Is this Amtrak's most UNDERRATED train?

foreign once again from the United States and Chicago to be more precise you joined me outside of Union Station just a few blocks away from the Sears Tower or I guess officially the Willis Tower as no one calls it this evening we'll be heading east to the country's capital Washington DC aboard what I think could well be Amtrak's most underrated train but before all that let's head into Chicago's Union Station and see what it has to offer now regular viewers of the channel will be well aware by now that I am a big fan of the station here in Chicago I think that the architecture here is just absolutely stunning and sort of encapsulates the now long gone Glory Days of rail travel in the United States Union Station originally opened back in 1925 and is a major hub for Amtrak and its long distance rail services now while I think the Great Hall here would be a perfectly suited place to kill the next couple of hours while we wait for our train I'm traveling in a brunette tonight which naturally grants me lounge access we'll head to the lounge in just a moment but first I thought I'd briefly show you these stations food court it contains all The Usual Suspects that you might have expected such as a McDonald's and a Chick-fil-A as well as a small shop and being British what I would describe as a sort of Pub anyway my back's killing me from lugging around my heavy rucksack so I think it's time we headed to the lounge while a comfortable place to wait and aesthetically somewhat pleasing if not perhaps a bit Bland the food offering in the lounge is actually pretty insulting in my opinion considering that this Lounge is mainly used by sleeping car passengers who have usually forked out an arm and a leg for their tickets offering pre-packaged cakes and cup noodles just doesn't really cut it for me anyway the time soon comes to head down to the platform to board our train with Amtrak I've found that boarding usually commences around half an hour prior to departure by the way the train we'll be taking this evening is Amtrak's appropriately named Capital limited service train number 30 which leaves Union Station for well Union Station in Washington that is at 6 40 p.m daily now sleeping car passengers are supposed to get priority boarding however I didn't see any evidence of this although if I'm being honest there should really be no need for it this massive queue is partly the result of the time it takes staff to assign coach passengers a seat now why Amtrak can't just assign a seat at booking is just beyond me it would just save so much time and hassle especially considering that sleeping car passengers already get their accommodations assigned instantly upon making their booking [Music] all the way to the front again at long last though we do reach our sleeping car at the very front of the train for its capital limited service unlike most eastbound Services where they use their single Decker viewliner coaches Amtrak uses their iconic double decker super liner coaches here we'll be traveling in room 2 this evening which is on the upper level of the car [Music] everything [Music] okay and here it is our home for the next 17 and a half hours or so these roommates can accommodate two people at a squeeze or provide spacious quarters for a Solo Traveler as you'll never be made to share with strangers on Amtrak we'll take a look around the roommate and the rest of the train for that matter in the morning but for now let's take a seat and see where we'll be heading tonight [Music] bound after leaving Union Station Crossing from Illinois and into Indiana just a short time after departing we'll then go on to travel through Ohio and Pennsylvania before having two stints in Maryland separated by a couple of hours in West Virginia before finally arriving into Washington DC and its Union Station where we're scheduled to arrive at 105 tomorrow afternoon scheduled travel time is 17 hours and 25 minutes and this trip will see us covering a distance of 780 miles or 1255 kilometers and we departure cargo on time at 6 40 pm [Music] as we make our way out of Chicago We're treated to a spectacular Sunset which is a fantastic way to cap off what has been a beautiful day as I'm sat here editing these clips over a year later it is really making me long for the day that I return to the US [Music] foreign to that glorious Sunset it's time for a well somewhat less glorious meal Amtrak only offers its flexible dining service on the capital limited which consists of these rather lackluster steamed meals while the Chicken al roster I went for certainly tasted good I always find that the flexible dining portions are on the small side and full way short of the traditional dining offering that Amtrak has on some of its headline westbound long distance trains that said dinner does still include a drink of your choice including alcohol and one upside of flexible dining is that it's possible to have your meals served to your room which we took advantage of as opposed to having to go to the dining car to eat after dinner with it now being dark outside and rather late we decide to turn in for the night we awake the following morning to find that we're out in the wilderness and approaching the Appalachian mountain range it's the scenery in the morning as we trundle our way towards the capital that I think makes this possibly Amtrak's most underrated train now sure it's not quite going to rival the likes of the California's effort or the co-star light but there are still some really rather spectacular sights to be seen on this train bassoon rolls around and I went for the railroad French toast again it was nice enough but not really a meal worthy of the hundreds of dollars that Amtrak charges sleeping car passengers to travel on this train right with breakfast out of the way let's see what these roommates have to offer these roommates feature the usual setup with two seats facing one another these seats are configured to form the pretty spacious lower birth on a night with the much more cramped up above folding down from the ceiling a lockable door and a privacy curtain are also provided so you don't need to worry about people looking into your roommate although no the door can only be locked from the inside not the outside [Music] the seats themselves are actually really comfortable and the leg room is great if you're on your own but definitely a bit cramped of your sharing although these seats are very wide so it's certainly possible to rest your feet next to your travel buddy providing your well enough acquainted that is between the seats you'll find this rather flimsy fold-out table nope that while it's marked out for Checkers and chess pieces for this aren't provided because who doesn't take their chess pieces with them on holiday each roomette only has one power outlet so I definitely recommend bringing some sort of strip plug like I have in terms of lighting options each seat has a reading light as does the upper berth and there is a bigger main light although I've always found that these don't really do a great job of lighting these roomets thankfully though there are also volume controls for the PA system so you don't have to worry about being bombarded with the seemingly constant announcements that they make on these trains and lastly you'll also find a couple of coat hangers as well as a couple of small face towels overall while these roommates are undeniably quite comfortable it's also apparent that they're in dire need of a facelift as they're really beginning to show their age as for the other onboard facilities well there is one on the upper level most of the toilets are located on the lower level next to where you'll find the accessible bedroom generally Amtrak do a good job of maintaining the sleeping cars toilets and that was certainly the case here which is good to see foreign passengers also have access to this shower on the lower level I always think that this is a nice little luxury to have on a train and I found that both the temperature of the water and the pressure were good the coach you'll find self-service coffee-making facilities in the morning which I thought was a nice touch now sadly these trains don't have a proper dining car but rather have this half first class Lounge half Cafe car setup also it would appear that there's no proper sight to your Lounge car on the capital limited anymore which is a shame as there was when I traveled on this train in 2019 and then at the back of the train we have some coach seating although it's worth noting that coach can get very busy on the capital Limited sleep I'm track super liner trains aren't Wi-Fi enabled which I always think is a bit strange but apparently they trialled this in the past and it didn't work that well so make of that what you will [Music] employees further instructions please do not open any windows and doors unless otherwise instructed by an employee [Music] well what the scenery as we get closer to Washington is rather nice the weather is anything but and seemingly got worse and worse the clothes that we got to the capital [Music] back to your accommodations at long last we start running alongside Washington Metro trains signifying that our journey is nearly at an end so it's time to whack up the chart and summarize the experience well dated these roomets are fairly comfy the seats are very spacious although it is a little on the cramped side if there are two of you sharing the beds were a little bit firm but generally okay in terms of comfort as sleeper trains go aided in part by the pretty decent bedding that Amtrak provides for Amtrak's roommates I think a seven and a half out of ten would be fair in the comfort category as for the amenities well they were a bit more hit and miss while the toilets were well appointed and kept clean and the onboard shower was certainly appreciated these trains are just so horribly outdated the fact that there's only one plug socket per roomet really highlights this for me and a long distance train not having Wi-Fi in this day and age seems a bit barbaric to me well the meals were okay they certainly weren't up to the standard I'd expect from the high ticket prices that Amtrak demands to travel in its sleeping cars and just bear a thought for a moment for the coach passengers as their only food option was the slop that they serve in the cafe car and trust me from experience the cafe car food makes even the flexible dining meal served in sleeper look Gourmet I had a hard time rating the amenities but I'd say that they'd land somewhere between poor and fair as for occupancy pretty much every room in the sleeping cars were occupied and coats seemed to be pretty busy too that said as you'd like to hope for such a long distance train even if you're traveling in coach your ticket guarantees you a seat so while not really relevant for passengers traveling in the sleeping cars as if you find it too busy in the common areas you could you know just lock yourself away in your roommate or bedroom using my scoring system I'd put occupancy at medium when it comes to punctuality it's hardly surprising that delays are quite common in the year up to the 15th of May 2023 Amtrak was scheduled to operate this service every day except Christmas day so of the 364 Services operated within that year time frame only 167 or 46 arrived on time 10 services or around three percent were canceled outright with the remaining 187 Services arriving into Washington with an average delay of 1 hour and 26 minutes so well I'd say you probably shouldn't count on your train being on time it is at least unlikely that your train is going to be canceled outright which finally brings us onto the cost and tickets are quite frankly ludicrous starting at 643 one way for a Solo Traveler in a roommate that's nearly one dollar per mile which is just absolutely insane coach however is a lot more reasonable starting at just 84 one way which is about what you'd pay to get an indirect flight in economy class on a low-cost Airline personally if I were doing this trip purely just to get from Chicago to Washington I'd obviously just book a flight and probably Fork out for a Non-Stop one at that as needless to say it's way way quicker than the train that said the views on the train are quite impressive and certainly surpass those that you'd get at 30 to 40 000 feet and whoever needless to say I don't think forking out for sleeper on just the capital limited is worth it we had a connecting itinerary from Los Angeles to Washington that was one thousand three hundred and fifty dollars for two people in a roommate which while still expensive isn't quite the daylight robbery that Amtrak charges for one person in sleeper on just the capital Limited so those are my views however I am as always curious to hear your thoughts on this trip in the comments below privilege ladies and gentlemen when you come downstairs I'm placing a lot of the luggage on the luggage off the luggage rack onto the platform if you do not see [Music] with that all that's left for me to do is to welcome you to a very rainy Washington DC and its stunning Union Station where we arrive at about 20 to 3 which is one hour and 35 minutes late due to various small hold UPS along the way okay I just got folks watch yourself very much thank you man thank you right with that I'm off to go and check into my hotel and explore the US capital however in the meantime I do hope you enjoyed the video if you did be sure to give it a like comment and subscribe to the channel as all of them help me out immensely also don't forget to hit the Bell icon so that you get notified each and every time I upload a special thanks as always goes to my fantastic patrons and channel members if you want to join them in supporting the Channel all while getting ad-free access to my videos you can do so from just one pound dollar or euro per month you'll find the relevant links in the description below with that all that's left for me to say is thanks a lot for watching and I'll see you all next Friday

Channel: Dylan's Travel Reports

Views: 24,893

Keywords: amtrak, amtrak roomette, amtrak sleeper, amtrak sleeper train, capitol limited, capitol limited train, amtrak capitol limited, amtrak review, amtrak trip, amtrak trip report, amtrak roomette review, amtrak roomette trip, amtrak sleeper review, amtrak sleeper trip, amtrak coach seating, amtrak trains, chicago to washington, amtrak chicago to washington, chicago to washington train, chicago, washington, washington d.c., amtrak roomette tour, amtrak train tour, are amtrak good

Id: QfcMFAUNpaI

Length: 19min 1sec (1141 seconds)

Published: Fri May 19 2023