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This week I had a last minute unplanned trip that was not in our budget. So midnight on Monday found me in the Florence, SC station waiting on the Silver Meteor. My plan was to use my pass to ride coach to Washington where I would rent a car to see some old fraternity brothers who had rented a beach house.
I don't think I have taken a planned overnight coach trip since college, so it seemed appropriate that I was back in that mode. While the coach lived up (down?) to my expectations, overall it was a good trip.
Since I was using a pass, I could only make reservations 24 in advance. So there was some question if I would go since all trains had been sold out for some time. For both the trip up and the return, the rail gods were smiling on me. A 5am call to Amtrak on both departure days found that there had been a cancellation and there was just one seat available. It was a good thing, I guess, that my wife was not joining me.
Not surprisingly all 4 coaches on the Meteor were packed. I was given an aisle seat next to someone who was completely covered by a blanket. Occasionally I would see movement so at least he was alive. I was completely unable to find a comfortable position and saw every station stop through the night.
Morning finally arrived and I stumbled to the diner for an excellent french toast breakfast with lots of coffee. The dining car crew and coach attendant were excellent. And for that matter the passengers were reasonably quiet and well behaved. So it would have been a very good trip if I could have slept. Oh, the train was about 30 minutes late but only because they had to change power in Richmond due to some HEP problems (the lights, AC went off several times but not for long).
Washington is such a great terminal. I sat out in front for an hour or so near the fountains and enjoyed a nice summer morning with a paper and more coffee while waiting for the rush hour traffic to disappear. Budget had the best rental rates (also had Avis and National booths) and had no problem with the rental and finding my way out of DC (even with a non working light on New York Ave.)
On my return I took the Palmetto. I did not want to do that northbound so that I would get more beach time and also get into DC before the rental offices closed.
After securing my reservation an early departure from the beach found me at the station by 8:30am. Time to explore some. Did you know the directory lists 38 places to eat in the station? Lots of retail shops but they seemed to be maybe a notch below the caliber of the ones there when it first opened after restoration.
The Palmetto was on time and a mob scene at the gate at train time. Not a vacant seat in the 4 coaches. The last time I took the Palmetto, only 2 coaches were full with the 3rd partially filled and the 4th one not in use.
I had interesting seat mates to make the time go quickly: a girl visiting parents in Alexandria returning from college in Phila.; a manager from a tile store in Tampa visiting parents in Richmond after a NYC/DC visit, and a young man from Colorado trying to find the perfect city to start his life. He had a 30 day pass and wanted a location that was green, warm and had water. So he was headed for the SC coast, then Fl, the Gulf and then CA. He had taken the overnight train from Boston and got on the Palmetto in Richmond since he could not get a reservation out of NYP.
I noticed the business class appeared full as well when I grabbed a pretty good sandwich from the cafe. We had maybe 10 minutes of slow running north of Doswell, Va. A CSX intermodal soon passed us (it appeared to be the very hot train 176 that carries UPS trailers) that had crossed over in front of us. Other than that the primary delays were a few minutes at each stop due to the volume of passengers. A good trip ended in Florence within 10 minutes of schedule.
So it is possible to ride the coach overnight and survive, but next time will find me in the sleeper.
Posts: 2397 | From: Camden, SC | Registered: Mar 2006
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