A few weeks ago, we embarked on an "epic" (according to my Dad) journey out to Washington State and back. We used Amtrak as our mode of transportation this time around. On previous trips, we had flown and drove cross country.
Our big observation about Amtrak is not to use them if you absolutely have to be somewhere at a certain time. Amtrak schedules usually state that trains run from several hours to occasionally a day or so late. This is due to the infrastructure of the railroad, freight cars being given priority, and the usual maintenance issues that may come up.
We left Cleveland on Sunday morning, about a half hour late on the onset. This turned into a 5 hour deficit due to track maintenance in Gary, Indiana. We made it into Chicago and our connection by about an hour (it should have been several hours). After a short stay in the lounge, we were off on the 2nd leg of our journey to Seattle. We had reserved sleeper cars, so this part of the trip included first class accommodations with meals and other services. The food was great, samples are posted.
One thing about your trip in a sleeper car, your porter can make/break your trip. My parents had a great porter, but ours was more along for the ride than to assist travelers.
Amazingly, we arrived into Seattle only 1/2 hour late. We were able to get our rental car and arrive on Friday Harbor several hours earlier than we expected.
Our big observation about Amtrak is not to use them if you absolutely have to be somewhere at a certain time. Amtrak schedules usually state that trains run from several hours to occasionally a day or so late. This is due to the infrastructure of the railroad, freight cars being given priority, and the usual maintenance issues that may come up.
We left Cleveland on Sunday morning, about a half hour late on the onset. This turned into a 5 hour deficit due to track maintenance in Gary, Indiana. We made it into Chicago and our connection by about an hour (it should have been several hours). After a short stay in the lounge, we were off on the 2nd leg of our journey to Seattle. We had reserved sleeper cars, so this part of the trip included first class accommodations with meals and other services. The food was great, samples are posted.
One thing about your trip in a sleeper car, your porter can make/break your trip. My parents had a great porter, but ours was more along for the ride than to assist travelers.
Amazingly, we arrived into Seattle only 1/2 hour late. We were able to get our rental car and arrive on Friday Harbor several hours earlier than we expected.
No comments:
Post a Comment