Passenger Trains > Trip report, Meteor/Acela, and even clean windows!

I am on my way home and boarded the Meteor at Savannah last evening.  We were about 30 minutes late departing Savannah, and we arrived in DC on time.  However, we do not yet have an electric locomotive up front, so our departure will be delayed.  As I type, the Vermonter is boarding two tracks over.  

I am in car 9812 and the attendant was helpful last evening, everything works, and the car is one of the Viewliner II sleepers.  Two of the three sleepers on the train are Viewliner IIs. 

Here is the big news:  The exterior of the train is clean and my sleeper windows are nearly spotless!  I thoroughly enjoyed looking at the window before bed last evening with a Woodford on the rocks.  

Hialeah must have a working car washer. We do not know if they shuffle train sets in Sunnyside among the Meteor, Star, Crescent, Lake Shore, and Cardinal to get them to Hialeah for maintenance. 

This morning when I went to breakfast I checked out other windows.  The diner was ok, but not as clean as my car.  The other sleepers also appeared to have been washed recently.  At NYP I should be able to report on the coach situation.

We are leaking time after arrving DC 1 minute late.  We are not about 30 minutes late at Baltimore.

Once again I tried the Viewliner II shower.  Once again, it was a fail.  No hot water.  Zero.  I let it run for FIVE minurtes.  Happily, an older Viewliner was right next door, and of course that shower worked.

Breakfast was unremarakable, at best.  Overcooked and chewy at worst.  The diner attendant on this train tells me that the full diner will return on April 3.  That is a Monday, and that makes more sense than a Wednesday (March 15 is the date I heard on the trip down).  But it is Amtrak, so nonsense is the norm!  :-)

 

It has been 4 or 5 years since Anderson fired all the dining car staff. It is not like they waiting for a call back from layoff or furlough. They're gone. It is difficult to rehire.  

They knew you were coming, so they cleaned the train?

I am on the Acela to Boston (2160) in first class.  The train is sold out, or nearly so.  There is not a seat in first class.  I am sure the bad weather drove some flyers to the train.  Nice to see, however.

The Acela windows are not very clean, but are not bad.  Given the wet weather along the NEC the last few days, it is forgiven.

We were on time at New Haven.  

Oh, train 98 was 1 minute late at DC, but arrived NYP almost an hour late.  We were late getting out of DC and then ran pretty slowly to Baltimore.

Yes, I'll bet they put out an IPA ( important person alert) on the computer to alert everyone to look good. When I worked with Mr. Claytor ( 1982-86) when we first started traveling together right after he became Amtrak's CEO we learned that staff had rigged the computer reservation system to alert certain management folks when Mr. Claytor or one of the 8 other members of the BOD made a reservation. That way they could get everything " in order" ahead of time.

   We then started making our reservations in assumed names and changing them at the last minute.  Glad they're finally paying some attention to exterior cleanliness.

    Hope springs eternal.  Ross Rowland 

co614 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes, I'll bet they put out an IPA ( important
> person alert) on the computer to alert everyone to
> look good. When I worked with Mr. Claytor (
> 1982-86) when we first started traveling together
> right after he became Amtrak's CEO we learned that
> staff had rigged the computer reservation system
> to alert certain management folks when Mr. Claytor
> or one of the 8 other members of the BOD made a
> reservation. That way they could get everything "
> in order" ahead of time.
>
>    We then started making our reservations in
> assumed names and changing them at the last
> minute.  Glad they're finally paying some
> attention to exterior cleanliness.

I doubt they’re ‘paying attention to exterior cleanliness’. He just got lucky, and got a car that had recently been in the shops as those seem to be the only ones on the silver trains that look decent. I’ve seen the train numerous times in Fort Lauderdale this winter and even northbound out of Miami some of the cars are always filthy. About a week ago I put a friend on the northbound train, and the first three coaches were shiny clean, followed by an incredibly filthy cafe car, followed by a diner and sleepers that were semi dirty. Obviously the car washer there is not working. Or not being used. Yay Amtrak. 🙄
>
>     Hope springs eternal.  Ross Rowland 

Posted from iPhone

alan2955 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> I doubt they’re ‘paying attention to exterior
> cleanliness’. He just got lucky, and got a car
> that had recently been in the shops as those seem
> to be the only ones on the silver trains that look
> decent. I’ve seen the train numerous times in
> Fort Lauderdale this winter and even northbound
> out of Miami some of the cars are always filthy.
> About a week ago I put a friend on the northbound
> train, and the first three coaches were shiny
> clean, followed by an incredibly filthy cafe car,
> followed by a diner and sleepers that were semi
> dirty. Obviously the car washer there is not
> working. Or not being used. Yay Amtrak. 🙄

I would tend to agree with alan2955 based on seeing the Star soemwhat regularly in North Carolina, Here is the Star of the 27th in Southern Pines NC at 0845 Tuesday Feb 28, roughly 2 hours down.  

Coaches 25003, 25062, 25103 are ok - don't think they've been washed but windows look clean (atleast from trackside)
Cafe 28007 is dirtier than the coaches including windows, but I've seen worse
Diner 68019 "Madison" in not bad but clearly has not been washed in some time. 
Sleeper 62040 looks ok, about same as Diner
Sleeper 62508 "Rocky River" is dirtier that it's older sibling it's coupled to.  Something has leaked or splattered behind the vestibule that has ran down the side of the car and across the windows
Baggage 61020 shows streaks from whatever the mess is on the Rocky River
 

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Yes, it makes one wonder that if the small stuff is being missed, what big stuff is not gettting attention.

I may have said it here before, when Bill Marriott used to do drop in visits to hotels, the first thing he did in a room was look under the bed.  If that was clean, he felt good about the rest.  To me, Amtrak's windows are in the same category.  

It is literally a reflection on the company and the pride, or lack thereof, in providing a high quality service.