Posted 26 July 2012 - 08:57 AM
As another Fest has now been completed and everyone has returned home from it (unless Chris is still out there roaming the USA on Amtrak!) let's look back on things over the past 2 weeks.
Our interests in trains run the gamut from Amtrak to transit to commuter rail to --- as one of our founders HaRRy Sutton says -- "Anything on flanged wheels". The Fests, especially the summer ones, give us the opportunity not only to ride the trains together, but to learn and compare.
We found the Albuquerque's RailRunner is a unique but well run operation. The area it covers, a 68-mile run parallel to (and for a ways in the median of) I-25, is much less populated than most cities whose commuter rail systems we have experienced on both coasts and many cities in between such as Chicago and Dallas. In short, it traverses desert areas. Some intermediate stations are in the middle of noplace, and one might question why the stations are even there. Looking out beyond the station parking areas, you can see endless fields of, well, nothing. Some of the stations were built adjacent to pueblos, which might be akin to housing subdivisions in more populated areas, but these are smaller dwellings made of stone and mud. But even here, people DO ride the trains! Each station had people getting on and off. On our first trip of the day from Albuquerque to Santa Fe, it was mid-morning, past what would be considered rush hour in most places, and this train headed away from downtown Albuquerue was jam packed. Many were tourists like us, but obviously the market was there.
Albuquerque sits well in between the two ends of the system (though closer to the south end in Belen), so commuters to downtown are drawn from both ends. It means that while there are some run-through operations such as our second of the three trips we took, many also start and end in Albuquerque. The yard is right downtown just south of and across from the station. The only other such operation I can think of where commuter rail is not oriented to one endpoint within a major city is Salt Lake City, though not now but by the end of this year when FrontRunner South to Provo begins and joins the existing FrontRunner North to Ogden.
The crews we observed appeared to be 2 people who were most likely conductor & assistant conductor (both wearing red shirts), and two fare inspectors wearing yellow shirts. All four of them would inspect tickets or sell tickets to passengers who didn't have them, but the ones in yellow shirts were not also responsible for operation of the train. Inspection of tickets was perhaps a little overzealous, as a few times we were confronted by a conductor and then an inspector within a few minutes of each other. Still, it's good to see such enforcement, as it ensures that passengers aren't cheating the agency out of revenue.
It made a nice day of train riding as we easily completed the entire system, had time for lunch in Santa Fe, and got back to Albuquerque with plenty of time to go to wherever we wished for dinner.
On the first night of our Albuquerque visit came what was perhaps one of very few disappointments. We decided to eat at La Oja, a Mexican restaurant that is beneath the lobby of the Doubletree Hotel, where most of us were staying. The food took a while to come out, but we consumed it quickly, only to lose another hour while the waitress and a few other people tried to figure out what our separate checks should be. The second night in the city, some ate at the Hyatt Hotel's restaurant, while others opted for fast food.
Now to Chicago, where we had two rapid transit lines to ride to the west of the Loop. These trips went well, save for leaving just one person behind, a situation remedied by short turning. A weekend service change that had half of the Loop closed caused us to board the Pink Line on the opposite platform. Aside from a long wait, we made out better since the trip went right out of the Loop instead of requiring us to ride around it first.
We rode two Metra routes that had previously been partially covered. The Manhattan trip was an extension of SouthWest Service beyond Orland Park-179th Street that had not yet been built when we were there last in 2005. Service beyond Davis Street in Evanston on the UP-North line up to Kenosha had also eluded us since 2003. We had to wait not only for another visit, but one that coincided with the weekend, so that we could do Kenosha on a Sunday when the Kenosha Streetcar runs during a time that also allows a convenient Metra arrival and deparure.
Well we finally accomplished it. The $1 fare on the streetcar gets you one revolution around the loop; in other words you will be taken to the point where you started. We happily re-upped for another go-around as the time needed to ride around the loop was shorter than expected. The operator was nice, despite the fact he had to deal with one looney aboard who couldn't understand the system as I just described it, and didn't even know what city he was in.
Planning dinner in Kenosha was the biggest challenge since we had to find a place that could quickly accommodate our large group and get us out in time to make the last train of the evening back to Chicago. A few opted to eat on their own, but Kaiser's Pub handled the remaining 11 folks very well. Our waitress Amber did a superb job, helped in that feat by some of us calling in our orders from the train before we got to town.
Overall we had a wonderful time, and did everything we set out to do. It was nice to have a Fest with zero disappointments, at least none on the rails.
In between, we had eight people on each of our Amtrak trips on the Southwest Chief. Westbound we had a great crew, and eastbound was okay but they didn't measure up to the first. Both trips were a little late, but nothing to adversely affect us. And before that, 4 of us rode the Lake Shore Limited with the prototype Viewliner dining car and a nice crew to match it. 4 people with 2 different faces in the group drew the same car and crew again on the way home.
CRF was a great success, and I thank all those who came out to enjoy the company and keep the rails shiny together. We had a few surprise participants in the Chicago area we didn't know about when this began, but having their knowledge along only enhanced the trips they took with us. I wish time and money would allow us more of these journeys, but for now we'll have to wait until our usual winter activity on the east coast and next summer's bigger Fest to do this again.
Kevin Korell
OTOL Board Leader
Lakewood, NJ