Notelvis
Conductor
Last weekend I made a solo train ride cashing in some of the Guest Reward Points I squirrel away for just when the opportunity arises.
The itinerary was not complicated - I woke up Friday morning leaving my home just before a winter storm rolled in and drove 75 miles south to the Greenville/Spartanburg airport. My wife and daughter were flying to Florida, I was flying Southwest Airlines to Chicago Midway.
Opinions here vary as to the level of service Southwest affords BUT when flying by myself I have no issue with Southwest. I have never experienced a flight delay of more than 15 minutes with SWA...... I appreciate that reliability.
At Midway I made the long walk to the RTA platform and was happy to find a warm train waiting on a 3 degree day. The three block surface walk when I reached the loop was exhilerating in a very cold kind of way. The corner entrance and escalator down to the subterranian section of Union Station never more inviting.
When I began thinking about this trip around Thanksgiving, I had initially thought to fly to Denver on Friday and catch the California Zephyr to the west coast from there on Saturday morning. However, when I called Amtrak, there was no roomette available for sale from Denver on Saturday morning. Oddly enough, there was a roomette available for the entire trip to the west coast from Chicago on Friday afternoon. Yield management does strange things sometimes.
By 11:45am I had stowed my single bag at the Metropolitan Lounge, purchased a pseudo-asian mixture of chicken, broccoli, and rice in a styrofoam container, and settled in for lunch on a bench in the massive great hall. After lunch I moved back to the Metropolitan Lounge and settled into a corner seat with a book to while away the remaining hour until train #5 boarded.
There was some commotion in the lounge. There was a 40-plus person tour group from Trains Unlimited assembling near the desk area. To myself I thought "Bet these folks are going out with me on #5." They were..... and that explained why demand for sleeper space on #5 this day had been so in demand weeks earlier.
By 1:15 or so the tour group had been assembled and redcaps summoned. With their group leader they made their way out the door and over to track 12 where the California Zephyr was waiting. Once they group was clear, an Amtrak agent called for anyone not in the group who was departing on #5 to assemble at the front of the lounge. This turned out to be just myself and one other person.
I was in roommette 10 of the 532 car..... the last roommette in the last car on the train. Remarkably, the train ride itself was less eventful than the getting to the train. We departed Chicago on-time and remained on-time or, in some cases where the padding is thickest, arrived as much as 20-30 minutes early at every station all the way to Sacramento.
The roomettes in the 532 were never full for the entire trip. Number 9 across the aisle was occupied only Grand Junction-Sacramento. Number 7 was occupied Chicago-Denver and then by a pair of day-riders Reno-Sacramento. Numbers 5 and 6 were empty until Denver. The bedrooms were another story. They were all occupied by members of the tour group as were some roommettes. Tour group members were located in both sleepers at the rear as well as in the transdorm.
The service in the diner was a bit erratic. The upstairs was staffed by steward who took care of business but was not assisting with any food service and two servers. One of the servers was clearly more efficient as he was able to move his half of the car through a seating in one hour. The other half of the car was taking closer to 90 minutes for a seating...... even at breakfast. We were not in a hurry so it wasn't a bad experience. No one was surly with the passengers and even the less efficient server was pleasant. I would say that her tips likely suffered compared to the other server BUT since only a handful of us were actually tipping, this was likely not the case. The tour group members had a 'all gratuities included' clause in their arrangements and I was, in fact, having dinner with the tour leader one evening when the steward came to settle up for the Saturday tips.
The food was really very good this trip. I had the steak twice, a pasta and meatball lunch special one day, hamburger the next, pancakes one morning, and omelette the next.
With our 20 minute early arrival in Denver, I had the chance to get a little closer and gaze at the massive construction project at Denver Union Station. Crews are now well-along erecting an ultra-modern trainshed behind the historic station. A bus transfer station has been located beneath the trainshed and extends toward the Platte River two blocks where it is anchored on the other end by a light rail station. Only the light rail station is in service at this juncture. This is a project which I have kept up with online for some time now and I most look forward to commuter trains connecting Union Station with the Denver Airport in two or three years.
By contrast, in Sacramento new platforms are in place and scaffolding is all over the waiting room as renovations to the old Southern Pacific station ar underway. The new platforms are nice and afford a much closer view of the old locomotive shops but they are about a five minute walk from the station. Not an improvement in that regard but not unreasonable considering the distance to the gates at most airports.
In front of the Sacramento station, a new entrance to the parking lot protected by traffic lights has been constructed mid-block which shortens the length of the walk with safe-crossing one must make to reach the Vagabond Inn. The Sacramento Vagabond Inn is still maintained nicely and clean..... additional security fencing has been located around the property since my last visit to Sacramento. Still lodging worthy of a recommendation here.
The following morning I had an early wakeup call, checked out, and caught the Yolo Bus (route 42B) to the Sacramento Airport for a flight home using United. First leg of the flight was fine, second leg less so as our plane arrived two hours late and then, once boarded we sat on the tarmac for another forty minutes or so waiting for a relief pilot to arrive, the first pilot having 'died on the law' to use a railroad term.
The itinerary was not complicated - I woke up Friday morning leaving my home just before a winter storm rolled in and drove 75 miles south to the Greenville/Spartanburg airport. My wife and daughter were flying to Florida, I was flying Southwest Airlines to Chicago Midway.
Opinions here vary as to the level of service Southwest affords BUT when flying by myself I have no issue with Southwest. I have never experienced a flight delay of more than 15 minutes with SWA...... I appreciate that reliability.
At Midway I made the long walk to the RTA platform and was happy to find a warm train waiting on a 3 degree day. The three block surface walk when I reached the loop was exhilerating in a very cold kind of way. The corner entrance and escalator down to the subterranian section of Union Station never more inviting.
When I began thinking about this trip around Thanksgiving, I had initially thought to fly to Denver on Friday and catch the California Zephyr to the west coast from there on Saturday morning. However, when I called Amtrak, there was no roomette available for sale from Denver on Saturday morning. Oddly enough, there was a roomette available for the entire trip to the west coast from Chicago on Friday afternoon. Yield management does strange things sometimes.
By 11:45am I had stowed my single bag at the Metropolitan Lounge, purchased a pseudo-asian mixture of chicken, broccoli, and rice in a styrofoam container, and settled in for lunch on a bench in the massive great hall. After lunch I moved back to the Metropolitan Lounge and settled into a corner seat with a book to while away the remaining hour until train #5 boarded.
There was some commotion in the lounge. There was a 40-plus person tour group from Trains Unlimited assembling near the desk area. To myself I thought "Bet these folks are going out with me on #5." They were..... and that explained why demand for sleeper space on #5 this day had been so in demand weeks earlier.
By 1:15 or so the tour group had been assembled and redcaps summoned. With their group leader they made their way out the door and over to track 12 where the California Zephyr was waiting. Once they group was clear, an Amtrak agent called for anyone not in the group who was departing on #5 to assemble at the front of the lounge. This turned out to be just myself and one other person.
I was in roommette 10 of the 532 car..... the last roommette in the last car on the train. Remarkably, the train ride itself was less eventful than the getting to the train. We departed Chicago on-time and remained on-time or, in some cases where the padding is thickest, arrived as much as 20-30 minutes early at every station all the way to Sacramento.
The roomettes in the 532 were never full for the entire trip. Number 9 across the aisle was occupied only Grand Junction-Sacramento. Number 7 was occupied Chicago-Denver and then by a pair of day-riders Reno-Sacramento. Numbers 5 and 6 were empty until Denver. The bedrooms were another story. They were all occupied by members of the tour group as were some roommettes. Tour group members were located in both sleepers at the rear as well as in the transdorm.
The service in the diner was a bit erratic. The upstairs was staffed by steward who took care of business but was not assisting with any food service and two servers. One of the servers was clearly more efficient as he was able to move his half of the car through a seating in one hour. The other half of the car was taking closer to 90 minutes for a seating...... even at breakfast. We were not in a hurry so it wasn't a bad experience. No one was surly with the passengers and even the less efficient server was pleasant. I would say that her tips likely suffered compared to the other server BUT since only a handful of us were actually tipping, this was likely not the case. The tour group members had a 'all gratuities included' clause in their arrangements and I was, in fact, having dinner with the tour leader one evening when the steward came to settle up for the Saturday tips.
The food was really very good this trip. I had the steak twice, a pasta and meatball lunch special one day, hamburger the next, pancakes one morning, and omelette the next.
With our 20 minute early arrival in Denver, I had the chance to get a little closer and gaze at the massive construction project at Denver Union Station. Crews are now well-along erecting an ultra-modern trainshed behind the historic station. A bus transfer station has been located beneath the trainshed and extends toward the Platte River two blocks where it is anchored on the other end by a light rail station. Only the light rail station is in service at this juncture. This is a project which I have kept up with online for some time now and I most look forward to commuter trains connecting Union Station with the Denver Airport in two or three years.
By contrast, in Sacramento new platforms are in place and scaffolding is all over the waiting room as renovations to the old Southern Pacific station ar underway. The new platforms are nice and afford a much closer view of the old locomotive shops but they are about a five minute walk from the station. Not an improvement in that regard but not unreasonable considering the distance to the gates at most airports.
In front of the Sacramento station, a new entrance to the parking lot protected by traffic lights has been constructed mid-block which shortens the length of the walk with safe-crossing one must make to reach the Vagabond Inn. The Sacramento Vagabond Inn is still maintained nicely and clean..... additional security fencing has been located around the property since my last visit to Sacramento. Still lodging worthy of a recommendation here.
The following morning I had an early wakeup call, checked out, and caught the Yolo Bus (route 42B) to the Sacramento Airport for a flight home using United. First leg of the flight was fine, second leg less so as our plane arrived two hours late and then, once boarded we sat on the tarmac for another forty minutes or so waiting for a relief pilot to arrive, the first pilot having 'died on the law' to use a railroad term.
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