“This is Oakland Station. We’ll be here for 20 minutes, so if you’d like to step off the train, you may do so. But please don’t stray too far, because the train will be leaving in 20 minutes, and if you miss it, well, there will be another train that looks just like this one leaving at this time tomorrow.”

On the train from Miami to New York, when we arrived, one of the conductors announced, “Take all your belongings with you. Anything you leave behind, I will take and sell on eBay.”

​@@DailyEdwards😅😂🤣

Not everyone has excellent hearing even without earphones

Wow, I've been a train rider all my life. My mom (who didn't drive,) would take me on The Southern ("The Southern Serves the South") from our beautiful Cincinnati Union Terminal down to the littlle Somerset, KY station to visit my grandparents every summer. That started when I was four or five. By the time I was about 10, my mom might put me on the train alone and an uncle would pick me up in Somerset. The familiar conductor watched out for my welfare. I've taken trains across the country, and also from Baltimore back home to Cincinnati many times. So, as lifelong rider, I know I'd better be paying attention and be standing on the platform ready to hop on as soon as the conductor yells, "All aboooaarrd!!" (Do they still do that?) I'm now 70 and haven't traveled anywhere for a while - but my next trip will be on Amtrak, with a roomette! I can't believe people just sit there with headphones on or sit in their cars! (Well, I do admit I'm not a flier, and the last time I flew I probably looked like what we used to call a bag lady. I was totally out of it, packing-wise and every other wise, so people who regularly fly would have a right to judge my lack of flying savvy and style!! Flying is not for me.)

Schedules and itineraries, no matter when we’re traveling, are estimations and projections at best. I find it less burdensome just to expect the unexpected and do what I can to roll with it. Extra time for connections, whenever possible, is key.

@kevinkeene Congratulations on reaching retirement and having train travel on your fun list.

Happy retirement! That was when I started to take trains, because I didn't have to worry about using extra vacation days.

Today was my retirement also! Enjoy

Woohoo!

happy retirement!! enjoy!

Agree! Just got back from a trip to Seattle. That station did not use a PA system for boarding announcements and the poor lady who was trying to let people know was trying to shout over a hundred+ people not paying attention.

@@debbiel9843 And that's a major city!

@@debbiel9843 Seattle does have an automated system (most Amtrak stations do) that make two announcements before boarding. However, the PA system and the acoustics in Seattle are so bad it's almost impossible to understand what they are saying.

We went to the high-level Sun Rail platform at Kissimmee instead of the ground level one Amtrak uses for our return trip to NYC in 2021. The station attendant saw us on the SunRail platform and directed us where we needed to be. At the time, SunRail didn’t operate on weekends, and this was a Sunday. Had the Silver Meteor arrived while waiting on the high-level platform, there is no way we could have made it across the tracks until the train left Kissimmee and us behind! 😮

Thanks so much!

Thank the freight trains that get precedence over passenger service. 🙄

Absolutely agree!! Only option would be to arrive 1-2 days ahead of the ship leaving. BUT we almost missed our boat in Europe because of a plane issue.. so if we ever do a cruise again in Europe ( probably won't again) but there are always travel problems we will plan on getting to city ship is leaving from at least 1-2 days ahead.

Mixed Service can be fine. When booking, it's possible to find out how long each segment is. I'd say that the advice here to avoid them only applies to first-timers.

Yeah, I used to do the Capitol Limited pre pandemic, when they had traditional dining. I wouldn't go on it now. One of the things I need to check is to see if there's traditional dining. If not, I'll just take a different train.

@@dawnbanerdt-adams8356 Well at least they brought back handling bikes on the Capitol Limited. Years ago my husband and I used to to get to Cumberland from Pittsburgh. Then we biked the Great Allegheny Passage trail back to the 'Burgh. There's no other way to do that unless someone drove us and dropped us and our bikes off in Cumberland. Now that they are again accepting bikes, we're finally able to plan another trip.

It does sometimes! But it's such a beautiful time to go with the snowy views. One of my times on the Zephyr we were stuck a few hours because of snow at the top of the Sierras in CA in springtime, even! May I think it was. Going the other way, I met a passenger who was enjoying her free trip on the Zephyr in recompense from Amtrak for a trip she had taken on the Zephyr the previous year when the train got stranded on the tracks due to bad weather for several hours (12?) to the point that food was running out, toilets were backing up and passengers with dogs weren't being allowing to take their dogs off the train to relieve themselves so there was dog poop on the lower levels that stunk up the train. Sounded pretty bad! I also saw several reports about one of these recent winters when the Empire Builder's NEW engines experienced crippling engine trouble on several occasions in cold weather. Passengers had to wait in the middle of nowhere several hours for substitute trains to be sent from either end of the route - days away - sometimes ending up on buses for the rest of their ride. The manufacturer supposedly fixed that problem with the Empire Builders' engines - new engines but with a manufacturing defect that made them fail in very cold temperatures. If you ever have a problem like that on Amtrak involving any inconvenience, be SURE to call and report/ complain to customer service (by phone, don't email) , and they will give you a voucher on the spot. That woman got a whole free ticket out of her horrible experience. If you don't think it's enough, say so. I got a $30 travel voucher for coming in late to Chicago, that was off a sale-priced $300 30-day rail pass so I was already traveling very cheaply. When I told the agent that my traveling companion had gotten a $50 voucher, she checked on that and then raised mine to $50. They wouldn't have given us anything if we hadn't called in.

I've done that and sometimes there are no problems and sometimes there are delays. It's always beautiful.

Earlier this year we took the City of New Orleans and it was early both ways on a round trip from Chicago to NOLA and back. I was amazed.

The last year and a half I've taken a lot of long distance Amtrak routes - did two 30-day rail pass trips plus a few other long trips - and all the trains except for one route were slightly to very late, the latest was 12 hours late into Chicago, arriving at 3am. The consistent exception has been the westbound Sunset Limited into LA (this includes that portion of the Texas Eagle as it is joined onto the Sunset Limited between San Antonio and LA). I've taken it three times now and it has consistently been an hour or more EARLY into LA (its final destination) which is actually very inconvenient as that means arriving 4:30 am or earlier and on top of that, in coach they wake you up an hour beforehand so 3:30 am to get ready to get off! Have been exhausted each time I arrived. I think that particular route must have extra padding "built into" the schedule more than any of Amtrak's other routes. I don't see why they have to wake you up an hour ahead of arrival when they are coming in early and the train isn't going to be leaving the station right away anyway. Really inconsiderate to exhausted passengers.

@Homer Thanks for letting us know about this and I hope they give you a new expiration date ✔️

It's better to call than to email. Call the regular number, be patient on the hold, and tell the agent you want to talk to customer service about it. From what I've heard and experienced you get faster response on the phone than when emailing a complaint. Might never hear back on an email. Phone is slow but usually good service, agents know their stuff and tend to be sympathetic.

@@loopbraider I will do that after 2 weeks. I’m just testing their response system. Currently on Southwest Chief to LA, then returning Friday to Chicago on Texas Eagle. Should be interesting.

Denver is the best place for splitting the route. It has the best air service between Chicago and San Francisco, if you want to cut the trip short. There are several hotels within suitcase rolling distance of the Union Station, plus a luxury hotel in the station itself. If you don't want to go all the way to the SF Bay Area, you can turn back in Sacramento (and visit the rail museum there).

The Texas Eagle runs between Chicago and San Antonio, TX daily. Three times a week it links up with the Sunset Limited at San Antonio and continues to Los Angeles.

It does, though. It travels between Chicago and San Antonio, with stops in Dallas and Austin.

Go to Reno then. It's on the California Zephyr route.

All the best to you, hang in there. Rest and do what the docs say, and in the meantime keep watching Allie and Rob's videos, so soothing and relaxing.

Not cross country buy from La to like Oregon won’t be that expensive or if you want shorter trip La to SAN fransico which will be even cheaper in a sleeper and make sure you book far in advance that is the best deal.

Allie and Rob have many videos about taking the various long distance Amtrak routes! Also "What to know" videos of advice. Click on their name (Grounded Life Travel) under any of their videos to go to their youtube channel. Then click on heading in their menu, if you click on Videos you will see a listing of ALL their videos in chronological order, if you click on Playlists you will see them grouped into topics.

No, the $500 fare is NOT in a sleeper car only on coach. It's Amtrak's 30-day rail pass fare, you can go anywhere within a 30-day timespan and are allowed 10 'legs' of travel, can get off the train and stay somewhere 9 times (your last time getting off counts as the 10th leg of travel.) It's only valid for coach, not for sleeper car. You have to get used to sleeping in coach seats. When I did it (twice!) I planned my routes so I would only spend one night on the train, then get off somewhere and spend two nights OFF the train before getting back on. Could catch up on sleep that way and explore a city. My second time I splurged and paid for two extra legs of travel separately from the pass so I could use a roomette, on my two Eastern legs of travel where the trains don't have an observation car. Those 2 legs with a roomette added up to more than the whole rail pass. They were super fun though! Roomettes are better on those trains because the Eastern trains only have one level, so their roomettes have more vertical space than the roomettes on the two-level Superliners out west. Superliner roomettes are more squished vertically so the bunks have less headroom.

@@chrisdobrowolski2783 LA to SF you don't need a sleeper because it's during the day, supposed to arrive in Emeryville (plus bus across the bay to SF) before bedtime if it's not running late.