Trip Report: April 27 to May 24, 2007
by Ted & Sylvia Blishak
A TWO WEEK SWING AROUND THE WEST BY AMTRAK
(AND OTHER RAILROADS)
Sunday, April 29, 2007: San Luis Obispo Econo Lodge to Arizona.
After our wake up call at 5:30am, I call the one and only taxi company in San Luis Obispo, (population approximately 50,000), to reconfirm our 6:15am pickup, but they never heard of us. The gruff voiced dispatcher said they were heavily overbooked this morning, but promised to get us to the train on time. He did. A cab arrived at 6:00am and we were at the Amtrak Station at 6:10am, in plenty of time for our 6:45am departure for Los Angeles on Amtrak's "Pacific Surfliner."
Our train is nowhere to be seen at 6am, but at 630am it appears from a siding to the south, rolls through the station, then switches to the southbound track, drifting to a stop at the platform. Passengers come surging out of the station, but the doors to the train remained closed, and there is considerable confusion amongst the travelers about where and how to board, as there were no announcements made, and nobody was on the train or on the platform to give directions.
The Business Class car is next to the push mode locomotive. In front of the Business Class car is the Coach/Snack Bar. Finally, the doors open, as we board, the conductor is making lengthy announcements about how the lower levels of these bi-level cars are reserved for Senior Citizens and the Mobility Impaired. All others are to carry their luggage upstairs and store them in the luggage compartments on the upper level.
Click photo for larger view
Unfortunately, the lower level of the cars do not have luggage compartments, so although the passengers are able to heft their smaller pieces into the overhead racks, the only place left for large, heavy pieces is the floor of the wide aisle leading into the seating area.
Our conductor does not like this at all, and gives us a strongly worded warning on the PA System that any baggage found on the floor of the aisle would be put off on the platform, for safety reasons, before we departed. This results in a lot of scrambling, but there are still two pieces of baggage that just would not fit in the overhead racks. One belonged to us, so we kept a sharp eye on it throughout the trip. As we proceeded south, picking up more passengers, the number of large pieces of luggage on the floor multiplied until the conductor finally gave up his fruitless crusade.
Breakfast in Business Class consists of complimentary coffee, juice, sweet rolls, and newspaper. More hearty fare is available in the snack bar ahead.
We have a lengthy refueling stop in Santa Barbara, permitting us to walk on the platform for awhile, enjoying the morning mist. We are advised that the fuel dealer in San Luis Obispo never showed up, so a Santa Barbara dealer was called in to meet our train there.
Later in the morning, pulling away from the Simi Valley Station, a commotion outside on the platform attracts our attention; a car horn blowing and people running after the accelerating train. The conductor stops the train and three young men board with tickets from Santa Barbara. They had missed the train at their starting point and paid $200.00 to taxi to Simi Valley, where they had nearly missed it again.
As we draw closer to the downtown Los Angeles area, the air quality grows worse and worse. So we were not surprised to read in the next day's USA Today, that LA had once again achieved the #1 position on the dirty air list released by the American Lung Association.
We pull into Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal on time. A Red Cap transports us and our luggage to the Baggage Storage room and, freed of our burden, we stroll across the street to Olvera Street. Excitement reigns in this quaint and picturesque Mexican quarter. Music from south of the border, and primitive dance performers from who knows where draw crowds, as do the numerous stalls displaying trinkets, clothing, and accessories designed to please the casual Sunday shoppers. (I purchase a waist pack to replace the one that I left with, but which suffered a broken clasp enroute.) We enjoy a Mexican luncheon at Golondrina's, where we had dined once before while awaiting the Texas Eagle many years earlier.
There is only one "Pacific Surfliner" that originates in San Luis Obispo. The schedule gives us six and a half hours to wile away at the LAUPT district. After lunch, we stop by the Metro Plaza Hotel, where Amtrak crews overnight, just to see if they are still in business. (They had joined the Days Inn chain a couple of years ago, but were dissatisfied with their return on investment, and now are independent again.) There is nothing more convenient to Union Station, you can easily walk there.
After our walk, we actually loaf the rest of the afternoon away, dozing in the leather seating of the waiting room, or enjoying the cool breezes out on the outdoor patios, landscaped with fountains and colorful floral plantings.
A light plane drones overhead, pulling a sign urging all those of Latin American heritage to join in the next day's demonstrations in favor of legalizing all of our illegal aliens living in the USA. We are glad to be leaving town.
LAUPT, the last great railway station built in the United States is certainly a unique institution. Completed just before the onset of WWII, it culminated a century of passenger railway progress in the USA. Who in 1939 could have imagined that the passenger train would soon be abandoned in favor of the freeways and the airways?
But there is a rebirth here, with ever increasing Amtrak service north, south, and east. MetroLink commuter service with multiple routes in all directions, and the Red Line Subway terminal, many stories underground, connecting Union Station with the colorful network of subways extending in many directions from the Civic Center hub.
Though we no longer look for Hollywood stars arriving to board the Santa Fe "Super Chief," there is a constant parade of ordinary folks through the inspiring great hall, Traxx, a fine dinner restaurant, and an elegant watering hole, the Traxx Bar.
Our 645pm departure of Amtrak's "Southwest Chief" arrives all too soon. We collect our stored luggage and a Red Cap transports us and our impedimenta to sleeper 431, Bedroom C.
On our previous trip on the Southwest Chief, many years ago, we followed the old Santa Fe line through Pasadena to San Bernardino. Tonight we depart Union Station on the southern route, once used by Santa Fe's "Grand Canyon," through Fullerton, Placentia, Yorba Linda, and the wild canyon traversed by the Riverside Freeway to Corona. To my surprise and amazement, there is no longer a wild canyon, as Yorba Linda and Corona are now connected with continuous strip development!
As we enjoy dinner in the diner, the "Chief" makes brief stops in Riverside and San Bernardino before beginning the climb up and over Cajon Pass and down into the high Mojave Desert.
We turn in, looking forward to being in the high country of northern Arizona in the morning.
