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On 5/19 my lovely wife and I will be celebrating our anniversary by taking the Starlight to San Francisco. We will be arriving in S.S via amtrak bus from Jack London in Oakland. A question, will there be cabs available at 10:30 PM at the Fisherman's Wharf Terminal? Thanks in advance for any and all help.
Posts: 229 | From: Long Beach CA | Registered: Jan 2007
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I had no trouble getting one once when I came in at that hour some years back, in June or July I think--only problem, a long line! Still, you might check with your hotel and get a phone number for one to call, just in case.
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
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May 19th is a Thursday, so there won't be as many cabs as you would see on Friday or Saturday at that same time and location. However, SF is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, and most tourists go to Fisherman's Wharf. You should not have a problem finding a cab in that whole area. It's right by Pier 39 (also a huge tourist destination), and you're sort of around the corner from Market Street....meaning if you had to call a taxi, one should show up within minutes. Odds are, you will see one there. Also keep in mind that the historic street cars run down there, and you can hop aboard one and take it to Market Street where there are tons of cabs.
Posts: 2355 | From: Pleasanton, CA | Registered: Apr 2007
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Thanks to all for your responses. We are staying at the Holiday in at Fisherman's Wharf and it looks like the F Line might be an option as well but my wife is a little leery about public transportation. A follow up question for those in the know. I am aware the L.A'S Union Station has parking in front of the station but if that is full when we arrive what would be a good alternative?
Posts: 229 | From: Long Beach CA | Registered: Jan 2007
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Others here have actually done this but I know that there is parking in the MTA building behind Union Station. I think there's a rate for long term and I believe the entrance is on Vignes Street. I suspect it might be cheaper than the lot out front.
Frank in sunny and, for now, calm SBA
Posts: 2160 | From: Santa Barbara, CA, USA | Registered: Oct 2003
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I agree with Frank about parking at the MTA building. I've never done it myself (because I've never had a car when visiting LA), but I do have several railfan friends who live down there and they have used the MTA parking garage many times.
For San Francisco, the "F" line is the line that uses the PCC cars. This is a hardcore tourist line, and I have no hesitation in recommending this to visitors. The MUNI buses---no way---I would never recommend them. But the F line trolley cars are a whole different ball game. As long as you are cruising along Fisherman's Wharf or Market Street in the downtown SF area, you are totally fine. Those cars get a workout, and are often full. Visitors like to ride them and take pictures. It's usually full of Asian tourists this time of the year.
Posts: 2355 | From: Pleasanton, CA | Registered: Apr 2007
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Thanks for the heads up on the MTA lot. A look at it from Google maps seems to show it across the tracks from Union Station. If so then how does one get to the station. My wife is somewhat disabled and can't walk very far. Also am I correct that the MTA lot can't be accessed from Alameda but accessed from Vigness instead?
Posts: 229 | From: Long Beach CA | Registered: Jan 2007
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Access from Vignes. You come out of the lot at the end of the tunnel that goes under the tracks. Handicapped parking spaces are close to the tunnel. But you could also drop off the wife on the Alameda side then go park.
-------------------- Vicki in usually sunny Southern California Posts: 951 | From: Redondo Beach, CA | Registered: Aug 2006
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Don't linger for long if you drop off in front of the station. The traffic control folks don't seem to understand that people use the train station for catching long distance trains. Passenger/luggage drop off is not right by the front door which is very stupid since you have to leave your passenger and luggage out front until you can park and get back to them. It would be so much easier to be allowed to place luggage and the passenger inside the terminal to wait.
Posts: 561 | Registered: Jul 2003
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My apologies if this ends up being a double post but it seems the first on didn't go through. Sitting on the Starlight now still waiting to leave. We are waiting for a connecting train. Thanks to all for the parking advice, it went very well.
Posts: 229 | From: Long Beach CA | Registered: Jan 2007
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I guess you're waiting on the Southwest Chief? I know that they will hold #14 for up to 90 minutes of the Chief is running late (it's usually an hour or so early). Enjoy your trip up the coast!
Posts: 2355 | From: Pleasanton, CA | Registered: Apr 2007
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update, we just hit a tractor pulling a trailer somewhere south of Salinas. Looks like an allnighter. Glad we have a roomette.
Posts: 229 | From: Long Beach CA | Registered: Jan 2007
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Well, that's the area where it seems to happen most. Those farms have a lot of private crossings that don't have lights/bells/gates, and the trucks often blow across the tracks without looking. If nobody was hurt, it should be a quickie. If someone was hurt seriously or killed, yup, you'll be there for a few hours at least. Like you said, good thing you have a roomette. And at least you've got internet!
Posts: 2355 | From: Pleasanton, CA | Registered: Apr 2007
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Well, it looks like this is a long one for you. Sorry about that! It is now coming up on midnight (in CA), and Amtrak's website shows that you are not even in San Jose yet. They are giving an ETA of about 1AM or so. I suppose you can look at the positive out of this---tomorrow you will get to see GORGEOUS scenery through the Mt. Shasta area. This territory is normally covered in darkness, but you'll get to see it in daylight. I've had that happen a few times, and the views are spectacular.
I'm curious to hear if the crew kept the passengers informed, or was it just silence with people wondering what's going on?
Posts: 2355 | From: Pleasanton, CA | Registered: Apr 2007
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I well remember the scenery over Cascade Summit viewed from an SP #360X Dome on the Shasta Daylight June 1962.
Posts: 9976 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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Update part two. Nobody was hurt. Were on scene in excess of three hours. The accident broke the front light of the engine so we had to creep along at 20 MPH till we could pick up a freight engine 25 miles north of Salinas. We checked into our hotel at Fisherman's Wharf at 6:00 AM a full seven hours late.
The bright side is that we weren't in coach and on our way to Seattle.
Posts: 229 | From: Long Beach CA | Registered: Jan 2007
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Good thing you got off in the Bay Area. According to Amtrak's website, the train is still sitting in Sacramento. This is a VERY late train! I'm assuming it will terminate at Portland when it gets there sometime in the middle of the night tonight. No way are they taking it to Seattle (I'm guessing).....
Posts: 2355 | From: Pleasanton, CA | Registered: Apr 2007
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As of a little over an hour ago (which would be around 1PM CA time), the Starlight was STILL sitting in Sacramento. Now the train status is "Service Interruption". I wonder if they are terminating the train there? Was the damage so bad to the head-end that they can't continue? I would think they could have borrowed a passenger locomotive from Oakland since they went right through there. Hmmmm.....I'm curious to know what happened.
Posts: 2355 | From: Pleasanton, CA | Registered: Apr 2007
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We didn't get to see the head-end but the impact was severe enough to knock over my glass of wine. We had several firefighter agencies do walk throughs during our three hour wait. One group of firefighters spent quite a bit of time in one of the deluxe bedrooms leading me to believe that there might of been a slight injury there.
Since the train didn't slow down or sound a horn before impact leads me to believe that the person involved pulled right in front of the train.
Posts: 229 | From: Long Beach CA | Registered: Jan 2007
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So sorry for your train woes, but so glad you made it to SF eventually.
Just to put in perspective--an elderly lady I know had a terrible time flying north from Florida, because of the storms; she arrived at a NY-area airport very very late, which at her age was not fun.
So the bottom line, I suppose, is that travel is not always easy!
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
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Frank in SBA let me know that the 14 terminated in PDX and he will be bussed there from Seattle. Better for him than the time we were bussed Seattle to Eugene. But still annoying.
-------------------- Vicki in usually sunny Southern California Posts: 951 | From: Redondo Beach, CA | Registered: Aug 2006
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Yes even with the accident and very late arrival for me it always be train over flying.
Posts: 229 | From: Long Beach CA | Registered: Jan 2007
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Wait...so Frank and cubzo were on the same train?? Did you guys know this in advance?
Posts: 2355 | From: Pleasanton, CA | Registered: Apr 2007
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I did not but I wish I had. Meeting someone from this forum would have been great!
Posts: 229 | From: Long Beach CA | Registered: Jan 2007
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No, no, Frank was heading south from Seattle, he had cruised north to Vancouver and was to get the #11 in Seattle. That would have been the doomed #14 which stopped at PDX.
Didn't mean to confuse you.
-------------------- Vicki in usually sunny Southern California Posts: 951 | From: Redondo Beach, CA | Registered: Aug 2006
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We are home after arriving in SBA on an EARLY Coast Starlight. Yes, we were bussed from SEA to PDX. It was a nice, comfortable bus and they gave us a box lunch (Subway sandwich, chips, water and a very good chocolate chip cookie) to eat along the way. We stopped twice -- Chehalis and Kelso -- to drop/pick up passengers and arrived in Portland faster than the train would have. We headed to the Metropolitan Lounge which quickly was at capacity. It took about an hour before they had the train put together and we were able to board.
I'll do a trip report later. We had a good time and, for the first time, ate all of our meals including a very quick dinner tonight, in the Parlour Car. The food quality and presentation were very good but I have to say that the Flatiron "steak" is not like any steak I've ever seen. It is more like pot roast. The Lamb Shanks last night were very good. And now I am more certain than ever that they are the "Cuisine Solutions" product that is sold at COSTCO. Nanette, the PPC attendant, said that the sauce was "doctored" by the cook. Apparently this is now frowned upon by management.
Frank in dark and cool SBA
Posts: 2160 | From: Santa Barbara, CA, USA | Registered: Oct 2003
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Nanette has been working the PPC for eons. Glad to hear you had a nice trip.
And the flat iron steak thing.....here is my take on what happens, and I could be wrong so this is just a guess. Even though the menu says flat iron steak, that's not what is always served. They serve whatever their supplier gives them, and sometimes it actually is a pot roast. As long as it's "beef", the Amtrak folks don't bother telling the customer that pot roast has been substituted for the steak. I was on #14 once and the exact same thing happened. There's no way in heck what was served to me was a flat iron steak---it was definitely pot roast. So I think they get a beef selection from their vendor, but they don't change the menu because it's unpredictable.
Posts: 2355 | From: Pleasanton, CA | Registered: Apr 2007
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Likely what Mr. Smith immediately notes was the case; the purveyor simply could not deliver steaks to Amtrak's specifications.
Of course this discretion Amtrak apparently allows can be a 'double edged sword" - with the blade known to run in favor of the passenger.
I can recall a fairly recent NB Auto Train voyage in which the usual "beef, chicken, fish" menu was presented. I think all here can guess what I ordered. I was expecting the "usual adequate Amtrak steak' but on this journey somehow I think the purveyor got Amtrak's order 'switched' with, let's say, Hyde Park Grill's.
Oh and Hyde Park? a Cleveland based regional steakhouse chain that I think ranks above Ruth's but then not quite Morton's. They now have an outlet in Daytona Beach which seems to be the first 'breakout" of their Cleveland, Akron, Columbus, Pittsburgh base.
But how often have there been cases of the MBA son entering the family business with a "Pop, you must expand; you must go national"...well maybe it works some of the time, but not always. Sbarro pizza chain is a quick example coming to mind. Dad (Gramps, maybe) I'm sure was quite happy to make pizzas at their original Brooklyn "pizza joint" - Grand/Son had other ideas.
Posts: 9976 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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Could it simply have been the wrong menu delivered to the diner? On a recent trip on No. 3, the steaks were listed on the menu as "New York strip," and that indeed is what they were -- quite good, in fact, and better than the flatiron steaks so often served in the past.
This suggests that Amtrak is experimenting with cuts of beef.
My cookbook tells me that pot roast is usually chuck steak, a tougher cut than those for flatiron and New York strip, hence needs braising.
This discussion has my mouth watering. I need to take another train trip.
Posts: 2236 | From: Evanston, Ill. and Ontonagon, Mich. | Registered: Feb 2007
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To close out my end of this conversation, while departing the Starlight back in L.A. our car attendant showed us some cell phone pictures from the accident. There was large gaping hole in the front of the engine. Big enough to make me wonder how it got as as we did to pick up the freight engine.
Posts: 229 | From: Long Beach CA | Registered: Jan 2007
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The menu in the Parlour Car was correct. They feature only two items at each meal. The sauce was correct -- Ancho Chili. I suspect this is also a Cuisine Solutions product. Nannette said they come frozen in plastic bags and are heated in a convection oven. That may explain why she needed our menu choice at the time we reserved for dinner. We've discovered that these sorts of things reheat much better from thawed as opposed to frozen.
There were a couple of passengers who wanted to eat in the Parlour Car but they simply couldn't fit into the booths. Nannette accommodated them by serving them at the small bar tables even though she said she was not supposed to serve there. I don't remember the tables in the Diner being any roomier so I think their only other option would be to have their car attendant bring meals to their rooms.
I'll write more later in a trip report but a comment here about the Parlour Cars might be appropriate. The coffee machines will probably be going soon. They apparently usually are broken which entails a $300.00 service call. They also don't generate much revenue. Our car was looking a bit shabby. There were what looked like red wine stains on the curtains at two booths. The swivel chairs need new padding and covers.
It's just my opinion, but the steam table is a waste of good space and is just plain ugly. It is not used except, perhaps, for the continental breakfast leaving LA. That could be set up on the bar.
Frank in sunny and warming SBA
Posts: 2160 | From: Santa Barbara, CA, USA | Registered: Oct 2003
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I just got off the phone with Guest Relations and they have compensated me with a $200.00 travel voucher for the loss of the sleeping car accommodation SEA-PDX. That is more than enough because I used Guest Rewards points and had no cash involved in the deal.
I had first called Guest Rewards thinking that would be the logical place to start and got the only unpleasant agent I've ever spoken to there or at Amtrak. She lectured me about the fact that they NEVER refund points (Which is what I was told by three different people in three different locations!) and that they should never have told me that. I would have hung up if I hadn't needed her to transfer my call to the correct place.
Mr. Cubzo, you might give them a call to see if you are due some compensation.
Frank in sunny and warm SBA
Posts: 2160 | From: Santa Barbara, CA, USA | Registered: Oct 2003
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quote:Originally posted by chrisg: Quoting million mile man Chris G, "every ride is an adventure"!
It is "Every trip is an adventure!"
I would conjecture that a train RIDE is a short excursion lasting 14 hours or less when you return to your point of origin on the same day.
A train TRIP is a lengthier journey involving spending at least one but preferably two or even three nights on the train and requiring sleeping accomodations.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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