·12 Jul: Cascades Train #506
·12-14 Jul: #8 The Empire Builder: 1|2|3
·17-18 Jul: #48 The Late Shore Limited: 1|2
·21 Jul: Empire Service Train #208
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·Introduction ·12 Jul: Cascades Train #506 ·12-14 Jul: #8 The Empire Builder: 1|2|3 ·17-18 Jul: #48 The Late Shore Limited: 1|2 ·21 Jul: Empire Service Train #208 |
| 17-18 July, 2006: Train #48-Going through Western New York and 3 hours late into Syracuse | |
At 7:15 I decide to go to the dining car for breakfast, and have my first experience with Amtrak's latest cost cutting measure, DinerLite food service. The diner is a refurbished heritage dining and the interior has that brand new trying to look retro look. I am sitting with a guy going to Delaware, who is so annoyed with the lateness of the train, he says he's going to ask for some money back and a mother and daughter (I'd say pre-teen age) going to Springfield from Indiana. None of them seem in the mood of friendly chit-chat. I order the French Toast (their no other things on the menu like Eggs or pancakes that I really consider breakfast food), which although being preheated, tastes quite good but a little cold. With all the cuts in staff, the service quality is pretty terrible. The mother says that her husband is a conductor for CSX, and is really not surprised that were running so late considering how mismanaged CSX is. She tells me about a time her husband was taxied to Teldeo, to wait for a train, put up in a hotel, and then taxied right back. The train he was supposed to build never shows up. I tell her my story from The No Snow Vermonter trip, about waiting just stopped at the Palmer, MA switchback as CSX built a train in the siding we needed to use to reverse and continue to New York, my story doesn't surprise her either. Dispatching doesn't sound like CSX's strong point. I leave the dining car at 8:00, my back starting to hurt a little since I think the seats of this restored heritage diner are deliberately built to be slightly uncomfortable to stop people from lingering. I go back one car and decide to sit in the lounge car, no in the table seating area but the other half that as truly an odd arrangement of tables and chairs.
8:15-Annoucent is made that, sorry, the dining car is closing early. An Employee who is also sitting in the lounge says "Guess they've run out of food". Amtrak, pity for losing some money from people who want to eat in the diner. I mostly read my book as we go through way Western New York State. We don't go through downtown Buffalo at all stopping at 8:39 (only an hour and a half late) at Buffalo (Depew), NY which is a well deserved quick service stop. That fells like a suburban station and is not in the cities center. This is not Buffalo's only station the three other Empire Service trains that continue this far west also stop at Buffalo-Exchange St, but we, coming up from the south join the line too far south. We leave at 8:42, and the running just gets slower, CSX is rebuilding the line causing single tracking so we keep getting stuck behind slow freights. But we continue passing the woods lakes, rolling hills and fields that make up the balk of New York State.
At 10:25 We arrive in Rodchester, NY with a big announcement saying that no one is to leave the train (unless Rochester is their final destination) before we enter. I, still sitting in the lounge car overhear two employees talking over about weather border patrol will board in Rochester. I ask her if they really due board and she says "Yes for the Safety of all our Customers", They also talk about the fact on another, recent trip someone was detained. I think what's the point all they do is racial profiling anyway, and were turning into a police state, Rochester quite far from the border anyway. Rochester has a short platform so sure enough we have to make two separate stops, one for sleeping car passengers and one for everyone else, tickets seem to be collected on the platform. We go through the center of this city on a viaduct, it's the first time I've ever been through it, it looks like a small city that has also been plagued by a loss of manufacturing, just like all the Small Central New York cities Amtrak passes through. I decide to walk back to my seat and sure enough see the border patrol who seem to picking on the only Hispanic-looking man on the train who has his ID out and is talking to them in a heavy accent. This delays us about 15 minutes longer and we don't leave until 10:45 (two and a half hours late).
It continues to be slow running with the major track work CSX is doing, as we continue through New York State loosing time. I call my grandparents, who are picking me up and say "High Noon seems like about right." I call Julie and she tells me the same thing, but our estimates are too conservative with slow running due to all the freight traffic that pages this busy rail line. I mostly read my book the line here really isn't all that interesting. We stop again for a while, before we are finally passing Lake Onondaga, and then we finally enter Syracuse, NY, my destination for today arriving almost exactly 3 hours late at 12:22P. I find my grandparents on the platform and walk up towards the front of it to get a few shots that include the Viewliner sleepers in them; we get in their car and drive off. From the station parking lot I see the Late Shore hasn't departed yet, everyone's getting a fresh-air stop, and the platform is quite crowded.
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·Introduction ·12 Jul: Cascades Train #506 ·12-14 Jul: #8 The Empire Builder: 1|2|3 ·17-18 Jul: #48 The Late Shore Limited: 1|2 ·21 Jul: Empire Service Train #208 |
Home<TripLogs<Amtrak All the Way Across the U.S.A.<17-18 July, 2006: Train #48-Going through Western New York and 3 hours late into Syracuse