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CRF 2012: Reports from eastbound Southwest Chief


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#1 KevinKorell

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Posted 13 July 2012 - 06:41 PM

Use this thread to post reports from the group's trip on the Southwest Chief, Train #4(19) from Albuquerque to Chicago (which left ABQ on Friday the 20th).

Edited by KevinKorell, 21 July 2012 - 07:18 PM.


Kevin Korell


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#2 KevinKorell

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Posted 21 July 2012 - 07:15 PM

OK well here we go. I said that the crews on our westbound trip set the bar for excellent service. In my opinion, and this being a forum those involved have the right to agree or disagree, this crew did not measure up at all to the standard the first crew set. Not the crew's fault, but for whatever reason the train was delayed so that it showed up around 12:30 PM in Albuquerque, which is 20 minutes after it is supposed to have left. This put it smack in the middle of the lunch hour. To our attendants' credits, lunch reservations were made for us ahead of our boarding, for either 12:30 or 12:45. When we boarded, some of us were told to go straight to the dining car for the current seating. They could not have known that we were a group of 8 who preferred to eat together. OK fine.. so we dealt with dining with strangers this time. Steve and I happened to be in downstairs rooms, which we returned to following lunch. Others returned to theirs, on the upper level of either of the 2 sleeping cars. Steve and I never got that usual welcome speech you get when you board. Understood that boarding and lunchtime happened almost simultaneously, but a late welcome would have been better than none, even to know the guy's name we would potentially be tipping later. I just had the feeling that he overlooked the fact he had a downstairs level of his train. Turns out his name was Jay, which I finally found out when I told him outside on the platform in La Junta, CO (8 hours after we boarded) that I missed having him come to the room to greet me. After that, he was very punctual, coming right away when I requested my bed to be put down or put up. He was a friendly guy, and he did a satisfactory job. The other attendant was Steve, but I didn't hear any reports on his efficiency from our group members in his car. The dining crew (LSA Rosemarie, servers Tomy and Myrna) was just a-ight (to quote Randy Jackson), not terrible but not excellent like the one we had on #3. There were a couple of negative incidents with both of the servers which I won't elaborate on here. Unlike on the previous train, the LSA held herself strictly to a supervisory role, not helping out in serving the passengers. The train remained late throughout the trip, but with padding and the 90 mph running in Missouri and Illinois we made some of it up. All told we came into Chicago only 38 minutes late.


Kevin Korell


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Lakewood, NJ





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