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Amtrak stats Mar 2010 and 1st half FY 2010

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I have ridden the NM RailRunner on two prior occasions, although not on this trip.  It is a first class commuter operation.  Last year, when I was in Albuquerque for a concert, I took the train from Albuquerque to Santa Fe and from Albuquerque to Belen.  The trains were clean, comfortable, and on time.  Equally important, the on-board personnel were pleasant and helpful.  And the information required to ride the trains is readily available and easy to follow. The SWL and CZ had three sleepers.  But upon reflection a little clarification is in order.  It is more accurate to say that they had 2.5 sleepers.  The first sleeper behind the baggage car, which had been designated as a transition sleeper, was labeled like the other sleepers, i.e. Sleeping Car.  Approximately half of the rooms in the first sleeper are reserved for on-board crew members, whilst the other half are available for paying passengers.  Approximately 70 per cent of the sleeping car spaces, including those available to the public in the first sleeper, were occupied for some portion of the trip from Albuquerque to Los Angeles and San Francisco to Denver.  As I do on every trip I walked through the coaches.  The occupancy rate appeared to be between 45 and 60 per cent, depending on the leg of the trip.  On the CZ out of Emeryville the last coach was reserved for Reno passengers.  East of Reno it was blocked off and only the first two coaches behind the lounge car were occupied.  Ironically, although I always book a roomette on an overnight train, I spend a portion of each trip sitting in a coach seat.  It provides a better view of both sides of the right of way.  Moreover, the coach seats are more comfortable than the roomettes.  If it were not for the privacy issue, I would book a coach class seat instead of a roomette. Having traveled in Superliner roomettes since 1976, I have finally come to the conclusion that they are a poor design.  The roomettes in the old 10 and 6 sleepers were much better.  If one has to get up in the middle of the night in a Superliner roomette to use the toilet, which most of us older folks find ourselves needing to do, becoming presentable enough to walk to the potty room is a challenge.  Assuming that Amtrak will remain in the long distance train business, which it would be difficult to exit because of the politics, I would like to see it develop a long distance business class car in place of the traditional sleeper.  As I have expressed to President Boardman, it could be equipped like the business class section of Qantas' 747-400s and Airbus 380s (I am familiar with Qantas, but it is not the only airline with modern business class seating).  They have seats that can lie nearly flat, and they make for a good overnight option.  They offer passengers some privacy.  Since most of Amtrak's long distance passengers are only on the train for one night, I suspect that this type of accommodation would be satisfactory.  Moreover, the car would be much simpler than the traditional sleeping car and, therefore, more economical to build and maintain.  For example, a Superliner sleeping car has 10 toilets and sinks, plus a shower, that cost a pretty penny to install and maintain.  A business class car could probably get by with four toilets for public use, as well as one special toilet for a handicapped passenger, and a shower.         No coaches were added to the CZ in Denver.  However, another sleeper was added to the SWL in Albuquerque.  At Flagstaff a tour group from England boarded the car.  It appeared that they had enough people to fill it.  In fact, several of their members took the empty spaces in my car.  As I noted on two previous trips on the CZ, Amtrak keeps a spare locomotive in Denver.  I presume that it is positioned there as a relief engine in case one of the assigned engines fails.  Or it may be there to assist a larger than normal train over the mountains west of Denver. Speaking of the CZ and the mountains, the ride through Gore Canyon, Glenwood Canyon, and Ruby Canyon, amongst others, is the most spectacular scenery that I have seen from a train.  As I commented to a fellow passenger, the Royal Gorge train and the Durango to Silverton train have nothing on the CZ when it comes to scenery. The San Joaquin is the best rail option from LA to the Bay Area.  It is considerably quicker than the Coast Starlight.  The bus from LA to Bakersfield is nearly as comfortable as the train.  It runs quickly from LAUT to Glendale, where it may pick-up a few passengers, although it never has on the three times that I have taken it, and then runs over the mountains to Bakersfield.  It has always arrived on time when I have been aboard.  The mountains between LA and Bakersfield are nothing to sneeze at. The San Joaquin's have four cars, i.e. three coaches and a café car.  My car was clean and comfortable.  The train departed on time and arrived in Emeryville on time.  The crew was friendly, courteous, and helpful.  And the sandwich I bought in the café car was good.  Having experienced the Coast Starlight's predecessor many years ago, I don't have a strong need to see the sights from it.  I would rather arrive at Fisherman's Warf in San Francisco at approximately 8:00 p.m. as opposed to nearly 10:30 p.m. on the Coast Starlight connecting bus, assuming the Coast Starlight is on time into Oakland, which is not always the case. All the trains were on time.  Equally important, they were comfortable and remain a great way to see the country, even if they don't make any economical sense.  The food on the SWL and CZ was OK but just OK.  I had the pasta every night and the Continental Breakfast every morning.  I had the Veggie Burger for lunch.  The pasta was good, but the green beans that came with it were rubbery, probably because they are heated in a microwave on the same plate as the pasta. Because of this arrangement, one of the items is going to be overcooked or undercooked.  The Veggie Burger was good, but the roll that it was served on was stale.  The breakfast was good - it's hard to screw up cold cereal, yogurt, and milk.  The service in the dinning cars was a mixed bag.  On the SWL the dinning car crew and lounge car attendant were friendly, attentive, and efficient.  On the CZ it was a different story.  One of the wait persons in the dinner was so unfriendly that had she worked for a land bound restaurant, they would have fired her in the minute.  And the lounge car attendant, while friendly, appeared to a few bricks short of the full load.   Amtrak's on-board crews, at least on the long distance trains, are a mixed bag.  Some of them are good enough to warrant a letter of commendation to the President of Amtrak.  But others are so bad that they would never be able to hold a job in a truly competitive business.  Amtrak should consider contracting its food service to a fast food organization, i.e. McDonalds, KFC, Chiles, etc.  I'll bet that they would get a better outcome, although it may cost the passengers a bit more. I experienced two unpleasant instances on this trip.  On the SWL one of the passengers, who was drunk as a skunk, became very abusive in the lounge car.  He was shouting at the other passengers and was a real threat.  The conductors called in the local sheriff's posse, or so it seemed; they boarded the train at Williams Junction and removed him from the train.  On the San Joaquin three teens were playing a radio very loud.  The conductor asked them nicely to use their ear phones.  Apparently they thought that he was kidding, and they ignored him, although they would turn down the radio when they saw a crew member approaching them.  After several unpleasant exchanges between the teens and the crew, they were bounced from the train in Fresno.  The crew got a round of applause from the passengers.
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