Trip Report: November 27 - December 21, 2001
by Ted & Sylvia Blishak
28 DAYS ON THE RAILS
Tuesday and Wednesday, December 4th and 5th, 2001
CHICAGO TO PITTSBURGH
Upon disembarking from the Eagle, we follow the signs to the underground taxi stand only to find that it is closed, apparently due to security considerations. The policeman on duty advises us that we must haul our luggage up the ramp to the street to flag down a cab. Another small change in our lifestyle due to terrorism. Fortunately there are plenty of cabs cruising by, but we find the driving to be slow due to the 5pm rush hour congestion. Also our stay at The Fairmont is cut short by our late arrival, but we do have time to check our e-mail, send our reports and photos, shower, and reorganize our luggage.
Travel Tip: If your travel agent can find a reasonable day room rate in Chicago, your layover between trains can be much more comfortable without spending a fortune for an overnight rate.
Although The Fairmont is one of the most luxurious hotels in Chicago, and we have a gorgeous 36th floor room overlooking Lake Michigan, the air-conditioning is not working. Our room temperature is a muggy mid-western 75 degrees and opening the window does not help, it only allows city noise to come in. A phone call to Guest Services to complain only brings the counter-complaint that they are roasting down there, and they believe the A/C has been turned off for the winter. But they offer to report my problem to the hotel engineer. He calls a few minutes later to report that the cooling has failed and they are working to correct the problem, but it is not corrected by the time we checkout at 8:45pm. We had noticed that the cooling in our room at the Dallas Fairmont was not very effective, so it may well be that Fairmont is shutting down their A/C during the winter season to save money.
Our taxi ride to Union Station is much faster since the rush hour is long over. We are dropped off at the top of the ramp leading down to the former taxi stand and roll our bags into the Metropolitan Lounge. There is no air-conditioning in here either, but they have rigged up an enormous fan, about five feet in diameter, to push air through the entire room. We thought that we could board immediately, but there is a delay, so we sit down to watch CNN while we wait for the boarding call.
We are called at about 10pm and are offered Red Cap service. We elect to roll our own as there are no stairs between the Lounge and the Three Rivers. It is an easy enough walk, but upon arriving at trainside we realize that there is no high level platform in Chicago, so we have to manhandle our own bags up the steps and all the way through Viewliner sleeper Morning View to the deluxe room at the opposite end. The car attendant makes up our bed and helps us boost the bag to the upper berth, as there is no hallway storage area for luggage as in a Superliner.
Travel Tip: If you are offered Red Cap service, take it. It will be worth the tip that you give him to do all the heavy work for you. After all you are on vacation, and besides, Red Caps have to eat too.
The A/C in our room is having a hard time cooling it down. Apparently this train has been sitting in the sun all day and the small vents and fans are not adequate to cool it down quickly. I am ready for another shower, but there is no water available. So we have an iced drink from the lounge car, watch a Loony Toons cartoon on the in room video monitor, and turn in without a sheet or blanket. By 2am the room has cooled sufficiently to warrant pulling a sheet over us.
This car seems to be brand spanking new. It could well be that there never has been water in the shower compartment, as it is pristine. I don't know how the Standard Bedroom passengers are handling the shower situation, as the shower down the hall is being used for a storage area by the crew. Being very tired, we go right to sleep, but I am awakened frequently. On smooth rails this car has a silky quiet ride, but when traversing switches, it exhibits a severe lateral jerking motion.
Meals are included with your sleeping car ticket, and we ask the attendant to wake us up for breakfast about one hour before our arrival in Pittsburgh, which is scheduled for about 8:30am. She advises us that the lounge café car stops serving breakfast at 6am, but she would deliver a muffin, juice, and tea to our room at 7:30am. (Yes, you read that right, the lounge café, which is open all night, STOPS serving breakfast at 6am.)
We receive our wakeup call at 8am and our tray breakfast is delivered. We finish breakfast rolling up the Ohio River towards Pittsburgh, speeding through my hometown of Ambridge so fast on the former Pennsylvania Railroad "Broad Way" four track main line, that I practically miss it. This line is now operated by the Norfolk Southern.
Ambridge is fifteen miles downstream from downtown Pittsburgh. It is named after the American Bridge Company, later a division of US Steel, and now defunct, it buildings and steel yards empty and overgrown. In its heyday, from 1905 to about 1960, it helped build America, fabricating steel girders for such projects as the Golden Gate Bridge and the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge, and helped win WWII by building LSTs, Landing Ship-Tanks . The Bridge Works, as it was called locally, fortunately lost the contract for the steel structural works for the World Trade Center to a lower bidder from the West Coast, who used inexpensive Korean steel. I spent one glorious summer there after graduating from high school, working the 4pm to 1am shift in the outdoor yards, loading steel into open gondola railcars.
Our arrival in Pittsburgh was thirty minutes behind schedule. Our attendant assisted us off with our luggage, and a redcap in a cart picked us up and carried us and our bags right to the taxi stand. The Amtrak Station is located in what was the basement area of the old Pennsylvania Station, which is now an apartment and office complex. A friendly, American speaking taxi driver greeted us, loaded our bags into his maroon Chrysler Intrepid and treated us to classical music from PBS station WQED-FM while driving us to the friendly Budget Car Rental location on Fifth Avenue.
Last year Budget did not have our Premium car ready for us when we arrived. This year I booked a Luxury car and guaranteed it to my American Express. It was ready for us. A hapless customer ahead of us made his booking on the Internet, and they did not have the car that he wanted ready for him.
Travel Tip: Have your travel agent book your car for you. He can search for the lowest rate among all companies and find the location nearest to the Amtrak station. He can also guarantee it to your credit card so you are taken seriously by the car rental firms, who are plagued by no-shows. Then one day before you pick up your car, call the location (their number will be on your travel agent's confirmation slip) to reconfirm your car. Or you can book on the Internet, as Joe Hapless did, and be annoyed to find you don't have your car waiting for you when you arrive.
My Pittsburgh map was still buried in my luggage, so I asked directions to Highway 65 to Ambridge. After a two way conference between the sullen front desk agent and her boss in the back room (actually they shouted to each other down the hall), I received understandable directions and smoothly pulled away in a medium blue Lincoln Town Car with gray leather seats, a $40 K automobile, but rentable for only $49 per day with unlimited mileage.
Travel Tip: Before leaving on your trip, obtain a street map of your destination city, locate your points of interest, such as your car rental office, and map out your route out of town before picking up your car.
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