Trip Report: November 27 - December 21, 2001
by Ted & Sylvia Blishak
28 DAYS ON THE RAILS
Tuesday November 27, 2001
After months of detailed careful planning, as if we were sending some of our much appreciated clients on a complicated journey, we find ourselves again at the Klamath Falls Amtrak Station. Our local station agent, Brian Lewis, is checking my photo ID before accepting one suitcase to be shipped Amtrak Express to Seattle. We are waiting to board No 11, the southbound Coast Starlight to Oakland Jack London Station.
Checking luggage ahead to multiple destinations, which has made traveling easier in the past, is no longer an option. Now baggage can only be checked onboard the trains that you are actually traveling on. This is a security measure that domestic airlines have yet to enforce.
Our first destination is McGregor, Texas, and there is no checked baggage to this unmanned station. So we have very sensibly shipped by UPS our warm weather clothes south to Texas, and our cold weather clothes to Pittsburgh. After the packages have left, we check the weather forecasts. The temperature in Texas on our day of arrival is expected to be in the 20s F., while the temperature in Pittsburgh is expected to be in the 60s. It looks like we may be in trouble!
DO AS WE SAY, NOT AS WE DO.
Our initial proposed itinerary was to take the Coast Starlight all the way through to Los Angeles to make a guaranteed connection with Train 21, the Texas Eagle. This is something we would never ticket a client for, as the Union Pacific's tradition of running the Coast Starlight late makes a connection unlikely, and can turn an otherwise very relaxing trip into a stressful event, wondering if you'll get there on time, or if you might be ejected from your comfortable bedroom and transferred to a bus. Sylvia reminds me that a "guaranteed connection," as defined by Amtrak, means that they put you up in a hotel and get you out on the next available train. The next available Texas Eagle would leave two days later. It would most probably be sold out of deluxe sleepers and we would miss our visit with our children and grandchildren in Hewitt, Texas. Unless, of course, we accepted an airline ticket from Amtrak. But we are riding the rails, not flying.
We cannot leave Klamath Falls a day earlier to stay overnight in LA, because the Coast Starlight is sold out on the Monday after Thanksgiving. So the logical solution is to make a connection with a San Joaquin train. We elect to stay aboard the Coast Starlight until Oakland so we can enjoy sleeping-in and having a wonderful Coast Starlight breakfast. No. 11 is scheduled to arrive in Oakland at 8:30am which would make a connection with No. 714 leaving at 10:00am. If the Starlight is delayed, we have two aces in the hole we can get off and make the connection in Emeryville or Martinez and still sleep in. What could go wrong?
Wednesday November 28, 2001.
Although we left Klamath Falls thirty minutes behind schedule, we awaken at 6am to find we are approaching Sacramento. As we are dressing, we pull into the station at 6:15am, right on schedule. Train 702, the only through San Joaquin train from Sacramento to Bakersfield, is on the adjacent track. Although this is not a scheduled connection, two sleeping car passengers from the next car disembark to board that train. In case you wonder why it is not a published connection, remember what I said earlier about running late.
Looking forward to my Coast Starlight breakfast, I head for the Parlour Car to pick up a San Francisco Chronicle and have a glass of apple juice while waiting for the 6:30am opening of the dining car. The tone is not relaxed, as several passengers are querying the attendant about an alleged announcement that was not clear or complete. I had not heard any announcement at all, but as I eavesdrop a chill comes over me. A derailment somewhere ahead, the Starlight will be delayed, passengers for Train 2 and 21 should disembark here for a connection on the San Joaquin.
I put down my paper and began looking, unsuccessfully, for the conductor. None of the train crew knows for sure what is happening except the sleeper attendant in the 1130 car. He is the one who had paid attention to where his passengers were going, and got his two connecting passengers out of bed and onto the 6:20am departure of the San Joaquin.
Our own attendant attempts to calm us, saying that Amtrak will get us to LA in time for No. 21 in spite of the fact that there is a derailed Union Pacific freight train between here and Martinez. I find the conductor and ask him if the train is going to get through to Martinez. He replies, "Yes, sure. We just don't know when."
Our attendant reiterates that if Amtrak can not get us to LA in time, they will put us up in a hotel and fly us to Texas the next day.
FLY!? That sets off my alarm bells. I tell her we are packing up and disembarking. Even though the train doors are closed, she calls the conductor to hold the train until we got off. Then she calls the station for a cart to transport us and all of our luggage. As we are driving to the station, the Starlight backs out of Sacramento, presumably to follow the alternate route to Martinez via Stockton. (We find out later that Train 11 is expected to reach LA at 11:59pm., nearly three hours behind schedule.)
Numerous Amtrak personnel recommend breakfast at Lucy's, just across the street from the station. Here, we grab a quick bite before boarding the Amtrak Thruway bus to Stockton, connecting to San Joaquin No. 712. The 70 minute bus ride is achieved in 45 minutes so we have a chance to relax in the Stockton station. The bus has adequate legroom and a restroom, and is not bad as busrides go.
Train 712, the San Joaquin to Bakersfield, with bus connections to points in Southern California, is announced as arriving on time. There is considerable bustling on the platform as a small crowd boards the two double deck coaches. We manhandle our luggage into a lower level vestibule. We would like to have a table to set up as a work station, but wandering through the two coaches, I find that each and every table for four has been occupied by a single passenger. I meet the assistant conductor in an aisle and ask him if there are any unoccupied tables anywhere on the train. He replies over his left shoulder, as he walks away, "Just look around!" No help there.
However the conductor himself soon appears and he is very friendly and helpful. He assists us with storing our luggage and tells us to sit down at any table seat we would like as none of them are reserved. So we sit down at the nearest lower level table, occupied by a Spanish speaking lady, and she gets up to move to a single seat facing another Spanish speaking lady, and they strike up an animated conversation that goes on for the entire trip.
This all-reserved coach train is quite crowded. The car we are in is new, and has a two-and-one seating configuration on the lower level along with a large handicapped restroom. It is intended for senior and mobility-impaired travelers. Upstairs there is two-and-two seating. There are grandmotherly types knitting sweaters, a group of excited 8-year-olds on a field trip who have an entire coach to themselves, businessmen in ties with laptops and cell-phones at work, families with children, and the lower-income travelers one might see on a Greyhound Bus. Many besides ourselves are making a connection to the Sunset Limited/Texas Eagle departing Los Angeles at 10:30PM.
The food-service car on this train is attractively decorated with etched-glass partitions, and table lamps. Half of the upper level offers seating for people who buy snacks at the centrally located counter. The other half offers seating for full service dining. The lower level has another snack bar and seating area where the conductor and his assistant have their office and one of the tables. We opt for full-service dining and enjoy very tasty entrees salmon with season rice for Sylvia, and roast-beef casserole with potatoes, corn, and cheese for me.
I am back at my work station when a elderly couple board at Corcoran. They sit in a pair of apparently unoccupied seats behind me. I am attempting to download my e-mail when the assistant conductor (I recognize his Asian accent) approaches them to pick up their tickets and scolds them so the entire car can hear him, "YOU CAN'T SIT THERE, THOSE SEATS ARE TAKEN!". They meekly reply, with a thick European accent, asking him what they should do. The assistant interrupts me with the order, "I am going to sit these people at your table." I agree and say that's fine, if there are no other seats available. When I don't jump up fast enough, he barks, "MOVE YOUR THINGS, YOU'RE HOGGING FOUR SEATS!" That is when I lose my cool and reply, "Don't tell me or any other passenger that we are hogging seats, that's discourteous." I half expect him to throw me off at the next station, Wasco, but he sullenly walks away, muttering that I am the one being discourteous. I find that I have lost my Sprint PCS signal, and have missed downloading my e-mail.
After making our European guests comfortable at our table, I take a tour of the train and find the next car has only six passengers. Boarding passengers could have been easily directed there and everyone would have been saved a lot of trouble, if only an assistant conductor had been raised with common courtesy or been trained by Amtrak to feign common courtesy. As I tour the train, I find the conductor at his work station (hogging four seats, according to the belief of his assistant), and we have a nice long chat. He is as pleasant as ever, and promises to talk to his assistant, whom he claims to be a good operating man but a little short on customer interface skills. I have to agree with the customer interface weakness and wonder if this man shouldn't be looking for a job as a freight conductor, where he wouldn't be tormented daily with having to deal with ignorant and discourteous passengers.
The San Joaquin trains, which run on Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks with a lot of straight stretches, are fast enough to occasionally pass the 18-wheelers on I-5 which we parallel for some of the journey. But the scene of abandoned farmland, dry streambeds, junkyards, and warehouses is not the California that we remember from earlier trips through the valley. You might want to bring a good book.
At Bakersfield, where we arrive a few minutes late, there is a lineup of many busses to take passengers to various parts of Southern California. There are freight-only tracks on a circuitous route over the mountains into LA, but Amtrak trains have never used them, and my guess is that BNSF and UP would be annoyed if they were ever asked to rent them to Amtrak. So we make sure our luggage is stowed properly in the lower level of the bus and climb aboard to find the only two adjoining seats in the third row from the rear. This bus is completely full with the regular San Joaquin passengers as well as Coast Starlight passengers diverted due to the freight derailment.
This bus segment is scheduled for a 1:50pm departure, arriving Los Angeles Union Station at 4:10pm. If you book your trip directly with Amtrak or with an inexperienced travel agent, you may find yourself ticketed on this connection rather than through on the Coast Starlight. My advice: don't let it happen take the Starlight and overnight in LA if you are making a connection!
Two hours on a crowded bus surrounded by families with tired children is close to unbearable, even while using earplugs and reading, which we did. The transmission was having trouble with its downshifting as we started up the pass, and often came close to stalling as other traffic, including 18 wheelers, sped past us. On the downhill grade, the driver resorted to hitting the brakes frequently and jerkily. Sylvia was ready to stand up and scream "Let me out of here!", but was able to contain herself. (Now she knows how I feel when I am in an airplane.) In spite of our delayed departure, we arrived at Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal only five minutes behind schedule.
My brother George was waiting for us at the bus platform. We stashed our bags in his station wagon and walked over to La Casa Golondrina at Olvera Street for a Mexican dinner al fresco, with overhead heater elements to keep us warm. After a Margarita or two, we are laughing at the day's misadventures and looking forward to our trip on the Texas Eagle.
After dinner, we walk the two short blocks back to LA's magnificent Art Deco landmark, Union Station, officially Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal, LAUPT. Inside we find a table at the Traxx Bar, with a fine view of the giant Christmas tree the station has erected, along with many festive wreaths hung in the windows. This station is used for subway passengers and MetroLink commuter traffic as well as Amtrak.
We observe on the arrivals board that Train 11, the Coast Starlight, is expected 11:59 PM, thus missing its connection with our Texas Eagle by more than a hour and a half. And, we say to each other, we actually considered trying it? Obviously we are overtired and overdue for a rail vacation. Now that flying has become even less popular than ever, Accent on Travel USA's already thriving rail business has been booming and we have been working overtime since September 11, during what is normally a quiet fall period.
We highly recommend the Coast Starlight to our clients. But it would be a serious mistake to make any commitments or connections at its arrival point. You must take the view that you're on it to enjoy the ride, the service, the scenery, and that the later it is, the longer you'll have to enjoy the aforementioned!
We enjoy a farewell toast with brother George. We are panhandled twice although quite politely -- while in the station. The combined Trains #2 & 22 are announced at 9:30PM, an hour ahead of departure, and we climb aboard our sleeper at the very end of the train. Our car attendant, Brenda, greets us with a smile, helps us with our luggage and points out the amenities that she has displayed. Ice, water, Coke, chocolate chip cookies, mints, and current magazines are arranged in the upstairs landing. The shower is stocked with soap, shampoo, towels, and washcloths. Our bed has been made up and is ready for us to climb in. Compared with our recent bus ride, this is like boarding a luxury cruise ship. It has been a very long day, so we shower, check our e-mail, and retire.
At 10:30pm the conductor announces over the PA system that we will move forward, then back up to couple onto some other cars, that the power will go off for a short time, and then we'll be on our way. Five Material Handling Cars (boxcars to most of us) are added to our already lengthy train, the power is off for only a few seconds, our journey eastward begins and we fall asleep to the rhythm of the rails.
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