TRIP REPORT - Amtrak Southwest Chief, Chicago to Los Angeles

hello everybody and greetings from beautiful Chicago I am here at the Holiday Inn Express Magnificent Mile first of all if you want to get a full tour of this room before I slept in it made it all messy so you go ahead and check down in the description for a link but yeah I am getting ready to head out to Union Station and we're doing another long haul and track trip thanks of course for all the support of the previous videos it's pretty much the whole reason that I get to go out do this once again so today we're trying out another long-distance train this one is the Southwest Chief it's a little bit like the California Zephyr than I did before heading all the way from Chicago to the west coast of course this time we're going to Los Angeles instead to San Francisco the running time on this one is a bit shorter and the scenery should be distinctly more you know Southwest desert than the Zephyr was so I'm really looking forward to checking out another Amtrak long-distance product there's been some rumors of this train getting cut or having a service change in some sort of significant way so I'm kind of glad that I'm catching it just in case you never know with a service like this how long it's actually going to last so let's go ahead and get out and document it so right now it's twelve thirty six the train doesn't leave until tooth 2:50 actually but I could only get late check out here till 1:00 so what I'm gonna do is go ahead and hop on a CTA bus to get over to Union Station and from there I guess I'll just go ahead and chill out in the metropolitan lounge [Music] [Applause] [Music] alright I'm gonna go in GoPro mode here for a while since I gotta take all this stuff with me onto a public bus this is a pretty cool historic hotel here very tiny the floors are really small see that's it yeah level the other store branding everywhere [Music] [Music] - you're tricking us to make sure that you are in the correct lineup for the Clippers thank you [Music] let's see if the upstairs a little bit less ground [Music] you're in the right [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] alright I'll get you your look around here before I have a chance to mess everything up and unpack my stuff but you can see as per usual you get your sliding door here in the romantic lats comes down like this there is no way to lock these things when you leave the room though I can tell you from experience doing this a few times it's never been an issue never have trouble leaving valuables in the room that's to say well yeah so you have a window that you can leave open with the door closed or even closed curtain like this and get more privacy this looks like it's a Superliner one we're just one of the older ones got a little floor-to-ceiling mirror alongside counsel here or yes we're gonna put few things so next to each one of these seats you have all of your controls so you have I don't believe that the user selectors work anymore you control the volume of the speaker in your car when they're making announcements you have your light controls on/off and then the night light if you want to use it like a glows when you turn it off got your attendant call button console adjust the angle of the light gave me a good amount of water when I came in here which is much appreciated got the bunk that pulls down on the top and that a little closet over here I'm gonna give me a couple towels do so yeah I'm gonna go ahead and get them back this is trained three going west to Los Angeles just a few minutes I'm gonna care everybody I'm gonna come in each and every one of your rooms if you have any questions about your train travel journey connections anything to that nature let me know I am gonna go from room to room so just be a little patient with me and I'll come see you let me know tonight this evening when I you are ready for bed I'll make all your beds for you just let me know by 10:00 o'clock also folks tonight will have a dinner service John will come out and do reservations we happen to have families in another car just let them know and just doesn't need one person to be the one that has the reservations that's why we don't don't like it duplicate them we need to use a restroom we have three downstairs as well as one of the top of the stairs by the coffee station you like to take a shower it is downstairs first door to the right I run a big shower towels on the luggage rack I have soap inside just remember to lock the door behind you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] okay so we're just outside of Naperville now leaving the Chicago area by just a few observations so far with Keith first off it seems like I ended up with a really good crew today the sleepy car attendant is super nice the conductors have all been really nice they've actually pretty funny on some of the overhead announcements running a little behind as we got stuck behind a metro train but only by about 10 or 15 minutes which over the course of a two-day trip you know I mean if nothing else happens we'll easily make it up but never plan on these things being too close to on-time there's a lot of things that go wrong in two days but yeah it's actually it seems like a very nice train overall so far one other observation is that apparently the segment here between Chicago and the city is extremely popular the Train is completely sold out every sleeper every coach seat everything though I don't know if that's gonna be the case beyond Kansas City or not so it's been a little difficult getting footage of like the train itself but you can take a look at my other reviews like at the Texas Eagle and the California Zephyr if you want to maybe a little bit of a better look around the car and around the train as a whole because those trains were a lot emptier and it was a lot easier to film without getting in people's way but yeah I mean if this thing does clear off a little bit in Kansas City and even if it does and I'll do my best to get a little more footage of what the interior on this train is like overall I mean the super liners are showing our age a little bit but it's still a pretty nice experience so yeah onward through Illinois the entire train taking reservations for dinner I will start the sleeping quarters once I finished with the sleeper so I'll make my way through the coaches and then hitting in the observation quarter not tonight we're serving a surf-and-turf which is a flat iron steak paired with a crab cake we also have the steak mats all the seafood is going to be a growth salmon get our herb roasted chicken breast then a rigatoni pasta which is vegan-friendly some of our pastures your mills are included with your accommodations alcohol is not included and gratuities are at your discretion coach ministers who do accept cash and all major credit cards prices range 1652 $39 sip table Minister Tzipi good please ever curtains and doors open at this time also please one member of your party to your room if you're seated in the lounge car is that will be the last card that I take reservation so thank you [Music] [Music] okay so as is the norm that has came through the sleepers to take our dinner reservations I went for the second slot which is 5:30 but the Terrenas awful I guess I've never seen I think they were like six total times you could pick from going all the way to past eight o'clock tonight but I'm hungry I haven't eaten since like breakfast so 5:30 sounds good to me [Music] [Music] okay it has just passed seven o'clock and we are departing Fort Madison Iowa so dinner was excellent I went for the the steak option as they usually do probably one of the better ones that I've had dining crew was as awesome as everybody else that I've met on this train sat with some awesome people as well at a great conversation we were in there for like an hour and a half just chatting it's one of the funniest things about these frames is being seated with strangers and meeting all kinds of fun people so uh but yeah we're running just a little over half an hour behind not really much in the scheme of things again considering it's like a forty one our trip but scenery has been really pretty so far and we haven't even hit the famous desert part yet so I'll keep shooting here until the Sun Goes Down and we'll see what this little bit of Iowa and the northern part of Missouri bring la plata is up next alright so I'm starting to turn into a little bit of a super lighter veteran here there's a few times now one of the things that I like to do before the sleeping thing actually comes through an offer so pull down beds I often just do my own because it's kind of nice and just lay back watch the Sun set you know maybe have a movie on my iPad in the background so these two seats down here just fall flat there's a little lever you could press on your foot and then on top of the upper bunk there's little like thin mattress pad thing that's pre-made you just lay it down on top of it and the nice thing is if you're traveling alone you can actually steal some of the bedding that was intended for the other bids so like in this case I get two pillows and an extra blanket so it's actually pretty comfortable and being a taller guy like six foot two when my head on the pillow my feet I just quite can't touch the wall on the far side so there's a decent amount of room in here a nice thing that's in the bottom bunk you still have a really nice view the one who disadvantage of these super liners is that from the upper bunk there really is not you so the lower bunk is definitely the better than two if you're traveling alone make up the lower bunk don't use the one on the top at least that's my personal in place one other minor tip that I've picked up here is that these air vents that control the air conditioning but basically it's just an on or off kind of thing you can open or close the vent I do find these cars don't tend to be particularly cool during warm on so one thing that helps a lot is like taking the safety card and maybe some other paper that you might have and sticking them right here because the air almost comes out flat and just blows into that space behind the bunk doing this directs a little bit of airflow down for where you actually are I think it makes a car a lot more comfortable I also seem to have lucked out here sometimes the Superliner isn't really all of Amtrak's fleet you'll find a lot of rattles and things there's a little bit of it in here but this one seems pretty solid or add some fairly rough track right now it's riding really well and there's really not that much shell rattling a vibration going on so car number is three two zero five six definitely a winner [Music] all right good morning and welcome to some area outside of Garden City Kansas it's about 6:30 a.m. here still pretty dark outside I'm guessing retired the edge of the central time zone here but we are still in central time and a sense of 6:30 breakfast wood just opened up so I'm going to go ahead and hit breakfast here before it gets too busy and that I can come back and enjoy the scenery some more once it gets a little lighter out it's actually 6:30 again we just crossed over into Valentine heading to Lamar Colorado we've been on this kind of slow very bumpy section of what sounds like jointed rail here for a while now actually some of the pumpkins track I can remember on the Amtrak trip there's a section kind of like this on the Cardinal - still kind of looking at some pretty you know Kansas prairie land those cows and colder than all that fun stuff but we should be hitting the mountains here at another couple of hours and going through the Raton Pass which I've heard is about the prettiest part of the route so I'm really looking forward to that always seems like the prettiest sceneries in Colorado breakfast was very good made another really nice person attend it was also really nice I went for the omelet option once again I kind of avoided filming it because it was so busy on the stream but the food and the service are still holding up very much so in fact I think this is the best food I've had on any attract train so far so great crew [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you know come on Andre consider like okay Stephens 41 oh man were officially in the West no more Hardee's it's Carl's jr. now and I missed it on camera but there is just a road sign that said no services next 78 miles not even a gas station on the sprout until we get to the next town [Music] [Music] [Music] that's again free smoke get fresher stuff if you decide to step off the train here do not therapy do not wander off stay near the coach or sleeping car door that you exit from and when you hear the old boy stop we should do it get back on the train again Brett Tony Mexico you all right we're in Vegas Las Vegas New Mexico never knew this place existed yeah we're still winding through northern New Mexico here much less of a desert landscape than I was expecting but it may change here as the day you know progresses just got back and another good meal I just went for the burger in the diner car and the Train does seem to be a lot emptier now than it was before it seems like this route just gradually clears out as it goes especially after you hit Kansas City so kind of interesting in that regard yeah looks like we're back on the BNSF mainline here because I actually see some freight cars for the first time in a long time before we are on that section the Raton Pass that they call it that is basically only used by Amtrak these days so it only sees like two trains a day but yeah let's see how the scenery progresses here for the rest of the day she'll stay just as we get closer I'll make an announcement that's going to be on the right-hand side of the Train I'll give you some time to google it now before we lose cell phone service [Music] [Music] I'm a beer out today to greet us again this little family of three has been here for many years [Music] [Music] [Music] make sure you're not people okay so we're coming into Albuquerque now this is a technical stop for the train we're coming in a little late and even with that they're still planning for us to be stopped here for about 50 minutes it's supposedly they're doing a mechanical inspection at a crew change here and also from what they've said a lot of people are getting on here in Albuquerque and a lot of people are getting off too but what's interesting is apparently this next segment Albuquerque - you know the LA area is sold out would begin the scenery definitely picked up and is getting much more interesting here and as later part of the trip the rainstorms here on the mountains have been really cool I've been having a lot of fun watching that I mean the scenery I would agree with the consensus so far that the Zephyr is definitely the better of the two in terms of scenery but the chief here definitely has its own charm without a doubt and I have a feeling that beyond Albuquerque that's going to continue but we shall see but overall this has been a great experience probably the best crew have had an Amtrak train which helps a lot - best food I've had on an Amtrak train - and I'm sure that you are related yeah we're coming into Albuquerque here at about 3:30 p.m. Monday ji [Music] [Music] [Music] it's just a brief reminder of etiquette afford the trade ladies and gentlemen this is public transportation and we are right together with people various backgrounds so we need to be respectful of the passengers around us by watching what we say to ourselves of being respectful of other passengers property and personal space let's all be nice and civil together and be respectful towards one another thank you be back on the BNSF transcon here it's just been one intermodal train after another which is kind of cool scenery still been beautiful I'd had another great dinner I faced up friends here that I didn't driving every meal with we're all the early schedule I guess but yeah I'll keep filming again here until the Sun Goes Down and we'll see what scenery and the rest of New Mexico and Arizona has to offer one other thing I thought was interesting on this train is that they actually do serve breakfast tomorrow we're doing at La Union Station like before 8 a.m. because we're actually running a little early now but they do breakfast from 5 to 6 a.m. if you want it so I figured I'd just kind of approach it where you know if I'm a week I will go get it if I'm getting some decent sleep I'll probably just you know pass but yeah great trip great crew overall this has been probably the best experience I've had on Amtrak the only thing I think that beats it was the scenery on the California Zephyr in our tank once you come to a stop along side and lap see this we go through to get your sunset shots on Amtrak amazing how many fingerprints are on this window [Music] you all right I woke up early today it's 5:00 a.m. when we're outside the LA area since I'm up I'm gonna go in and take advantage of the breakfast this morning because I figured why not as soon as the Sun comes up we'll start getting you some shots coming into LA all right just got back from breakfast and now we are sitting here in San Bernadino on the outskirts of the LA area working so really we actually had to wait for our departure time again [Music] Riverside this is Riverside please carefully make your way down stairs to be trained and have a wonderful day in Riverside and ladies and gentlemen this is John in the dining car this time the doctor car is closed for breakfast service as we prepared the dining car pour arrival into Los Angeles once again dining car is closed for breakfast [Music] [Music] [Music] on behalf of untrained engine now on voice you know you couldn't chose other balls of transportation but thank you for writing down sir remember your next trip Dow 1-800 us a real for those of you that are gone fathers on the coast are like train number 14 that train does not leave till 10:00 10:00 you can go down in the station if you are riding the surf - check to see what time your train leaves if you need a redcap redcap service is available all the - that you'll be a little patient we all know early so they might not be ready for us once again on behalf of the crew we like to thank you for choosing Amtrak is your mode of transportation [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: The Elevator Channel

Views: 155,954

Rating: 4.8752642 out of 5

Keywords: amtrak, long distance, sleeper, southwest chief, chicago, los angeles, overnight, trip report, review, tour, train

Id: E7W_33D_oKM

Length: 56min 2sec (3362 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 22 2020