Well, 59 years old, been riding trains most of my life, and finally took an Amtrak NEC journey. Quick thoughts. Gate areas at Washington Union Station are totally inadequate. Boarding process can be confusing for those who are not regular customers. Much of the route between DC and Philadelphia is quite scenic while large portions show the US at its third-world best. We should be ashamed. Ride quality was worse than I anticipated. Crews were competent and professional. Attention to detail is required - the coach windows northbound were filthy. Loved the speed. However, if this is the best we've got, we're a poor country cousin to much of the world.
Spot on
+1 Exactly!
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
Agreed. I give Amtrak credit for doing the best it can, given the constraints. But I can't help but think that, 45 years ago, if we had realized this was all we were going to get, we'd have found a way to keep the freight railroads in the passenger business. Many of those railroads deeply loved that business, considered it one with their corporate identity, and surrendered it only with profound regret.
Fred: Maybe. But that love and reverence for the passenger business was hardly universal in 1970. The Southern management, ICG and Sante Fe and BN, probably did, but not very many others.
schlimm Fred: Maybe. But that love and reverence for the passenger business was hardly universal in 1970. The Southern management, ICG and Sante Fe and BN, probably did, but not very many others.
PC most definitely did not! About half of Amtrak was formed from PC routes and equipment.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
That may have well been true for those carriers, but notice that all of them, except for Southern, joined Amtrak prior to May 1, 1971. Also remember that W. Graham Claytor, while he was VP-Law at Southern, conducted a pretty thorough search-and-destroy operation on much of Southern's passenger service.
+1 Very true. And those who opted out of Amtrak initially did so for financial reasons, not nostalgia. It is hard to imagine passenger rail continuing more than a few years without Amtrak's formation.
Certainly wouldn't put the IC in that group (the G came several years later). They kept the trains clean and well maintained, with some PR efforts (Chicago - Carbondale mini corridor). But the trains were always late and the crews reached new levels of rudeness and laziness.
Buslist schlimm Fred: Maybe. But that love and reverence for the passenger business was hardly universal in 1970. The Southern management, ICG and Sante Fe and BN, probably did, but not very many others. Certainly wouldn't put the IC in that group (the G came several years later). They kept the trains clean and well maintained, with some PR efforts (Chicago - Carbondale mini corridor). But the trains were always late and the crews reached new levels of rudeness and laziness.
True. I rode the IC a fair amount 1964 onward. It was uneven service even in the mid-60s. But after Amtrak, it got much worse. I recall riding Chicago to Champaign around 1977 on the evening train. There weren't many passengers, but since we left after work and hadn't eaten, we thought we could get something in the snack car. We ordered some food from the surly attendant. Since there was no one else there, we figured we could sit in the small seating area. Wrong! When our order came, we were asked to return to our coach because that area was reserved only for people waiting for their orders, which was sensible. I said, sure, but could we sit there until other passengers came. No! Violation of the rules.
I grew up around the NEC I shot many a Mp-54 GG1 E-44 E-33 and Silverliners and Frankford Junction was my old stomping grounds back in the day I only shot one new Haven EP-5 AKa E-40 in Morrisville I wish some of those had ended up in museums but were scrapped in 1978 after my son was born I miss a lot of the old stuff BTW Get your shots of AEM-7s while you can
Fred M Pohl My wife Carolyn and my Son Fred M Pohl JrPhoto by Robert M Allen
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Toronto Fan Well, 59 years old, been riding trains most of my life, and finally took an Amtrak NEC journey. Quick thoughts. Gate areas at Washington Union Station are totally inadequate. Boarding process can be confusing for those who are not regular customers. Much of the route between DC and Philadelphia is quite scenic while large portions show the US at its third-world best. We should be ashamed. Ride quality was worse than I anticipated. Crews were competent and professional. Attention to detail is required - the coach windows northbound were filthy. Loved the speed. However, if this is the best we've got, we're a poor country cousin to much of the world.
Nixon was tired of all of the litigation, protests and bad publicity the administration was getting (rightly or wrongly) from the one at a time train offs. Amtrak was Nixon's attempt to bring all of the remaining long distance passenger trains under one umbrella. He stated that after three years he could eliminate all of the trains at once by showing that rail travel could not make a profit. Of course when the three years were up Nixon was knee deep in other problems and Amtrak got ignored.
My best NEC memory was standing on the platform waiting for an NYP bound train in New Brunswick, N.J. when a southbound PC train went past on the inner tracks at a very high rate of speed pulled by two black GG-1s. Man, that was a sight I will never forget! In the late afternoon, it was and there were around 18 cars in that train so it may have been the Silver Meteor. That thing flew by and the ozone given off made my Navy haircut stand on end! Regardless of the situation with Amtrak and the Penn-Central at the time, I remain impressed and that's a fact! I later took the SM to Florida many times, but no GG-1, sadly.
DS4-4-1000 Nixon was tired of all of the litigation, protests and bad publicity the administration was getting (rightly or wrongly) from the one at a time train offs.
Nixon was tired of all of the litigation, protests and bad publicity the administration was getting (rightly or wrongly) from the one at a time train offs.
MARTY CALON Toronto Fan Well, 59 years old, been riding trains most of my life, and finally took an Amtrak NEC journey. Quick thoughts. Gate areas at Washington Union Station are totally inadequate. Boarding process can be confusing for those who are not regular customers. Much of the route between DC and Philadelphia is quite scenic while large portions show the US at its third-world best. We should be ashamed. Ride quality was worse than I anticipated. Crews were competent and professional. Attention to detail is required - the coach windows northbound were filthy. Loved the speed. However, if this is the best we've got, we're a poor country cousin to much of the world. I agree, accurate observations. Union Station in Washington was reconfigured at a time when rail travel was declining. Union Station is now so crowded that some trains (at least MARC trains) have to double-up on the platforms, meaning very long walks just to get to the train. MARC resorted to squeezing a few more tracks in Ivy City yard for train parking, and also parks trains in Baltimore and at Martin Airport. Even the Red Line Metro station at Union Station is constricted and overcrowded for travellers at its in-station access point.
Since I am usually traveling first class when I am in Washington, I have seldom had any problem there. Two years, ago, I did see a problem. When detraining on a southbound NEC train, I found the escalator running down--and the last Amtrak employee who came down just as the train came in did not set the escalator to go up. I had a good idea as to what to do, but felt that I should not do it. I started towards the stair--and went back to the escalator because I had no desire to go up with my suitcase. By the time I returned, someone had tumbled to the fact that passengers preferred using the escalator to go up and had changed its direction.
Johnny
We have used the NEC from Washington to Trenton a lot. As a senior, at least we get preferential boarding, instead of the festival- cattle-call rush. The waiting area gets full, and for the Capitol Limited it gets crowded. But my hat is off to the red caps, those guys know their stuff. One drove us to the NEC train in his golf cart, and stopped by a particular car, and said, "This car stops right next to the elevator in Trenton." And sure enough, in Trenton we walked off the car looking right at the elevator. And when transferring from NEC to Calitol and vice versa, they left us in that extra waiting room between the main waiting room and the gate. Quiet and not crowded, and busy as they were, they knew exactly when our train boarded and came back to retrieve us promptly. Worth a five dollar bill to me.
The wife asked how fast we were going, and I told her to look at the 70 mph interstate parallel the track, and we were leaving those cars in the dust. Track was smooth enough for me, even at 110+.
I don't pay for first class on NEC, but I do appreciate the "quiet car". NO cell phone conversations.
And when I use the sleepers on the Capitol, I appreciate the use of the Amtrak lounge in Washington, Free snacks and drinks, and quiet comfort while i wait.
And if you have a little free time in the Union Station, you can walk out the front door, and there right in front of you is the US Capitol.
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