Wolverine trip 7/12

[Steve4031]

I decided yesterday to take a ride on the Wolverine. I’ve noticed that it’s hit 90 east of Kalamazoo. Plus I wanted to see what was happening with the Venture cars.

I got a slow start to the station and had to rush. Of course the train is delayed in boarding so now it’s hurry up and wait. The line extends out of the waiting room and I’m at the back. I skipped business class to ride the vent cars.

 

[Steve4031]

It is 7:17 and still we have not boarded. The agent said it was equipment issues.

 

[Steve4031]

There was security theater at Chicago Union Station. Before boarding the train passengers zigzagged through a Disney world type one. Amtrak police randomly selected people of color for random security checks.

 

[Steve4031]

We made it to Porter. I napped the entire way to to compensate for early wake up alarm to catch the train.

 

[Steve4031]

The rest of the trip to Dearborn was peaceful. I napped a lot More than planned. Buddy’s Pizza is 1 mile from the station. I took an Uber. Then I'm going to take a second Uber to Pontiac to take 355 back to Chicago.

 

[Palmland]

Plus I wanted to see what was happening with the Venture cars.

And what was happening with them?

 

[Steve4031]

There have problems reported in other threads where Amtrak had decided not board people onto venture cars due to issues with he steps and hand rails. Amtrak’s solution is to add a horizon car or amfleet car at the opposite end of the train from he food service car. Then people board at either doorway.

I took an Uber to the Pontiac station. Apparently they have an engine ready to go pointed towards Chicago. The engine that brought to Pontiac was sitting on the track by the station. The attached photos should help.

 

[thully]

Interesting. So they’re using 2 doors for all boarding - the BC/cafe car and the Horizon on the opposite end of the train? Does this seem to slow down boarding much?

 

[Steve4031]

It has. We departed Pontiac 6 minutes late and are no 31 minutes late out of Jackson.

 

[Steve4031]

At Jackson we were about 45 minutes late. Amtrak sent an alert that the delay was caused by signal problems and freight traffic. I observed the normal slow running from Pontiac to Detroit and then we picked up speed once we started on the line west to Dearborn. The crew opened doors at both ends at nearly all of the stops. Even on the older cars this would have been normal practice. What was different was that passengers were not grouped by destinations in individual cars. There was enough padding that a fast run on NS from Porter to Chicago allowed us to arrive a few minutes early.

This was kind of cool seeing two trains with the venture cars on adjacent tracks. The one in the right is 355. The left is the Lincoln service.

 

[Bob Dylan]

So what's the verdict on the Comfort of the Seats and the layout of the Cars?

Since you took several naps the Seats must be somewhat comfortable!

 

[Steve4031]

The seats are not bad. I eventually got tired of sitting in them. But few people would be spending 12 hours in them riding round trip to Detroit. I think sitting next to someone would be uncomfortable.

 

[Steve4031]

The crews were positive about the venture cars. I overheard several passengers commenting about the venture cars. They liked them. The conductor patiently explained which Wolverine services had the Venture cars.

 

[Old MM]

Thanks for those pics of the Pontiac station! Here I am in MI and have never seen that particular facility.

 

[Steve4031]

Thanks for those pics of the Pontiac station! Here I am in MI and have never seen that particular facility.

If you live in Michigan its probably quicker to drive to Pontiac. It's a nicely built station. It's also a bus station. There is no Amtrak agent there. The bathrooms are well maintained.