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43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

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Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#141

Post by yafbum »

munificent wrote: post #35

This past summer, I took the Coast Starlight from Seattle to Monterey with my wife and kids. I loved it. It's hard to convey how different it is from flying. Whenever I fly somewhere, especially these days when flying is such a miserable cramped experience, I always feel like my vacation starts after I endure the entire airport + plane experience. The whole travel part is in the same "chore" bucket as packing, findin…

I did this once (different trip, but similar distance) and freaking hated it. The beautiful buildings in downtown are full of vagrants and the restaurants there suck. The train kept being stopped to let freight go first on single track sections. On the return trip our train was 90 minutes late and there was absolutely nothing to do in the station while waiting. Americans don't know how to do trains right.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#142

Post by W-Stool »

There's a huge error in an otherwise good article about traveling by Amtrak on a long distance train:

"Also, economy does not include meals in the dining car and gets you no access to the observation car."

This is not true. Anyone on the train can sit in the observation car. Downstairs from the observation car is the snack bar, which was the only source of food for coach travelers when Covid otherwise closed the diner to non-sleeper passengers.

Source: I've ridden the Zephyr many times, the Southwest Chief is the same.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#143

Post by hm-nah »

judge2020 wrote: post #120
munificent wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was worried about delays and canceled legs too but we got lucky on our trip and everything was exactly on time.

Amtrack has a page on it, with no route performing delivering more than half of riders on-time https://www.amtrak.com/on-time-performance

Part of the allure!

“We’ll get ya there…sometime.”

It’s not their fault. Passenger trains in the US run almost exclusively on freight lines.

They are high risk, low revenue…burdens(?) from that perspective.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#144

Post by fumeux_fume »

wincy wrote: post #128
munificent wrote: post #35

This past summer, I took the Coast Starlight from Seattle to Monterey with my wife and kids. I loved it. It's hard to convey how different it is from flying. Whenever I fly somewhere, especially these days when flying is such a miserable cramped experience, I always feel like my vacation starts after I endure the entire airport + plane experience. The whole travel part is in the same "chore" bucket as packing, findin…

So, do normal people not feel like they’re going to throw up literally the entire train ride? I had a hard time taking a half hour train ride, much less a long one, but I also have a hard time being in the back seat of someone else’s car. I feel like they must not because it’s very seldom talked about. But googling it says 1 in 3 people experience motion sickness. Maybe mine is just really severe? Without Dramamine o…

I find it pretty unsettling how many people are raving about travel by train. If your standards are insanely low then I suppose you can say the food is good, dining with random people is fun and the cabins are comfortable.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#145

Post by llacb47 »

W-Stool wrote: post #142

There's a huge error in an otherwise good article about traveling by Amtrak on a long distance train: "Also, economy does not include meals in the dining car and gets you no access to the observation car." This is not true. Anyone on the train can sit in the observation car. Downstairs from the observation car is the snack bar, which was the only source of food for coach travelers when Covid otherwise closed the dine…

It’s been corrected by the author

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#146

Post by durkie »

pengaru wrote: post #84

If you enjoy cycling I highly recommend riding Amtrak somewhere you'd like to explore by bicycle with your whip checked "trainside" where it's fully assembled and ready to ride. There's something magical about getting off the train in a different state with your bicycle ready to go no worse for wear. Especially at smaller stations, where the conductor or luggage handler will directly hand you the bicycle from the lug…

There's a route that so many bikers have been waiting for in Atlanta of, taking amtrak west, getting off at the first stop (Anniston Alabama, 1 hour car drive away), and then riding all of the mountain bike trails at Coldwater Mountain. You could conceivably take the train back, or camp overnight in Piedmont Alabama and then ride the silver comet rail trail all the way back at some point.

Or just skip the mountain biking and take the train out and bike the silver comet all the way back home.

But! Amtrak won't let you take your bike off the train at Anniston. You have to go all the way to new orleans. It's really dumb and frustrating.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#147

Post by hm-nah »

ck2 wrote: post #137

lol Amish, 1830 technology is OK but hell no to 1930 somehow technology became "evil" in those 100 years human indoctrination is mind-boggling, sets back entire civilization

Many of the Amish I crossed paths with on the train were taking it south to Mexico for medical procedures.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#148

Post by pengaru »

durkie wrote: post #146
pengaru wrote: post #84

If you enjoy cycling I highly recommend riding Amtrak somewhere you'd like to explore by bicycle with your whip checked "trainside" where it's fully assembled and ready to ride. There's something magical about getting off the train in a different state with your bicycle ready to go no worse for wear. Especially at smaller stations, where the conductor or luggage handler will directly hand you the bicycle from the lug…

There's a route that so many bikers have been waiting for in Atlanta of, taking amtrak west, getting off at the first stop (Anniston Alabama, 1 hour car drive away), and then riding all of the mountain bike trails at Coldwater Mountain. You could conceivably take the train back, or camp overnight in Piedmont Alabama and then ride the silver comet rail trail all the way back at some point. Or just skip the mountain bi…

> But! Amtrak won't let you take your bike off the train at Anniston. You have to go all the way to new orleans. It's really dumb and frustrating.

With some chatting up of the staff/conductor before you reach your actual desired premature destination, it's not uncommon for them to be cooperative on getting the bike out of the luggage car and into one of the entrances near the other carry-on luggage for you to get off prematurely with it.

But you have to talk to them early enough in the ride but not so early that they've been replaced, and it probably won't work out if the train is packed and they're understaffed or otherwise super busy.

On my aforementioned Zephyr trip the conductor offered to let me off with the checked bike @ Colfax when he learned I had a bike and SAC ticket intending to ride to Pollock Pines.

They're entirely capable of getting you off with the bike prematurely at any stop, you just gotta talk to them and give them enough advance notice. Agreed that it's annoying Amtrak can't officially offer it for all stops...

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#149

Post by W-Stool »

llacb47 wrote: post #145
W-Stool wrote: post #142

There's a huge error in an otherwise good article about traveling by Amtrak on a long distance train: "Also, economy does not include meals in the dining car and gets you no access to the observation car." This is not true. Anyone on the train can sit in the observation car. Downstairs from the observation car is the snack bar, which was the only source of food for coach travelers when Covid otherwise closed the dine…

It’s been corrected by the author

Good to know, thank you.

Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

#150

Post by tomkat0789 »

noahtallen wrote: post #75
jrochkind1 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting! Your link suggests that legally passenger trains are supposed to have priority, but that in practice freight trains are given priority. I didn't know this, and it makes me even madder! But as far as an explanation for why Amtrak trains are so often delayed (which is how it appeared in OP?), it appears to be correct that it's because freight trains are given priority. It's just that... they're not suppose…

There is something called "Precision Scheduled Railroading" (PSR) which ultimately means that freight trains are longer than they used to be. ( https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-105420 ) The result is that these long trains (even 3 miles long) can't fit on sidings, which means that they can't practically give way to, say, Amtrak, when there's only a single track. (Which is a lot of routes!) In other words, freight…

With all the lawyers in this country you’d think one of them on the train would use their hours long delay to assemble a law suit against the freight rail companies. What an insulting deal for taxpayers!
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