Amtrak luxury train
 

I wondered if anyone had been on Amtrak's new luxury trains. We were thinking of Chicago/LA trip this next summer.

I pretty much keep up with Amtrak and I'm not aware of any "new" luxury trains. Their Superliners and Viewliners have been running for years. Could you provide more details?

Maybe you meant the most expensive accomodations? Like a shower not shared, but in your compartment for your use only?

I think it is called "GrandLuxe" and they use their own rail cars attached to the Amtrak train. There is no connection en route from the extra cars to the Amtrak cars or vice versa. Last I saw there was uncertanity about the continuation of the service.

I'm sorry, but I'm pretty sure that "Amtrak luxury" is listed as THE definition of oxymoron.

This is former Orient Express, I found it, thank you BoomBoom.

www.GrandLuxeRail.com

I hope they don't just attach a couple of cars to Amtrak, as I'd hate to be slow and late paying as much as they ask!

The OP wants Chicago-LA. It doe not seem like a possibility with the Lux train. Kansas City-Santa Barbara is the closest thing.

Patrick, compared to air travel these days, travel by rail isn't bad at all. No hour-long check-ins, no body cavity checks, you can eat an actual dinner, served at an actual dinner table with actual metal utensils, and you arrive at your destination relaxed instead of completely stressed out (and possibly even sick from recirculated cabin air).

Hmmm...that last description sounds a lot more like "The Canadian" than anything AMTRAK is offering these days.

We take the Coast Starlight all the time here in Calif. It's never been a bad experience.

fdecarlo I'm with you - although my experience is limited to the Amtrak Acela from Boston to New York, Ill take it over air travel to there anytime - the first class car, with meals, drinks, as you said - actual utensils - great service, clean huge restrooms compared to the turn around size ones in an airplane - reclining comfortable seats with footrests - I actually look forward to having to travel between the two cities!

My son is in the midst of planning a college graduation trip with friends via Amtrak along the northern route of the US and then returning from British Columbia to the east coast thru Canada -
and it's looking like a great trip -

I'm thrilled to see the kids looking at train travel again!

"you can eat an actual dinner, served at an actual dinner table with actual metal utensils, and you arrive at your destination relaxed instead of completely stressed out"

sorry DeCarlo, you must've never taken Zephyr (Chicago-Emeryville).

Dinner: yes, good food till you run out of it! The choice was getting more limited from day 2.

Metal utensils, yes, and hold your glass on that shaky road in Sierra Nevada! Oh, and we were so lucky the rail broken under our train did not send us rolling down! I am serious!

Arrive at your destination? Yes, at 1 am instead of 6 pm, Amtrak is usually behind the schedule, try to find a taxi in some strange place, they don't wait for you at the closed for the night station in San Francisco.

I've taken a trip on the Capitol Limited (Cleveland to Washington DC) back in 1998, and unless they've changed, we got on the train at 2 A.M. went to our 'room' (bunk beds and a sink). My Dad had a 'roomette' only a chair that folded into a bed and was the size of a large closet. No showers, had to take one the next afternoon when we checked into the hotel. The food was good. I just remember being tired the next day as for lack of sleep not being used to trains. And my Dad payed big bucks at that time.

Wow Fainaagain what an experience !
Sounds like they need to work on their consistency -
the Bos-NYC trips I make frequently and have never been delayed more than ten minutes in over four years - hopefully they will improve across the board in those places that are lacking.

Amtrak on the NE corridor between Boston and DC is nothing like the rest of the country. There is frequent serivce - usually not ore than 15 or so minutes late - with prepackaged food aboard.

Not luxury but a reasonable choice given all of the time/hassle of airport security.

But - in the rest of the country the tracks are owned by freight companies and freight trains take priority - meaning Amtrak often runs many hours late. Also - food is edible at best (nothing like in european trains).

For use only by those who cannot get on a plane.

And it frequently costs more than flying to boot.

Well I agree with Faina. I was on the train from Portland to CA and they annnounced the dining room was going to open but there wouldn't be enough food to feed everyone. The person I was with was a diabetic. I pleaded and begged and we did get in for the first sitting. A family member took the train from N CA to S CA and it was something like 12 hours late. The train we took from our local station to Reno one winter was alright but the train from Reno (coming from Chicago I believe) was something like 3 hours late and I discovered the restrooms were absolute pigpens. I mean totally disgusting. Shudder! The Amtrak employees sat around the entire trip talking and relaxing. I don't know who was suppose to clean up the restrooms but evidently that wasn't part of their job description? I will never again use Amtrak. And I love trains. You in the NE are fortunate.

I will agree the regular food on Amtrak even on the Northeast corridor is horrid - I would pack my own -
but when you are in the first class car, the food is great, nice wine and drink choices, nice meal choices with real silverware, glasses, great service, truffles, desserts, etc.

it is comparable to flying price wise, but there is no hassle - and since i do it frequently enough, i earn enough points for plenty of good upgrade booklets -

I am sorrry to hear it is not as nice elsewhere

Yes, that's it - the Grande Lux. Any experience with it - if it's running? We took the auto train from FL to DC and back a couple years ago and thoroughly enjoyed the trip. We had connecting roomettes with tiny but functional bathrooms, good food, and no delays. Also, we didn't have any problems with getting from RI to New York to pick up our older kids at the airport. However, I have had bad experiences with non-auto train travel between SC and FL.

I've never been on GrandLuxe but I get their mailings frequently. I do not believe they hook on to AMTRAK trains. Since they run longer journeys with longer stops, they have their own dedicated locomotives that are rented from and operated by AMTRAK personnel but not on AMTRAK scheduled trains.

There are some private rail car owners that run excursions on the back of scheduled AMTRAK trains. I have ridden some of them between LA and Emeryville and between Emeryville and Reno. They are usually dome cars from the 50's cross-country trains or executive cars that can handle only a limited number of passengers. These, however, are usually day trips, not the week or longer excursions that GrandLuxe runs.

FainaAgain, I'm not claiming Amtrak doesn't have problems, or is the epitome of luxury travel. I'm simply relaying my own experience. My family had gone about 15 years traveling exclusively by car and airplane up and down the state, and our first time back on a train was nothing short of a revelation, and fantastic -- compared to what air travel has become in this country. That's all.

fdcarlo, that's good to hear. We had considered the Coast Starlight a few times, including from SF or from Seattle to Klamath Falls (for Ashland). But I got so many negatives about possibly arriving in the middle of the night, hours late with no taxis, and about the trains being so delayed, dirty, and mismanaged, that we opted not to do that. I always want to pretend that US train travel can be like traveling by train in Europe, but so far it doesn't seem so.

bellhouse - OK now that I know what you're talking about. GrandLuxe isn't connected with Amtrak, literally or figuratively - except they sometimes contract to use their locomotives. But it's a separate train with their own equipment and schedules. They use to be called the American Orient Express.

We haven't taken the GranLuxe but did take the AOE a few years ago. Had a great experience (we went from Chicago to DC). Extremely nice accommodations, great food and service. Really first class. Wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. The only downside is that, like Amtrak, they have to use rail lines owned by freight companies - and you're at their mercy. But considering the luxurious surroundings, the occasional delays are easy to handle.

Emucom, there is a shower in the rommette car, downstairs, like a toilet, you go in, lock the door and take the shower.

Escargot, no, I liked the Amtrak food... when it was available! And we had plenty of drinks, water and juices were just out there, go and take as much as you want in the sleeper car!

I think we're talking about something different here. Bellhouse, the Orient Express is a tourist train, at least this is what I understood from watching the Travel Channel. Now they've changed the name... but maybe the same tours?

You probably want to re-post asking for Orient Express trains. It looks, they move at night, but at daytime they take everybody on tours in tour buses.

It was my impression, it's not a train per se, it's not to take you from point A to point Z, but to make it an organized tour in between. So, the question is, do you like organized tours? If yes, you'll like the train.

dfr4848 - thanks. Sounds like, apart from possible/probable delays, we would like it. Since we're going west to visit family and wouldn't have a tight schedule I don't think the delays would be much of a problem - just more time to relax on the train! FainaAgain - as I understand it, there are two types of trips. One is the guided tour type thing that you mentioned, and the other (if it is still running!) is just a straight Chicago to either LA or ? (another California area) trip. It's 2 nights and 3 days (hopefully!) one way.

bellhouse - you're correct that there are 2 types of trips. Some, like the National Parks tour, are more like guided tours. Others are more like going from point A to point B. They were running trips from Chicago to San Francisco (3 days/2 nights one way) this past Nov, but I don't see a similar trip on their schedule for next summer. I'd just keep checking with them and see if anything changes.

I took the Grandluxe in 2007. Unfortunately the train was in very poor condition and from all reports I have heard, it still is. Broken air conditioning, broken toilets and confused, poorly trained staff made for a very difficult trip. I have since learned that the train was in poor condition when Grandluxe purchased it from American Orient Express. A recent review in a Chicago newspaper tried to put a pretty face on it, but it seems that the facilities are still breaking down which makes for unhappy passengers. The reporter tried to be nice, but was honest about its shortcomings. If the trip were not so expensive, it may be a fun trip, but when you pay for luxury and do not receive it - it is just a rip-off,

Grand-Lux used to be the American European Express between Chicago and Wash.D.C. and/or/NYC in the 1990s. It was on the back of Amtrak trains and then went to it's own power. Unfortunately it was too expensive for the overnight market from Chi to the East coast and went under. It's first resurrection was as The American Orient Express and that too failed. The cars sat around for a while and then were re-resurrected at the Grand-Luxe. It used to be a wonderful experience and I would like to try it again but if I'm going to spend that much $ for a train trip I want to go to Mexico's Copper Canyon or some route that Amtrak doesn't serve. If you're going Chi-LA take a bedroom (not roomette) accommodation on Amtrak's Southwest Chief.

Thanks. We ended up not having enough time to do the train thing, so I didn't even look into it anymore - we just flew out. I thought about how nice a train would be as I sat wedged into the airline seat - but looks like we made the right choice. Still, once DH retires....I've heard good things about the Canadian railroad, Europe's are great, and we were perfectly happy on Amtrak's autotrain and NY-RI trains in past years.

I just read in the Wall Street Journal that GrandLuxe has shut down unexpectedly.

WOW! I hope nobody lost money on advance reservations!

According to one report, the company issued a statement saying it didn't know if customers would get their money back. Hopefully people put deposits etc on credit cards.

Very interesting discussion. I was just looking at Amtrak to see if my parents (who no longer fly) could join me on a trip to NC.

LA to Charlotte would take 4 DAYS, IF they are on time. Even in a "bedroom" I can't imagine them tolerating this or getting any sleep. And the price is high!

The last time I took a long train trip was from SLC to Denver (many years ago). It was supposed to be a 9 hour trip, but became 16 hours.

It was supposed to be scenic, but due to the time of year was not. Had to look at all the "track kill" along the way.

THEN the woman carrying a baby with a fully loaded diaper got on....I thought she would take care of it once settled and underway. No. I was in the back of the car and she was in the front! Phewww! 1.5 hours later I found a conductor and told him something had to be done about the dirty diaper! He asked what car we were in and I answered that he would KNOW when he got there. I returned to my seat and in a few minutes he entered the car and zero'd in on the woman immediately. The look on his face was priceless. Horrified doesn't describe it.

By the time we got to Colorado Springs it was dark and you couldn't see out the windows because of interior lighting, so much for the "scenic" part.

Haven't been on a US train since.

Dayle, I hope you will not be checking the Greyhound website, it would be even worse then Amtrak.

My son did Los Angeles - Colorado, he said the views were priceless. But at his age everything is just an adventure :)

I was interested in this posts and all the comments, but ended up mildly horrified!

We are leaving in 3 weeks on Amtrak going from Ft Worth to Chicago - (1 night with sleeper) and after 6 nigtsin Chi going to DC (1 night in sleeper) to stay 4 nights and then to New Orleans (1 night in sleeper) for 4 nights. This was going to be our wonderful relaxing fall getaway!

I'll post to this thread and let you know our experience with the trains/sleepers/and food when we get back.

Keeping my fingers crossed!
Carol / Brahmama

Carol - our experiences on Amtrak have been pretty good, including the routes you're taking - Nice accommodations (bedrooms), good service, and meals were surprisingly good. You just can NOT expect much on-time performance (most of which is not Amtrak's fault).

Hope your trip is good and yes please post report.

Carol, Amtrak is running as usual. It's only the luxury thing went belly up. The most you'll face will be a light delay. The eastern part of Amtrak is usually more dependable.

brahmama - sounds like a great trip - I'm envious. I think traveling by train is so much fun - if you have the time it's way better than being stuffed in an airplane!

Brahmama,

Yes, I hope you have a nice trip and everything goes well!

Definitely give us a trip report when you return. Train travel as an alternative is something lots of people are probably wondering about.

Buon viaggio!