TED & SYLVIA BLISHAK'S UPDATES
ON
AMTRAK, ROCKY MOUNTAINEER, AND VIA RAIL CANADA
May 7 to May 15, 2006
by Ted
& Sylvia Blishak
Day 1: May 7, 2006 – KLAMATH FALLS TO SEATTLE ON THE COAST STARLIGHT – SAMPLING AMTRAK'S NEW ECONOMY MEAL PLAN.
Amtrak's Coast Starlight is our lifeline to travel opportunities, and, as always, it feels like coming home to board Car 1430, next to the Pacific Parlour Car. We've reserved Bedroom C, and Fred, our very pleasant car attendant, helps us aboard with our luggage and “portable office.” Today's destination is Seattle, where we'll spend two nights at The Westin, then take Amtrak's Talgo, the Mt. Baker International to Vancouver BC.
In North Vancouver, one of Rocky Mountaineer's new trains, the Whistler Mountaineer, awaits. Next comes an all-daylight journey to Quesnel over Rocky Mountaineer's new Fraser Discovery Route, continuing the next day to Jasper, Alberta, in the heart of the Canadian Rockies. Re-crossing the Rockies on VIA Rail Canada 's streamlined Canadian will bring us back to Vancouver.
Northbound Coast Starlight #14 is running two hours behind schedule this morning. We navigate our way along the platform to the 1430 sleeper, through a crowd of shivering Southern Californians , some in shorts, sandals, and shirtsleeves, who have detrained to take advantage of the first smoking stop of the day.
“Lunch is by reservation only,” Fred reports, “as we've just started the new food service.” Diners are seated at 15-minute intervals, but that doesn't mean that we get chased out after 15 minutes. We spend a pleasant hour while Sylvia tries the Chicken Caesar Salad and Ted the Grilled Chicken Sandwich. The portions are smaller than usual, but tasty. Coffee is served in disposable cups, and although we eat from plasticized cardboard throwaway plates -- which look surprisingly like china -- we still have a floral bouquet, white linen tablecloth, and stainless-steel flatware. The down-sized serving crew, featuring two singing waiters, is in good spirits, in spite of the downgrading of the service they are providing.
Low clouds obscure the view of the Cascades, but that's okay. We just kick back and take turns napping on the Deluxe Bedroom's sofa or reading the Sunday Oregonian, provided to all sleeping car passengers.
At 3:30pm, First Class travelers are invited to the Pacific Parlour Car to enjoy cheese, crackers, and a sampling of premium wines. Our attendant, in addition to pouring, entertains us with a 10-question quiz on the subject of trains and railroading. Its a tough quiz. The winner claims a stainless steel Amtrak baggage tag.
Amtrak's new dinner menu is the first-ever that doesn't include a steak option, although there are as many choices as usual: beef stew, salmon, roasted chicken, a hamburger, vegetable stir-fry, pork, and chicken-fried steak. Conspicuous by its absence is ice cream.
We take the menu's advice and include the wine recommended with the entrée. The pork shanks are tender, and served with green beans and carrots. Although Sylvia's baked potato is improperly micro waved, the waiter replaces it instantly with a perfectly prepared one. Sylvia concludes that the delicious green salad, the baked potato, and the outstanding cheese cake would have made a fine meal in themselves; the dinner portions are quite substantial.
One of the joys of Amtrak dining is the people you meet. The couple across the table are residents of Seattle, but have immigrated from Moldavia, a newly independent country, which was formerly a part of the Soviet Union . She, a college educated high school teacher in Moldavia, speaks English quite well, in addition to Russian and Romanian. He, a former seaman in the Soviet navy, is not as well versed in English, although he first visited the US in 1945, assigned as a crew member of a decommissioned US Navy frigate which was being transferred from San Francisco to Vladivostok .
“We say, ‘God Bless America ' every day. We love the freedom we have here, and the medical benefits. There, everyone except for a few very rich people are poor. There is no middle class. I was a teacher, and I had a college degree, but that didn't matter when it came to salary – even doctors there have a very low income. Here, we can afford to travel – we just took a cruise to Mexico !”
“Do the trains in Moldavia run on time?” Ted asks.
“Yes, and they are more comfortable, too, with bigger compartments.”
The Pacific Parlour Car attendant has brought along his own Sirius Satellite radio and is playing popular music of the 1950's, to take us back to the era, 1954, in which this car was built by the Budd Company for the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe Railway. It is always heartening to see how conscientious employees of Amtrak do their best, sometimes at their own expense, to create a pleasant experience for passengers. This in spite of ongoing threats by our federal government to shut Amtrak down – at least some things are better in Moldavia ….
We arrive in Portland over three hours behind schedule (after sitting in a siding for a lengthy interval just a few miles south, waiting for an Amtrak Cascade train and a Union Pacific freight train to pass us in the other direction). The American Orient Express is parked on an adjacent track, as its passengers enjoy dinner in the two dining cars. The company has a brand-new name, GrandLuxe Rail Journeys. This fall, they will launch a series of nine-day journeys south of the border, called GrandLuxe Mexico. (Visit accentontravelusa.com for details.) They have already changed the name of their Great Dome Lounge Car from New Orleans to Copper Canyon.
Leaving Portland , we soon are rolling along the raceway of the BNSF Railway to Seattle. Even on this route, which I had believed was double tracked all the way, we are forced into a siding for 30 minutes waiting for an Amtrak Cascades train and BNSF freight to pass us in the other direction. Evidently the Coast Starlight, once Amtrak's premier long distance train, now has last priority wherever it runs. Our expected arrival into Seattle is now just before midnight, which is far better than our previous journey in November, when we pulled in at 3:30am.
Although anxious to get to our comfortable room at The Westin Seattle, we do take a quick glimpse of the progress being made in the restoration of the beautiful King Street Station, one hundred years old this year. The official celebration will begin May 10 and continue through July 1, at which time a fourth Amtrak Cascade train will begin running between Seattle and Portland.
We have been awaiting this restoration for a long time. According to the Washington DOT web site, the Environmental Impact Statement process was conducted for the station redevelopment in 1995, and was updated in 1998 and again in 2001. Work finally began in August 2003 and is expected to be completed by August 2007. By contrast, the original construction was conducted between 1904 and 1906. However just to prove that Americans can still complete big, important projects quickly, next door to the King Street Station, the old King Dome sports arena was imploded on March 22, 2000. By May 4, 2002, turf was being rolled out on the new Qwest Field, built on the same site.
NEXT: Day 2. Monday, May 8: Sleeping in Seattle
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