Trip Report: October 8 - 28, 2000
by Ted & Sylvia Blishak
ONBOARD AMTRAK
WITH TED AND SYLVIA BLISHAK
October 16, 2000: Pittsburgh to Richmond.
Our four days in Pittsburgh are all too short, but packed with luncheons and dinners with friends and family members, high school reunion activities, a Pittsburgh Symphony program at Heinz Hall, and an afternoon matinee of the new film, Achilles Love, a story of Greek immigrants filmed in Pittsburgh, in which Ted's long time high school buddy, Anthony Stakis, has a significant supporting role.
Our objective today is Williamsburg. Our plan is to take the Capitol Limited to Washington and make a connection to Richmond, since Amtrak cannot guarantee making a connection with the Williamsburg train. In Richmond we will be met by one of Ted's former classmates from the University of Pittsburgh's School of Electrical Engineering, who will drive to us Williamsburg.
Travel Tip: Don't try to squeeze in as many stopovers as we try to do in nineteen days. One missed connection can topple all your dominoes. Stop over in Washington and take the next morning's train to Williamsburg. You will be able to relax and enjoy your trip more if you don't have to worry about missed connections.
After answering our 5:30 AM wakeup call at the Sheraton Station Square in Pittsburgh, I call 800 USA RAIL to get an ETA on Amtrak Train 30, the Capitol Limited to find it expected to be one hour behind schedule, just as it was on our arrival into Pittsburgh last Thursday. At least the CSX is consistent. This gives us time to order a light room service breakfast, just in case there are any problems in the dining car this morning.
Travel Tip: Don't assume that you will be able to be served in the dining car when you are boarding a late running train. The dining car service hours may expire before you board, leaving you hungry, or forcing you to find something in the snack bar. You might find the snack bar to be closed for a crew break, and even if you are a sleeping car passenger, food acquired in the snack bar will be at your own expense. If you are, for health or dietary reasons, unable to skip a meal, it is best to have something before you board.
Our Sheraton van delivers us and our bags to the Pittsburgh Amtrak Station, a limited facility in the basement of what was once the grand Pennsylvania Station. This former station building is now The Pennsylvanian, an upscale condominium complex conveniently located in the heart of downtown. We check two bags back westbound to Los Angeles, the next-to-the last stop on our itinerary where we will need our dress clothes for dinner with Ted's nephew and his wife followed by the LA Opera production of Peter Grimes. One bag goes back home to Klamath Falls so our load is now lightened considerably for the remainder of our trip.
At the last minute, we decide to check three of our bags to Richmond, our final destination tonight. We wisely keep the bags with medications and toiletries onboard with us.
Travel Tip: Amtrak's liberal baggage policy allows you to check bags ahead to any point on your ticket, or back home early with your laundry. You don't have to be on the same vehicle with your bags, as you do when you fly on scheduled airlines. This gives you much more flexibility with your luggage when traveling by train.
They are completing the last call for breakfast as we settle into our Deluxe Room. We answer the call in order to supplement our light room service meal and find the dining car staff to be friendly and efficient, even in the face of having to deal with a malfunctioning dishwasher. Breakfast is being served on plastic plates with plastic cutlery. I order two side orders and there are absolutely no problems. The friendly conductor welcomes us aboard and collects our tickets. Yes, this is a different crew than the one that brought us into Pittsburgh Thursday morning.
We enjoy breakfast while rolling through what was formerly the vast, bustling industrial districts of Pittsburgh and its suburbs. It's now a ghostly, somber area with mills and blast furnaces reduced to abandoned industrial artifacts.
Our table mates at breakfast are a Florida couple who have just completed a New Orleans to Memphis cruise on the vintage steamboat Delta Queen. We ask if they took Amtrak to New Orleans.
"We had planned to, but Amtrak changed their schedule and left Florida earlier so we missed the train." This is not the first time we've heard this story. We inquire if they purchased their tickets through Amtrak.
"No, we got them from XXX (a well known nationwide travel agency chain), and neither they nor Amtrak had called them to advise them of the change so we had to fly to New Orleans."
Travel Tip: Amtrak as well as major airlines notify travel agents of schedule changes by automated computer messages. If your travel agent doesn't make it a policy to check their computer for air and rail schedules changes shortly before your departure, and provide you with an updated itinerary, change travel agencies. It is a simple matter for an agent to print a new itinerary from their computer. Just to be on the safe side, note your own calendar two or three days before departure and make sure you have the latest information, and call the carrier before you go to the airport or train station.
It is now 1:56 PM and we should be leaving Martinsburg, West Virginia, but instead are just pulling out of Cumberland, Maryland. We are now more than two and a half hours behind schedule. Unless we make up time, we will miss our connecting train to Richmond. Remember our travel tip. We should have planned to stay over in Washington.
We are enjoying glorious fall colors as we roll through the Allegheny Mountains. This is our first daytime trip along this route, and we must highly recommend it, especially during the fall. The changing leaves are supplemented by colorful automobiles slowly returning to their elemental state in barnyards all along the route. At one point we enjoy the same beautiful scene for one full hour as we sit on the main line waiting for clearance through a track maintenance zone.
Our train chief makes several announcements over the IC to explain that there is freight traffic ahead of us as well, and apologizes for the delay which is, we know, no fault of Amtrak's. The CSX is apparently working hard to upgrade these tracks to federal standards after the recent severe criticism by the National Transportation Safety Board. This is very significant for Amtrak, for whom the safety of their passengers is of paramount importance. They have no control over track conditions but must depend upon the host railroad for maintenance. Our probable inability to reach our hotel in Williamsburg tonight becomes of minor importance when compared to the safety issues involved.
The dining car is still serving lunch at 2 PM. Our corned beef sandwiches with a dab of potato salad are very tasty. The pleasant dining car staff advises that they are out of herbal tea and claims no desserts are left. However, back in our sleeping car, our attendant has Pepsi and chocolate chip cookies waiting for us.
At 3:40 PM we reach Martinsburg, West Virginia, nearly three hours late. There are abandoned brick buildings here, including a picturesquely crumbling roundhouse. The train crew keeps telling us we might be able to make our connection. We are now leaving Harpers Ferry at 4:10 PM, 55 miles from Washington Union Station. If we can average more than 60 mph or if Train 93 is late in leaving Washington, maybe there will be a chance. But what about our luggage in the baggage car? How will that make it to our connecting train? Stay tuned.
October 16, 2000, Part II:
WASHINGTON TO WILLIAMSBURG AND RETURN
Our hopes of reaching Washington, DC in time to make our connection to Richmond were dashed when CSX held up the Capitol Limited outside of Rockville for about thirty minutes. We were now over three hours behind schedule. Queries to our train crew resulted in the advice to consult a customer service agent who "should" be on the platform at Washington Union Station. I had carelessly left my timetable on the California Zephyr. There did not seem to be any timetables on the Capitol Limited. The conductor did not know when the next train left for Richmond. I phoned 800 USA RAIL with my cell phone and learned that it would leave at 8:19 PM and arrive in Richmond at 10:34 PM. Our friend Don Price was scheduled to meet us in Richmond on the earlier train which was to arrive at 7:00 PM. I left a message on his recorder and turned on my cell phone hoping for a return call. It came, and Don was serendipitously in Washington at Union Station tracking the progress of our delayed train. He would be there to meet us and drive us to Williamsburg in his Jeep Wagoneer with the license plate LUV TRVL.
We finally arrived in Washington at 6:00 PM, three hours and twenty minutes behind. I disembarked to find that there was no customer service agent on the platform. I asked a Red Cap for advice on how to reclaim my bags which were checked through to Richmond. He used his two-way radio to reach the baggage agent who was offloading luggage from the baggage car, asked him to open the door on our side of the train, then sent us off to the rear of the train where he said the baggage car was now located. It wasn't, there was only a sealed mail car back there being cut off the rear end. The yardman told us the baggage car was on the front of the train on this trip. Grabbing our carry-ons we raced to the baggage car to find the door open and our bags waiting inside. After we produced our claim checks the bags were all ours again to struggle with to the station. There were no carts available and, by this time, no Red Caps in sight as they were helping people way at the other end of the platform where the sleeping cars were.
Travel Tip: I don't advise close connections on Amtrak, but it depends on the situation. Short distance trains have a reasonable chance of running somewhat close to their scheduled times, but long distance trains are habitually delayed. So if you must make a tight connection from a long distance train, don't check your bags through. You and your bags may end up at different destinations.
Travel Tip: Don't depend on the availability of Red Caps or baggage carts. You may find them, but when you don't, you want to be able to lug your own bags with a minimum of effort. Wheeled bags or folding wheeled carts are a must. This is especially true when traveling by sleeper, for you will usually find that the sleeping cars are at the end of the train furthest away from the station. Station platforms can be long and with the addition of material handling cars, your walk to the station is longer than ever as you stroll past several box cars on the end of your train.
We met our friend Don inside the station, purchased a folding wheeled baggage cart, and deposited our bags in his car. Rather than join the evening rush hour, we dined at one of the six excellent restaurants in beautifully restored and maintained Washington Union Station. We then left at 8:00 PM in Don's Wagoneer, and were in Williamsburg and checked into the Kingsgate Condominium by 11:30 PM.
October 17 2000:
WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA
We enjoyed the many historical buildings, well-informed docents and historic guides, and the restaurants of Williamsburg.
October 18 2000:
We arrived at the Williamsburg Amtrak Station at 10:30 AM, just in time to watch the southbound Twilight Shoreliner arrive with its consist of Horizon Fleet coaches, Dinette, and Business Class car, followed by one Viewliner Sleeper. It was about ten minutes behind schedule with engineer/author Doug Riddell at the throttle. I didn't see Doug, for I was talking to Bob Wilburn, a client of Accent on Travel-USA, whom we met on the platform. Bob lives in Williamsburg and was boarding here with his Dad for a trip to Boston. He spotted Doug up in the cab as the Genesis engine swept past us. After disembarking their Williamsburg passengers, the Shoreliner accelerated away from the station for a moment then came to a complete halt. The door on one of the coaches opened and the trainman deposited several bags on the platform, followed by a sleepy-eyed passenger who had apparently awakened just as the train was pulling out.
At 10:50 AM, Northeast Direct Train 94 arrived from Newport News. We boarded the Business Class coach and left promptly at 11:00 AM. I wondered if the off-again-on- again Business Class amenities would be available. There were no announcements made about services or amenities in Business Class, there was no car attendant, and the conductor made no comments when he collected our tickets, but there was a stack of Washington Posts and USA Todays in the baggage bin. At noon, just as we began thinking of lunch, the snack car attendant announced that the snack bar would be closed while he took his lunch break.
Travel Tip: Don't depend on snack bars on Amtrak trains to be open at the usual times when passengers might be thirsty or hungry. From our experiences snack bars tend to be closed at lunch times, cocktail hours, and after dinner so that the attendants can take their breaks. Try to anticipate your hunger pangs or thirst and go to the snack bar to stock up with food or beverages before customary snack times, meal times, or cocktail hours. Or if you prefer, bring your own bottle and snacks, and ask your sleeping car attendant to bring ice and setups. He will usually have ice, soft drinks, and water in his own sleeper, and not be dependant on the vagaries of snack bar attendants. Also be aware that snack bars are not open when you board the train at its point of origin, nor do they stay open to their destination. The attendant will make an announcement when he is ready to open after the train leaves its point of origin. It usually takes him about an hour to get ready to open for business. He will also announce the closure of the snack bar prior to the train reaching its destination. He usually likes to have anywhere from one hour to one and a half hours to close up his snack bar so that he can disembark immediately after arrival.
At 12:15 PM I approached the snack bar attendant just as he returned to his post and just before he made his announcement that he was returning to work, thus being at the head of the huge line of hungry passengers moving in from the coaches ahead. I brought back to our seats an excellent turkey sandwich and a ham and cheese sandwich, with a can of sparkling water. We enjoyed our lunch while passing through extensive swamplands fringed by brightly-colored fall foliage, and cruising along the edge of an arm of Chesapeake Bay. Browsing through a Washington Post for awhile, I was soon gratified by our on time arrival into Washington. Our connection with the Capitol Limited, scheduled to depart for Chicago at 4:05 PM, was assured. A Red Cap was on the platform with a cart to carry our luggage to the first-class Metropolitan Lounge.
We checked in and requested Red Cap assistance for boarding Capitol Limited, then settled down to check and send our e-mail. Unfortunately, this lounge, unlike the Chicago and Portland lounges did not have a work station with a phone line. Instead I was directed to a coffee table with an AT&T pay phone with "data capabilities". However I could not figure out how to connect my laptop to a pay phone and my Sprint PCS cell phone does not have a signal inside buildings. Once aboard the train I was able to link my laptop to my Sprint PCS and collect my e-mail before we pulled away from Washington and out of range.
We made reservations for 5:30 PM dinner, which was served on real plates by an efficient and pleasant dining car staff, set our watches for Central Time, and settled into bed. The track was rough, but we were not subject to delays this time, and soon were fast asleep. We arrived on time in Chicago!
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