There is an assumption that almost anyone can be agreeable for 30 minutes, and for the most part that is proven true. Even the first beer, wine, or cocktail is provided “gratis.”Ī further custom, due to limited seating, is to combine individuals and couples as tablemates. For dinner the practice remains to dress tables with white linen and napkins, fresh flowers, and to dine with real silver. Without question the most enduring experience Amtrak has maintained from former times is the traditional dining car. A cross-country domestic train is a small city on steel wheels with all the authority, order, and disruption you might expect from a rolling metropolis. We Americans still wish to hold onto a classic experience of rail travel that conjures up images of Bogey and Bacall sharing cigarettes and cocktails in the first class lounge.Īmtrak is not the Orient Express but something very near to it in certain respects, sensibly without the tobacco. A future journey might take hours, which now takes days. With smooth high speed dedicated rail, there would be lesser need for onboard room and meal accommodation. The relatively slow rocking pace of American rail service, despite the mild annoyance, still remains part of its charm. An Amtrak train may well spend twenty minutes idle on a siding, waiting for a two-mile-long freight carrier to pass. In fact, freight cars still have priority over passenger trains. The simple truth is that from the beginning, American passenger service, including Amtrak, has run on decades old freight rails designed to ship cattle and potatoes. All on board, except perhaps the conductors and stewards, would fail a roadside sobriety test. The rocking of the train also makes walking from cabin to cabin a challenge, especially for the already balance impaired. A seated position presents its own set of problems. Standing in a rocking restroom requires, at minimum, flexed knees and one arm braced against the wall. Onboard Amtrak there are no seatbelt, nor even handrails. That is because of the almost constant pitch and roll of every train carriage, day and night, sleeping or awake.Īirline passengers are familiar with the motion caused by occasional weather turbulence and fasten seatbelts as directed. Still, it is difficult to describe politely the challenge of using an Amtrak restroom.
Chief steward hotel full#
Roomette passengers share restroom facilities, while those in full bedrooms and family suites enjoy private bath accommodations. But again, think large Recreational Vehicle, not Hilton. There are, however, several amenities available only in the sleeping cars, one of them being a shared changing room with shower. And shoes are Amtrak policy day and night. Even putting on shoes meant extending my legs and feet into a passage corridor while sitting on the bed’s edge. When requested, the steward will also deliver hot meals from the dining car to private rooms and generally keeps the cabin stocked and clean.ĭressing I found is not possible when the bed is made out.
A cross-continent rail tradition carried on by Amtrak includes a steward assigned to the sleeping cars who turns down and remakes beds each evening and morning.
We boarded in darkness to find our beds already made up. This micro space is also incredibly pricey, the equivalent of a 3-4 star hotel room. They are called ‘roomettes’ and the emphasis is strongly on ‘ette’.
Chief steward hotel upgrade#
This time, aboard the Sunset Limited, I would afford the upgrade in fare from coach to have a small private room. three days a week, a dark and somehow romantic hour to board an enormous eastbound train. The Sunset Limited leaves Union Station at 10 p.m. I arrived in Los Angeles late afternoon with a ticket to New Orleans, and a return fare that would allow me to visit Tucson. I have taken both, most recently the Sunset Limited. At Union Station in Los Angeles, the Surfliner and Coast Starlight connect with legendary eastbound trains, the Southwest Chief to Chicago and the Sunset Limited to New Orleans. Both lines are known locally for their cliff-hugging ocean views.īut that may be only the beginning. The two principal routes serving Santa Barbara are the Pacific Surfliner, which runs between San Luis Obispo and San Diego several times each day, and the grand lady of West Coast rail travel, the Coast Starlight with its dining car and sleeping coaches, heading north to Portland and Seattle. Since 1971 the original railroad and dozens like it have consolidated passenger service as Amtrak. The portal was opened in 1887 by the Southern Pacific Railway. Central to Santa Barbara, there is a portal able to transport travelers through time as well as space.
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