Thanksgiving Is Right Around The Corner

shop deals on amazon
Shop deals on ebay
Advertise with us
Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.
jccollins

jccollins

Conductor
Joined
Nov 2, 2002
Messages
1,266
Since Thanksgiving is now less than two weeks away and is Amtrak's busiest time of the year, I thought it might develop a useful discussion. Are you planning a trip onboard?

I'll be traveling from college in Reno, Nevada to visit my family in Los Angeles, CA for my Thanksgiving break. I'm leaving on Wed 11/26 on the Zephyr (#5) RNO-SAC, then connecting to San Joaquin (#704) SAC-BFD, then an Amtrak Thruway from BFD-LAX. I'll be returning the Sunday on a similar itinerary, arriving back in Reno around 4:15p on the Zephyr (#6).
 
Believe it or not I'm not riding Amtrak Thanksgiving weekend. :huh: My grandparents on the west coast of Florida are 45 minutes from the closest Amtrak station, and that's Dade City. :lol: I may do some railfanning once I get to Winter Park on Friday, but it all depends.
 
Only taking Amtrak about 400 miles each way for Thanksgiving, but at least it's something. :lol:

Going out to California through LA to see some family.
 
No, but I have some Thanksgiving memories. Formerly, before security got so strict, it was fun to go down to the station and look at the trains and see how crowded and busy they were(and check out any extra equipment).

Also, when I was in college, I remember coming home from the Univ. of Tenn. from Knoxville to Chattanooga one night and having to stand in the vestibule, spitting snow outside, all the way(about a 2.5 hour trip). Not only was it Thanksgiving but the airlines were on strike as well. The trains were full to the brim.

You may think it was no fun riding in a cold vestibule for 2.5 hours and guess it wasn't but it makes for some interesting memories.
 
Bill your memories of going down to the station at Thanksgiving reminded me of what I did last Thanksgiving. I was partaking in Thanksgiving celebrations at my Grandparents in Winter Park. We had an early Thanksgiving dinner, around 2:30 in the afternoon. As we were cleaning up something occured to me, a bachelor Engineer friend of mine was working 92 north that day. Knowing full well he would be going home to an empty house that night I came up with the idea to take some of our leftovers down to him and the other Engineer on 92. Well let's just say he was greatly appreciative for a real Thanksgiving dinner when he saw me waiting for him at Winter Park.
 
Chatter163 said:
Taking the Crescent from Atlanta to New York next Friday night the 21st and returning on the 29th. :lol:
Click to expand...
Well have fun. Be sure to let us know how your trip goes. I will not be able to travel this thanksgiving, sadly. :(
 
Amtrak is adding train service for the Thanksgiving holiday on the Pacific Northwest Cascades corridor between Seattle and Portland.

The trains will be using Horizon equipment (not Talgo trains); they will not have Business class or checked baggage, though I presume snack car service. I don't know what kind of locomotives will be used; I presume F59s. There will be at least one extra roundtrip on Thursday (Thanksgiving Day). On Sunday (the 30th), there will be several extra roundtrips. I looked briefly at the brochures on the counter but did not take any; I wanted to leave them for those who needed them more than I did. People can get more information of the AmtrakCascades Web site and by calling Amtrak. It's nice to see Amtrak responding to the extra demand like this. I hope they will be doing this for the Christmas holiday.

Now, if we could get an extra Seattle-Spokane train. My idea would be to keep the Empire Builder where it is; add a daylight train (one in each direction) and route it over the former NP line. This would allow it to serve the states larger cities: Auburn, Ellensburg, Yakima, Pasco, and maybe add a couple of smaller station stops (like Cle Elum). Before the Builder was switched to its present route, there was bus service connecting in Auburn to Tacoma. Perhaps that service can be reinstated.
 
Adding service to a non-passenger line is a hard thing to do. It takes a lot of upgrades in the physical plant, signals, crew qualifications, and above all money. We've seen it done (Downeaster), and we've seen it fail (Silver Service over FEC). It ain't an easy thing to do.
 
battalion51 said:
Adding service to a non-passenger line is a hard thing to do. It takes a lot of upgrades in the physical plant, signals, crew qualifications, and above all money. We've seen it done (Downeaster), and we've seen it fail (Silver Service over FEC). It ain't an easy thing to do.
Click to expand...
Well to be fair, the Downeaster was supported by the State of Maine along with some federal funding appropriated just for the Downeaster and not Amtrak in general.

Additionally, the FEC only failed because the Bush administration insisted on the "no new trains" clause in that bailout loan back in 2002. :angry: If that condition had not been imposed, it is possible that we might have been very close to an FEC start-up right about now.
 
The state of Washington pays for at least 3 of the roundtrips between Seattle and Portland and pays for the Seattle to Vancouver (BC) train. The state could (probably would) pick up the tab for new Seattle to Spokane service. It should be noted that the Seattle to Vancouver route was run by Amtrak until 1981, then it was without passenger service, then the route was revived in 1996 with help from the state of Washington. On that route, the track and some of the stations had to be upgraded, rebuilt, or built new altogether. It was done. There have also been improvements at the stations between Seattle and Portland. The former NP route once hosted Amtrak's Empire Builder, and the segment between Pasco and Spokane is already part of the Builder's route to Portland, so it has had passenger service somewhat recently. If the state can and does put up the money for it, it can and will happen.
 
This is true. The state being involved financially is a very important thing in establishing service without Amtrak thinking of it/wanting it.
 
Thanks for sharing your Thanksgiving Amtrak plans with us everyone. Every trip counts in helping to preserve our national rail network. Have fun and enjoy the holiday!
 
Today's the last day for the extra service between Seattle and Portland. Hopefully, this service will be repeated for the Christmas holiday. The trains were indeed headed by an F59PHI with four Horizon cars in tow and provided extra service beyond the Coast Starlight and the Cascade train run.

There was no extra service (beyond the Starlight and the two roundtrips already in place) between Portland and Eugene, however, there was plenty of room and plenty of people using it. That's nice to see.

I find it amazing that the media still seems to have a dismissing attitude toward rail travel and the people who use it. They talk at great length about the lines at the airports and of traffic conditions, but almost nothing about the trains. No newspaper or news program ever mentioned the estra train service Amtrak was offering. They show that train travel is only done by about 1% of the traveling public. Yet, the train travelers are getting to their destinations with less stress, fatigue, major problems, no traffic jams. The trains are sometimes late; but at least the people are sitting down and relaxed while being late. They are not on a plane circling for hours, or in an airport standing in line for hours, or sitting in a car(or bus) in traffic for hours.

Am I missing something here?
 
Well guys I ended up on 91 today (thanks to 97 being 3 hours late). Man did we have a bunch of people on board. We dropped 83 in Orlando and picked up 90. :huh: Well by the time we left Kissimmee we had people sitting in the lounge, and a whole bunch after Winter Haven. Following Sebring all eight tables in the lounge were filled with people who did not have a seat. We maxed out at 300 something in the coaches, thanks to Rail Passes. On top of that our engine (161) had a bad fuel injector, so it was pouring out black smoke, and was slow to load. On top of that we had a ten mile long code line (signal) failure south of Sebring, so it was an interesting day to say the least.
 
Last night I got to see another of the special holiday trains Amtrak ran between Seattle and Portland. It had two locomotives--one at each end; one was a P32 (pointing toward Seattle), the other a P42 (toward Portland). They both pushed/pulled the train according to direction--that is they were both operating at the same time. The train was made up of four Horizon cars: three coachs and a dinette. It and the other trains I saw that evening (Cascades train to Eugene and the 6:15 train to Seattle) were all well patronized. It's been a while since I ahve seen that many people at Union Station.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Back
Top