Passenger Trains > Egads, another Auto-Train report

I finished my seventh Auto-Train ride in 2016 today, probably the last one for a while.  Overall, a good ride, with a few areas where service could be improved.

Lorton to Sanford, train 53 of the fifth.  Engines 830 / 835 with 38 cars at 3525 feet. In Auto-Train experience, this is about a medium sized train. They can run to 48 cars in peak season, or as few as 25 cars on trips I've taken. This train had 15 passenger cars and 23 auto carriers, with a total of 321 passengers and 201 vehicles. No motorcycles this time.  Q409 and Amtrak 90 passed while I was checking out the equipment.

For the first time ever, my wife and I had a lower level superliner roomette. Never had that before. Much quieter, didn't have people walking past, doors opening, people getting ice, etc. Didn't especially enjoy the view of the wheels of other locomotives, or the romance of jointed beat-up rail and flat spots for much of the trip. The bouncing in the upper bunk was a little less, I think. The car was Massachussets.

The incoming train was a little late, the outbound looked OK. Boarded at about 2.45pm, pushed out around 3.30, made our move onto the main about 3.45, following Amtrak 91. The DS and our engineer discussed the plan. The much higher speed train would lead, we would follow. 91 gets 90 mph, I believe, while Auto-Train is limited to 70.  With 91's stops, that meant we did about 50 mph  to allow for his station stops, etc.

Saw a nice looking restaurant right along the tracks in Dumfries, tucked in between the Potomac and the old RF&P right of way. Tim's River Shore Bistro in Dumfries. Looks like a nice place to drink beer, eat crabs and watch trains.  We were passed by a long northbound freight at Fredericksburg, passed by a southbound freight at Doswell, we were averaging about 50 mph btw Lorton and Richmond.

The town of Ashland looked lovely. The college and many of the old ante-bellum era homes were decorated for the holidays, really attractive effort. We passed through Ashland about 5.30, and Richmond by 6pm.

Dinner was limited to a 5 and 7 serving in coach, and 5 / 7 /9 in sleeper class, but they combined the 7 and 9 into a single 7 pm seating. Dinner was interesting.  The server decided that it was too much effort to recite the specials at each of her four tables. Lamb with rice, and a cod with cream sauce. So she took a short cut. And bellowed out the specials for her four tables.

HEY.  LISSEN UP. HERE THE SPECIALS FOR TONIGHT. WE GOT LAMB. LAMB WITH RICE. WE GOT COD, THE VEGETABLE IS GREEN BEANS. GOT IT?

I've never heard that before, and I'm amazed the chief let her get away with it. Our dining companions didn't care for this, and asked her to repeat the specials. She didn't care for that, and made it clear she had already given the specials. They asked for a substitution of baked potato for the rice. Not surprisingly, they got the rice anyway. The runner was happy to run back and make the swap, so no harm no foul.  The wine and beer steward was fine, helpful, prompt, and energetic. The guy had a lot of hustle.  Our table mates are long time riders, and regaled us of tales from long ago. Wine tasting in the lounge. Steaks on the menu, good wines, not swill. As I said, that was a time long ago.  My chicken was fine, my wife's lamb was actually good. Not just OK, but good. That's been the exception for quite a while.

Train made good progress, we ran around a few trains, made it through Richmond and Collier without trouble. We were allowed to remain in the dining car until about 8.30, there was no effort to chase people out since the 9pm service was cancelled. The station at Rocky Mount looked fine, lighted from inside.

I attempted to go to sleep but the exceptionally rough CSX track was a challenge. Even in the lower lever of the superliner, the jointed rail and flat spots caused a lot of banging and lateral sway. We lost about an hour just north of Florence as CSX was working on a storm damaged bridge. Departed Florence about an hour late (a little after 1am) with the new crew. My guess is they went on duty at their usual time,  awaiting the inbound train. That would become a problem later.

By 7.15 we were in Callahan, and in a lot of rain. Torrential, buckets of rain, But the track was like glass. Hard to believe this was the same railroad as the disgraceful mess farther north. That track has been a mess for years. The second call for breakfast was underway, we were about 90 minutes late at this point.  Jacksonville and 53's engineer were discussing where the recrew should take place. Apparently the crew had gone on duty at the usual time, checked their bulletin orders and all the stuff they were expected to do. In the meanwhile, the 53 was a few miles out of town,, waiting on the bridge repair work.  By the time 53 had arrived, been fueled, etc, these guys had used up three+ hours of their on duty time. So a few more slow orders, delays etc was enough to put them on short time by DeLand. Which is where we were recrewed, about a half hour outside of Sanford.  It's likely one of the last places where you have good access to make the employee swap safely.
 
The dining crew, as is often the case, issued the diner is closing order at  south Jacksonville. By the time we reached Palatka the diner had been shut for a half hour. We eventually arrived Sanford about 10.40am, ninety minutes late.  Some crews keep the diner open literally until the train ties down, that was the case on my last trip to Lorton. Other crews shut the diner down at the precise time the train should be an hour out of Sanford. Regardless of where it is.That's silly, leave one of the diners open for folks who want to sleep a little later. The train is late, nobody's going to lose any pay.

Amtrak's Sanford facility had the Sunrail 104 with passenger cars 3005,2006, and 2001 on the ready track. P32 508 was the yard unit. Huge number of Auto-Racks over on the service tracks. A huge number, in addition to probably 20 up at Lorton.

Overall, a B for things in Amtrak's control. The car rattled badly, the thin matress wasn't much good, the dining room server should have been sent back to run the reform school dining room, , but most other thiings went OK. There weren't many cars, ours came off within a half hour. The check in process was fine, Matt was pleasant and helpful. Our car attendant Kevin was energetic and helpful, even if people wouldn't follow any instructions. WHADAYYA MEAN I CANT GET OFF THE TRAIN?  WHY NOT? as maintainers were hustling about the platform cutting cables, train sections were being moved, etc.  He mentioned that some of his fellow employees really make the job wonderful. Good people, interested in the work, happy to share tips on how to make the job go better. Although he started as a temporary employee, he likes the work and likes the passengers.
 

Nice trip report, I have always wanted to ride Auto Train but never could justify it. On the RF&P sub top speed for all passenger trains is 70 and on the A line 79.

Sharon Evans
Glen Allen, VA

Haven't ridden A-T in maybe 10 years, but I'm surprised to hear about that obnoxious dining car server. I thought A-T got the creme de la creme and had some sort of special training for obs folks? Or, maybe these days she IS la creme de la creme.

Why Amtrak can't have a consistent policy on serving in the diners is beyond me. It varies greatly in both method and execution from train to train, trip to trip. They should follow the airlines Business Class model where everything happens exactly the same, every trip (of course Amtrak's food is much better). You should write up the lazy specials waitress. She needs to go.

KV1GUY would know current conditions, but on the portions of the A-line in southern NC and northern SC that have double track, only one of them is welded. The other is jointed with slower speed limits, basically FRA class 3 track, and it will definitely bounce you around.

I would encourage you to write up the offending dining car woman as there's a new sheriff in town who does care and DOES follow up. He's determined to clean out the bad apples who spoil it for the 95% who try to do a consistently good job.

   I recently did a trip from DC to Florida and thought a good number of times that the track was so rough that we were surely going to derail. Somehow we survived but it sure beats me how they ( both CSX & Amtrak)  can approve that track for 79mph. If it were up to me I'd but a 40 mph slow order on it until it received the work needed to bring it up to safe standards. IMHO it's a bad accident waiting to happen.

   Ross Rowland

co614 Wrote:
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> I would encourage you to write up the offending
> dining car woman as there's a new sheriff in town
> who does care and DOES follow up. He's determined
> to clean out the bad apples who spoil it for the
> 95% who try to do a consistently good job.(SNIP)

I sent a nice email to Amtrak today, excerpting the paragraph about the dining bellower. Not exactly the fine dining they'd like to convey for sleeper class, that's for sure.

Amtrak usually ignores critical notes. I sent a real, stamped letter to Joe Boardman and an email to customer service after the messes on my Spetember 9 trip, and haven't heard anything back.  I don't expect anything will change, but it's always nice to think that changes will happen. Amtrak does acknowledge compliments however. After a June trip, I sent an email to Amtrak about a particular employee's special kindnesses, and received an acknowledgement within 10 days.

So, they do read at least some of the communications they receive.

I had an overall poor experience on the WB Lake Shore Limited in mid November from New York to Chicago.  Disappearing SCA, rude waiter in the diner (who was actually arguing with the LSA), no information from the cafe attendant regarding when the cafe was open/closed, etc., poor information about station stops, no welcome aboard announcement, etc.  I sent an email to Amtrak outlining this and received a response back today.  They said they would pass the information along to the various managers, supervisors. We will see what happens, but they did respond.

There are only small sections of jointed rail left on the A line. If I remember correctly, mostly in a couple of sections in North Carolina. I ride this line all of the time on trains 97/98, and don't find the track to be all THAT terrible. There are a few rough spots, but in general, it's not bad. Auto Train on board employees are there by seniority... If someone working the Silver Star wants a change of pace and their seniority allows it, they can at certain times bump, or displace a junior employee whether they're on AT or not. That's how it goes on the railroad. The days of separate seniority rosters for the Auto Train are long gone.

chess Wrote:
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>Track isn't that bad (SNIP)

It was awful. Trying to sleep in the upper bunk was difficult. Some of the rail was definitely jointed rail, and I believe some of that was south of Florence. I don't know if we were on 1 or 2 track though.  Lots of lateral motion.  How much of that was the elderly SuperLiner and how much was CSX I don't know.  That could explain how we lost another half hour, if we were on lower speed, jointed rail, though.


> (SNIP)
Auto Train on board employees are there
> by seniority... If someone working the Silver Star
> wants a change of pace and their seniority allows
> it, they can at certain times bump, or displace a
> junior employee whether they're on AT or not.
> That's how it goes on the railroad. The days of
> separate seniority rosters for the Auto Train are
> long gone.

I've wondered about that from time to time.  I travel on the A-T often enough to see a lot of employees, and have traveled with some of them multiple times. OBS Chief Arnold had the other nght's run, and I've traveled with his crew several times before.

Thanks for the info.

Maybe it is a combination of the track and the Superliners. Don't get me wrong, the track conditions, especially in NC have gotten much worse the last few years. For quite a long time the track between Auburndale, FL and Mangonia, FL was getting pretty awful. There were some switches for certain sidings that if you weren't bracing yourself, you'd be on the floor. Thankfully that isn't the case anymore...

I traveled Auto Train several times and noticed two distinct diner service patterns. One crew was trying for a more formal dining experience while the other was going for a more friendly home-town type experience. In either case some of the traveling public will be displeased based on their expectation of the service. We know of posters here who want multi course meals with everything custom cooked on the train and others who would be happy with Subway for dinner. Each to their own, can't make everyone happy.

I can even picture "Ya'll listen up heres the specials" as being appropriate for the home-town friendly dining experience (of course on the inflection and delivery makes a big difference here).

It can also be geographical. I spoke with a female dining car server. I have a soft Southern accent as did she. When she dropped off desert she addressed me "dear" and "baby" in conversation, common in the South and not one bit offensive. I was very pleased with this kindness. The person sharing the table was from Boston and was aghast at such familiarity.

Michael