Tony and Liz's Travel Adventures: USA: San Francisco and Beyond & Amtrak Delays

9th April, 2012

Tyre Troubles on the Amtrack

We're on our way to Seattle after leaving San Francisco on Easter Sunday, Monday AEST. It's now 9.50pm and have just spent the last 24 hours either waiting at train stations or sitting on the train due to numerous delays along the way. From the San Francisco Amtrak terminal we commuted by what is called a "Throughway" bus service to get to Emeryville across the Bay where we were to catch the train. No problem you would think. The bus arrived in plenty of time but when we got to Emeryville we were advised that the train would be about 4-5 hours late because of a major engine failure which happened outside of a place called San Luis Obispo, CA, which is is about 3 hours out of Los Angeles. San Francisco is more than 5 hours outside of that by train. No Enstein here, but 4-5 hours just seemed unrealistic and besides, they had to get another engine up to San Luis Obispo in the first place before heading north to San Fran. And we guessed right !!

Finally the train did arrive - at 5.30am the next morning - if you please!!! Amtrak were kind enough (if you could call it that) ordered pizza and chicken at about midnight. Who wants cold pizza and chicken at that time of night unless you've been on the turps and wouldn't know the difference between the pizza and the cardboard box it comes in. Instead we should have been offered bunk beds and cocktails so that we could get some sleep at least.

Not long before the train arrived they offered a little snack pack which consisted of processed cheese portions, dry cracker biscuits, and a fruit and nut mix together with a bottle of water to wash it down. Now I don't want to steal Tony's thunder, but the rating for this was a 1 - and that is generous. We did meet a couple of Aussies, one from Perth, the other from Sydney who were also travelling on the same train. Of course, like all good Aussies we get together and make light of the situation - probably likening it to the woes of Queensland Transport - LOLOL. The only difference being that Qld Transport entertains it bureaucrats with a good nosh up and not the commuters. The River Fire springs to mind!!

So here we are on our merry way finally, when a couple of hours into the trip there is another 'hold up' (not the 'Situation" kind, but another train delay). We could have just about walked all this way in the time we have spent on train delays. But on this occasion the train came to a sudden stop and it was announced that the train had run over some debris on the rail line. Turns out the debris was a tyre, which had become stuck under the train. Now you might think this is a joke but I can tell you, there were about 200 people who could testify to this. We then had to wait about another hour and half before an "Engineer" was sent from the closest rail point, to inspect and remove the tyre remnants before the train could get going again. How long did I say the delay was now ???

Thinking it was steam rolling ahead finally there was an announcement that we would experience more delays because the original engine meltdown, would cause our train to "Give Way" to other cargo and passenger trains using same the line. The only Melt Down happening at that point were the passengers because many were catching connecting trains to other destinations ie. Sacramento, Vancouver and Chicago. So what do Amtrak do? - they offer all passengers a "Free Dinner" of Chicken and Rice. Well you wouldn't believe it but later in the night that free dinner exorcised itself of me in the train dunny. I put that down to train motion sickness (NOT) but not in any way a touch of salmonella or the like (NOT).

We did make it to Seattle. Originally the train was due to arrive in Seattle, Washington at 8.45pm but instead chugged in a 5.30am. A total of 31 hours, but at least we made it. Looking at it optimistically there was a real highlight to all those train delays and that was, if we had travelled through the night we wouldn't have seen any of the breath-taking scenery that we did.

Seriously, we are having the time of our lives and besides I did call the Blog our "Travel Adventure" - and it is. Look out for our next Adventure - about Seattle, WA.

( Feedback on this post is most welcome - send to www.Amtrak.com )

Cheers

Liz and Tony