FlyerTalk Forums - Trip at flight level 0

Well, a few times a year I have to make a quick trip to D.C., which wind up about half the time on the Shuttle, and the other half on the train. I don't think I've taken the Metroliner round-trip on the same day before, but it made the most sense in this case.

Waltzed into Penn Station at 0745 for the 0800 Metroliner (I booked the trip on the Internet and had passed through here the other day to get the ticket... nice not having to worry about finding a working machine this morning.) Platform conductor directed me towards the front, found a nice seat. Train left on time, excellent trip, did not use food car, since I brought my coffee with me. Had two seats to myself, no seatmate except between Metropark and Philadelphia... there's plenty of room anyway. Only a few brief cell phone calls, people around me did the same... AT&T still has some coverage holes along the route, including some (amazingly) between Baltimore and Washington. The only minor annoyance: Conductor made interminable announcements approaching each station. Another frustrated radio announcer. No good reason this has to take three minutes for every stop instead of 10 seconds.

Arriving into Union Station, I remembered that, unlike Grand Central Station (for example), there is no single obvious place to meet someone at if you haven't been specific beforehand. So I walked all the way through to the street, didn't see my colleague, called his office, got his cell number, and found he was back at my train's arrival gate and I must have walked right by him. Also noticed a strange D.C. phenomenon: In the main rotunda of the station, people stand, talking on cell phones, spaced apart as if on a 8-foot-or-so grid pattern, looking for all the world like they're waiting for Scotty to energize the transporter.

Anyway, we had lunch in the station at a place called B. Smith's (I think), with very good Cajun food... one could get addicted to their jambalaya.

Financial meeting at HQ building (5 min taxi ride away) went fine, and, amazingly, ended after 90 minutes or so, as promised. I could have made the the 1500 train, but since I had a ticket for the 1600 train, I got into a very-OMNI discussion with my associate in his office until I looked at my watch and realized it was 1535. Rushed downstairs, waited 5 minutes for taxi, got to station at 1550, and found myself at the back of a long queue for boarding. For some reason, ticket checking takes a lot longer here than at Penn Sta.

Finally got on the train, found a seat all the way at the front again (nobody should be surprised that the 4 p.m. Metroliner is crowded!). On-time departure again. Just past Baltimore, train ran over some debris on the tracks and stopped. Conductor made announcement that they were going to check out the engine. A few minutes later he announced further that they had a broken pipe and a broken hose, and they were waiting to find out whether Amtrak was going to send a replacement engine or pull another train alongside and transfer out the passengers. Out come all the cell phones!

Meanwhile, it turned out that there were a few Amtrak maintenance technicians on board (sitting near me, as it happened), who must have been returning from training classes, judging by the Acela operating manuals they had stacked by their seats. So these fellows (I think there were three of them) decided they would become workers instead of riders, and went up to the engine to see what they can do. I never found out if they fixed the pipe and the hose with duct tape, or something more esoteric, but about 15 minutes one of them came back, mentioned to those of us nearby that we would be moving shortly, and retook his seat. We did start up again a couple of minutes later, and eventually resumed normal speed.

Amazingly, about an hour and a half later, the same thing happened again! Debris, train stopped, Amtrak employees get up, train eventually moves again. All in all, considering we were probably stopped a total of 45 minutes, we were very fortunate to arrive at Penn Station only 35 minutes late. I have to give Amtrak a great deal of credit for how they dealt with the situation, including frequent informative announcements dealing with the delays.

By the way, for those who have been following the Acela project, no Acela trains yet, best estimate now is January, construction work on electrification of New Haven - Boston section is complete, catenary system is being energized in sections, every week or so.