Last week I took the Texas Eagle from Taylor, TX, which is the first stop north of Austin, to San Antonio. The distance is 117 miles. The train was on time in both directions. We went into San Antonio approximately 35 minutes early.
The trip included a nice surprise. The dinner is open beyond Austin. Heretofore, the dinning car crew got off in Austin, which meant that a sit down meal was not possible from Taylor south. The food in the dining car, together with the wine, was good, reasonably priced, and served by a pleasant waitress.
My coach seat was comfortable. As I have stated in previous posts, I find the seats on the Superliner coaches to be more comfortable than the roomettes. The lounge car was clean, which has not always been the case, given that the train comes all the way from Chicago.
In both directions the train had a transition sleeper, dinning car, lounge car, three coaches, and a sleeper in this order. Last fall, when I took the Eagle to Dallas, both sleeping cars were at the front of the train. Now, it appears that the transition sleeper is being carried at the front of the train and the regular sleeper is on the back. I suspect Amtrak made this change to facilitate the transfer of the sleeper to the Sunset Limited on the days that it goes through to LAX.
The largest crowd that I have ever seen boarded the train at San Antonio for the northbound trip. The station at San Antonio is relatively small. The crowd could not be accommodated in the station. Accordingly, people were required to line-up along the side of the station, with many of them out in the parking lot, waiting to board the train for a 7:00 a.m. departure from San Antonio. Instead of letting the people on the train at 6:30 a.m., when most of the crew was present, the conductor did not permit boarding until 6:50 a.m. I could not see any reason for waiting, other than Amtrak still, in many respects, does not understand customer service. Having people stand in the parking lot for 20 to 25 minutes when it appears they could have been boarded didn't appear to make much sense.
Here is a question for the techies. The train runs west from Taylor to Round Rock where it turns south toward Austin. After making the turn, which is a wide sweeping turn, the train slows to cross the Austin and Western Railroad. I am not sure how much it slows down, but it is noticeable. What would likely happen if the train did not slow down from 79 mph and just roared through the crossover with the Austin and Western?
Yes, the sleeper on the rear is a recent change (within a month) and the full diner crew to SAS has been going on for a year or so. With the combined Sunset/Eagle project on the back burner, Amtrak felt that these were interim changes that would make the Texas Eagle experience better, and I tend to agree. I have yet to witness the switching move of the 421/422 cars in SAS, but my understanding is that having that coach and sleeper on the rear made the shuffle significantly easier for the crews.
Not sure why the conductor did not permit boarding until 6:50, unless the cleaning crew was putting the finishing touches on the train to get it turned--if 22 was late the night before, it would mean a shorter time to turn. Or, it could just be a quirk of that particular conductor.
Not sure about the Austin crossover.
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