BTilke

I need to get from central Florida to Philadelphia in a couple of weeks and am thinking about taking an overnighter from Sanford (north of Orlando), specifically the Silver Meteor (NOT the autotrain). Any experiences? I will be getting my own sleeper compartment. I know I could fly cheaper (SW to Philadelphia or Southeast to ABE), but I'm interested in seeing the scenery along the way and I'm not under any particular time pressures.
What are the chances that the train will show up reasonably on time in Sanford? I am not expecting it to arrive on time in Philadelphia--I assume it will run a couple of hours late (over the years, I spent plenty of time in 30th Street Station watching the arrivals board flip through and seeing the DELAYED signs for those trains).

cigalechanta

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WICT_106

I've done this on numerous occasions, and it isn't as bad as other poster would have you believe. There are several things to remember, among them that south of Washington DC the tracks are all private. Amtrak is a tenant. The tracks aren't public. Sometimes this means that the landlord (ie freight) railroad will give priority to its own trains over Amtrak. Some landlord RRs are notorious for doing this at every opportunity to Amtrak trains. The freight RRs also pay for all of their own maintenance out of their own pockets, and certain RRs have not had the funds available to really do a thorough fix-up job of their own tracks. Just like the highways, this can result in a speed restriction to all trains along a given stretch of track. The freight RRs have also gone through the past decade reducing their overall capacity (ie amount of total track), and this reduction has returned to haunt them big-time during the past few years as they have been dealing with record-setting levels of volume of freight. The frieght RRs have to do all of their own investment and upkeep (as I mentioned before) and some frieght RRs haven't had the money to expand their capacity as much as they need. So, when you ride Amtrak, you can have a lot of fun, and it really is more relaxing than driving, however, you get to see and experience first-hand the results of the freight RRs limited fund resources and limited capacity.

I've enjoyed this route, and several other Amtrak routes. Just remember that Amtrak is subject to forces beyond the control of the company.

WICT_106

I guess what I meant to write was that Amtrak's tardiness is frequently the result of the conditions of the freight RRs, not always the fault of Amtrak.
I've enjoyed the sleeper, especially having a wash facility all to myself, even though it is a bit on the small side. You should be aware that Amtrak isn't the American Orient Express. If you expect that level of service, you should also expect to pay between three to six times what Amtrak charges (just look at AOE's website, and compare it to Amtrak prices, you'll see what I mean). Riding the sleeping car is the Amtrak version of first class on airlines (IMO, Amtrak is more comfortable than first class on most airlines), and is priced at first class rates. Despite these higher rates, Amtrak appears to have no difficulty filling up the sleeping cars.

BTilke

Actually, I did the trip in October. Next time I will definitely fly or drive. If I had to describe the experience in one word it would be: ramshackle.
The train arrived over 3 hours late. The Sanford Amtrak station (the non Autocar station) where I had planned to pick up the train was like something out of a grade B horror movie. Deserted, crumbling, unmanned. I ended up going down to Winter Park to pick up the train (highly recommended if someone does this route--it's a nice little station, in a park, less than a block from some restaurants, shops, etc., makes waiting for late trains much less tedious). My private sleeping compartment was actually not that bad, no better or worse than any of the overnight trains I've taken in Europe. But the food in the restaurant car was just plain terrible. Because of the delay, it was dark before we'd gotten very far along the route, so I didn't see that much.
I agree that the cause of *all* the problems should not be laid at Amtrak's door--but the lousy food service is definitely their problem!

WICT_106

It should be mentioned here that in many cities where Amtrak stops, the city owns the station. Amtrak has no control over how much money each city spends on its' own station. In some cases, for example, Red Wing, MN, the city of Red Wing has the Chamber of Commerce HQ'd there. In other cases, like Sanford, FL, or St. Louis, MO, Amtrak is forced to use whatever the individual city dictates it to use. Sometimes this can leave it with a more unpleasant building. As for the tardiness of your train, I'm sorry to learn of it, but, as I mentioned earlier, Amtrak is at the mercy of the landlord freight RR when it comes to dispatching (ie, traffic control), and issues such as railroad maintenance. If the train was coming from Miami, then the errforts of Tri-Rail may have also played a factor as well. CSX is really trying to abandon the rails between West Palm Beach and Del Ray, which has left Tri-Rail with some serious maintenance issues. This has resulted in several slow sections of track north of Ft. Lauderdale. Again, not Amtrak's fault, however it affects the timeliness of Amtrak trains. In rebuttal, one could also have several slow-speed sections where maintenance is being done on the Interstates, and this can affect your drive as well. As for your exp[erience with the dining, Amtrak isn't alone in bad dining experience. One can have the local restaurant screw up the order, or under- or over-cook the food. As for the rest of the experience being "ramshackle," I'm sorry to read that, but what do you expect when Amtrak is treated like the unwanted step-child of transportation funding?

maryann

We took Amtrak on Oct. 21-22, '04.

DH & I in a roomette (little small ) would have been better for 1, but it was only 1 nite. It bothered him more than me.

Food was very good and included in the room price - not too happy with the servers.

We had our drinks in our room - steward provided the ice. And coffee in the AM.

Train was 1 hour late at the beginning but on time when we reached Richmond, VA.

We did find it difficult to sleep - the beds were fine but train was noisy-and no rythem(sp.) to lull you to sleep. Bring earplugs & sleeping pill. My sister has no trouble sleeping, tho.

I would take Amtrak again but DH wants a bigger room !

rananda

We took Amtrak last winter MN to FL and would not do it again on a long (overnight) trip. We are in MN and might use it to go somewhere close like Chicago, but as the previous poster said, it is very hard to sleep due to the noise and train movements.. We had a sleeping car and I did bring earplugs, but did not sleep well at all.. I did think the service was very good - execept for 1 crabby conducter, but thats not bad when you take into consideration all of the others who were very pleasant.. As far as delays - yes, we were also delayed.. Allthough it was not Amtraks fault it can still throw a wrench in your plans. We were delayed several times due to freight trains blocking the path and bad weather..I did notice that there are "regulars" who take the train all the time as a hobby and all we met were very very nice..

BTilke

WICT 106, the food on European trains is uniformly better than on Amtrak and the servers are better too. Whether or not *all* of the problems are Amtrak's fault doesn't release them from the responsibility of taking care of the things that ARE their fault. Or for advising passengers about the quality of stations (i.e., making sure passengers know when booking ticketsthat certain stations are unmanned--and explaining exactly what "unmanned" means).
As a customer, I am not going to be persuaded to continue patronizing Amtrak simply because *some* of their problems are not their fault. I expect to get quality and service for my dollars and if I don't get it, I will choose another travel option.

Blameshifting and finger pointing are not effective marketing strategies.

WICT_106

You make some good points, BTilke. I'm sorry if some of my posts came across as attacks, as they weren't intended as such.

maryann

I have not flown for a long time (my choice), we like to drive,mostly. In fact, last year, we drove to Vancouver from Fl.

So this time, we thought we would try the train for 1/2 the trip and drive to other locations. Then get on the train again in Albany, NY to Montreal - then cruise back to FLL.

Of all 3 modes of transport.-Amtrak was no better or worse ,at times, as the others ,at times. I guess the key words are- at times !

Just scrolling among the threads tonight- it looks like the airlines are in deep trouble. and there are people with ear problems who can never fly - so I hope the train continues to improve and is always a type of transportation in the US.

BTilke

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