Chicago to New York Dec 21-22, 2019 trip log
Due to, as my people would like to say, an unfortunate convergence of circumstances, my family isn’t really doing Christmas this year. My mom, Vlad and my grandma will get together for more of a Russian New Year thing next Sunday… And I suppose I’ll have to figure out how to get presents to Anna, John and Nadya later.
Anyway, for my birthday, my mom gave me some money to do some traveling. And I have been mulling visiting Randi and Don for a while now. I haven’t seen them in person since 2015, and I haven’t seen their second daughter, Story, at all, simply because she was born after my last visit (heck, my mom managed to see Story before I did). And I got some nifty Amtrak discounts I could use until next March. So I figured that, if they were game, it would be nice to celebrate Christmas with them.
For this trip, I decided to do something I haven’t done in a while - a liveblog. There is something to be said about capturing one’s thoughts while they’re fresh, before I know what happens next. Let’s see how that works out.
Since the last time I took the Lake Shore Limited train to New York, Amtrak added wi-fi. It also did away with dining cars. Well, if you want to be pedantic, dining cars are still there - they just became lounge cars reserved for sleeping car passengers. In some truly Orwellian bit of branding, Amtrak has been calling it flexible dining.
Dining service has been one of those things Republicans have been eager to cut, or at least reduce, and with the Trump Administration appointing an airline executive to head Amtrak… This isn’t exactly surprising. But it sure as heck disappointing.
23:11 CST - 23:22 CST
The trip didn’t exactly get off to the most auspicious start. Say what you will about the Amtrak delays I encountered over the years, but this is only the third time I’ve seen the train arrive late (the other was the very first Pere Marquette “Thanksgiving Special” I ever rode and all of the Southwest Chief train to Galesburg right after The Great Chicago Snowball of 2011 ) . The past two times I took the Lake Shore Limited, it at least left the station within the time it was supposed to leave the station, at 9:30 PM CST. But when I got to the Chicago Union Station at around 9:10 PM, I found out that the train was running late - and it wouldn’t arrive until 10:10 PM. I’m still not really sure what the heck happened - the Pere Marquette delay happened because the regular, inbound Pere Marquette train arrived late, and since the Thanksgiving Special train uses the same equipment, the delay was understandable. And during the Great Chicago Snowfall - well, all that snow threw everyone off. But the New York/Boston - Chicago Lake Shore Limited arrived in the morning, so it’s not like anything should have been holding up the equipment… In theory.
But I digress ever so slightly. Once the train did arrive, it took us well over 30 minutes to get on board. As per standard procedure, people with disabilities got priority, then families, then members of the military, then sleeper car passengers, then coach - but based on my past experiences boarding the Lake Shore Limited at Chicago, that still seemed to take too long. We didn’t leave until 10:53 PM.
A few notes so far. I am always curious about how many passengers are taking a long-distance train all the way to its final destination (or, in Lake Shore LImited’s case, destinations), and it looks like there are a few going all the way to New York City - including my seatmate. And I was kind of impressed just how packed the train is. Apparently, we don’t have much in the way of seats left, and considering that there are people who, per the engineer making the announcements, boarding in Indiana, this is going to be interesting.
Since I last rode the Lake Shore Limited back in 2015, Amtrak redid the seats on the coach train cars - less cloth, more leather - but they still kept the footrests, the far lean, the plentiful legroom and the fold-down tray. Power outlets are exactly where they are before (though it is interesting to observe that fewer people are using laptops and more people are using smartphones and tablets than they had before. The train is also supposed to get wi-fi, the kind that has become standard on state-sponsored routes. As of this writing, I’m still trying to get it to work, and it’s hard to tell how much of it is the wi-fi and how much of this is my laptop, but.. We’ll see. I might just have to reboot it.
In the meantime, I’m going to go to the restroom (because I’ve been holding it in for a while) and see what’s going on with the café car.
23:57 CST - 00:04 CST
Turned out that café/lounge car was closed, and I get a sense that, given how late we departed, it might have never been opened in the first place.Which is a shame. I kind of like the ritual I developed of going to the café car to grab tea, hanging out in the lounge car for a while and then heading off to sleep
As a bit of an aside - many riders don’t know this, but Amtrak cars have little water dinking faucets with tiny paper cups. The water fountains still worked - but they were all out of cups. Or they haven’t put in cups period, probably figuring, rightfully, that most riders wouldn’t notice. Which is kind of a shame, since the train car is warm, and I cant get anything refreshing from the lounge car.
Oh well. It’s a little over midnight, past 1:00 AM EST. Given that I’ll be spending the next few days on Eastern time, I should probably get to sleep.
We’ll see what the morning brings
10:24 EST - 10”49 EST
Well, it’s been an interesting morning. Both in good and bad ways.
But first, let’s talk a bit about the night. Since my first long-distance Amtrak trip back in 2011, I usually haven’t had that much trouble falling asleep - but I tended to sleep lightly enough that I would wake up at random periods, usually when the trains topped. This time around, I struggled to fall asleep. At one point, I took advantage of the wi-fi lo listen to Audio Noir, since, as strange as it sounds, I’ve found old-school American mystery radio programs to be soothing. I drifted off to sleep at around 4:00 CST - but once I did, I slept pretty soundly until around 7:00 CST/8:00 EST. Which yes, did mean I only got three hours of solid sleep, but solid sleep is pretty rare on Amtrak, but I will, most likely, have to take a nap.
As I’ve said earlier, one thing that’s different this time is that Lake Shore Limited no longer has a dining car. It was one of those Trump Administration cuts that seem to happen whenever Republicans are in charge. Personally, I thought this was a terrible idea, to take away a pretty nice perk. The food, while a bit pricey for what they were offering, was good - and, as I’ve written before, you got a chance to talk to people you’d otherwise never interact with, which is almost as nice of a perk, in my humble opinion.
But what I utterly, and, in retrospect, foolishly failed to anticipate was that, with the dining car no longer an option, all the people who would normally buy breakfast there would have to get breakfast in the café/lounge car. And that’s a pretty significant number of people. The line stretched almost outside the car. And it moved slowly. What’s worse is that, as I realized when I got closer to the café portion, the second half of the lounge has been given over to business-class seating, the way they often do in state-supported routes. So we got a cramped half-lounge with a busy attendant trying like hell to get the line moving.
I don’t usually tip lounge car attendants, especially since, while I’m waiting for my next paycheck, my money is limited - but I would up giving him a small tip. The guy looked harried, and it felt like it would be a small thing to let him know that his efforts are appreciated.
We are still running around an hour late. While I assumed we would make up time in Cleveland, that hasn’t been the case. But, on the bright side, that did mean that, for the first time ever, I got to see Erie, Pennsylvania when it’s sunny. And part of me felt kind of happy to see Riley’s hometown.
(For the many of you who don’t know, I based Riley’s backstory on a conversation I had on the Chicago-bound train as I was heading home after an eventful DC-NYC trip. So it’s fitting.)
As I’m writing this, we are approaching Rochester. While the long time of breakfast customers eventually petered out, we got another line once we picked up a bunch of passengers at Buffalo-Depew station, which is only new petering out again. I’m sitting in the lounge car, writing this post.On the table on the other side of the car, a group from some kind of Mennonite-type group are playing cars. A father and his baby boy are sitting across the table from me. Earlier, the father tried to distract his son with the views outside, but little Rory didn’t go for it, and now he’s playing with a phone.
Oh, and regarding the drinking faucets - the cups were refilled in the morning, so it looks like they simply ran out of cups. Which, once again, made me wonder - did the equipment come from some other train?
Also, I discovered that only some coach cars had the new seats - some of them had old seats.
Now, after we clear Rochester, I’m going to attempt something I’ve never tried before - a Skype call with Grandpa Gena using Lake Shore Limited’s onboard wi-fi.
11:16 EST - 11:17 EST
The call will have to wait for a bit.
The train is currently standing at Rochester, and I got to say - it’s nice to see Rochester in the sun for a chance And the new platform looks pretty cool (and it’s raised, which is a huge bonus accessibility and ease of boarding wise)
12:13 EST - 12:16 EST
The Skype call with Grandpa Gena actually went fairly well. While there was plenty of ambient train noise, the connection actually, for the most part, held out, and the video was decent. At least my grandpa got to see a bit from inside of the American train.
Encouraged, I tried to call my dad, and while the audio was alright, he didn’t do video, and he didn’t feel much like talking. Which is a bit disappointing, but it’s also firmly in “it is what it is” category.
And both were fairly impressed with the long-distance train having an on-board wi-fi.
Oh, and I forgot to mention earlier - because it was morning, I actually got to see a few bits of Lake Erie that Erie (the city) was named after, which was actually pretty neat. Too quick to capture on camera, but quick.
13:18 EST - 13:46 EST
Unlike with breakfast, there doesn’t seem to be nearly as many people lining up to get lunch. Or maybe coffee was more urgent.
Also, you may recall that, in the past, when Lake Shore Limited got split into Boston and New York sections at Albany-Rensselaer, the dining car stayed with the Boston section, while the lounge car went with the New York section. Sometimes, we even got two lounge cars - one for Boston, one for New York (but only one of them had a working café when the trains were combined). Well, this time around, the lounge car is going to be traveling with the Boston section.. It would be interesting to see if we get the lounge car in New York on the way back, but I’m not holding my breath.
Shortly before I went to buy lunch, a family of four set up shop on the table behind me and pulled out some snacks and beverages. The conductor told them, politely but very firmly, that it wasn’t allowed in the lounge car, and they should take all of that back to their seats.
“We’re sorry,” said the man. ""We didn’t know.”
“Nobody ever knows,” the conductor said warily.
A few minutes later, she kicked out another person, mentioning that, if she was going to kick out “another person” earlier, she’d have to kick him out, too.
Now, at this point, I was kind of wary myself, because that didn’t seem right. But, as a journalist, I wanted to make sure. So, after digging around, I found out that while there was a reason why I thought that didn’t seem right, the conductor wasn’t wrong, either.
You may bring your own food and beverages onboard for consumption at your seat or private Sleeping Car accommodations. However, you can only consume food and beverages purchased in Dining and Lounge Cars in those cars. Personal food and beverages are allowed in the upper level of Superliner Sightseer Lounges.
Emphasis mine.
It does seem weirdly inconsistent. The only difference, literally the only difference between Superliner and VIewliner lounge cars is that the Superliner cars have an upper lounge level. Is it just that people can have their own food when a café attendant can’t see them Is that some kind of a weird out-of-sight/out of mind thing?
The train engineer just said that, while we are running about half an hour late, but we should make up the time at Albany-Rensselaer, but we’ll see how that actually pans out.
16:55 EST - 15:31 EST
And it panned out, as my mom would say, with some adventures.
I’m sure it would surprise no one that we ran into some further delays along the way. Freight train interference between Utica and Schenectady - but, at that point, I was back at my seat and I slept through most of it. Then, just as we approached Albany-Rensselaer, we were stopped right on the bridge over the Hudson River, less than a kilometer from the station.
According to the original schedule, the Boston section was supposed to leave at 3:05 PM, while the New York section was supposed to leave at 3:45 PM. Even before the delay at the bridge, we knew that there was no way we’d make it to the station before 3:05, so the plan was to order the passengers in the Boston-bound section to stay put, decouple the section and get it going ASAP. With the New York City bound section, there was no way to move until we get a new, hybrid diesel-electric locomotive attached, so it would take more time to get that section going no matter what.
The best I have been able to determine, the reason for the delay was some kind of false negative for a mechanical issue that the crew had to check manually, and, once they were sure everything was fine, they had to wait to get the go-ahead from the dispatch and then proceed. By the time we arrived, it was already 4:20 PM. The riders in Boston section were instructed to stay put. The ones in New York bound section were allowed to go up to the station, grab snacks and drinks and whatever else - we had 15-20 minutes (their words, not mine).
When I went to the station’s café - which has been there at least since 2011 - a girl I recognized from waiting in line in Chicago and then from sitting around on at the lounge car for a while (a few booths away) asked me, point-blank, if I was afraid the train would leave without us.
“A little,” I replied. “But it’s the chance I’m prepared to take.”
I wound up getting a tea, and that was pretty much it. Randi and Don promised me dinner, and I was still trying to save cash until the next pay deposit arrives (which, per my editor at Steetsblog Chicago, should be on Monday). Of course, I undermined my own point by impulse-buying a $6 Boston Sunday Globe simply because I wasn’t sure when I would have an opportunity to buy a copy of the Sunday version of the iconic newspaper again.
Meanwhile, the announcements were blaring loudly that Lake Shore Limited was leaving soon and this was last call. I assumed (correctly, as it turned out) that they were referring to the Boston section (because there definitely were people boarding it at Albany-Rensselaer), but I didn’t want to take my chances and stuck to the platform. While I regret not going up to the overhead bridge and getting a nice shot of the tracks below (like this one), but I did get to see the two sections of the train separate, which was pretty cool.
The New York section left at 4:58 PM. My seat is on the Hudson River-facing side of the train, so we don’t get to see the buildings that would normally be on our left, and, with the sun set, it’s practically pitch-black. We are currently expected to arrive at 7:30 PM. Again, we’ll see how this pans out.
For now, I’m going to try to do some work I meant to do earlier.
19:03 EST - 19:07 EST
I managed to finish the first article. Sent it just now. Might have time to finish second.
We just left the second to last station - Croton-Harmon. Engineer is saying we’d be there in 40-ish minutes, which I’m not entirely sure I buy, since the regular schedule suggests something closer to 50, and New York Penn Station is a complex puzzle of track availability, given the sheer number of trains that use it… But, again, we’ll see.
For now, I’m going to see if I can get some more work in before I have to start preparing my luggage.
23:01 EST - 23:33 EST
And I didn’t actually get that far into the second article before - BAM - all the sudden, we were in a tunnel. I don’t know if it was because it was dark or because I was so focused on writing an article, but it was just such a sudden shift. And I couldn’t help perfect on this over a century old piece of engineering that has carried so many trains into Manhattan.
The train was moved, with certain admirable efficiency, to one of the New Jersey Transit tracks, and passengers were allowed to leave as quickly as could be reasonably accommodated. And, I don’t know if they were they before and I missed them, but there were definitely wheelchair elevators this time around. Which was definitely a better alternative than climbing up the stairs with the luggage, since escalators didn’t seem to be anywhere in sight.
Lake Shore Limited arrived an hour and a half behind schedule, so, while Don and Randi were planning to meet me at Penn Station if the train arrived on time, we already made back-up plans just in case the train was late (because this isn’t any of our first rodeo with Amtrak. And that plan was for me to take the subway as far as Astoria, and I basically did the same thing I did last time around - took the 2 line, transferred to the N line at the very next step, all while both admiring anew how complex those stations were and grumbling at how far they still have to go in terms of accessibility. Though they did seem to have more ramps. And elevators.
The subway trip actually worked out pretty well (I barely had to wait for either train)… until the N train approached my destination, the final stop at the north end of the line. Considering the delays Amtrak had, this seemed like an ironic cherry on the top of the delay cake.
But I did get to there, safe and sound, and I got to meet the now older, very excitable Song. Didn’t get to see Story yet, because she had to go to sleep earlier (and Song was only allowed up this late because it was a special occasion). So I will meet Story tomorrow.
And for now… going to wrap up and post this entry, check the e-mails, look through the social media and, honestly, probably go to sleep. After all, I only got four ours of it, plus about an hour in the afternoon nap.
I don’t know if I’ll blog about what happens tomorrow, but… we’ll see.