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<P>[quote user="WIAR"] <P>[quote user="OldBNfan"] <P>What Wolverine game are you going to? My family and I are going on Feb 13 to see them play the University of Nebraska - Omaha. This weekend they swept Miami - playing very well right now...</P> <P>[/quote]</P> <P>It's Bernadine from Amtrak, calling to inform me that my reservation... my roommette reservation mind you... on the <EM>Empire Builder</EM> has been downgraded to a reserved seat on a bus departing St. Paul depot tomorrow at 7:50 AM. Supposedly, it'd be "on-time service", while making <STRONG><U>all</U></STRONG> the stops (Red Wing - Winona - La Crosse - Tomah - Wis. Dells - Portage - Columbus - Milwaukee - Glenview - Chicago). Oh goody. Packed like sardines into a Greyhound amongst the rest of the Great Unwashed for over 7 hrs? On the train I can stand up, walk around, have lunch and dinner (included in my sleeping car reservation), visit the snack bar, buy a souvenier, and RIDE IN A TRAIN - not a rolling asylum that is Greyhound.</P> <P>No. I refused. [/quote]</P> <P mce_keep="true">Usually, when Amtrak cancels a train and provides alternate transport, they charter a bus to get the passengers to their destination as opposed to putting them on Greyhound. This is the practice when the Texas Eagle is terminated in Fort Worth because of extreme late running, which happened 19 times during 2008.</P> <P>Two years ago I took the Eagle to Chicago and the Empire Builder to Portland. Because of an ice storm in Arkansas and Missouri, the train was very late getting into St. Louis. Amtrak cancelled the run beyond St. Louis and put the passengers on a chartered bus to Chicago. It turned out to be a delightful ride. I sat next to a man who had gone to my university. Or was it the other way around? In any case we had a great time, and we chatted up a storm all the way to Chicago. The peasants (people), who are the most frequently found class of people in the country's military, are not as bad as the sleeping car patricians like to make out. Yes, I usually travel sleeper class.</P> <P>Amtrak refunded the difference between the first class and the coach class fare between St. Louis and Chicago. It also threw in a $200 credit for future use. Not bad!</P>
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