 

[Edward D]

It is incidents such as this that really demonstrates the value of traveling with a scanner and being able to monitor the radio traffic between crew members and between the conductor and the dispatcher.

That's exactly what I did. I was able to tell other passengers in the dining car what was going on.

 

[Eric in East County]

That's exactly what I did. I was able to tell other passengers in the dining car what was going on.

I have no idea of how much information about what was happening was made available to passengers via announcements. (If this incident took place in coach, then there would have been a lot of witnesses.) By listening to your scanner, you were probably better informed than the average passenger as to what all went down including what all happened after law enforcement arrived on the scene.

 

[Eric in East County]

That's exactly what I did. I was able to tell other passengers in the dining car what was going on.

I hope that you will write a trip report that includes what you heard about this incident while listening to your scanner.

 

[TrainOtter]

It would seem that type of instrument would be prohibited by Amtrak from being carried on board.

Items Prohibited in Baggage Onboard Amtrak Trains

Plan ahead before you arrive at the station. Many items many not be transported on Amtrak trains.

www.amtrak.com

Since many Amtrak stations are open platforms, with or without shelter, there is no current method preventing anyone from carrying onto a train anything that can fit in luggage.

Some years back, some bright person* decided my local Amtrak station building needed to have TSA personnel interrogate/frisk/impede passengers on the grounds of "safety". I said in a moderately loud voice that their checking for bombs is useless, as anyone who watched old WW2 movies could tell you the best way to sabotage a train is to blow up the bridge. Said TSA presence lasted more than a year but did finally go away.

I don't know if any other stop with a station building had TSA personnel because the other end of my monthly travels was an open to the public cement slab, er, platform.

*My personal take was that someone at TSA said it as a joke and a clueless management type who never traveled anywhere took it as a great idea. At least they got rid of it after awhile.

 

[Edward D]

I hope that you will write a trip report that includes what you heard about this incident while listening to your scanner.

Sorry I wasn't clear. I wasn't aboard this trip.

 

[Edward D]

It would seem that type of instrument would be prohibited by Amtrak from being carried on board.

Items Prohibited in Baggage Onboard Amtrak Trains

Plan ahead before you arrive at the station. Many items many not be transported on Amtrak trains.

www.amtrak.com

Under the communications act of 1934 as amended. Amtrak has no authority to prohibit one from being carried aboard. I'm a ham radio operator. I had a handheld radio with me. I had all the RR channels programmed in it. Mind you it wasn't capable of transmitting on those frequencies. It was nice knowing what was going on during delays. I'm also a retired railroader.