Eating in a rolling restaurant is what passengers remember most about their long-distance train trips. During the Golden Age of train travel from the mid-1930s to mid-1950s, competing railroads would vigorously promote the quality of the food served on board. Today, Amtrak’s dining experience is less than gourmet, but still quite good. Amtrak passengers enjoying…
The most common question I get comes from people planning an overnight train trip who are trying to decide whether to travel by coach or to spend the extra money for sleeping car space. Several considerations go into that decision. How far are you traveling? If it’s a daytime trip, anywhere up to 8 or…
With the major chunk of flying happily and safely behind me, I showed up yesterday noon at the New Orleans Amtrak Station waiting to board the City of New Orleans for the first segment of what will eventually be a seven-leg rail itinerary. We got off to a less-than-promising start when, exactly at our scheduled…
A couple of posts back I mentioned the redesigned dining cars that have shown up on several of the Amtrak routes. They’re called the Cross Country Cafe and I found myself eating in one on both the Texas Eagle from Fort Worth to Chicago and again on the Capitol Limited from Chicago to Washington. They’re…