Thanks. Yeah, I was totally aware of the chronic lateness of the Sunset Limited and that it's UP, not Amtrak, that is responsible for that.

So this afternoon I arrived at Los Angeles Union Station after making the trip. Overall, it was a very enjoyable journey. My Superliner Roomette was quite comfortable for one person. The sleeping car attendant was friendly, and while he didn't go above and beyond the call of duty, my bed was always promptly made in the evening when I was ready, and both mornings when I returned from the shower it was put away. The sleeping car was fairly clean, although it could have been better; but it was far nicer than the coach cars I walked through.

I loved the interesting mix of passengers of all ethnic backgrounds and educational and income levels. I met some fascinating people of all ages. One common question was "Why do you take the train?" The answers varied greatly -- some couldn't afford to fly, others wanted a long, relaxing journey where time wasn't an issue, others were die-hard "rail fans." But regardless of socio-economic status, race, age, etc. -- all seemed to have a strong desire to see Amtrak improve, and for the government to provide the support necessary to make long-distance travel by rail more accessible and more feasible, with better schedules, more frequency, and more routes. This seemed to be the case regardless of political affiliation too. I met some very conservative passengers who totally disagree with what the current President and Congress has been doing to Amtrak over the last few years. For once, my liberal-minded self found something to agree with these die-hard Bush fans on.

Food service was fine. Nothing I had was really bad, and a couple of items were rather good. The dining car staff made the best of the current situation, although the lady in charge of the dining car did not hesitate to tell the story of "Simplified Dining" and the mandate from Congress concerning cutting food costs to anyone who commented that the food was not what it used to be. Last night our server did steer me away from ordering the cod and toward the chicken, which turned out to be very tasty. Apparently the cod is very salty and has been getting lots of complaints. The worst meal I had was breakfast this morning. The omelet was OK, but I've had better in first class on airlines. Of the three sausage patties on my plate, one was very good, but the other two were bland. I found this odd; would have thought they all came from the same source. Overall, the chef did a very good job with what he was given to work with. Every plate that came out was attractively presented and the food service was far better than I expected based on some of the reviews and photos I found online before the trip.

The biggest complaint I heard over and over again was the lack of the lounge car. People missed having a place to socialize beside their seats, having movies, and having a larger snack bar/lounge area. There was a small snack bar in the lower level of one of the coaches, but it was very inadequate.

As for being late... We left New Orleans Wednesday morning right on schedule. We had a few short delays between New Orleans and Lafayette, but never more than 10-15 minutes. We were only about half an hour late pulling into Houston, and only about 15 minutes late departing Houston. Overnight there were a few delays that had us late getting into San Antonio, but we pulled out right on time. Things moved along great until mid-morning when a few stops for passing freight traffic started to put us behind schedule. By that evening, we were about 90 minutes late getting to El Paso. But this was nothing compared to what was to come today. I slept through all this, but during the night, we had major delays between Demming, NM and Tuscon. When I woke up about 6:00 AM, we were just outside Maricopa, AZ, and running about five hours late. Several times we stopped between Yuma and Palm Springs for freight traffic, adding to the delays. After we finally cleared Palm Springs, it got very slow again and by the time we arrived at Ontario, we were running about six hours late. We made good time from Ontario to Los Angeles, but there were still a lot of upset passengers. At Palm Springs those who had bus connections from LA to Bakersfield were taken off and put on a bus directly to Bakersfield. Other passengers who had train connections at LA were being told to call Amtrak Reservations to be accommodated.

I realize the delays are beyond Amtrak's control, and that Amtrak really has almost no support in the current administration in Washington to put pressure on the freight railroads concerning this issue. However, it seems like they could impose some sort of fine structure that penalizes the freight operators for not clearing Amtrak trains through with higher priority. Additionally, Amtrak could do a better job of managing passenger expectations with regards to the schedule. For a route like the Sunset Limited, which is almost always several hours late, it would make sense to me that Amtrak studies where the delays are occurring, and adjusts the schedule to allow for more time between station stops where delays are common. This would at least provide a schedule that's more realistic, and keep passengers from scheduling connections that look good on the schedule but in reality are almost never possible to make. This part of the equation is under Amtrak's control. At breakfast this morning I sat with a couple that was saying they had never taken an overnight Amtrak train before, and never would again because they had missed train connections going both ways on their trip due to the Sunset Limited being several hours late. They had paid for a bedroom on the train, and were on a round trip from LA to Arkansas, so they were on a pretty high fare. I don't blame them for being frustrated. But the frustration level could have been decreased had Amtrak managed their expectations by publishing a schedule that accurately reflects when a train should be at a certain point, rather than a schedule that could only be adhered to if Amtrak had more control over dispatching trains on the freight routes.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable trip, and I would definitely do it again. I fly all the time, but this was a nice change, and I saw a lot of the country that I'd flown over countless times but never really seen up close before. It also made me an even bigger believer in the need for a high quality, efficient national passenger rail system. I'm not convinced that Amtrak in its current incarnation is capable of delivering on that idea... there's a lot that is good with Amtrak, but there's a lot that's very broken as well. I realize that Amtrak has had its strings jerked around in a thousand different directions by the President and Congress for over three decades now, and that's why it's in the shape it's in now. The current environment makes it almost impossible for Amtrak to succeed. No amount of "simplified dining" with pre-cooked food, reduced dining car staff, and disposable plates and cups will make up for the fact that Amtrak lacks a clear vision of where it should be going, has some poor executive management, is overly burdened with unionized employee groups and negative labor relations, and is underfunded by an administration that would prefer to see it cease to exist. I'd love to see Amtrak fixed, but I don't think our "leadership" in Washington has the know-how to fix it even if they weren't trying to kill it off. I will be writing my Congressional representatives to tell them my experience in traveling nearly 2,000 miles on Amtrak this week. I doubt it will make a difference, but at least I'll feel like I've done my part to preserve, and improve, passenger rail service in the US.

I do hope long-distance rail travel will still be around for me to take another trip like this one in the future. As I said, I was going into this with the idea that it would be an adventure, and without any time constraints that would cause the trip to be ruined if we were several hours late. Within that frame of mind, the trip was actually better than I had expected it to be, and I am very glad I spent nearly 54 hours of my week on the train.