Get Out the Map
Amtrak revisited
By Mike & Darlene Jordan
A couple of years ago, we wrote in this space about the pleasures of traveling by train, specifically on Amtrak. We hadn’t taken a train trip since, and with Mike’s annual surprise birthday trip as the occasion, last week Darlene decided another train ride would be fun. She was right, of course.
Let’s just say at the outset that Trinidad is plenty lucky to be a stop on the route of the Amtrak Southwest Chief. The city’s residents have a relatively inexpensive way to travel west as far as Los Angeles and east as far as the East Coast through Chicago, assuming you have the time for an extended journey. Make no mistake, it takes a lot more time than flying but it’s much more fun and relaxing.
Mike didn’t know where we were going, but it turned out to be a trip to Flagstaff, where we spent a long weekend touring the northern part of Arizona including Oak Creek Canyon, Sedona, and Jerome. We got on the train a little before 10:00 a.m. and got off in Flagstaff at a little before 10:00 p.m. In the meantime, we had a relaxing ride viewing the scenery from the large picture windows in the lounge car, visiting with fellow passengers, reading and snoozing in our coach seats as the sun went down after departing from our stop in Albuquerque. Many of the passengers we met were traveling from the crowded cities of the East and Midwest, and were astonished at the wide open and virtually uninhabited spaces of Colorado and New Mexico.
Although part of the trip travels on rails not far from major roads, the train does pass through many areas you can’t see by car, certainly not from the interstate. This is especially true if you’re taking the route through the Rockies from Denver. In our case, the train traveled through a tunnel on Raton Pass before stopping in Raton, then through the New Mexico grasslands to Las Vegas, on to Lamy for folks getting off for Santa Fe, and then into Albuquerque.
We had time in Albuquerque to even get off the train and wander through the city for awhile, long enough to get a couple of slices of pizza to eat for dinner on the train. That brings us to another point about Amtrak. Yes, they serve food on the train, and it’s nice to sit down in the dining car for dinner. However, the days of cooked to order meals on a train with a fully functioning kitchen are pretty much over. Darlene had a chicken breast salad in the dining car for lunch, made up of lettuce, tomatoes, and your basic salad stuff, but it was topped with what can only be described as some kind of canned chicken…product. It looked like dog food. Mike had a hamburger with potato chips (no fries) and the bill came to $19.00.
We’ve had excellent meals on Amtrak, but the woman we had lunch with mentioned that she had dinner on the train the night before and that the food was bad. That’s why we bought the pizza. The really good news is that Amtrak has redesigned their lounge cars to feature very comfortable seating throughout the car and have added several tables that seat four on one end of the upper level. This made for an excellent place for us to enjoy our repast. It’s also important to note that, if you’re traveling on an overnight trip, like from Trinidad all the way to L.A. or Chicago, breakfast, lunch and dinner are all included in your fare—if you’ve purchased sleeping accommodations. If you’re going to have to sleep overnight on the train, we highly recommend the service, quiet, and privacy of a sleeping car room.
Like any other provider, the experience and quality of service on Amtrak depends a lot on the day you travel, the crew on duty, and the relative age of the equipment you’re riding in. In our case, on the leg from Trinidad to Flagstaff, the experience was good and the crew acceptable. We did have one very cranky dining car steward (maybe he ate the salad?) and the lounge car wasn’t as tidy as it could have been. However, on the trip from Flagstaff back to Trinidad, we had excellent service with an extremely friendly crew and the cars were kept very clean at all times. This crew demonstrated the difference between a good experience and an outstanding one.
All in all, if you have the time, taking the train to your long distance destination is a hands-down better experience than flying. If we could do it every time, we would.
Have a great week, and until next time…get out the map!
Travel with Mike and Darlene 