CHICAGO — As Trains News Wire has been reporting, a dearth of serviceable Superliners on Amtrak’s long-distance trains has limited mobility options in a year that has seen a significant surge in travel demand. Sellouts in coaches and sleeping cars for at least one segment of a route have been the rule, not the exception.
A significant factor affecting the quality of a recent journey on the Southwest Chief and Texas Eagle was the ability to deliver a passenger train’s inherent advantage over air and auto travel: space that doesn’t confine travelers to scrunched, seat-belted purgatory. Here’s a look at some of the contrasts.
Southwest Chief
Sightseer Lounge invaluable; dining car open to all
From a logistical standpoint, riding from Chicago to a rendezvous with an overnight bus at Newton, Kan., [see “Heartland Flyer’s challenging connections …,” News Wire, July 31, 2023] is logical in coach, even when $492 roomettes are available (which they weren’t on July 19, 2023).
Two transition sleepers with lower vestibules, coupled back to back, subbed for a second standard sleeping car at the end of the train, symptomatic of Amtrak’s equipment shortage. This Chief also featured a Superliner dining car, Sightseer Lounge, and three coaches.
“We have a sold-out train, so if you are traveling together, please sit together,” announced a conductor, but Los Angeles-based coach attendants Amanda and Calli had already grouped single travelers with each other and families together at boarding by assigning seats in the destination-appropriate car. Groups included three scout troops headed to Raton, N.M., for the Philmont Scout Ranch and nine members of an Amish family traveling from upstate New York to Topeka, Kan. Seat checks displayed in the third, “shorts” coach out of Chicago showed passengers destined for Newton, Topeka, Lawrence, and Hutchinson in Kansas; Kingman, Ariz.; La Plata, Mo.; and Raton (one of the scout troops). Passengers for Albuquerque, Los Angeles, and Kansas City, Mo., were given space in the other two cars.
A Superliner coach seat’s pitch of about 50 inches (airlines typically average 32 inches) provides legroom to stretch out compared to state-supported or Northeast Corridor trains or even single-level Amfleet II long-distance coaches in the East. At night, this allows enough room to pull out a folding leg rest from under the seat. Packing a pillow increases overnight comfort.
Though Superliner coaches are comparatively roomy, there is no substitute for spaciousness in the Sightseer Lounge that invites camaraderie not possible anywhere else on the train or other travel modes. With sun streaming overhead as trees and landscape rush by ceiling-to-table windows, the car acts as a welcome gathering place away from the regimentation of seats.
The same can be said for the Chief’s dining car. Coach customers are invited to walk there after meals-included sleeper passengers are given their choice of seatings. The flat $45 pay-in-advance pricing at dinner may be steep by historical standards, but Alexis, the lead service attendant, is quick to note while taking payment that the cost with alcoholic beverage included is on par with Los Angeles and Chicago restaurants (breakfast is $20, lunch $25, and all kids’ meals are $20). The tab didn’t deter two scouts from an Indianapolis suburb. Though not joined at dinner by their compatriots, they devoured the flat iron steak and pan-roasted chicken breast entrees and lauded the cocoanut shrimp appetizer.
Texas Eagle
Overcrowded without an escape
Four other Superliner-equipped long-distance trains operating west of Chicago that offer traditional dining car meals, the California Zephyr, Empire Builder, Sunset Limited, and Coast Starlight, also have Sightseer Lounges. The City of New Orleans usually sports a Sightseer but sleeping car passengers are served “flexible” meals; coach passengers are kept out of the diner, if the train has one.
The Texas Eagle used to offer a separate dining car and lounge, two sleeping cars, and a transition sleeper. Amtrak management, however, reduced it three years ago (the pandemic, you know) to one sleeping car, one standard coach and one baggage coach between San Antonio and St. Louis, along with a “Cross Country Cafe” combination diner-lounge. A third coach operates between Chicago and St. Louis, since the Eagle augments Lincoln Service offerings.
The current arrangement is completely inadequate. Even with the extra St. Louis-Chicago coach, Trains News Wire observed that the train leaving Marshall, Texas, on July 21 had been sold out for more than a week in advance on the Bloomington-Normal, Ill.-Chicago segment, choking off potential demand for many long-distance trips. This is not unusual. There were enough Chicago-bound passengers at St. Louis to completely fill the extra coach.
But the biggest drawback is the constant crush of passengers attempting to frequent the cafe car. For more than an hour both at dinner and breakfast, the line stretched most of the way through the adjacent coach while Megan, the lead service attendant, completed transactions and secured the food. She did get some preparation assistance from the diner’s “chef,” who otherwise solely served sleeper passengers meals in a bowl. Despite the never-ending crush, Megan maintained a patient, unflappable demeanor and passengers in the line respected the challenge she faced. Approaching Chicago, a fellow crew member announced that this was Megan’s first solo trip following training. Bravo!
Space was available for seating in the “diner” section of the Cross Country Cafe, but people purchasing meals and drinks after standing in line were not allowed to sit there, and passengers were warned that they had to return to coach seats after eating if they did manage to find space in the small cafe section.
This Texas Eagle downgrading is reversible if management has the will to devote enough resources to restore a Sightseer lounge and more capacity to the train. It serves more large intermediate population centers than the Southwest Chief or any other western overnighter except perhaps the Coast Starlight. Until that happens, Amtrak is leaving revenue and passenger comfort on the table.
Another overt gesture to dismiss and kill the minimal long distance network. Today, it’s the “Texas Eagle” victimized by an inexperienced corporate management in operating passenger trains clearly evidencing a naïveté not to understand how costs only increase when cutting a train.
Apparently, Congress continues to be dazzled with the magic show presented by Gardner/Coscia to forget how the Congress that created Railpax/Amtrak defined explicit food/beverage service requirements on long distance trains. Instead, Gardner and friends think otherwise, just as they coached former CEO Anderson to the detriment of passengers mindful of how the SP rejected even a modicum of consistent, competent transportation.
As illustrated in this story, it just cannot be ignored how Amtrak’s corporate management, operating without any guardrails by a deficient and depleted Board of Directors, eviscerated its seasoned maintenance work force during the pandemic (despite soliciting funds from Congress to prevent such action). The end result continues to be shorter consists and diminished customer satisfaction, to be reflected by hitting revenues. When will Congress realize the “chickens are coming home to roost”?
That part about the Texas Eagle is just sickening. It certainly is not the way to treat passengers on long trips (which is most passengers because it does not stop in small towns ). No way in hell would I buy a ticket to ride the Eagle.
I will be riding TE tomorrow from Maricopa to Chicago. Hope the dining isn’t really troublesome, sad there will be no Sightseer lounge, that will take some fun out of the San Antonio to Chicago section for sure
Amtrak must think we’re blind, that we don’t notice the shortened consists on the LDs. I remember when the Builder was nine or eleven cars (depending on the season). Not now.
The Empire Builder gained a 2nd Seattle sleeper this summer for a consist of 1 transition sleeper, 3 sleeping cars, a dining car, a sightseer lounge car, and 3 coaches. A total of 9 cars not including the baggage car. The presence of traditional dining, allowing coach passengers to eat in the dining car, and a sightseer lounge has proven strong success for routes like the Builder, California Zephyr, and Southwest Chief. The Texas Eagle on the other hand, microwaved meals, coach passengers kicked out of the dining car, and no sightseer lounge car, is having disastrous effects. The Texas Eagle has just one sleeping car and no transition car. Translation at least four rooms in the lone sleeping car are taken up by OBS employees, further depleting from what is already tight capacity. Yet the Texas Eagle often has difficulty selling out its sleeper inventory south of St. Louis. What other reason could it be than that the Eagle’s inferior on board offerings are discouraging countless of potential bookings. No other train in the west has just a single sleeping car. Yet many Eagle trips often run with some empty rooms. Management is just so incompetent to notice the contrast between the Texas Eagle to very successful routes like the ones mentioned above. I hope that will change
Bob: another great report on the state of Amtrak operations – the good, the bad, and the (unfortunately) ugly. The fact that passenger demand for Amtrak continues so strong in spite of mismanagement (and other problems out of Amtrak’s control to varying degrees) speaks volumes regarding the inherent desirability of travel by train. People simply want to take the train.
Following the pandemic Amtrak is now finally doing a good job with its West Coast long distance trains. Full service diners that allow coach passengers is a big step forward. I hope Bob Johnston is able to pin Amtrak down on why it can’t do the same with the Texas Eagle. If the problem is staffing and car supply I would like to know if and when Amtrak has plans to bring the Eagle up to the standard of the other trains.
Bob Johnston’s point sums it up. Amtrak management is trying to get rid of the Texas Eagle if this is officially going to become the new normal operating state. They have the power to make it happen. There are a bunch of sightseer lounges parked in the yards at the Beech Grove IN shop waiting for necessary overhauls to be returned to service. If Amtrak would keep its promise it made to Congress and restored all of it’s equipment that was idle during the pandemic, there would be more than enough sightseer lounges available to bring it back to the Texas Eagle as well as the Capitol Limited, which also had it’s lounge car removed. I did remember hearing that two sightseer lounges, stored during the pandemic, were reactivated just last month. How is that not enough for it be re-coupled to the Eagle? Is management at this point not wanting to adjust operating plans at this point since this fiscal year will be ending soon or is that still insufficient availability to expand lounge assignment to other routes? In the meantime fingers are crossed, while we wait to see if management is willing to go far enough to start bringing back the Texas Eagle to it’s once proud state.
This is another example of Amtrak management foolishly pouring all their resources and revenue into the Northeast Corridor while neglecting the other part of their rail network and that is their Long distance trains. All this is doing is creating negative publicity and a bad taste in the minds of any potential riders who would gladly ride and experience the joys and fun as well as experience the scenic wonders of this country all from the windows of a train. Not to mention turning away a future generation of younger riders and chidren as well. Many a young person or child has never taken a train ride anywhere much less actually seen a train rolling by. With the current management running Amtrak off the rails and into oblivion as well as any passenger train by their shoddy and inept operating methods, passenger train travel indeed will be a thing of the past and not even be seen or patronized by folks going to a rail museum or a fan trip. Today’s younger generation especially Gen Z and X and whatever alphabet you want to use to describe today’s younger folks don’t want to have anything to do with trains or railroads or even follow the history of railroads or trains which they consider as ancient. Thanks to bunglers and inept politicans and hacks running Amtrak or any passenger rail network the passenger train in America is rapidly approaching being on life support. By the way the policy of pouring all the money and resources into the Northeast Corridor at the expense of other nationwide rail service is going to blow up in the faces of the “managers” of Amtrak when all passenger rail service in this nation comes to an end and it will be up to smart, intelligent forward thinking people and companies like Brightline to pick up the pieces and recreate and build a new rail system that will serve and benefit the citizens of this nation.
Joseph C. Markfelder
All USA passenger service is not going away. But, if you look at who are the political powerful in the USA, its concentrated in the NE coast and California. That’s who Amtrak has to please which is why the NE Corridor gets most of the attention and funding.
When my oldest grandson was 11 years old, I first planned a trip with him on the Empire Builder from Portland , OR to Chicago, IL. during his summer vacation when he was still qualified for a Child-half fare ticket, but with me in a Roomette. By the time I got around to getting the whole trip planned out on the available dates that satisfied both of our schedules. the train had sold out. We vowed at that time to make our reservations for the next summer as soon as possible after the 11 month in advance window opened. Then COVID basically destroyed any plans for travelling. When the travel restrictions relaxed to the point that we could plan again, quite frankly, Amtrak had gotten so much bad press, that an indefinite hold has been in place since. And it doesn’t look like things are going to change in the near future. My Grandson is now 15 and I am 77. I am still hopeful that someday we will get to make the trip before railrod passenger traffic is nothing but a memory.
Please consider a trip soon through a scenic segment of one of the historic western routes (Empire Builder, Coast Starlight, California Zephyr or Southwest Chief). Even if you spend just one night in the roomette, you’ll create a lifetime memory. You are correct that these trips may disappear.