It’s about 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday, May 30, 2007, and
I’ve just arrived at the Amtrak station in Atlanta, Georgia, where I
will be boarding Train #20, the Crescent, which
I will be taking back to Newark, New Jersey.
The purpose of my trip to Atlanta was to attend a
committee meeting of the Boy Scouts of America, which was held this
morning from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Ordinarily, when I have a meeting
relatively early in the morning, I like to arrive the night
before. However, in this case, I had a meeting of the Trail
Conference Board of Directors in Mahwah, New Jersey on Tuesday
night. Since I’m the Secretary, it was important that I attend
that meeting, and since the meeting does not end until 9:00 p.m., it
was impossible for me to fly down to Atlanta the night before. So
my only alternative was to take a 6:00 a.m. flight on Wednesday
morning. About a month ago, I checked on the Internet and booked
a flight on AirTran Airlines, departing Newark Airport at 6:00 a.m. and
arriving in Atlanta about 8:15 a.m. Of course, I had more time on
the way back, so I booked my return trip on Amtrak’s Crescent.
My Trail Conference meeting was not over until 9:15
p.m. on Tuesday night, and I remained in the office until about
midnight to pack up a large $5,000 order from a major customer.
When I got home, I spent some time cleaning out my backpack and getting
ready for the trip, and I barely got any sleep the whole night.
About 3:45 a.m., I decided to leave for
Newark. I would be departing from Newark Airport and coming back
to Newark Penn Station, and I decided that it made the most sense for
me to leave my car in downtown Newark and take the train from there to
the airport. That way, when I returned tomorrow, my car would be
right there.
Given the light traffic at this very early hour of
the morning, it took me only 20 minutes to get to Newark. The
first southbound NJ Transit train to Newark Airport, which I hoped to
make, does not leave until 4:40 a.m., so I had some extra time on my
hands. I thought about parking on the street instead of in a
parking lot, and I drove around to assess the options. East of
Penn Station, the area looked fairly respectable, and there were a few
unoccupied spots. The problem was that there were
alternate-side-of-the-street parking restrictions in effect on
Wednesdays and Thursdays, which meant that I could not leave my car
there. I checked the area west of the station, and there was
ample parking available to the south, where the
alternate-side-of-the-street parking restrictions were in effect on
Mondays and Tuesdays. But that area looked rather shabby, and I
didn’t think that I should park my car there overnight.
So I finally decided to park in the 24-hour lot just
east of Penn Station. I got there about 4:25 a.m., drove into the
lot, informed the attendant that I would be there overnight, and walked
across the street into Penn Station, where the departures monitor
indicated that my train would leave from Track 4. I walked
upstairs to the platform and purchased a ticket to Newark Airport for
$7.50 (representing a $2.00 NJ Transit ticket and a $5.50 fee for using
the AirTrain monorail to connect to the airport from the Newark Airport
rail station).
My Train #3809 arrived three minutes early and
departed on time at 4:40 a.m. It consisted of eight Arrow III MU
cars, but only two cars (the third and fourth cars) were open.
Most seats were occupied by one passenger, but I had no problem finding
an unoccupied seat group. As might be expected at this early
hour, most passengers were sleeping.
The conductor never bothered coming through to
collect tickets before we arrived at the Newark Airport station at 4:45
a.m., on time. Along with about a dozen other passengers, I
detrained and walked upstairs to the fare gates, where I inserted my
ticket. I was a little surprised to see that my ticket was
captured by the machine; the only other NJ Transit ticket machines that
I know of (the ones at Secaucus Junction) don’t work this way.
They always give you back the ticket, even if you would no longer need
it for another train ride (as in the case of a ticket reading NYP to
SEC).
I continued over to the monorail boarding area,
where a train arrived at 4:52 a.m., after a wait of about five
minutes. The train makes three intermediate stops on the way to
Terminal A, from where my AirTrain flight would depart, and the ride
took 11 minutes. There was a slight delay going through security,
but I arrived at the gate from which my flight would depart at 5:20
a.m., in plenty of time for my 6:00 a.m. flight.
Boarding began about 5:30 a.m., and I boarded the
plane at 5:40 a.m. I was seated in an aisle seat of a three-seat
group, with the middle seat vacant – perhaps the most comfortable
configuration possible on a plane. We pulled out of the gate at
5:57 a.m., three minutes early, took off at 6:09 a.m., landed at 7:51
a.m., and arrived at the gate in Atlanta at 7:56 a.m., 20 minutes
early. I walked to the middle of the terminal and went down to
the lower level, where an airport monorail took us over to the main
terminal.
My meeting would be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel
on Peachtree Street in downtown Atlanta, and last night, I called up
the hotel to find out how I could get there from the airport. I
was informed that there were three ways to go – a taxi would cost $33
and a shuttle was available for $16, but the third option was to take
the local heavy rail transit system, MARTA, at a cost of $1.75. I
was told that MARTA goes to the Peachtree Center station, which is
connected by a direct underground passage to the hotel. Well, I
imagine that you can guess which method of transportation I chose!
Signs pointed the way to the MARTA station, and when
I got there, I found that you had to purchase a ticket from a
machine. I found the directions a little confusing, so an
attendant came over to assist me. MARTA recently implemented a
new fare collection system, called “Breeze,” which requires you only to
touch a sensor with your farecard for the turnstiles to open.
There is a 50-cent surcharge for the purchase of a farecard (which is
refillable), so the trip actually cost me $2.25, but that was still far
less than any alternative means of transportation.
My train departed at 8:20 a.m. and arrived at the
Peachtree Center station at 8:40 a.m. The maze of underground
passages and retail outlets in the mall surrounding the station was
rather confusing, and the maps provided did not indicate where you
were, but I finally found the entrance to the hotel, and by 8:50 a.m. I
was at our meeting room. The flight had worked out perfectly, and
I was at the meeting 40 minutes early.
(Parenthetically, another committee member who also
took a 6:00 a.m. flight from Newark Airport this morning did not fare
as well. He opted to fly on Delta, rather than AirTran, and his
flight was delayed by mechanical difficulties. As a result, he
did not arrive at the meeting until 11:15 a.m., having missed most of
the meeting!)
I had wanted to send an e-mail message but
discovered that the hotel did not have an open access wireless Internet
network. So when the meeting was over, about 11:30 a.m., I went
out to the adjacent underground food court, where I was able to connect
to the network of the Atlanta Bread Company, one of the food outlets in
the mall.
In the afternoon, I attended a meeting of another
committee. Then, about 5:30 p.m., I left the hotel and reboarded
MARTA. This time, I was able to refill my card for only
$1.75. Since my Amtrak train was not scheduled to arrive until
close to 8:00 p.m., I decided to ride to the Doraville station at the
end of the line, where we arrived at 6:00 p.m. I noticed that,
for much of the way, the MARTA line parallels an active freight
railroad.
While waiting at the Doraville station for my return
train, I decided to take a few pictures. No sooner had I boarded
the train than a policeman came over to me and asked if I had a
permit. When I replied that I did not, he informed me that
photography on MARTA is not permitted without a permit and asked to see
my camera. I explained that I had a digital camera and offered to
delete the six pictures that I had taken (they were of rather poor
quality, and I probably would have ended up deleting some of them
anyway). The policeman carefully watched as I deleted all six
pictures from my camera, then warned me that if I tried to take any
more pictures, I would be issued a summons and might have to serve some
time in jail. While I believe MARTA’s prohibition on photography
to be absurd and silly, the incident didn’t really disturb me –
especially since most of MARTA’s stations are rather undistinguished in
appearance and not very photogenic, anyway.
I arrived at the Arts Center station, the closest
MARTA station to the Amtrak station, about 6:30 p.m. From the
MARTA train, I had called Amtrak on my cell phone and found out that my
Amtrak train, scheduled to arrive at Atlanta at 7:53 p.m., was running
38 minutes late. Nevertheless, I decided to proceed directly to
the Amtrak station and wait there. I was informed by a MARTA
representative that I should take the #23 bus to the Amtrak station,
and I walked up to the bus platform adjacent to the station. I
handed the driver my “Breeze” ticket (which had been validated as I
departed the station), and he retained it. (I didn’t question
this, as I had no further use for the ticket, but since a 50-cent
charge is imposed whenever one obtains a new ticket, I wondered why he
didn’t offer to return it to me). The ride to the Amtrak station
was rather short, and within ten minutes we had reached the bus stop
across the street from the station.
The Amtrak station in Atlanta was built as the
Peachtree Street Station of the Southern Railway (in fact, the name of
the station and the railroad are inscribed in the facade of this
attractive brick building). It was intended to be a suburban
station, with the main Atlanta station located in the downtown area,
and it was quite suited for this purpose. But the main downtown
station was demolished over 30 years ago, and ever since then, this
small station has been used as the main (and only) Amtrak station in
the major city of Atlanta.
I walked across the street and into the station,
which was largely empty at this hour, as our train is not scheduled to
arrive for another hour. I asked the agent what time the train
would actually be arriving, and he replied that the train was running a
little late and would not arrive until 8:30 p.m.
There were plenty of unoccupied benches in the
station, but none were adjacent to an electric outlet, and my
computer’s batteries needed to be recharged. I realized that a
better alternative was available. Across the street was a Borders
Bookstore and Café, and that would provide a more comfortable
place to wait for the train. So I walked across the street and
went up to the café, located on the second floor, with a view of
the Amtrak station and the train platforms. I purchased a cup of
tea and a small bag of potato chips and sat down in a comfortable
armchair. I was unable to connect to the Internet via the one
unsecured wireless network that was available, but I did spend the next
hour or so finishing up work on the minutes of the meeting that I had
attended that morning.
I noticed that a 24-hour Krogers store was located
directly adjacent to the Borders Bookstore, so about 7:55 p.m. I walked
over to the Krogers store, where I purchased some food items for the
trip home. I then walked back across the street to the station.
It was now about 8:15 p.m., and the station was
jammed. There were probably close to 200 people (including
friends and relatives of travelers) waiting for the train – a number
far beyond what the station was designed to accommodate. At 8:25
p.m., an announcement was made that, due to the limited space
available, passengers arriving on the Crescent would
first be given the opportunity to “deboard,” following which there
would be a five-to-10-minute delay, and only after that would
passengers be permitted to board the train. I noticed that there
was a small grassy area to the left of the stairway leading down to the
tracks, with a view of the tracks, so I decided to wait there.
This provided an additional advantage – I was right by the top of the
stairway leading down to the tracks, so I could go down to board the
train as soon as boarding was permitted.
At 8:32 p.m., the bright headlight of the train
became visible, and an announcement was made that Train #20 is now
approaching the station. Two minutes later, our train pulled into
the station at 8:34 p.m. Tonight’s Crescent is
pulled by engines 82 and 168 and includes a baggage car, two Viewliner
sleepers, a dining car, a lounge car and four Amfleet II coaches.
Ordinarily, when I travel on Amtrak by myself, I
prefer to travel by sleeper. But when I booked the trip on
Amtrak’s web site, I found that the added charge for a sleeper was $378
– an amount that I would consider rather outrageously high.
Especially since this is a simple overnight trip, I decided instead to
travel by coach – for only $107 (with the AAA discount), an amount
comparable to what I paid for the flight down to Atlanta on
Airtran. (The $107 fare represents the lowest bucket available;
when I checked the price about a week before the trip, it had increased
to $232.)
When boarding began at 8:45 p.m., I walked down the
long stairway to the tracks and was instructed to board the last car of
the train and take Seat #27. The car that I was assigned to,
#25000, had been reconditioned with blue seats and an electric outlet
at each pair of seats. (Two of the other coaches on the train had
been similarly reconditioned, but the first coach had the old red seats
and no electric outlets, except for the two that were installed when
the car was built.) I was particularly glad to find the electric
outlet, as my computer’s battery now lasts for only about one hour, and
it would have been very annoying to have to go elsewhere each hour to
charge my computer. A very friendly young woman was assigned to
sit next to me. She was traveling from Atlanta with two children,
a boy of 15 and a girl who was about 12, and was going to Washington,
D.C. to attend her nephew’s graduation from high school. The two
children were assigned to sit on the other side of the aisle,
diagonally opposite us. She remarked that her son loves trains
and has already decided that he wants to be a locomotive engineer when
he grows up!
As soon as I got settled, I turned on my computer
and discovered – somewhat to my surprise – that I could get online
using some wireless network in the vicinity. This gave me about
10 minutes to check some e-mail messages, although, of course, the
connection was lost as soon as we pulled out of the station.
We departed Atlanta at 9:04 p.m., 43 minutes late,
with our stop having lasted for half an hour (two minutes longer than
scheduled). After the conductor came by to collect tickets, I
walked down to the lounge car. I found that all four coaches were
nearly full, with two people sitting in almost every pair of
seats. Only the second coach, which was used for local
passengers, had several pairs of empty seats. (The first, third
and fourth coaches were reserved for passengers traveling at least as
far as Washington).
It was returned to my coach seat and took out a
packet of salmon, a bag of potato chips and a can of iced tea that I
had purchased at Kroger’s. The hour was rather late, so I was not
in the mood for a large meal, and the food that I had brought along was
perfectly adequate for dinner.
I did a little more work on my computer, but soon
after we departed Gainesville at 10:00 p.m., I began to get quite tired
and decided to get some sleep. Amfleet II coach seats are quite
roomy and permit one to recline in a semi-horizontal position.
But although the lights in the car were dimmed after 10:00 p.m., there
was a rather annoying overhead light right near my seat.
Nevertheless, I was quite exhausted by now, having
gotten virtually no sleep last night, and I did succeed in sleeping for
most of the next six hours. I would often wake up, but I was
always able to fall asleep again rather quickly. I awoke during
our station stops at Toccoa, Clemson, Greenville and Spartanburg, but
slept through the next three stops (Gastonia, Charlotte and Salisbury).
I woke up at 4:08 a.m. while we were stopped at an
attractive looking station. I didn’t know where we were, but
remained awake 17 minutes later when we made our next station
stop. This latter station was identified by a sign as Greensboro,
so I now knew that the previous station was High Point.
When traveling on Amtrak, I often try to step off
the train at several stations en route. I had not yet done so on
this trip, and, glancing at the timetable, I noticed that we are
scheduled to spend five minutes in Greensboro, so I decided to try to
step off the train here. I put on my shoes and walked forward to
the second car, where a door had been opened. By this time, all
passengers getting on or off in Greensboro had already done so.
One passenger had stepped off the train to smoke a cigarette, but the
conductor (who had also lit up a cigarette) and the coach attendant
were the only other people standing on the platform.
On my last previous trip on the Crescent five
years ago, I noted in my travelogue that Greensboro had a ”modern,
unattractive station.” But since then, the original station –
located at the junction of the Crescent route,
leading north to Danville, with the route, leading
east to Raleigh – has been restored. Since the station is located
just east of the junction of the two lines, there are separate
platforms for each line. The station building is reached via an
underpass and, of course, I did not attempt to go inside. For
some reason, our station stop in Greensboro lasted for eight minutes,
and when we departed at 4:34 a.m., we were 36 minutes late.
Now that I was awake, I decided to go to the lounge
car so that I could start writing these memoirs. There were a few
other passengers in the lounge car, but several tables were
unoccupied. It was still dark out, but for the next hour or so, I
remained in the lounge car and succeeded in writing three pages of
these memoirs.
Our next stop was Danville, Virginia, where we
arrived at 5:39 a.m. Danville has an attractive yellow brick
station that was recently renovated, with a rather ugly black-clad
chain-link fence separating the station from the active tracks. A
security guard was stationed at the gate, which remained closed until
after the train had come to a stop. About 10 passengers boarded
the train here, and when we departed at 5:42 a.m., we were 45 minutes
late (between Greensboro and Danville, we had stopped for five minutes
to await a clear signal).
I now began to get a little tired again, and my
computer’s batteries would soon need to be recharged (this Amfleet II
lounge car had not been retrofitted with electric outlets at each
table). So I decided to return to my coach seat. But on the
way, I noticed many pairs of unoccupied seats in the second coach, so I
decided instead to sit down there. I pushed the seat back and
succeeded in falling asleep for about 45 minutes. When I awoke at
6:30 a.m., the sun had already risen and it was light out. I
could now see the pleasant rural scenery that we were passing through.
We pulled into our next stop, the Kemper Street
station in Lynchburg, at 6:46 a.m. This is a very attractive
three-story brick station, which appears to be well maintained.
About 20 passengers were waiting to board here, and I realized that my
seat in the second coach might be needed by passengers boarding
here. Now that my computer had been recharged (I had plugged it
in while I slept), I decided to move back to the lounge car. Our
stop in Lynchburg lasted for five minutes, and when we departed at 6:51
a.m. we were 44 minutes late. As we departed Lynchburg, I watched
as we passed through the short Rivermont Tunnel and then crossed over
the two branches of the scenic James River.
As we approached Charlottesville, where we arrived
at 7:58 a.m., my computer’s batteries died, so I moved back to my
assigned coach seat. A large crowd was waiting to board the train
here. The former railroad station has been converted to the Wild
Wing Café, with Amtrak now relegated to a smaller building that
was formerly used by the Railway Express Agency. Although our
stop here lasted for nine minutes, I did not step off the train
here.
About 8:30 a.m., I decided to go to the dining car
for breakfast. On the way, I noticed that virtually every seat in
all four coaches was now occupied. When I checked on the web on
Tuesday, I found that the train was sold out north of Charlottesville,
so I was not surprised to find that there were hardly any unoccupied
seats.
When I arrived at the dining car, I was seated at a
table with two men, both who had boarded the train in
Charlottesville. One was headed for Alexandria; the other for
Penn Station, New York. The man destined for Alexandria related
that his wife had purchased a round-trip Washington-Charlottesville
ticket for him a few weeks ago, but she ended up driving him down to
Charlottesville. When he arrived at the station this morning, he
discovered that his reservation on today’s train had been cancelled, as
he never picked up his ticket for the southbound train from Washington
to Charlottesville. And he was informed by the agent that the
train was sold out! Fortunately, the agent, realizing that he had
in good faith assumed that he had a valid reservation for the train,
agreed to issue him a ticket!
The other man lived in Netcong, New Jersey and was
returning from a business trip to Charlottesville. He mentioned
that he works in Madison and commutes daily from Netcong to Madison on
NJ Transit.
The discussion at breakfast revolved entirely around
trains and Amtrak. The man who lived in Alexandria recalled how
he grew up in Cleveland at a time when that city had excellent,
first-class train service, and he lamented the relatively poor quality
of train service today. We also talked about the yield management
pricing used today by Amtrak, high-speed trains in other countries, and
the delays experienced by Amtrak due to the low priority given their
trains by the freight railroads. I had brought my Steam Powered
Videos railroad atlas to breakfast with me, which the others found
quite interesting. As usual, I had the Continental breakfast,
with Rice Krispies. During the meal, we passed through the town
of Orange, where the route of the Cardinal joins our route, and we made
a brief stop at Culpeper at 9:00 a.m. At the end of the meal, we
complimented the attendant for her service, paid our bills and returned
to our coach seats. I was really glad that I decided to eat
breakfast in the diner, and – due to the interesting company – it was
one of the most interesting meals I’ve ever experienced on Amtrak.
I returned to my coach, but rather than sitting down at my
coach seat, I decided to spend some time looking out of the back of the
train. I actually had the opportunity to look out the back for
the entire ride, but this was the first time that I had availed myself
of this opportunity. I then returned to my seat, where I remained
until we arrived in Washington. As we crossed the
Potomac River into Washington, I remarked to my seatmate how fortunate
we were in traveling by train, as the highway bridge adjacent to us was
clogged with traffic. She commented that she had considered
driving to Washington from Atlanta, but was very glad that she had
decided to take the train instead, and would never want to drive that
long distance again!
We pulled into Track 26 at Washington Union Station
at 10:26 a.m. Ample make-up time is provided approaching
Washington, so we were only 16 minutes late. I detrained and
walked to the front of the train, where I took a few pictures and
observed, on an adjacent track, electric engine #942 which, I assumed,
would soon be added to our train. I then returned to my coach,
which now was more than half empty, as many passengers had detrained in
Washington.
After we departed Washington at 10:46 a.m.,
following a 20-minute stop, the conductor came through the cars to
check everyone’s ticket stub. I don’t recall this having been
done on my previous trips on this train, and I remarked to the
conductor that I assumed that he wanted to be sure that no unauthorized
person boarded the train in Washington. He replied that this was
not the main reason; rather, he wanted to be sure that all tickets were
collected, noting that sometimes the previous conductor might have
failed to collect a ticket from a sleeping passenger.
Now that my seatmate had detrained, I had a little
more space to myself. I took a look at the Steam Powered Videos
Northeast Rail Atlas to follow our progress into Baltimore. We
arrived at Baltimore at 11:18 a.m., now only six minutes late, and
departed five minutes later.
As we rounded the curve that leads into the
Wilmington station, I noticed that we had two electric engines pulling
our train! Apparently, my assumption that the single engine #942
would be attached to our train proved to be incorrect. I didn’t
want to walk all the way down to the front of the train at an
intermediate stop to find out the numbers of our two electric engines,
but I figured that I would have time when I detrained in Newark to do
so. As we proceeded through the Wilmington station, where we also
stopped for five minutes, I noticed that a temporary wooden high-level
platform had been constructed on the northbound local platform, which
was formerly a low-level platform.
We arrived at the 30th Street Station in
Philadelphia at 12:35 p.m. and departed eight minutes later. As
we pulled out of the station, I noticed the northbound Pennsylvanian,
Train #43, paralleling us, heading north (of course, at Zoo Tower,
Train #43 headed west, towards Pittsburgh, now its final destination).
When we arrived in Trenton, where we stopped for
only two minutes, I briefly stepped out onto the platform. A man
standing on the platform inquired whether he could take this train to
New York, and both the attendant and I responded that the train does
not pick up passengers at Trenton. The man commented that he
could not understand why that should be the case. (Actually, he
may well have had an NJ Transit ticket which would not be valid for
transportation on Amtrak in any event!)
We arrived on Track 2 in Penn Station in Newark at
1:54 p.m., 11 minutes late. I detrained and walked down to the
front of the train, where I recorded the numbers of our two electric
engines. On the way, I observed the unloading of baggage from the
baggage car, with the baggage cart onto which the baggage for Newark
was unloaded filled to the top. As the train departed, at 1:59
p.m., after a five-minute stop, I walked downstairs. I stopped in
the waiting room to purchase some NJ Transit tickets for future trips
(fares are being increased tomorrow about 10%), then walked across the
street to the parking lot where I had left my car. I retrieved my
car and drove back home.
My trip to Atlanta worked out just as planned.
Flying was the only practical way to get there for my meeting, but I’m
glad that I decided to take the train back. Having a friendly
person as my seatmate made the trip more enjoyable, and it was nice to
see a full Amtrak train, used by many people for long-distance
transportation, and arriving at its final destination practically on
time.
