To New Orleans on the Crescent.
There is wifi on the Crescent! I was delighted and actually watched a bit of the Red Sox-Oakland A’s game, although the picture on my laptop was poor and it froze for 20 or 30 seconds every few minutes.
The dining car crew was excellent, but the diner itself was never more than half full. Yes, there were several seatings, but very few of the coach passengers came to the diner.
There were two sleepers and six or seven coaches—I forgot to count when we got to New Orleans. The attendant in my car was an 18-year veteran and knew his stuff: fast, efficient and just friendly enough.
OK, that’s the good stuff; here’s the rest:
We left Washington at about 6:30 Wednesday night and had lost about 40 minutes by breakfast time on Thursday morning. From lunch time through dinner, it was a whole series of running at speed for 20 or 30 minutes followed by long stretches clumping along at 25 mph. Clearly, we were following one or more freights all afternoon and through the early evening. The Crescent was due into New Orleans at 7:30 p.m.; we finally came to a stop in the New Orleans station just after midnight.
Through all of that, I never heard one P.A. announcement acknowledging that we were running late and were going to be four or five hours late into New Orleans. Wouldn’t you think that would be something any conductor would do instinctively? It happens a lot and it astonishes me every time.
I’ll be in New Orleans for two nights, leaving here fo Los Angeles tomorriw morning.