So far, we haven't had too many problems. We flew out of Hobby, Houston to Albuquerque {abq} April 29. While traversing the airport screening, the ijiots made me take off my shoes so they could x-ray them. This is stupid to the "Nth" degree. 1 moron with a failed attempt at a shoe bomb inconveniences 100's of millions of flyers.... Go figure...
We arrived in abq, and took bus #50 to the good looking Transportation Center and noticed a brand new Greyhound bus staion being built with the frumpy, ancient, delapidated Amtrak station right in between both. I'll write abq's mayor about the "look".
The westbound SW Chief was due 25 minutes early {3:30}, but, thanks to UP's radical lack of dispatching skills, it arrived in abq at 4:35pm. We arrived in LAX 5 minutes early, thanks to the padding.
The Coast Starlight left on time and started losing time around Santa Barbara, again, thanks to UP's lack of dispatching skills. The coast part was great. We saw lots of dolphin, some whales and several fine examples of how to parachute surf, with lots of "hang-time". At SLO, we were about an hour behind, due to no fault of Amtrak. Waking up, we were about 1 1/2 hours behind and I was sligthly concerned about an unwanted bus trip from Klamath Falls to Portland. That didn't happen, but I found out we were very close to doing it. They had no bus driver available at Klamath Falls, and our time was close enough for a bustitution from Eugene. We made the connection to the Empire Builder with 7 minutes to spare....
The trip from Portland to Pasco was uneventfull, except for the fine scenery. The conductor would not turn or wye the sleeper, nor would he run on the south side of the river so I could have a nice view of the valley and river outside my bedroom's picture window. Other than that, everything was fine.
More later.
Mr. Toy Member # 311
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Thanks, Mike. Glad you got to make the Cascades crossing. That is my favorite part of the trip, that spectacular valley view after the summit down to Oakridge.
Believe it or not, the Starlight's timekeeping in recent weeks has improved. After the storm damage was repaired, there were still slow orders causing major delays. They may still be in effect in some areas, but you got off easy compared to a month ago.
BTW, my wife Heidi and I will be on the Starlight Thursday the 5th for a brief Mother's Day visit to Salem. I haven't spent Mother's Day with my mother in a long time, so I'm looking forward to it. We'll return on the 9th/10th.
RRRICH Member # 1418
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Hey Mike - good report, but just one correction, which I'm sure was just an oversight. The SW Chief into Albuquerque runs on BNSF, NOT on UP! I know we all like to blame UP for train delays, but you can't do that for the SW Chief!!!!!!
Hope the rest of your trip goes well!! Keep us posted......
mikesmith Member # 447
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Whoops... forgot about BNSF running the tracks between Lamy and ABQ... Looks like they let an ex-UP dispatcher into their ranks....
The weather in Boise is wonderful, but I'm ready to get back on the train!
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Other than that, everything was fine.