I walk into Los Angeles Union Station–(11 total photos) after coming down from Sacramento on the Claremont Bus via the San Joaquin and immediately walk through the waiting room with its historic comfy benches that has been corded off to keep the homeless out and fully enforce the “ticketed passengers only” policy. Private security guards are around keeping order and checking tickets. About one half of the room is for Amtrak passengers, the other half is more Metrolink and a final portion seems to be corded off with no one allowed to sit there.
I walk through this strangely policed area and start trying to find the Metropolitan Lounge, the signage is awful, just a few portable white signs but it hasn’t been integrated into the general signage of the station. I wander in the complete wrong direction towards the baggage office and claim area. There I ask an employee who also doesn’t really know with “Sorry sir, I just came off leave for six months.” She uses me as an excuse to remember where the lounge is. She leads me to the opposite, southern end of the station right around the rental car counters. There is a sign at the elevator. I try a door to a staircase that is locked. I take the elevator up to the next level where the doors to the lounge are obvious, with another set of doors used to close the lounge off. Unlike the ClubAcelas they haven’t bothered to install a buzzer here. It doesn’t seem necessary, the lounge is so hard to find.
A very friendly agent greets me at the desk and recognizes what a Select+ card is immediately. I explain I’m taking the Sunset Limited in Coach to Tucson and ask if the lounge can help me get a window seat assignment. The agent is genuinely apologetic about never seeing the seat assignment cards saying that “Seat assignments are only given out at the information window” but if I go down there early around 8:30 they should be able to give me my seat of choice. I then ask if I can leave my bag while I find dinner. The answer is “Of course” and she hands me a Red Cap tag that the lounge is using for luggage check (just like in Chicago). I then go an enjoy the lounge for a few minutes, use the nice bathroom. The food left out is unusual, just a number of different jumbo sized cookies. I take a minute to look for the soda machine and realize the lounge doesn’t have one. There is just a beverage fridge beneath the buffet bar. Unforchunately the TV is in an area where its blaring and hard to avoid.
The Metropolitan Lounge has a staircase that’s open and leads down to a different entrance near the rental car counters in an unmarked but open doorway (the staircase by the elevator goes somewhere else, not open to the public). I head down to the Metro Red and Purple Line,s my goal of the day for the Metro is to get full photo essays of the four Metro stations that are currently on the website but lack photos because I didn’t taking enough during my original visits about six years ago. A Red Line train is about to leave and I get on this to Vermont/Beverly and do a photo essay including an entrance photo in the dark during the 12 minutes between trains. I take the next Hollywood-bound train one stop to Vermont/Santa Monica and do my photo essay, walking between the two entrances, I continue to Vermont/Sunset where I’m surprised to find an exit that leads to two elevators up to the surface only. At that point its about 7:00 and time for dinner.
I have a bit of a tradition going on. I don’t feel like I’ve really taken a trip to California without a trip to an In-N-Out Burger. I figure out that the easiest one to get to is walking distance from Hollywood/Highland. I continue on the Metro there (getting a photo out the door at Hollywood/Western–(1 Photo)) and ascend to the surface to the one main entrance to a sidewalk that is way to crowded and makes me feel like I’m in Times Square except with much less space to move. I get through the crowds and walk over to Orange Drive and 3 blocks down to the nearest In-N-Out. I immediately notice that the drive-through line is nearly spilled out into the street. I go into the crowded restaurant, ordering is quick and I wait maybe 15 minutes for my food and eat my burger, fries and shake for all of $7 outside.
As I finish eating, I remember there is one more errand I need to make; visiting a 7-Eleven and paying for my $7 Greyhound ticket for Wednesday morning (if I wait the price will go up to $10 online instead of 7, and I don’t want to make my friends in Tucson drive around). There is a branch of this chain a block away and I go there after dinner. I bring up the barcode on my phone, the cashier asks how long ago I pre-ordered the ticket on-line. I tell him about five hours ago (I did it via my iPhone on the Amtrak Bus who’s wifi was blocking Greyhound’s website). He says “Hopefully the barcode hasn’t expired, we can try it.” He scans my phone asks for $7 (saying he will give it back if the code doesn’t work). Everything comes through and I get my Greyhound ticket printed directly on a receipt. It’s a friendly ticket transaction.
I walk back up to Hollywood/Highland, and get back to Union Station first around 8:20 and there is no sign of seat assignments being given out, or desk for the station staff to issue them. I go up to the information window and ask, flashing my Select+ card saying “I’ve been waiting in the lounge.” The agent simply says “I don’t know what to tell you sir, they will be distributed in about 20 minutes.” A toothless old women who is waiting in line first screams at me: “No one gets special treatment, get in the back of the line with the rest of us.” A line of maybe 25 people has formed around the edge of the main (now Amtrak portion) of the waiting area. I wonder where the check-in desk is?
There is one more stop on the Red / Purple Line I want to visit, Civic Center. The stop closest to I get back on the red line metro and head to Civic Center, the last stop I want to do. I do my photo essay of the two entrance station (walking between the entrances of course) and just make the next train back to Union Station. I get back around 8:40.
Longer lines have formed around the information window, and I walk through the waiting room to the back, awaiting my fate. (Last time I tried my S+ card and it didn’t help). I’m also feeling exhausted, like a walking zombie, I haven’t slept for the past two nights because of the snoring man sleeping beneath me in the hostel in Sacramento. I also didn’t sleep really at all on the San Joaquin to the bus coming down because of the fact that my cup of half-calf coffee from Starbucks still had more caffeine than I normally have (which is absolutely none, only on special occasions) and put me into a caffeinated awakeness that I don’t really like. I finally get up to the window, my hart pounding to await my fate. I notice a man traveling along a few people ahead of me I believe has gotten a window seat.
I get to the window, hand over my ticket and the bitch attendant hands me an aisle seat (46) I believe. There is an M on the seat check. Since apparently on Amtrak (as an attendant who once re-sat me said “Women can’t be sleeping next to men” I found the experience insulting like I’m assumed to be a pervert)
I respond nicely “Can I have a window, Please?.”
She says “You can ask your attendant for one. That’s all I can offer you” I know from experience (my overnight to Tucson last summer) that once I’m assigned the seat, there is no chance of getting reseated.
I then say “I’m not taking that” and try flashing my Select+ card discussing how I’m an extremely loyal customer, that does nothing.
She doesn’t demand me take that seat check and assignment. Simply says, “Well then you won’t be able to get a seat assignment until you get on the train from your attendant after everyone else as boarded.
I return to the Metropolitan Lounge fuming and exhausted. The attendant in what is now a relatively crowded lounge with all the sleeping car passengers boarding immediately recognizes me and asks me if I got my preferred seat. I say now, the information window would only give me an aisle. She is genuinely apologetic. In an ideal world she could have called the information desk and could have gotten me a pre-selected seat assignment before boarding for the general public. I miss New York where seats on even the Long Distance Lake Shore Limited are still just given out first-come-first-served train side.
I will fully admit that I’ve been checking the Amtrak app all day for the price of upgrading to a Sleeper. If I was just heading home I wouldn’t care about losing a day to train-lag. I also haven’t slept at all well for the previous two days from the snoring beneath me. Tomorrow though is one of just three days I have in Arizona and will spend it visiting some friends one of whom I haven’t seen in two and a half years since we graduated. I really wan’t to sleep tonight and don’t want to spend the day exhausted, spacey and pumped up on caffeine. Roomette prices have gone down from $209 to what I think is the low-bucket price of a $161 upgrade price (that was the option given when I booked the train). I’ve since learned that the cheapest sleeper from LAX to TUS on the sunset is as low as $105. Almost exactly the same price me and my Dad paid for our overnight on the Southwest Chief. I decide to just fork out the money, wanting to enjoy my time in Arizona and not just be sleepy! I ask the agent if she can upgrade me and am told that Amtrak is still working on installing a full ticket printer at her desk and that she recommends just calling.
I go into the empty conference room and close the door, the light automatically comes on to make my cell phone call undisturbed. The call the Amtrak Select+ Priority number and am answered within a minute. I tell the agent my reservation number and that I want to Upgrade to a Roomette. The total ends up being $4 more than I’ve calculated. Apparently upgrading within 3 days is enough now to make you lose your 10% 3 day advance purchase required discount! I’m not going to fret over $4. My total ticket price to Tucson is a high $206. I immediately think about how on most days this wouldn’t be enough for a one-way Acela Express Business Class ticket just from New York to Washington (low-bucket is $152, the next lowest is $205). At least I’ll get breakfast, and basically a hotel room for the night.
I tell the agent I was successful (a new email getting delivered) and she tells me just to have the conductor scan my old ticket. I decide I want a paper copy and jog down the stairs to a QuikTrak Machine to pick one up, its all come through. I’m exhausted and am looking forward to a good nights sleep in the dark, in the lower-level of a Roomette on another nice Amtrak train.
I reclaim my backpack, have a complimentary cookie and ask the attendant when boarding will begin. She tells me very soon.
At about 9:15 she announces that all sleeper passengers in Car #0230 (mine) should head outside for a red cap. You can only board directly from the Metropolitan Lounge (without walking down into the main station) via a Red Cap because the roadway to the platforms that’s beyond the bumper block crosses the active gold line tracks and Amtrak doesn’t trust regular pedestrians to walk out there. I decide to take the Red Cap Adventure and get in the back of the cart with my backpack in the very back. There is something going on so the red cap pulls the main luggage area where a mother and son are waiting for a red cap. He apologizes that he’s full and we proceed to stop at the Union Station Gold Line Grade Crossing–(2 Photos) and stop because of a special red light just for red cap carts as a Sierra Madre-bound gold line train slowly goes around the curve and finally sets the grade-crossing down. The red cap complaining “I could have made it!”
My Good Nights Sleep Out of L.A, Through the Desert Happy to be an Hour Late into Tucson (Train #2 from January 19th to 20th)
We get trainside finally at 9:25 and there isn’t any sign of our attendant. I board the 0230 car at the very front of the train and go upstairs to my Roomette #008 (its how its printed on my eTicket). The only dedicated Sunset Limited Sleeper with just the transition dorm ahead of us. The other Sleeper is the Texas Eagle through sleeper at the very back of the train. I board my room and am happy to see that the bed is already down. The attendant doesn’t say anything walking by, I assume I just made her manifest. She doesn’t really stop by and doesn’t pay much attention to me. I’m in a Superliner II I’m in a room where the steps are at the front end, which is normally the ‘head of the bed.’ I like to sleep with my feet facing forward and immediately flip the mattress pad and also realize that my backpack fits perfectly on the second step without compromising my space so I don’t need to store it on the luggage rack downstairs. I then settle in, putting my pajamas on as we still sit in Union Station. I nearly fall asleep as various announcements happen.
We Get the All Aboard and Pull out on time at 10:00pm and slowly switch out of the station. The conductor is clearly doing our sleeper first and comes almost immediately to scan tickets. I hear her on her radio (apologizing to passengers she’s ignoring) as she confirms the trains switching from the Union Station Tracks and onto the UP Sunset Main Line that will take us out of Los Angeles (as I learned on my last trip, by being awake the Sunset Limited takes a freight only route that isn’t used by Metrolink). She then scans my ticket thanking me and slowly does the rest of the sleeper.
I close the door, turn off the lights and enjoy a nearly total Roomette darkness departure of Los Angeles. I go between trying to fall asleep and various welcome aboard announcements.The attendant makes far too long an announcement just to our car. It includes asking us to make sure our Radio Channel is set to Channel 1 so we can hear all of the announcements loud and clear. Mine is set to Channel 2 and I play with it while she continues making an overly chatty “Sorry I didn’t get to meet all of you” announcement. Channel 1 is much to loud. Channel 2 is perfect, I can still here everything but in a soft way from the wall speakers through the door of my Superliner II (on the renovated Superliner I cars, I believe this control as been removed with no way to control volume).
I track our route a little bit as we pass the El Monte Metrolink Station on the northern freight track (not platforming) that I got off Metrolink’s San Bernardino Line at just a few hours before. We then cross the San Bernardino Line, going on a grade separated flyunder beneath it and head south, joining Metrolink’s Riverside Line.
We soon come to the Pomona stop at 10:47, 6 minutes late the announcements ceasing.
I think I’m still awake when we come to our Ontario stop, 15 minutes later but fall asleep at some point around then since I don’t recall seeing the Ontario Airport that my Roomette would have had a perfect view of.
I sleep very, very, well, waking up twice during the night. Waking up just beyond the Palm Springs (we stop at 12:45, 9 minutes late) station briefly, and as we enter Yuma stop (departing at 4:26 M, 39 minutes late) that I see the small platform for, losing the hour switching from Pacific to Mountain Standard Time.
Sunlight brushes my Roomette and I check where we are, sitting on a siding near Gila Bend its about 6:30 and I notice were still a bit from Maricopa and are running about an hour down. This actually makes me happy since with recovery time an on time train could arrive in Tucson as early as just after 8:00. I see no reason to get out of bed and relax.
Promptly just after 7:00 (when Amtrak’s PA ‘Quiet Hours’ end) we start getting the usual announcement. Most memorable is Jackie in the lounge car. She has an unusual accent and I think is the Welsh LSA that was running the dining car when I took the Coast Starlight two years ago.
I finally get out of bed as we get the arriving in Maricopa announcements with the various mentions that the train will have to stop three times at the short platform first to change operating crews, then for sleepers and then for coaches. I don’t understand why someone can’t just build a full length platform here and make it a fresh-air stop, along with Tucson. I end up showering as we get the stops and starts for the various spots of the train going through Maricopa. It’s not the usual shower at speed like I normally like but the timing works fine. I feel completely awake for the first time since my final day in Lake Tahoe, the money for the Roomette completely worth it so I don’t lose today. I understand why companies pay for their employees to fly overnight in Bossiness Class, time is money isn’t it? and on these flights their employees can actually sleep. At least my sleep upgrade price only $161 and not the thousands of dollars more International Business Class is above coach. Are stopping times in Maricopa are an arrival at 7:52am, and departure at 8:08am, 1 hour and 28 minutes late.
I text my friend who’s picking me up about the lateness, saying were about an hour, knowing about recovery time and the fact the crew is announcing that the travel time to Tucson is about a little over an hour. I then head to the dining car. I might as well enjoy the breakfast that’s included with my sleeping car accommodation charge. I do the usual signing my meal check as the server who I put in the “okay service but basically just going through the motions” category barks “Put your phone away, I don’t want to spill on it.” I tell her I’m just checking the number of my sleeper. Soon I’m seated with a guy from coach from Los Angeles going to San Antonio and this is his first time on the train. Conversation is okay and he mentions that he was planning to drive the trip (and has done it many times) but also once took Greyhound cross-country. He luckily includes “I find the train better.”
It comes time to order, ask what the omelet filling is today (need to get my monies worth) and am told its a Mexican medley of corn and the like. This isn’t something I would call an omelet filling and I order it just with cheese and of corse the bacon that I only get at breakfast when traveling by Sleeper. In coach I’m too cheep to pay for it. I also get decaf coffee and milk.
Breakfast takes me until were 40 miles outside of Tucson just after 9:00. The attendant hasn’t come by to remake my room and I don’t care if this happens before I get off. I might have a post breakfast nap. I grab a tiny bit of real coffee for a small caffeine kick and I spend the rest of the ride calling my parents back east so I don’t need to remember to do that while I’m visiting my friends. We follow I-10 into town and at 9:30 split away from I-10 and arrive into the Tucson Station (yes, I know it already has a page, I need to rebuild it) at 9:35 an hour and seven minutes late.
The attendant asks us to wait a minute as she grabs a large set of silver two-steps to allievate the huge gap between the train and Tucson platform that is definitely not up to ADA standards. If I were in a wheelchair I would hope a mobile-lift would be used for safe boarding. Setting up the ramp would probably be way to steep. I step off my Superliner-II Sleeper #30299 fittingly named ‘New Mexico’ although I forgot to look for a sign still on the entrance to the car. I give my attendant a small tip (“Thanks for having the bed down”). I snap a few photos of the train (the only I’ve taken since leaving L.A.) and the former staircases to a closed off tunnel that once connected more platforms and tracks.
I then head out and find one of the two open gates from the platform (across the trackbed of which what was clearly once another track, this was an island platform) and find my friend waiting for me at the entrance.
In the afternoon we visit another old College friend who’s now living and working at Bean Tree Farm on the Edge of Tucson this is the impressive landscape:
