Recent content by Eric in East County

While one would hesitate to suggest that Amtrak would engage in deliberate mendacity, the train status page shows SWC No. 3 departing from Chicago today (May 15) as scheduled and continuing through to Los Angeles with no service disruptions. (I must assume that the derailment in Dodge City has...

We were onboard the SWC No. 4 that crossed the bridge on Friday, May 10th and there were no problems. When we departed Fort Madison, someone radioed "Twenty at the bridge.” Traveling at 20 mph, it took us two minutes to cross the Mississippi River.

Stage 3: Chicago to Toledo (May 10th) Prior to our departure from home, we’d been following an Amtrack Unlimited discussion thread regarding how construction work both inside and outside of Chicago Union Station was making it somewhat more difficult to negotiate one’s way from the south...

(Day 3: May 10th) We were up a little before 6:00 a.m. Central Time so that we’d be packed before breakfast was delivered. Outside it was sunny and the day promised to be a beautiful one. After the departure from Topeka at 6:38 a.m., we moved some of our carryon items from our bedroom down to...

(Day 2: May 9th) It was already light outside when our train arrived in Flagstaff one hour and thirty-five minutes behind schedule. When we’d made our first trip onboard Southwest Chief No. 4 twenty-five years ago, copies of the “Arizona Daily Sun” were still being loaded aboard the sleeping...

Stage 2: Los Angeles to Chicago (Day 1: May 8th) After detraining, we descended to the wide underground pedestrian tunnel that runs underneath the tracks and made our way into the station and to the elevator that goes up to the Metropolitan Lounge. After she had let us in, the attendant put...

Part 1: San Diego, California to Toledo, Ohio Stage 1: San Diego to Los Angeles (May 8th) Our rail adventures all begin with our arrival at our “home station,” the historic Santa Fe Depot in downtown San Diego. With plenty of time before our train would begin boarding, we settled in to wait on...

Prologue Even before we’d returned home from our summer 2023 Amtrak trip to Ohio, we were planning on making a second trip in September contingent upon our being able to book bedrooms on Southwest Chief trains Nos. 3 & 4. A little over a week after our return, we called Amtrak, only to learn...

This was in Pre-COVID days and I think that there were four (4) coaches (mostly filled to capacity since it was a sold out train) in the consist. There were a lot of Scouts onboard for that trip, and many of them were in the Sightseer level of the coach. It was quite full, and we had to check...

Back in late June 2018, we were on Southwest Chief No. 4 heading east for Chicago. It was a full train and the conductor asked passengers to please limit their stay in the Sightseer Lounge Car to two hours as many people wanted to have the opportunity to spend some time there, too. This request...

As has been discussed in the past, speaking to a live agent is always preferable to sending an e-mail.

I’m guessing that drug smugglers use long-distance trains for the same reasons that many of us do: it is less stressful and fatiguing than driving across country, one doesn’t have to stop along the way to eat, buy fuel, or answer a call of nature, one doesn’t have to stop for the night to sleep...

The Amtrak Police are obviously “in the loop” along with other local and Federal agencies regarding information turned up by the FBI, Homeland Security, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration, etc. We must assume that if anything comes to...

On those occasions when we needed to speak to someone in Customer Relations, we called the Amtrak number and told “Julie” that we wanted to speak to an agent. When we got through to an agent, we asked for Customer Relations and were transferred. We always call at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time...

About a year or so ago, someone posted that the Kosher flex meals are somewhat better than the regular flex meals, and recommended them as a better option, even to those travelers who are not Jewish. Apparently, Kosher flex meals must be requested in advance as they are not routinely stocked on...