Home > Rafi on the Rails > Archives > 2007 > October
October 2007
Amtrak’s “M” Factor: Marcia and Megan
For all I’ve trumpeted about my Amtrak Adventure around the country, I owe a huge thanks and point of credit to two incredible individuals at Amtrak: Marcia Stockstad and Megan Brandell.
As I mentioned in my intro video back at the beginning of the trip, I cashed in 100,000 Amtrak Guest Reward points in order to take the trip. You’d think that after you’d made the decision to drop that many points (almost ten years in the making), everything else would pretty much be gravy. Not quite.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit it: my itinerary was hardly conventional, snaking around the nation, making a zig-zag out of the midwest. The big problem I ran into when I called Amtrak Guest Rewards to book the itinerary was that the computer system just couldn’t handle it. I ended up calling in three times and got three different answers as to why I couldn’t book my trip. All of those answers were pretty shallow excuses (I’ll refrain from recalling them here in public—they were that laughable), so I called Megan Brandell, who I met in the Washington, DC First Class lounge a few weeks earlier, and who coincidentally works for the Guest Rewards office in Washington, DC. I explained the situation to her, and she was nice enough to forward my story on to the Guest Rewards ticketing office in Minneapolis. Megan, thank you for that favor; it saved me more hassle than you can probably imagine.
A few hours later, Marcia Stockstad calls me from the Guest Rewards redemption center in Minneapolis. Now, Marcia and I already knew each other from previous calls I’ve made to her work center. For some reason for like a year, every time I called I’d get Marcia, and we could never figure out why—it was light a weighted roulette wheel. It’s too bad that wheel stopped working when I wanted to actually book the trip, because I wasn’t lucky enough to get her on the phone during the first three tries.
Anyway, it turns out that Marcia is also one of the most knowledgeable people at the ticketing location (something to which I could have already attested, based on past experiences), which is why the job was handed to her, and sure enough, Marcia knocked the reservation out in a matter of minutes—literally. And when I needed to make slight changes to the reservation over the next few months, again, Marcia was there to help without a moment’s hesitation.
I’m positive that if Marcia wasn’t at that center in Minneapolis, getting my trip booked would have been like pulling teeth, so Marcia, thank you.
Amtrak tells me that they are working on improving the Guest Rewards program—let’s hope that they fix the booking system as part of those improvements. In the meantime, let’s just hope that the powers that be keep Marcia and Megan on board; they have management material written all over them.
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Day 15: The Last Train
Well, I’m about 40 minutes from glory, so to speak.
This trip has been absolutely incredible, and if I had one regret, it’s that I couldn’t write more about it along the way. What I wasn’t able to predict was the fact that I couldn’t sit, absorb, take pictures, read, and blog all at the same time. Regretfully, I had to make the decision to prioritize my “absorption time,” at the expense of blogging, and to a lesser extent, picture-taking (although between Jon, Greg, and myself, we all took close to 1,000 pictures, I think). I do, plan however, to do some catch-up blogging this week, though, because I have some real tales from the Coast Starlight to Los Angeles, the Pacific Surfliner, San Diego, the Sunset Limited, Texas Eagle, and New Orleans.
I’m just north of Manassas, Virginia as I post this, and I’ll be detraining at Washington, DC to go to work for the day. This is my last Amtrak train for the trip, although my journey will officially conclude aboard a MARC (Maryland Area Rail Commuter) train this afternoon when I head home to Baltimore.
I’ve completed this entire trip by rail. Long Distance Rail, High Speed Rail, Comuter Rail, and Light Rail. I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything, either. I’ve met a wider spectrum of people in the last two weeks that I’ve met in the last two years. I’ve seen the landscape transform from east coast cities to prairies to badlands to jagged mountains to volcanoes to vineyards to picturesque beaches to desert to heartland farms to the bayou to kudzu city to the blue ridge mountains, and back to the east coast cities.
In a way, I feel like an eternity has passed since I stepped into that First Class car on the Acela Express back on September 26th. I feel like I’ve lived ten weeks, and not two. At the same time, time has absolutely flown by and the trip’s conclusion has crept up on me quite unexpectedly.
It’s a bittersweet finale to a once in a lifetime trip, but I’m ready to get off of the train. I’m tired, as one might expect, and to be frank, Amtrak obviously didn’t program its dining car menus for a two week long voyage; I’ll be glad to get home and have some variety, that’s for sure.
Again, stay tuned. I have at least two more video entries almost edited and ready to go, and I have a very special thank you that will be posted today for two individuals at Amtrak who made this trip possible.
In the meantime, if you want to ride along musically, I’m listening to Arlo Guthrie’s “Last Train” as I type this. Great song, and it reflects my mood right now.
Rafi
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EXCLUSIVE NEWS: City of New Orleans to lose Sightseeing Car and to Switch to Diner-Lounge car as early as November ‘07
I considered titling this blog item, “15 cars and 15 restless riders…well, not so much anymore,” but then realized that only about 1/4 of the blog readers might actually get the reference.
Anyway, I was sitting in the Dining car on the City of New Orleans Saturday evening, and overheard a conversation about the train being one of the first to move to a Diner-Lounge car.
I’d better back up for those (most) of you who may have no idea what that means. Last year, Amtrak started testing a prototype Diner/Lounge car on the Capitol Limited, which runs from Washington, DC to Chicago. The new car is the result of increased congressional pressure on Amtrak to economize their long distance food service expenses, and has been designed around Amtrak’s new “Diner Lite” program (instituted on all but two of its long distance trains), which, among other changes, replaced authentic china with plastic disposable plates, glassware with plasticware, fabric tablecloths with paper tablecloths, and an economized, across-the-board menu (no special dishes on certain trains). Half of the car is meant as a “lounge” area for light snacking and sight-seeing (but the cars put out in the forseeable future will lack the iconic “wrap-around” floor-to ceiling windows found in the current “Sightseer” cars), and the other half is meant for full meal dining. The car concept has been the topic of some criticism over the past year, with many critics rigidly pointing at the Empire Builder’s success story, where that train received a noticeable service level increase in the form of newly refurbished cars, first class perks (wine tastings, gift boxes upon room check-in, etc), and, of course, a full dining car experience where the words “Diner-Lite” and “Diner-Lounge” are never heard. As a result, the train, which is now Amtrak’s flagship Long Distance train, has enjoyed record popularity and ridership; for a taste (so to speak), click on the Empire Builder category link to the left to see photos and read about my trip on that train.
Regardless, Amtrak has made it clear that it has committed its resources to making the Diner-Lounge program work, and the first indication of that commitment came to me yesterday.
Amtrak’s Marc Magliari, the PR rep for the midwest zone, confirmed to me yesterday what I’ve seen rumored on message boards and what I overheard on the “City” Saturday night: the Diner lounge will make its debut on the City of New Orleans.
To help clarify some of the finer points that have been rumored and speculated, here are the facts, according to Magliari:
- There will, in fact, be menu options specific to the City of New Orleans, including a shrimp dish, jumbalaya, etc.
- The menu will be expanded from the current “Diner-Lite” menu to also include steak, ice cream, and possibly some other additions.
- The Superliner “Sightseer Lounge” car will be removed from the train, and the Diner-Lounge will serve as both the sightseeing car and the diner, which means the train will now be shorter.
- The change over will NOT happen before the end of October, as has been rumored. According to Magliari, “it’s possible by the beginning of November.”
- Car 37001 (pictured here and above in New Orleans on Sunday), the second Diner-Lounge car to be released by Amtrak’s Beech Grove shops in Indiana, is now in New Orleans for crew training. Magliari says, “It really depends on having all of the cars and having the training done. It’s going to be a big deal, so it takes a lot to get it launched.”
- With regard to when other trains may get the Diner-Lounge (and lose the sightseeing car), Magliari says, “the City will be the first one. After that, we’ll see how it goes.”
- With regard to the custom menu and whether or not other Diner-Lounge trains will also get customized cuisine, “The City will be the first one we’ll see what happens. The [City of New Orleans] historically had regional food on it, and if this is successful, we’ll look to do similar things with this train and this car.”
- The train, which now is the same set that runs as the Texas Eagle from San Antonio to Chicago and then turns around to become the City of New Orleans, will become a dedicated set that runs only between New Orleans and Chicago, at least until the Texas Eagle also moves to a Diner-Lounge.
No one, not even Amtrak, really knows how the Diner-Lounge will perform, but it appears that they’ve intentionally picked a light-load train to start with, which should help minimize any potential chaos.
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Day 12: Welcome to Mississippi—No Wine for You!!
Sometimes when you’re traveling, you don’t really realize where you are until the local customs hit you on the head, so to speak. I sat down for lunch today with a fantastically friendly couple from Australia who are traveling to New Orleans. I ordered a water for a drink, and they ordered a bottle of wine. Until that point, you could have told me that we were still in Illinois, and judging by the landscape, I probably wouldn’t have questioned you. It was then that the waiter said to the Australian couple, “sorry, I can’t serve alcohol in Mississippi on a Sunday.”It was then that I knew I wasn’t in Illinois anymore.
As a point of comparison, a week ago today (a Sunday), Jon, Bert, Greg, and I were all enjoying a complimentary Wine and Cheese Tasting aboard the Coast Starlight somewhere in Oregon.
Point to ponder: so if Amtrak can’t serve alcohol while traveling through Mississippi on a Sunday, why can an airline? Hmmm…
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Days 2, 3, and 10: The Old Patagonian Express via Amtrak
If you’re even mildly intrigued by the romance of epic train travel, pick up a copy of Paul Theroux’s The Old Patagonian Express, which was published in 1979 and has gone on to countless reprintings. It’s one of three books I brought with me on this trip, and it’s partly responsible for inspiring part of my trip around the country.I picked the book up at Boston’s Logan Airport this past December (that airport alone is enough to tempt almost anyone to take the train). As I flipped through the first few pages to get an idea of the writing style, a map caught my eye. It was a map of Theroux’s trek across North America and into South America. See, Theroux actually took Amtrak to get himself down to Mexico and continued on from there. He pieced together his trip the same way I eventually pieced mine together, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t try to cover as much of his ground as I could. When I stepped off of the Texas Eagle today, I can now say that I’ve covered almost all of the ground Theroux covered across the US, and here’s how:
Theroux’s route took him from Boston to Chicago on the Lake Shore Limited, and then from Chicago to Laredo by way of the Lone Star (formerly known as the Texas Chief), which doesn’t run anymore, unfortunately. The route is still partially intact, however, in the form of the Texas Eagle from San Antonio to Fort Worth, and in the Heartland Flyer from Fort Worth to Oklahoma City (the portion from Oklahoma to Newton, Kansas, to connect to Chicago, left with the Lone Star, but there are now efforts underway to get that track back in passenger service).
So I decided to also start my trek in the Northeast, although I positioned myself a little further north than Boston for my starting line: Portland, Maine. But it still meant a trip from Boston to Chicago on the Lake Shore Limited, like Theroux. The segment from Chicago to Newton, Kansas is something I’ve ridden before on the Southwest Chief, so I opted for the northern route on the Empire Builder to see some new sites.
I picked up Theroux’s route Friday morning on Day 10, when the Texas Eagle left San Antonio and headed up through Fort Worth. If I wanted to travel every last inch of Theroux’s track that was still accessible via Amtrak, I would have transferred to the Heartland Flyer for Oklahoma City at that point. Unfortunately, that route dead ends at Oklahoma City, and if you want to get to Chicago from there (which I needed to do), it meant a bus connection, so that was out. So the Heartland Flyer will have to wait for another day, I suppose.
But I can say this: I’ve now travelled well over half of Theroux’s Patagonian Express trek in the US, and what a change in climate it is to go from Boston to San Antonio. He talks about that topic (as well as the change in personalities and characters) at length, and again, it’s a highly recommended read, even (I’d even say, especially) if you’re not a train buff.
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Day 11: Texas Eagle Video Slideshow
It took hours longer than I expected in order to make it, but I’ve finally finished a pretty lengthy video slideshow from the Texas Eagle (the entire route from Los Angeles to San Antonio to Chicago). Many thanks to Bill Pollard from the Texas Eagle Marketing and Performance Organization (TEMPO) for allowing me to use the official Texas Eagle theme song in the slideshow.
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Rafi
Day 10: Texas Intermodal Centers (video entry)
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New Slideshow Posted: The Coast Starlight
The Coast Starlight 
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Day 5: Goodbye to Jon
The Coast Starlight pulled into Eugene, Oregon pretty much on time, and Jon stepped off into the cold drizzle. Fortunately, the train lingered at the station for about 10 minutes before departing, so we were able to snap some final photos before we pulled away.
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Day 5: The Great Oregon Rendezvous
So Jon, my friend from middle and high school, met me in Portland, Maine, and wanted to finish his trip in Eugene, Oregon, which is near where his brother, Brett lives. Bert and Greg, my two friends from college, were planning to meet me in Portland, Oregon (which comes before Eugene), and to ride all of the way to San Diego. That meant that Portland would be our rendezvous point for all four travellers, and we’d be riding together for about two hours, until Jon got off in Eugene.
Jon and I arrived about 45 minutes early on the Empire Builder, and we dropped our bags off at the First Class lounge and headed out for some food; Greg and Bert weren’t due to land in Portland from an east coast flight until after noon. Now, I’m the kind of guy who always forgets something when he goes on a trip. Always. Something. Toothbrush, hair comb, socks, pants (yes, I have forgotten pants), you get the idea. So I get to Portland, Oregon, and I realize what I forgot: a jacket.Now, Portland was rainy and it was about, I’m going to guess, 45 degrees. And I’m wearing that goofy red shirt with jeans. Jon and I start walking and it becomes clear to me that my ears are probably going to freeze off in the cold rain if I don’t get a jacket or an umbrella or something. But this is Sunday. Sunday morning. And that means that nothing’s open at all, so we decide to get a bite to eat first.
A few weeks before the trip, my mom had called me in a panic, because she absolutely, positively, had to tell me to go to this cafe in Portland that she saw on the Food Network. I wrote it down, though, and thank goodness I did, because it was walking distance from the train station, and it was open. And apparently my mom wasn’t the only one who saw it featured on the Food Network, because there was a line outside. Luckily, the rain had apparently kept the crowd down, and Jon and I were able to get two seats at the counter before five minutes was out. Two biscuits with gravy, two eggs, and a glass of milk later, and was ready to roll. By that time, stores had begun to open, so we swung by an REI store, I found a nice new jacket (I needed one anyway), and we were off. Greg and Bert called about that time, too, and we all met up at a fantastic used book store called Powell’s. Everyone except me knew about it, it seemed, but I did find two great books on trains for the trip.
From there, we all walked back to the train station. Here’s a quick video:
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And off we went on the Coast Starlight.
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Day 4, 5 & 6: Hello Pacific Northwest
To try and describe the sights we encountered on our trip through Washington State, Oregon, and Northern California would take much, much too long for a blog entry. So, instead, I’m going to fill this blog item with pictures and some brief narration. If you’re reading this on the blog index page, make sure to click here to see all of the pictures and content.
The Empire Builder
In all my years of riding Amtrak, whenever I asked people about their impressions of the Empire Builder, the response I’d almost always get went something like this:“Oh, that’s a wonderful train, but the scenery just isn’t quite as good as the California Zephyr.”
Now, I’ve been on the Zephyr twice, and yes, the scenery on that route is spectacular—possibly the best in North America. But to compare that route’s scenery to the Empire Builder is an apples and oranges kind of thing, I discovered. The Empire Builder’s scenery pretty much sneaks up on you when you’re heading westward, like Jon and I did. One minute you’re in the high desert and badlands:
and the next, you’re heading into what looks like Mordor. I’m serious. You look out the window and you literally see this:
Yeah, holy crap.
That’s Glacier National Park. And from there on out, the scenery just kicks into high gear and doesn’t let up until you’re in Seattle, or in our case, in Portland (remember, the train splits in Spokane). The air changes from a dry, sun-warmed breeze to a crisp chill. If you stick your head out, you smell the pine needles and you hear the rush of the mountain streams. It’s invigorating and relaxing at the same time, if you can imagine that.
Since our section split off in Spokane to head to Portland, we woke up Sunday morning to the sight of the Columbia River, which is this monolithic chasm of water in the middle of the mountains. It was foggy, cold, and rainy, but it was still breathtaking:
The Coast Starlight
I had been on the Coast Starlight once before, back in 2004 when I rode from Seattle to San Jose. On that trip, I was able to capture some fantastic scenery on film because our train was 8 hours late, ironically. So, for example, I took this lucky shot under Mount Shasta in northern California:
Even though our train wasn’t 8 hours late this time around (shucks!), we were still able to get some great pictures of the Oregon countryside:
But from there on out, it was too dark to really capture anything. Suffice it to say, the Coast Starlight’s northern scenery is, in fact, spectacular. You just have to time it to see it in daylight (heading north is probably better for that).
For more pictures, make sure you check out both the Coast Starlight and Empire Builder photo galleries.
-Rafi
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New Slideshow Posted: The Empire Builder
The Empire Builder 
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Day 8: Newspaper Pic of the Day
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Back on board the Sunset Limited; Updates coming tomorrow!!
I apologize for being so quiet the past few days. Since my last post, I’ve been on board the Coast Starlight, the Pacific Surfliner, and am currently speeding through the Arizona desert aboard the Sunset Limited. I have some catching up to do in posting and picture/video posting, and since tomorrow is pretty much going to be a desert day (not a whole lot to watch from what I understand), I’ll hunker down and get some good stuff posted. So stay tuned!
Rafi
If you’re using Safari…
If you’re using Safari to view the blog, keep in mind that the videos may not show up correctly. I use Safari myself and have been racking my brain trying to figure out what’s happening, but it turns out that it’s a known bug with the COX video player. The workaround on your end is to use another browser, like Firefox, Netscape, or Camino, but I’m working on a fix on my end which I should be able to have implemented tomorrow.
-Rafi
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Day 5: Stomach Ache, Thank You!
The Empire Builder is unique in that it’s the only Amtrak train that still performs a live split (if heading westbound) and joining (if heading eastbound). When splitting, one section of the train (including the dining and baggage cars) goes to Seattle. The other section (including the Sightseeing/Lounge car) goes to Portland, Oregon. The juggling act happens in Spokane, Washington in the middle of the night, so most passengers never even see it happen.
Well, as fate had it, I woke up at about 1:00 AM this morning with an awful stomach ache. I’m still not sure what brought it on, because Jon had the exact same lunch and dinner as me, and he was fine. Regardless, I had to get out of bed, because I was in the top bunk, and if something wanted to come up, well, I needed to be out of the room for Jon’s sake.
As I got out of bed, I realized the train was stopped. And the power was off. And then I slowly woke up and came to the realization that we were in Spokane and were in the midst of the late night juggle, where the Seattle portion of the train would detach from our Portland section. I made a (thankfully) quick bathroom trip and headed outside.
And froze.
Spokane is COLD, man. Especially at 1:15 AM in the morning. Regardless, I waited, and sure enough, the Amtrak conductors first detached the air hoses between the rear Seattle-bound coach and the Sightseeing Lounge car (which was forward of our Spokane cars). At that point, I couldn’t take the cold any longer, so I headed inside to the Sightseeing car to watch the action from there. The conductor released the coupler from the Sightseeing car (you could feel the scrape and bump of the metal pin), and not long after, I stood at the front door of the Sightseeing car and watched the coach passengers in the car ahead of us slowly pull away into the darkness, flanked by two red lights on the rear of their car. It was a little bittersweet, honestly, because we had grown to know many of these passengers at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and many would awaken early the next morning to find their train magically shortened by about half.
About 5 minutes after the Seattle section left, I heard the bell of another engine in the distance that grew louder until I could see the rear of a brand new Amtrak engine backing up toward our Sightseeing car. It coupled to us, and I headed back to bed at that point. My stomach had calmed down, and I could finally say that I’ve seen a live passenger train split into two independent trains.
Incidentally, here are a few fun facts: 1). So the baggage car left with the Seattle section. Makes you wonder what Amtrak does with the Portland baggage, right? It actually rides along on the ground floor of one of the Portland cars. I figured that out when I realized that one of our coach cars had a conspicuous large door welded to the side of it:
2). If the dining car heads to Seattle, what do the Portland passengers do about eating? Well, as it turns out, the Portland folks do get the shorter end of the stick in this respect; sleeping car passengers are given cold box meals (which actually weren’t too bad, all things considered), and the coach passengers have to buy food from the cafe in the bottom of the lounge car.
3). Two other Amtrak trains have performed splits in recent history: The California Zephyr (which used to split off into the Pioneer to Portland, Oregon, and the Desert Wind, to Las Vegas and Los Angeles) and the Lake Shore Limited (which used to have a split in Toledo that went up to Detroit for Michigan passengers. All of those splits have since been converted to bus connections, unfortunately.
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