Texas Eagle Discussion

For all you Sunset Limited/Texas Eagle watchers:

I'm going to be traveling from Dallas to Chicago on the eastbound Texas Eagle.

Does anyone know how Amtrak currently handles (or mishandles) the eastbound Texas Eagle's departure from San Antonio, on those nights when the thrice-weekly Sunset Limited (hauling the Eagle's through cars from L.A.) is running extremely late?

Does the Texas Eagle leave San Antonio more or less promptly at 8am, with or without the through cars? Or does it always wait for the cars (or their bustituted passengers) to arrive from the West Coast -- even if it delays the train's departure for Chicago by five, ten, or even fifteen hours.

In other words, at what point is the Texas Eagle crew likely to be told, "Enough waiting. You're leaving."

Amtrak reportedly maintains two spare cars at SAS for this use.

Amtrak keeps a spare coach and sleeper in SAS in case the Sunset is running late. The policy is if the Sunset is more than 2 hours late, the Eagle will depart on time, and the Sunset riders will be "bustituted" to the Eagle.

The eastbound Sunset is scheduled to connect with the Eagle on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday.

What day is your trip planned?

I'll be traveling from Dallas to Chicago on a Tuesday. Hopefully, it'll turn out to be my lucky day and I'll get out of Dallas on time.

After that? I generally don't mind when a train runs late, as long as I'm already on it.

usa4624 wrote:Amtrak keeps a spare coach and sleeper in SAS in case the Sunset is running late. The policy is if the Sunset is more than 2 hours late, the Eagle will depart on time, and the Sunset riders will be "bustituted" to the Eagle.

The two-hour policy was based on the old schedule, when the Sunset Limited only had about two hours to connect with the Texas Eagle. Now it has around 8-10 hours to make the connection, but thanks to UP's continuous meltdown, even *that* connection has been missed several times in June.

KDSK-TV reports that the Amtrak "Texas Eagle" derailed after hitting a rockslide outside of Desoto, Missouri. 103 people were on board. 20 patients were taken to a nearby hospital, and none of their injuries are considered serious. Early speculation is that the heavy rain Wednesday may have caused the rocks to slide. Officials say the engineer couldn't have seen the rocks in time to stop because he was coming around a curve.

http://www.ksdk.com/news/news_article.a ... ryid=85484

Does anyone know when the lounges will return on Texas Eagle 21 and 22? The Amtrak agent told me they were only gone for now and that they should be back. I saw 21 and 22 without a diner, but then I saw them with a diner a few days after. The time when they didn't have a diner must have been a one time thing.

There are only so many Superliner consists. Observe them for several days ... be consistent. Soon enough you will know which consist has what equipment in it.

Take a look btw at Mr Pismobum's website. He tracks the operational status of the Amtrak fleet. There are N superliner consists; if there are less than N superliner lounges, someone gets shorted.

John Perkowski

They also have used Coach-Cafe's on 21/22 before in 2002 especially note I saw this on several occassions. From what I'm being told they might off for good.

We recently traveled the Texas Eagle, Capitol Limited and Crescent. If you have a sleeper as we did, the lounge was not necessary. I can see its use if you are traveling coach. The windows were so filthy on the lounge on the Capitol Limited, we returned to our sleeper...Bill

AmtrakFan wrote:They also have used Coach-Cafe's on 21/22 before in 2002 especially note I saw this on several occassions. From what I'm being told they might off for good.

That would be consistent with David Gunn's record of turning Amtrak service into bare bones crap.

hsr_fan wrote:[That would be consistent with David Gunn's record of turning Amtrak service into bare bones crap.

This was Warrington due to equitment shortages. Gunn was forced to due to car shortages.

First Amtrak trip LA to Cleveland on the Texas Eagle

Hi all,

I need to go to Cleveland in June and amconsidering whether to drive or to take Amtrak. I can't fly and have problems with altitudes, so I'll need to take the Texas Eagle from LA, through Texas, and up to Chicago. I have some questions and I thought this might be the place to get them answered.

I'll just rattle them off and hope for some feedback.

- I started with the thought of going coach, but I'm beginning to think I should get a roomette. Not sure I can do 3 nights in a recliner (and I was told it can be loud)

- How is the sway/movement? I've heard it can be bad and I'm wondering if it's hard to get used to or affects your sleep.

- Delays: From my reading it almost seems like you can expect a lot of them. The trip is already 4 days, and I'm worried it could be quite a bit more.

- Is it better to get a seat on the top or bottom of the train?

- I'm 6'1". Will a roomette bed work for me?

Any other info and tips you could give me that you'd think would help would be great. I'm having a tough time deciding on which way to go.

Thanks a bunch,

Lands[/list]

do you need to go to Texas ?I weould have thought the southwesst chief would be quicker .

That long of a trip, go with a sleeper.

At 6'1", you'll be in for a tight fit anywhere.

I'd go with top deck, better views, but bit more sway.