9200 miles on the rails

It was a long, long trip on Amtrak but well worth it, if only for the chance to see how my version of Amtrak's problems differ from the administration's. We (my husband and I) were aboard a train daily from June 28 to July 15 with only a few hours in between portions of the trip in a station.

It did not begin well. Our taxi pick-up at home was prompt and we were at Columbia's station about an hour before the train was due. As soon as we checked our luggage (one piece going directly to our destination, Portland, Oregon) we saw the notice on the Arrivals/Departures board that the Silver Star was 2 1/2 hours late. No reason known for why it was so late. Since we had now something like 3 1/2 to 4 hours to sit in a station with no enhancements at all was almost unbearable and there was no place to walk to for some kind of diversion. When the Star finally arrived at 2:30am the few dozen passengers boarded as quickly as possible so as to get some sleep on the way to their various destinations. For us it was easy to tuck into our respective roomettes and sleep until we were ready to get up for breakfast in the dining car. Since we were now expecting to be in Orlando closer to noon than the scheduled 8:20am, we could take our time about everything. As we sped through the Florida countryside I was more than glad that we never thought to retire there--such dismal scenery.

Arriving in Orlando we had a relatively short wait for our departure on the Sunset Ltd, thank goodness. Orlando's station is decent enough but not one in which you'd want to spend several hours which would have been the case had we been on time. I guess Amtrak doesn't count on passengers having much of a layover so they don't have any amenities to offer beyond restrooms and a drinks dispenser. But the Sunset departed on time--1:45pm--and we were off on the second leg of our journey, New Orleans. Since we'd had no lunch we opted for the earliest dinner reservation, 5pm. Steaks, mixed veg, a baked potato, a salad, some Merlot wine, cheese cake and coffee more than made up for the loss of a mid-day meal.

A knock on my roomette door the next morning got me going; Ron was already up and dressed. The weather was foul, very heavy rain just about all the way to New Orleans. How nice to be dry and comfortable with somebody else doing the driving. I was glad to have my knitting as I was just about finished with the first of several books I'd brought along. We noticed herons and small flying birds in the vast bayous of Mississippi, occasional signs of man'w works, remnants of docks and at one point an enormous structure that appeared to have been an oil derrick--huge, sitting on stilts well above the water. The usual accumulation of freight trains coming and going, as well as right ahead of us, caused another delay, putting us in New Orleans about three hours late. Again it didn't matter: our departure on the City of New Orleans was scheduled for 1:45pm so we had little more than an hour to kill.

The station in New Orleans has had some considerable renovations since our last run through there. But it still seems to be in a little regarded area as there is only one newstand and one fast-food restaurant. The first class lounge, which we would have been entitled to use, was closed for fumigation purposes so we had to sit with the hoi-polloi in the general area. Not a problem, though, as we had a couple of interesting conversations, one with a young British woman who told of her experience with passport clearance when she entered the country (fingerprinting, etc) and the other with a couple, NARP members, who were completing the last leg of their round-the-country by rail, much like our own trip.

The City of New Orleans departed promptly but delays began as we barely left the station. There were several stops along the way to drop off or pick up passengers. No lack of passenger traffic. We spoke to more people about the Amtrak funding problem and none of them were aware of it. There wasn't much to comment on about this stretch, mostly farmland, but no more rain. We were in Chicago not only on time, but a few minutes early. At least it meant we could have lunch at The Corner Bakery which I'm convinced has the best sandwiches in the country. Since I hadn't slept well after about 4:30am I was glad to sit and snooze in the Metropolitan Lounge while Ron went out to photograph whatever he thought interesting.

As usual, another delay. This time in departing from Chicago. Supposed to depart at 1:50pm we didn't collect our bags and get a ride to the train until 1:20. After settling in our compartment (bedroom this time) an announcement asked coach passengers to occupy only one seat as others coming from the Lake Shore Ltd were boarding and the Zephy was booked solid! Another knife in Mileta's argument that no one rides Amtrak! We made a 7pm dinner reservation and had very enjoyable dinner table companions, though I suspect some topics (relating to the gov't) might have been inappropriate as he did contract work for companies like Halliburton. We had to set our watches back an hour as the next day we'd be on mountain time.

Up early and a good thing as the dining car was full when we went down; we had to put our names on the "call list". Not yet into Denver so the scenery was still flat, cattle and ranch land. Our breakfast table companions were delightful, two gentlemen, slightly younger than us, were from Toronto on their way to Salt Lake City for a barbershop quartet convention. Later we sat in the lounge car so as to get the best views of the mountains as we headed for Winter Park. The spectacular scenery brought lots of people to the lounge car where we sat until lunch time. With our table companions, Malinda and Gary Parks from near Sacramento, we had a great discussion about trains, outdoor life and their new home construction. Shortly after crossing into Utah we ran into signaling problems, forcing the train to sit for more than an hour. Nothing like being in the middle of a desert to stall! Of course this would mean another delay in our arrival at Emeryville.

Our dinner companions were the worst we've had in ages. In Chicago I had noticed a young woman and a severely handicapped man boarding, using the handicapped room. Although not wheelchair bound he was bent and twisted with a considerable lack of mobility. They were seated with us. No problem with the man, though he was very hard to understand as he had severe speech problems but his daughter was impossibly cheerful. She accompanied everything she said with laughter, suitable to what she was saying or not. It was the most awful dinner hour.

More later--------