32+ Hours in a NEW Amtrak Viewliner II Bedroom

hello jet setters and rail fans join me in amtrak's newest bedroom on their most popular overnight route i'm jeb brooks from greenergrass.com can't wait to check out this journey with you according to amtrak one of their long distance trains consistently has more riders than any other i was shocked when i saw which trip it was drop your guesses in the comments below but you won't have to wait long to find out here's your first hint we're leaving from new york city this was my first departure from the moynihan train hall i was so excited to check out the space this building was once new york's main post office it opened in january 2021 and is an undeniable upgrade from other amtrak stations which are often a bit tired should we say this stunning 92 foot tall glass roof just draws your eyes skyward once i picked up my jaw from the floor after marveling at the space it was time to head to the metropolitan lounge i'm booked into a bedroom so i get to go in here this lounge is so well appointed there's plenty of comfortable seating [Music] behind this counter you'll find substantial food offerings like sandwiches there are also snacks here and of course self-serve drinks including coffee there's even a bar but it was a bit too early for me i can't get over just how beautiful this is it rivals exceeds many business or first class airline lounges i've visited around the world their lockers to store your luggage if you'd like and even a business center which was invaluable to me obviously i'd forgotten to print out the route guide for this trip i always like to have to follow along what we're seeing so i quickly did that before heading out to the highlight of this lounge it's out here on this balcony which overlooks the entire hall the moynihan train hall is incredible but this lounge is next level it's fantastic about 30 minutes before our scheduled departure our track was announced and i headed downstairs track 12 it is let's go a criticism of this place is that there's nowhere to sit but i bet the developers would rather see you spend your money at the shops and restaurants around now to get a sense of the scale that clock is 12 feet tall and six feet wide on each side [Music] suddenly the escalator powered on and we were able to head downstairs to board amtrak's most popular overnight train we're scheduled to pull out of the big apple at 1102 this morning from there we'll cover more than 1500 miles along the u.s east coast passing through 10 states and the district of columbia before arriving into miami florida at 6 35 tomorrow night this is the silver star to me the moment spent walking along the train to find my coach is a highlight of any journey especially today this is the first time i'll be traveling in amtrak's newest view liner coach i didn't tell you i'm booked into one of the brand new rooms so this is a new experience holy moly this this is incredible this is so much of an upgrade this is the first new long distance carriage for amtrak in 25 years or so and color me impressed we'll have plenty of time to take a look around later but for now let's get this show on the road on our way just two minutes late we're heading south out of new york along the famed northeast corridor which roughly parallels interstate 95. this electrified railroad line is a large part of amtrak's revenue and accounts for most of the passengers who ride every year however most of those passengers are commuters i'm not this is a long-haul overnight train i'm sleeping here we also won't be operating under electric power forever instead we'll switch over to diesel engines soon the northeast corridor runs from boston all the way to washington dc along some of the most densely populated areas of the united states this part of the country is so full of large cities and people who want to move among them that it also marks the only high-speed train in amtrak's network the acela in fact if you keep your eyes peeled you might catch a brief glimpse of the new acela which should roll out soon [Music] enough about that let's see the other reason this is such an exciting trip welcome to amtrak's newest room this place is incredible before we get into it unlike the long distance trains out west which use two-story super liner carriages most of the routes on the east coast operate with single level view liners we're in one of the brand new upgraded viewliner 2 carriages now i have a whole video explaining room types i'll link to it in the description below but let's go through a brief overview on this route you could book a coach seat like this a roommate like this an accessible bedroom or you can do what i did and go all out with a bedroom and i definitely appreciated this incredible space let's look around there's a sofa here that can fit up to three people fairly easily you'll have a folding chair it's where i spent a lot of time the storage up top is plentiful there's a lot more storage in here than before so my suitcase is now up on top of the of the bathroom what a great use of space [Music] and there's even more storage over there of course the sofa folds down to a bed at night and there's another bed that folds here there's a ladder stored over there you'll have four us style sockets in the room along with plenty of light switches here you'll find a call button for your room attendant and another to turn off the public address system this folding table was great for work or room service the thermostat never worked but the room remained comfortable for the entire trip thanks to these vents there's a sink and of course here's the shower everything in here is just so nice it's it's a great setup so comfortable and it feels fresh and new which is a great thing in my book it's heads and shoulders above the old view liner here's my roumette from my trip from amtrak's cardinal and the older coach i'll explain how to be sure you can book yourself into the newer car a little later in the video these bottles of water were a nice addition to the room but i was getting hungry a room attendant soon came around to take our orders and ask what time we'd like to eat lunch is at the 12 30 1 30 or 2 15. i'm hoping for 12 30 but we'll see good news there's some meatballs bad news no cod thankfully i got my first choice for lunch 12 30. [Music] we rolled into philadelphia right on time at 12 30 so i headed to the dining car for lunch for sleeper car passengers all meals and one alcoholic drink are included in the price of your ticket you can eat here in the dining car or in your room and your attendant can even deliver your food right to you amtrak's east coast roots still haven't returned to traditional dining which is too bad after the steak i had on the texas eagle i can say without a doubt those tasty meals are a real highlight of the experience that said can i really call it an amtrak trip unless i start with the meatballs the fact that this route is amtrak's most popular shouldn't really surprise me but it did you see i think of amtrak as a way to see the world but it's a lot more than that sure there may be no better way to experience the diversity of this country than from amtrak's long-distance routes but amtrak is also an essential part of the public transportation network in this country nearly 40 percent of the u.s population lives along the u.s east coast which makes the silverstar service a vital part of the transportation network for a huge number of people wanting to move across a massive swath of the nation put simply this is amtrak's most popular route because it serves a large number of cities with large numbers of people looking to connect with each other but that's not to say there's nothing to see here far from it in fact that's the susquehanna the longest river on the east coast that's aberdeen home of the army's proving grounds actually bush river [Music] and that is the bird river before long we pulled into baltimore which meant our first stretch break was approaching fast [Music] well that uh that was baltimore [Music] here in washington we'll switch from electric to diesel power which means the bathrooms won't work while we're here so if you need to go go now before we get there stepping outside for the first time on a long distance train always feels good i took a little time to check out my coach named for the rappahannock river but then i quickly made my way up front to see the amtrak team switch out our engines to think this complicated process takes place dozens of times each day [Music] these guys they're definitely pros i get a little distracted by all that action all aboard gotta run [Music] but i made it with time to spare well not much if you're sitting on this side the right side in the direction of travel it means you've got a little tour of the monuments as you go out of washington dc [Music] we passed by several cars on the auto train i haven't tried this one yet have you what was your experience like let me know our train had six sleeper cars and five coach cars there was a dining car and cafe car that separated the sleepers from coaches the dining car where i had lunch was only available to sleeper passengers the cafe car was available to anyone and had plenty of food available nearly all the time since i took this trip amtrak has upgraded their offerings a bit but it's always fairly easy to find something to tide you over here so long as you're not hoping to lose weight the afternoon passed by without interruption while i watched the commonwealth of virginia pass by my window just to put in my dinner request i want to eat here i'm having a beef at seven o'clock [Music] our next stretch break came here at richmond at some stations like this one passengers are able to check and collect baggage back in my room just in time as we pull out of the station [Music] the sky put on quite a show for us as we crossed over the james river [Music] and wouldn't you know it dinner arrived right on time just as we crossed into north carolina having room service is really nice there's plenty of room to spread out especially since i had this whole bedroom to myself it was really comfortable and frankly kind of cozy [Music] the rain finally hit us in rocky mountain north carolina i'll never complain about traveling by train in the rain it feels really nice the weather soon passed or else we passed the weather and the sunset was magnificent [Music] the final stretch break i'll see today is raleigh north carolina before stepping out i asked the attendant to set up my bed and although the skyline was nice i was ready for sleep in its bed arrangement the room requires some ballet moves to enter the sink is mere inches from the edge of the lower bunk but its size is as far as i'm concerned a reasonable trade-off this bed is big and comfortable and yes my own pillow was in the mix here good night eight and a half hours of sleep meant i woke up in south georgia morning it's 6 30 and that was a great night of sleep like no joke um i'm feeling like pretty rested ready to get the day started i would like to go to breakfast but i think maybe i might just stay here a little longer sun's coming up and uh looks like a beautiful day despite all that talk i'm not one for lounging so i headed back to the dining car for breakfast which started at 6 30 anyway unlike lunch and dinner there's no pre-ordering but my sausage biscuit didn't take too long to microwave there are also small snacks and even yogurt available for the taking [Music] as my coffee started to have its desired effect and i watched the sun rise over north florida i started thinking about amtrak [Music] i've never really explained here on youtube how i fell in love with trains and amtrak specifically like a lot of people i was pretty depressed during lockdown back in 2020 i let the fact that we couldn't travel put a damper on my jouer de vivre suzanne who many of you have met in other videos noticed it and when restrictions eased she suggested we book a trip on a train no way i said that'll be terrible i said she pointed me to some of my friend paul winging at lucas's videos and i was inspired we took amtrak's empire builder to glacier national park and it really turned my perspective around for the first time in a long time on that journey i felt calm relaxed and he's just downright good since then we've had so many amazing adventures on the rails and now every time i get on a train about 30 minutes into the journey that same sense of total relaxation just washes over me we call it entering the rail zone [Music] and as powerful as the rail zone may be coffee always helps too and thankfully it's available 24 7 in the sleeper car so i grabbed a refill and returned to my room which had been transformed as if by magic well the magic went amtrak attendant and i'll need this sofa we've reached florida where we'll spend the rest of the day on our march toward miami hello from jacksonville florida it's a stretch break here because the train's taking on more water and uh and fuel water is important for coffee according to the timetable it should take us 12 hours to travel from here in jacksonville to the top of the state all the way to miami at the bottom but will we make it on time just like that we were off for much of the day i watched florida pass by there are so many great things about amtrak i don't have to tell you though i mean you're watching this video right but one of the least acknowledged is the appreciation it can give you for geography i've been to florida more times than i can count but it's always been flying in and out of one city or another [Music] this trip along the length of the state is the first time i've been more fully able to appreciate everything it has to offer like surprising exports appreciated the world over we're in pearson which is the nation's fern capital most of the commercial ferns in the united states are growing right here now that's a greener grass fact you can use soon we reached winter park which sadly was not a stretch break even this brief glimpse of the station made me want to check it out further eagle-eyed passengers better start looking for a mouse though next up orlando [Music] stacks of highways like these often come to mind when i think of florida but i was happy to step off the train and explore this station you want one of the new rooms you got to make sure you're in one of the even numbered cars in this train rather than odd number of cars now if you're assigned one of the odd number cars you want the new room you've got to call amtrak to get on the right car that's what i had to do [Music] here we are in kissimmee and from here we're going to branch off to the west and make our way to tampa before coming back to then head south [Music] i had lunch about 12 30 again today in lakeland florida the nicest thing i can say about the chicken olorosa is that its appearance matches its taste take that for what you will lunch marks the final meal on the silver star the train is scheduled to get into miami at 6 35 tonight so a visit to the cafe car may be in my future hello from outside tampa we're reversing into the station right now we've got to get back in there because then we'll use the same track we just came in on to get back uh on our way to miami this is also the last stretch stop of our trip this was clearly a challenge for the engineers there were a lot of intersections traffic and other hazards to navigate here's another huge shout out to the amtrak professionals who keep us safe but we made it to tampa after about 15 minutes we were on our way again navigating the same busy streets but this time moving forward i went to the cafe car where i was able to sit kind of like got an observation car or sightseer lounge on other amtrak trains but our forward momentum only lasted so long currently sitting outside tampa apparently there's an issue with the engine the conductors are checking it out hopefully they get sorted soon and we can get on our way but um time will tell and here we go we're moving again about 30 minutes later not so fast there we go again this is quite an adventure i guess it's i guess it's fair to say you just never know what to expect when you're traveling traveling with amtrak nearly an hour after we left tampa we're finally leaving or so i thought stopped again rolling again the trip from tampa to miami should be about four and a half hours it quickly became apparent that it would not be i decided to head to the cafe car i think the hot dog was our lucky charm because we finally got back on track and even past the northbound silver service the rest of the afternoon passed uneventfully we made stops at places like winterhaven where at least one driver didn't want to wait for us some of these stops can be inconvenient for florida drivers i mean look at this one in sebring [Music] we reached west palm beach and i took a shower unlike the iconic western roots most of the ground covered by the silver star is developed in urban but i don't think that's a reason to avoid this trip like all of amtrak's journeys this one can show you so much about 15 minutes to go until last and final stop which is miami a key takeaway when it comes to amtrak if you need to get somewhere at a precise time i don't think it should be your first choice we pulled into miami about two hours late between now and the next time see on the rails it makes the acela lounge back in washington dc look like a junkyard it's been the long no not the longest okay let's do that again this would be a good time also to talk about a sponsor but i don't have one between now and the next time see in the sky no that's not right

Channel: Jeb Brooks

Views: 1,026,359

Keywords: amtrak, amtrak viewliner ii, amtrak viewliner 2, amtrak viewliner ii bedroom, amtrak viewliner, amtrak train, amtrak train ride, amtrak sleeper train, amtrak sleeper car, amtrak bedroom, viewliner ii, amtrak sleeping car, amtrak sleeper, amtrak sleeper car tour, amtrak moynihan, amtrak moynihan train hall, amtrak metropolitan lounge, moynihan train hall, amtrak silver star, amtrak overnight, amtrak sleeper car bathroom

Id: m94zbjZ4D9I

Length: 21min 59sec (1319 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 03 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/megachainguns]

Amtrak's Silver Star (NYC to Miami)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Star_(Amtrak_train)