Amtrak Diner-Lounge DISASTER - Superliner I Bedroom Experience St. Louis to Dallas, Texas

hey welcome to another video we're at the st louis union station now home to the st louis aquarium as well as other attractions what you will not find here is the amtrak station today i'll be taking amtrak's texas eagle train 21 from st louis to dallas texas we'll be riding in a super liner one sleeping car in a deluxe bedroom which amtrak now calls a bedroom amtrak utilizes the gateway station which is just a few short blocks away from this beautiful old train station only a few of the tracks from the former station still exist [Music] currently they're utilized by these private rail cars including this awesome seaport coastline observation car the hollywood beach you don't see rail cars like this built anymore this one is one of my personal favorites and i was very happy to see that it's been restored hopefully one day i'll be able to ride on this rail car currently owned by a private uh owner and if you're watching this video i would absolutely love to ride your rail car this uh sw1 locomotive was owned by the washington terminal railway it was uh in washington union station for much of its career but now it finds itself in st louis missouri what better place for an amtrak station than under a freeway that's amtrak st louis gateway station for you this nice texas eagle it's not as long as it normally is right here is a super liner one coach this car has seating on the lower level as well as the upper level how's it going sir this car right here is a super liner one coach baggage car so on the lower level instead of seating there is a baggage room as you can see by this door right here now right here is one of my least favorite cars and we're gonna go in depth on this one it's a super liner one diner lounge car also known as the cross country cafe this was converted from a regular super liner one dining car in the early 2000s right in front of it is a super liner two sleeping car these cars were built in the mid 1990s by bombardier on the head end of the train is the p 42 dc locomotive built by general electric these things have been a workhorse for amtrak and are slated to be replaced within the next few years this this engine will lead us west to dallas and beyond so tonight we're in the 2131 car signs a little bit messed up this is one thing there's a super line and one sleeping car these cars were refurbished in the early 2000s we'll take a more in-depth look coming up as you can see this this is where most of the baggage space is if you have larger luggage directly in front of us is the family bedroom as well as these four rooms rooms 11 through 14. up the stairs we go now over here these are the upper level roommates rooms one through ten there's also a public restroom right here but we are in bedroom c today which is over here to the left let's go check that out the super liner bedrooms offer quite a lot of space compared to the rounds on these cars not to mention you get your own personal bathroom as you can see that also doubles as the shower so there's your shower fixture you'll know that these cars are a little bit nicer than the super liner twos these cars were refurbished in the mid 2000s with nicer fixtures just a better better overall design kind of learning off of uh mistakes that they might have made with the previous two cars and honestly they uh they still look pretty good even though most of these cars are starting to get a little bit more beat up so each room comes with two bottles of water there's also more water available upon request you can say we have the safety card and this dining car menu which we'll check out this table is pretty large this one's seen better days it's a little bit has a little bit of wear and tear on it but still has a lot of space to get worked on or play cards or something so one issue with these cars that you might run into is the lack of power outlets these cars are built in the late 1970s so power outlets were not you know necessary the way we use them so there's one here and then right above the sink there are two so i would always recommend bringing an adapter so that way you can charge more things at once all right so dinner has arrived i got the shrimp and lobster sauce so let's take a look and see what this thing looks like all right here's the shrimp and the lobster sauce looks alright i'm gonna mix it up a little bit hopefully it uh it tastes as good as it smells it does smell pretty good i will give them that but still doesn't beat the old dining hall service that they used to offer they really really need to bring that back as soon as they possibly can so overall that was a pretty good meal tasted fine uh my only complaint was the lack of shrimp i think i only counted five or maybe six shrimp in the whole dish i i would prefer to have more but they're already doing this cost cutting dining service so makes sense that they're cutting that corner too so otherwise a pretty good meal [Music] so right at the top of the stairs here that's where the coffee machine would usually be obviously with current health situation they're not offering nuts but there's still water sometimes there's ice and some extra tissues here a lot of safety guys that's kind of crazy so here's the restroom very spacious and there are a couple of these per car let's check here on the lower level one two and three restrooms there's also this shower adjustment i think someone's in there right now so we'll refrain from going in there so here's the super liner one room at unlike the viewline and one sleeping cars these cars don't have toilets and there is no overhead storage space there is very little headroom when you're sleeping in these cars now these are the nice sleeping cars with super aligner one this next car is not missouri these cars have not been refurbished and still feature the original carpeting on the walls as well as a bunch of different original design features notice how this coffee area is a little bit different in design so what you have on these cars is identical to the super lighter ones as you can see the aesthetics are just not as visually pleasing and you have one two three bathrooms and then you can see the shower is kind of backwards from the design on the super liner one cars hopefully these cars will get a refurbishment in the next few years they are beyond tired and next up is so in the mid 2000s amtrak was looking at ways to streamline their dining service so they took these super line on one dining cars and converted them into diner lounge cars also nicknamed the cross-country cafes now initially it was met with a lot of positive feedback and people thought it was possibly a really good idea but it has just turned into an absolute disgrace and a disaster these cars feature a unique design with these u-shaped booths in addition to the normal four-person boost initially they they were looking at possibly removing sightseeing lounge cars from trains and keeping all food service to this one single car the first train they they tried it out on was the capital limited believe that was 2007 or early 2008 or possibly even late 2006 anyway that did not go very good it was met with a lot of criticism and a bunch of design flaws a bunch of things that you know if they actually listen to employees and listen to feedback of customers they wouldn't have run into these issues and said they put millions of dollars into a product that ended up costing them way more money to redesign and now ultimately was wasted because quite frankly this this whole this whole design is just not functional for for what they needed to do so from a customer standpoint and an employee standpoint these u-shaped booths were an absolute atrocity so initially in the uh prototype diner lounge car these tables were actually smaller than they are now when you eat in the dining car you need a lot of space to spread out the food the dishes the drinks and clearly these tables are not large enough to handle that so on the other end of the car where the main dining area is these tables were ultimately the booths themselves were ultimately removed and replaced with the typical booth design holding four people why they went with this design was it's frustrating to figure out it obviously wasn't a cost thing i'm not sure what they were thinking passengers do on these trains but it cost them a lot of money and created a lot of headaches for passengers and employees running the trains that didn't need to happen so as you can see the seating is very awkward i'm facing straight out from the u-shaped booth and you're facing right at the people eating across from also not to mention there is not much table space and these booths are meant to accommodate three people so i'm not sure what they were thinking as far as people actually eating full meals now on the other end of the car they finally replaced the booths for these three person booths with these regular ones the only problem with these booths are that they're kind of curved in their design so people seated on the inner seats will have more legroom but on the outer end people have lesser the seats will be closer together now not everything is bad on these trains these lights in the middle look modern and are a nice touch for the tables now one of the major design features of the cross country cafe was bringing the snack bar from the lower level of the sightseer lounge and bringing it into the dining cart design which is what they were able to do with us here it's actually very visually pleasing when you walk into the car but i won't say the functionality is probably the best now initially when these cars entered service these display cases were full of items that you could purchase on like like t-shirts and other other trinkets which is pretty cool but now it's just basically wasting space in the car which is no surprise it usually is what happens to things like this and checking out the uh the menu here not much has really changed over the years just little little changes they usually serve pepsi now they serve coke coke products nothing really notable also as you can see they have this protective glass this actually looks pretty good on these cars sometimes the doesn't look like it fits in with the car this actually was made pretty well amtrak has talked about not restoring the sights to your lash car to best train the texas eagle as well as other trains that it's been removed from during the pandemic i personally think that's a very foolish move not only for the passengers but also for the crew members crew members are trying their absolute best to make all these these troubling changes and just frustrating moves due to the current climate of things and then making the customer experience as good as it possibly can be but i can't move forward without there being a better better flexibility for crew members and better better work spaces for them to be able to do their jobs to the best of their ability so hopefully amtrak will not cheap out and restore the sightseer lounge cars to this train and any train that they were thinking about removing it from because they are something that helps attract people to ride these trains and and motivates people to choose it over another travel option or even bring back the passengers that they already have i myself included miss those cars and would love to be hanging out in them right now chit-chatting with my fellow riders from all over the country and all over the world so hopefully they uh they don't go with keeping it off this train because for the sake of the crew and the sake of the passengers riding these trains we need that lounge car back all right go try and make up that bed voila now i just gotta make the bed [Music] well good morning it's just after 6 30 in the morning we are arriving in texarkana arkansas [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so so so while we're waiting for uh track space in front of us i just wanted to let y'all know why i'm so hyper critical about amtrak's equipment food service so i've been running amtrak since 2000 and over that time the crews have been awesome ever since i was a little child but the food service and the equipment has gone through many variations and very very many changes over the years some very good some very bad you're gonna get that with a government-run operation no matter what it is now the thing is they spend a lot of money and they do still have to come up with a lot of these ideas now sometimes it just comes down to implementation and how you go about things and many times they'll listen to employees feedback on certain subjects such as on the view line or two sleeping cars where they need to put the linen closets and then ultimately not listen to them and install them in a place that isn't convenient or not even have them at all now i just want to offer my opinion on these things to hopefully make things better long term and kind of put it out there that although it is privileged to be on these trains and to be riding them especially 50 years after amtrak was inaugurated in 1971 i think there is room to still keep these trains out here as a viable travel option and realistically that the connected communities across this nation that don't have any form of transportation a lot of people that they can't drive places or they there's no air transportation and amtrak is the only option to travel from a lot of these small cities so just think about that when when you talk about amtrak and defunding them or getting rid of them all together because there's a lot more to it than than just profits and and being in the green as much as possible or not being in the red anyway back to the regularly scheduled program we are operating about 30 minutes late we were due out of texarkana at 5 58 a.m central time and it is currently a little after 6 45 so our next stop will be across the border in marshall texas we only have a few more stops until our ultimate destination in dallas but it's going to take about five hours to get there so it's almost time for breakfast so go check that out and we'll check out the cross country cafe one last time for this trip and hopefully enjoy a semi-decent flexible dining breakfast these boards still feature the manual roll signs for the car number these ones are nicely uh nicely made up for the train sometimes it'll be it won't be made up and it'll be some random train [Music] actually these super lined are two sleeping closures to carry names this car was earned now as you can see on the super liner too it's actually a digital these cars were built in the mid-1990s so they featured more technology than the uh super liner one cars but the super line and one cars are nicer than these cars now so unlike last night we were able to eat breakfast in the cross country cafe today as you can see the u-shaped booth has been removed from this side of the car and replaced with the more traditional booth style all right thank you sir so for breakfast this morning i got the omelet one of the few hot breakfast choices currently yeah available let's see how it is so it doesn't look like there's much to this it looks like your typical uh microwave reheated omelette that you get at the grocery store hopefully it's a little better than it looks smells alright fortunately one of the issues with prepackaged eggs is uh when you reheat them they're very dry and this is of no fault of the people cooking them on these trains these employees are absolutely fantastic but oh my gosh this might be the driest egg i've ever had in my life but that's what the hot sauce is for i guess try to finish this all so while i was able to finish that meal an omelette preheated pre-made actually looks good on paper but again in reality it's not a good product to be serving passengers hopefully we can go back to freshly made omelettes and eggs and pancakes and rare french toast again really soon because they need it on these trains [Music] so [Music] our next fresh air smooth record we have long due taxes as long as you take this will be our next pressure smoke break once again this is marshall texas right now be trained in marshall texas you need to be in the first coach car behind the cafe car that's what we did training pastures at next stop in about 30 minutes once we depart from here will be that of lonely long new texas so the amtrak station here in marshall texas was built in 1912 for the texas and pacific railway it was utilized until the early 1970s when amtrak started service through here again the station was at risk of demolition in the late 1980s by the union pacific who owns the property here but the local community stepped in they were able to save this building and now it houses the texas pacific railway museum the station is in the middle of a uh y so the tracks over there are the ones we're going to be traveling on towards dallas and fort worth and beyond and we're on the one leg of the y track so let's follow the rules ladies and gentlemen call the rules destination but if you decide you don't want to do that next stop and find another means to your destination if you want to ride a train you must where you ask thank you all right all right riley's you're now arriving along view longview takes connecting buses to houston street for them boulder city once again if long views you stop take this time check up down around below you see for your personal belongings remain seated until we make a complete stop and again for those who are traveling through get off trains they smoke cigarettes you do it your own risk so do not be trained all right ladies and gentlemen a little bit more one notable difference between the super liner one and super liner two cars are the trucks and also note usually above the numbers was the old number plate now this car doesn't have it either and it looks like they removed them on most of the super line on one part you can still see an old number plate otherwise these cars are virtually identical on the outside [Music] so just a few facts about this car so this is sleeping car 32059 originally these sleeping cars were supposed to carry the names of uh national parks throughout the country so this car was going to carry the name of the sleeping bear dunes i'm not sure where that is um probably look it up after the fact but that was pretty cool so this car went over went through a uh overhaul and it was completed on december 2nd 2005. so being that it's 2021 that overhaul is probably starting to reach the end of its useful lifespan but for 15 years uh since it's since these cars have been overhauled this is uh it's probably still a pretty good shape there's some wear and tear below the door there but overall it's not too bad now as you can see i have the bed the upper berth and the lower position now i'm only five eight five nine so having it lowered isn't too much of an issue i just have to watch my head when i'm leaving the room but there's anyone who's taller than where i am it's probably a little bit uncomfortable to have it down and as you can see the overhead space in super line of course isn't that much the viewliners you get quite a bit more headroom and space to turn around once you climb up to the upper berth so just keep that in mind if you're claustrophobic some call it a coffin-like feel i've never been in a coffin and hopefully i'm only in a coffin at the end of a very long and prosperous life so i won't think of it like that uh [Music] [Music] make sure not in that car behind the cafe car you need to come to that car to the train for many years of texas once again many older texas coming up next in a few moments we're doing our first stop right now second stop with a few moms [Music] oh all right so we're on the move out of mineola texas it's 10 39 a.m so we're an hour and 14 minutes late look outside there's this cool miniature railway i don't know how often they operate but it's pretty neat little uh little loop here and i guess they have uh i have light shows or something in the winter pretty neat anyway dallas texas will be next and that is going to be my destination for this trip see how much time we can make up coming into dallas so as we approach dallas the end of uh my journey on this train today i'll just leave uh leave my thoughts on what needs to be approved first things first daily service the daily service being restored at the end of may 2021 the second thing that they need to improve on is the food service we need to get back to full dining service we need to bring the pride back and the employees and really just need to bring back what long distance rail travel is all about and then third of all the restoration of the sightseer lounge car aboard this train there talks that amtrak doesn't want to restore it it's a cost-saving move but as a passenger i think it's a fool's decision to not bring that car back so hopefully amtrak can improve upon the products that they have it's always an up and down battle but it's been around for 50 years there's been a lot of ups and downs over those 50 years hopefully we can start a new and help improve passenger rail travel both long distance and high speed rail for a better future overall my trip on the texas eagle was very enjoyable and i hope to ride the full length of this trip at some point in the near future [Music] uh [Music] all right all right riley jr arriving dallas dallas texas ladies and gentlemen if down says your stop please take this time to check up down around below you see fake personal belongings remain seated to make complete stop wait for it all right dallas texas his senior car down the stairs he's a hand rails come downstairs exit train thank you we got a kansas city southern train coming behind us [Music] so anyway if you like the video please leave a like if you aren't subscribed to the channel it really helps us grow we'll be taking plenty plenty of other train trips in the near future both here in america and hopefully across the world so any help at all so like subscribe leave a comment tell me where you want to see me go i'll try to make it happen anyway thanks for watching and joining me on this trip see you next time two so you

Channel: ForeLeaf

Views: 192,854

Keywords: Amtrak, simply railways, trains, amtrak viewliner, amtrak sleeping car, amtrak first class, amtrak roomette, amtrak train, amtrak acela, amtrak acela express, amtrak empire builder, amtrak jeb brooks, amtrak paul lucas, amtrak california zephyr, amtrak moynihan, amtrak moynihan train hall, amtrak penn station, amtrak avelia liberty, amtrak metropolitan lounge, amtrak simply railways, amtrak southwest chief, amtrak sunset limited, amtrak bedroom, amtrak bedroom suite

Id: CqWWEAK-xbo

Length: 48min 29sec (2909 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 05 2021