First Trip
#1
Posted 06 May 2013 - 05:04 PM
#2
Posted 06 May 2013 - 08:36 PM
Take care and take trains!
#3
Posted 08 May 2013 - 02:13 PM
Kevin,
If you're not too late, under 1 hour from the scheduled departure of the Eagle, Amtrak may consider holding the Eagle's departure to allow for connection. If that isn't an option, then Amtrak is likely to bus you to catch up to the train, which is probably what happened with that 5 hour late train. For that matter, if you happen to be at the station early enough and space is available, they might even let you board the Capitol Limited if the LSL is running really late already.
Failing all that, Amtrak will provide vouchers for food, taxis, and a hotel room and rebook you on the next day's train.
Thanks for the info, feeling reassured!
How early may I board 21 and can I still get lunch onboard or should I just eat at the food plaza beforehand?
Thanks again!
#4
Posted 08 May 2013 - 10:21 PM
Take care and take trains!
#5
Posted 09 May 2013 - 01:55 AM
With what Alan said, here are some suggestions for eating in and around Chicago Union Station. Also diagonally across the street from the northernmost exit from the Union Station platforms is the CitiCorp Building/Ogilvie Transportation Center, which has a more substantial food court. Just make sure you are back in the boarding area (Metro Lounge) well before the boarding for your train will be taking place.
Kevin Korell
OTOL Board Leader
Lakewood, NJ
#6
Posted 09 May 2013 - 07:50 PM
#7
Posted 09 May 2013 - 11:47 PM
One more question (for the moment!) - will there be a Sightseer car on the Eagle?
Yes.
Take care and take trains!
#8
Posted 15 June 2013 - 02:11 PM
Kevin,
If you're not too late, under 1 hour from the scheduled departure of the Eagle, Amtrak may consider holding the Eagle's departure to allow for connection. If that isn't an option, then Amtrak is likely to bus you to catch up to the train, which is probably what happened with that 5 hour late train. For that matter, if you happen to be at the station early enough and space is available, they might even let you board the Capitol Limited if the LSL is running really late already.
Failing all that, Amtrak will provide vouchers for food, taxis, and a hotel room and rebook you on the next day's train.
Took my trip as scheduled - I'll address the specifics later.
I was grateful for your input before my trip, as it gave me a bit of comfort in case things went awry.
Although nothing of the sort happened on my trip with regards to missing a connection, I did however, find out while talking with a guest services supervisor (about another issue) that if a passenger misses a train due to another train being late - they are put on Greyhound all the way to their destination. The case he told me was that a woman's train was late into Chicago, she missed the Eagle, and was put on the bus all the way to Dallas.
No 'catching up' at the next station, no vouchers, no holding the Eagle or any other train. It's the bus or overnight at the passengers expense and take the next day's train IF there's room.
Wow.....
I'll go into specifics in a later post, but my trip to Texas was great with the exception of no lounge/sightseer car.
The trip back?
Let's say no potable water loaded in my car; no bottled water; no coffee; no food in the dining car.
Translated - no showers, no hand washing, nothing to drink, no menus because no food and hungry passengers. Only reason we were given - someone forgot to fill the water tank for the car and we took on about 60 more passengers than on the manifest - hence the supplies ran out prematurely.
Another 'WOW'.
Complaints to Amtrak guest services have gone unanswered.
Kevin
#9
Posted 15 June 2013 - 08:55 PM
First of all, welcome back and thanks for reporting on your experiences. Let me invite you to post your Amtrak trip segments to our mileage tally; the current open link is here. Just provide the segment (from and to stations), the train number, and the date of departure for each segment, and Bill will do the rest.
Next, I'm glad you went on the trip with some comfort as well as an open mind. What you described especially on the return trip towards Chicago hoepfully didn't leave you with a bad first impression.
The lack of a lounge car probably means that just your luck, your consist had a bad ordered lounge that had to be removed. The Texas Eagle does use a Cross Country Cafe, which was originally intended to double as a diner and lounge car, so maybe if they were short on lounges they felt that the Eagle's was expendable.
There's no excuse for somebody forgetting to water the train, and you saw the consequences. While this was inconvenient to passengers in your car, at least it was isolated to one car and you had the ability to go into the next one for running water.
The lack of other amenities, and important ones like water bottles and dining car food, is inexcusable. There's a cafe car, but that cannot be expected to provide ample meals, especially for all sleeping car passengers entitled to a full free meal. And chances are that they ran out of food too if they were expected to provide food for those who expected to eat in the diner. Sixty passengers over the total on the manifest seems like an awful lot, like someone made a serious error. There aren't that many sleeper accommodations on the train for there to be a sudden 60-person surge in last minute travelers.
Getting to what you were told about missed connections, I am apt to believe that you were informed incorrectly by the supervisor you spoke with. Buses are used in lieu of trains when trains can't operate over their regular route... and even then they usually aren't Greyhound buses but rather a smaller company contracted by Amtrak to handle the rare assignment of providing substitute bus service around rail disruptions. As Alan mentioned above, Amtrak usually will try to get the passenger onto the train they reserved, and then yes as a last resort they'll put people up overnight in Chicago at Amtrak expense (but at a hotel of Amtrak's choice, not the passenger's), and accommodate the passenger on the next day's train.
It is highly possible that the woman they refer to as having been put on Greyhound had to absolutely get to where she was going (maybe work or a wedding?) on the day she planned, so she could not remain in Chicago overnight. Taking Greyhound may very well have been her own choice after having rejected Amtrak's offer to re-accommodate on a later trip. And if she rejected Amtrak's offer, then she's on her own.
Kevin Korell
OTOL Board Leader
Lakewood, NJ
#10
Posted 30 June 2013 - 05:09 PM
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