Last Call?

Frequent commuters get to know the rules and procedures (some unwritten) better than "newbie" employees on the train.Here are a few of them:

1.Commuters  in the cafe car  should buy the products, and tip the LSA well.
2. Don't bring your own food or drinks.
3. LSA should reciprocate with "free refills" on coffee - even  if it that's not written in the Amtrak handbook.
4. As you head up to LA in the morning , somewhere around Del Mar,  call in the order for drinks and food required for the ride back to San Diego that evening.
          Hint: Fridays and holidays sell more.

The photo to the left is the cooler on the 784 just north of Solana Beach, on  Friday April 15 at 7pm.  I was alerted to this sad condition when I heard the odd announcement on the PA of "Last Call".

Last Call? WTF? Last call should be reserved for 2AM at your local bar. The riders on this train had 37 minutes left to go.

Newbies - reach out to us. We'll be happy to help We don't want to resort to breaking rule #2.
 


PS: Do they put up with this on the Acela? More about that in future posts....

California Seats Not So Cool

Every once in awhile when we board the 763 train at Solana Beach we are greeted by the depressing site of the California seat. Hope you don’t want to relax or stretch out. Instead of reclining, the lower lumbar portion of this seat will thrust your hips forward, pushing your knees into the seat in front of you! There should be a warning when boarding this train; “If you’re taller than a seven year old, we’re sorry; Thanks for riding the Caltrans \ Amtrak experiment.” After doing extensive research the Surf liner blog has learned that this seat was the result of Caltrans spending your tax dollars to improve on what Amtrak has been doing for years. Why would Caltrans by trains for Amtrak? If it was to subsidize; was it really necessary to turn Amtrak into the Metro?

Amtrak Surfliner Goes Green

The Surfliner cafe car is very small. It holds 4 tables and seats 11 people. The rest of the space is occupied by the food storage/selling area and the humongous ADA compliant restroom. Between the restroom and the first table sits a cardboard trash container. This thing is bulky and gets in the way of people and things.

Recently Amtrak decided to add a second bulky container specifically for recycling. Note the care taken to provide special slots for bottles (e.g. Arrogant Bastard), cans, newspapers and magazines. We guessed the concept was to keep item types  separate and minimize the sorting process for the recycler. That's why we were surprised, after lifting the lid, to find that this is the same old big giant box with no separate compartments.This is so silly it had to be done by committee. Reminds me of another classic invention.

In The Dark

The ride home is always entertaining, but sometimes it crosses over the line and becomes strange. Last night was an example of the strangeness that can enter into an otherwise routine commute home.

Everything was normal as we made our way out of Union Station. The regulars were in their standard seating positions and the LSA was doing brisk business. The only items out of place were Big Al and Mark (the banker), who huddled in the corner instead of assuming their normal positions standing in the condiment section of the Cafe Car.

Things deteriorated 10 minutes after leaving the station when the internal power supply cut off. The train got eerily quiet without the normal background noise of the air conditioning fans buzzing. At that point we knew that this trip was going to have issues.

Close your eyes and imagine a 2 hour train ride without lights, air conditioning, flushable toilets... Now think of that ride without beer! The horror! Luckily for us, Big Al was hiding in the corner because he had brought a six pack of beer with him, and he didn't want anyone to see it.

Beer problem solved, we now had to fill the unusual quiet with chatter. I have a limited number of topics to run through in my chat files, so we recycle topics quite regularly. Every now and then you get someone who drops a doozy. Yesterday's tidbit was provided by a random passenger who, after a whole hour of silence dropped this nugget:

"I don't like Swedish people. I'm just throwing that out there"

After the shock of this guy saying something, and after processing just how ridiculous it was, I replied the only way proper. "Me neither... I have always been partial to Norwegians."

Such was the 784 on 2/22.

What Were They Thinking?

Change isn't always good, and Amtrak recently instituted a couple of major changes to its Pacific Surfliner service that will have nothing but a negative impact to the commuters using its service.

The first and most publicized change is the new "express" train service from San Diego to Los Angeles. The second train (563) north out of San Diego each morning will now be an express train skipping several of the previous stops along the route. It will no longer serve San Juan, Santa Ana, or Fullerton. This will save an entire 15 minutes from SD to LA. That assumes the train is on time, which it never is...

Second, and most resentful, they are changing the menu in the Sea View Cafe. This is more than your standard increase in prices, they are cutting out two items critical to the well being of several of the "regular" commuters. No longer will they serve Courvoisier (sure to force a certain regular onto the Metrolink), nor will they carry the best food served on the rails. Posted below is a picture of the last Jalapeño Burger. Shortly after this picture was taken it was cut into 4th's and shared with a tear in the eye...

The last Jalapeno Burger