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Trip Report: April 23 to May 8, 2003
by Ted & Sylvia Blishak
TO PITTSBURGH AND GREENVILLE, SC
Days 3 and 4. May 25 and 26. Chicago to Pittsburgh.
We were naturally anxious about whether we were going to make the connection with the Three Rivers or would be staying overnight in Chicago. The Windy City has much going for it as a tourist destination, but we really wanted to be in Pittsburgh tomorrow. The California Zephyr arrived into Chicago at 10:05pm, but instead of pulling directly into Union Station, we stopped in the yards so that the Amtrak Express cars could be uncoupled. (While Amtrak's new president, Mr. Gunn, has announced that the money-losing express shipping service is being eliminated, there are still some contracts that have yet to run out.) This procedure took about 10 precious minutes, so when we finally pulled into the station proper, it was 10:20pm. Amtrak had wisely arranged that the Zephyr sleepers would be conveniently spotted directly across platform from the Three Rivers sleeper. The Three Rivers was scheduled out at 10:30pm, so we were talking about a really tight connection here.
Generally, in a situation such as this, your sleeping car attendant would be of great assistance in getting your luggage off the train and into the hands of a Red Cap. Sadly, our car 631 attendant, Dee, although very attractive and personable, was totally useless in performing the duties of luggage handling, or indeed any duties at all. The attendant in the adjacent Zephyr sleeper had to assist her in her duties frequently, in one case while muttering out loud about how "these young car attendants just won't do their job." I believe that Dee considered her position to be one of solely public relations, rather than having to do any manual labor.
In preparation for disembarking in Chicago in a timely manner, we hauled all of our luggage downstairs ourselves and placed it, along with our luggage stored in the lower level, into the vestibule, where we waited, with backpacks on, for arrival. In this way, we did not get caught up in the melee of passengers hunting for their baggage and jamming up the vestibule after arrival. We off-loaded most of our luggage onto the platform and into the waiting hands of Moses, the Red Cap, who then had to push past disembarking passenger to get our last big bags off, as Dee, although forewarned that we were making a tight connection, did nothing to assist us at this critical time. In this way, without the assistance of our car attendant, we were able to transfer to our connecting train in a timely manner.
Moses moved all of our luggage to the Three Rivers Viewliner sleeper and placed it onboard. I gave him the gratuity I normally would have given our car attendant. The attendant on the Three Rivers moved everything into our room expect our large suitcase, which he placed in a baggage car directly behind the sleeper.
We were very fortunate to have booked this Accessible Room at the last minute yesterday. This is the largest room available on any Amtrak train. It is located at the very end of the car so that a wheelchair can be rolled directly into it from the hallway. The room contains a full width sofa plus a fold-down upper berth, just as in a Deluxe Bedroom. There is a large walk-in, or wheelchair roll-in lavatory with a hand shower. In addition to the double-wide windows, there are upper level windows, and on the opposite side of the room there is a pull-down shade, that when opened, permits a view across the hallway and out the other side of the train.
The lounge café car, of course, was closed when we boarded the Three Rivers. This was made clear by the hand-written sign stuck to the window that said, "We Are Close". The attendant was busy with some duties of arranging or rearranging things inside his car, even though at this time passengers were interested in a light snack or night cap. Our attendant made up our bed, and delivered ice to the room, where we enjoyed a nightcap that we had brought along with us.
Travel Tip: Any passengers interested in a pre-dinner cocktail or a night cap before retiring are advised to bring their own bottle and request ice and mixer from their sleeping car attendant. This is because Amtrak lounge cars are often closed at these critical times due to scheduled meal breaks or administrative duties of the lounge car attendant.
Our attendant also offered a wake up call. He was cut from a different bolt of cloth than Dee was. He volunteered that he was a native of Pittsburgh and would be disembarking there after he off-loaded our luggage on arrival.
Unlike other long distance Amtrak trains, the Three Rivers has a crew change at its halfway point between Chicago and New York, at Pittsburgh. I am not sure of the necessity for this arrangement (and wonder if the state of Pennsylvania contributes to the operation of the train and, in return, insists that all the onboard staff be from Pittsburgh) but from a practical standpoint, it makes breakfast in the snack car an iffy situation.
Although our arrival time into Pittsburgh is a convenient 9:30am, the passengers cannot sleep in and also have breakfast, because the snack car opens at 6:30am and then closes about one hour later. The reason for this is that the crew is busy counting their receipts, making an inventory of supplies, and locking up the food storage cabinets in preparation for the changing of crews at 9:30am in Pittsburgh. I learned about this by foolishly stumbling into the snack car at 8:30am to be greeted by, "Are you from the sleeper? Didn't you hear my announcement? The snack car is closed!"
As I stumbled out, humbled and chastened, he followed me so that he could admonish our sleeping car attendant to remind the first class passengers to keep out of the snack car, then he got on the PA and made another announcement, "All passengers are advised that you are not to enter the snack car at this time. Please keep out of the snack car. We are busy with stock inventory. The snack car will reopen one hour after we depart Pittsburgh."
Our excellent car attendant however was not intimidated, and offered to get us anything we wanted from the snack car. We requested only coffee, tea, and juice, as we were looking forward to a buffet breakfast at the Pittsburgh Westin hotel, across the street from the Amtrak station in Pittsburgh, where our arrival was only about 25 minutes behind schedule. My brother, George, was waiting for us on the platform as we disembarked.
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