Riding the Rails Part One: Eastbound to Chicago, and beyond

 Our cross-country adventure started in an airport in California. There will be posts about the full trip on other blogs including my education blog found here. We will also record a couple of podcasts about the adventure. Here on Bek’s Bites, though, I plan to specifically review our Amtrak experiences. This is Part One of a two-part series of Amtrak reviews.

All aboard! I excitedly booked our first big train trip with Amtrak. Initially, we planned to travel east to Lincoln, Nebraska from California on the eastbound California Zephyr. With a necessary change in our schedule related to an activity for one of my kids, we adjusted slightly. We have taken the train before for shorter trips. We have traveled on the San Joaquin through California’s Great Central Valley with a connecting bus to Los Angeles Union Station and we have traveled on the Coast Starlight between Orange County and San Diego. The trips are not always perfect, but they have been enjoyable, and for the most part we have not had any particularly major issues.

For this trip, we would board the 6 California Zephyr in Lincoln in the wee hours of the morning and travel in two roomettes, head to Chicago where we would switch trains, and continue on the 364 Blue Water to East Lansing, Michigan. Or would we?

I somewhat kept an eye on how the trains were running the day before we were due to leave. I saw that there were a couple of delays and I knew there would be a chance that we may miss our connecting train. With that in mind, I carefully looked over our options and made a list of alternative trains that would likely work in the event that we missed our connection. This helped me feel a bit more comfortable. Then, the notifications about our train started coming through in the early evening, the night before our planned departure.

Our train was running late. It seemed to start out over two hours delayed and then continued to add minutes from there. Still, the Amtrak App (which is a somewhat helpful tool) continued to show our arrival in Chicago only 25 minutes late. Initially, I continued to hope for the best. Then I saw an email and a missed call from Amtrak, at which point, I knew I should do more than hope for the best. I returned the call and after almost one hour on hold, I spoke with a very nice gentleman who talked to me about the delay. I knew that he really only had as much information as I did (more or less) but I also knew that he would be the person to ask questions such as, “realistically, how likely is it that this train will make up over two hours between now and arrive in Chicago close to on time?” He seemed rather confident in telling me that Amtrak trains make up time “all the time” and it was very possible. Also, since the train was indicating that it would “only” be 25 minutes late arriving in Chicago, scheduling something different than our Blue Water (scheduled to depart 1 hour and 10 minutes after our on-time/scheduled arrival in Chicago) was not an option. I was back to watching things in the app and keeping my fingers crossed.

The 6 California Zephyr initially scheduled to arrive in Lincoln around 3:20 a.m. actually arrived just after 7:00 a.m. and departed from Lincoln just shy of four hours late. Not only had the train not made up any time, but it was now a full four hours late. There was a wonderful conductor who met us at the station in Lincoln. He would board the train when Lincoln passengers boarded and stay on until somewhere in the middle of Iowa. He would ultimately be one of the highlights of our experience. He was honest, but kind and understanding and did his best to help us all navigate the morning.

We boarded the train, received directions on where to place our suitcases from our car's attendant, and were advised to go up for breakfast. One of our roomettes was not yet ready so we dropped our backpacks in the one that was ready and headed to the dining car for breakfast. Being four hours behind schedule was far from ideal, but at least we would have breakfast and then take advantage of having a quiet place to get some rest on the way to Chicago.

Breakfast was delicious. I enjoyed scrambled eggs with bacon and potatoes. My 15-year-old ordered French Toast and my 12-year-old got the Continental breakfast which included oatmeal, bacon, yogurt, and fruit. We three enjoyed our breakfasts very much and were grateful for the friendly and incredible staff in the dining car. We looked forward to returning for lunch.

After breakfast, our second roomette was ready so we adjusted and got settled. Roomettes are the smallest option in the sleeper car, but worth the additional comfort, as well as the inclusion of meals. Traveling in a roomette means sharing restrooms and a shower with others on the same level in the sleeper car. This actually is ok. Well, I would think it could be ok; however, it was a bit tricky for us. You see, when we boarded the train in Nebraska, our sleeper car already had at least half of the restrooms out of order. Before long, there were no working restrooms in our sleeper car. I feel for our car’s attendant who was trying to fix things, but also had other duties to attend to in an effort to meet the needs and such of over 60 passengers.

My 12-year-old and I worked to set up the beds in our roomette so we could comfortably nap. By this time, it was around 9:00 a.m. The top bunk was easier to set up than the bottom bed, but we have a plan for next time (we will set up the bottom bed first). Initially, the top bunk was “a little scary” but eventually we both had at least short naps. Unfortunately, by 10:15, an announcement was being made that it was “time to rise and shine” and that rooms would need to be cleaned at lunchtime. While I am thankful for the privacy the roomette allowed us, setting up the beds for this part of our journey ended up being more trouble than it was worth. We did not nap long nor well. I know there are schedules to keep. I do wonder if the attendants operate by the current time or distance from the final destination. It is a bit curious, and when you’ve started out your trip tired it is also frustrating.

Before we knew it, it was already time for lunch. We headed back to the dining car where again we enjoyed delicious food and wonderful service. The dining car ended up being the highlight of Part One of our rail adventure.

Once we had finished lunch, I went into “what are we going to do” mode. I looked over my list of alternative trains and departure times, but I really was not sure what time we would actually arrive in Chicago and what to do. I consulted the Amtrak app, contacted my family in Michigan, and even started looking at airlines, Greyhound, and rideshare apps. Meanwhile, Amtrak seemed to finally realize that we would not make it to Chicago on time to make our 4:00 p.m. train to Michigan and changed us to something that would mean traveling overnight on a train to Toledo, Ohio, sitting in Toledo for two or three hours in the middle of the night, then boarding a bus to Michigan. No part of this sounded good to me. We started our trip exhausted, were unable to rest on the train despite paying for the roomettes, and I knew this would just not go very well for us. So, again I started looking for alternatives. Nothing looked especially promising, but I was determined to figure out something.

Ultimately, we arrived in Chicago 3 hours and 39 minutes late. Obviously, we had long missed our connecting train and my options were limited (to say the least). After exploring a rideshare option and seeing that go terribly, I booked a room in Chicago for the night, and scheduled us to head to Michigan on the first train out the following morning. I had lost the business class seats I had previous booked, but this train we were on was fantastic!

We made the most of our night in Chicago and then got an early start the next morning. We walked to Union Station and found our way to Gate C and the correct track. We took the Wolverine that departed right on time at 6:45 a.m. As a party of three, we were directed to sit at a table after placing our suitcases on the rack at the front of the car. We appreciated the comfortable ride. The Cafe had a good variety of breakfast options, so we each selected something. The breakfast sandwich is decent and the coffee and hot cocoa are good. I was thankful for this opportunity and very thankful that I decided to find a hotel the night before. Having a comfortable bed to sleep in before another almost four hours of train travel was important and helped us get a better start to the day.

Because I had strategically budgeted for this trip, I was able to make some adjustments and be a little more flexible. I recommend budgeting carefully to everyone for all travel. Specifically, though, I urge everyone to be flexible with time if traveling by Amtrak. If you have a tight schedule, Amtrak probably is not the best travel option. It led to frustration, tears, and a lot of chaos at times for us. Thankfully, we are experienced travelers and can work together through traveling hiccups. Having read that the California Zephyr’s eastbound line runs on time only about 5% of the time, I know now that it is not the method of travel I will use in the future, especially if we have a tighter timeline I am working within.

I chose rail travel because I remember how much my grandfather enjoyed it. My family had previously made countless trips across the country. I love riding the train and this seemed like a great way for my kids to see parts of the country they hadn’t previously visited. And they did see some sights. I’m sorry there were some disappointments and such along the way and I am sorry that traveling by Amtrak is not what it once was. In the meantime, we are remaining hopeful for the westbound trip which will certainly be a different adventure. Be sure to come back for Part Two of this rail travel review.

Part One Tips:

• Rail travel can be a fun adventure, but allow yourself extra time. It is not the way to travel if you have a schedule to keep.
• If you are traveling a long distance, the sleeper car is worth it. Explore the different options based on family size and age of kids. The roomettes are cozy, but definitely can work well and are cost-efficient.
• Remember to tip your servers in the dining car (it is not required, but I know it is appreciated).