During the Thanksgiving Holidays Amtrak rounds up some extra passenger cars and runs an extra train between Seattle or Portland.  The train usually consists of a few Amfleet 74 Seat Passenger Cars & a snack car with about 10 business class seats.  I believe the train often runs on the day before and day after Thanksgiving with even more cars, number 7-8 of the above passenger cars and the same snack car.  The extra passengers number between  300-1400 per day during the long weekend and days off.  The irony being, if we had the equipment full time Amtrak could very likely fill up the trains even then.

My father and I rode up and I’ve put together a story line of pictures for the trip.  Click on any of the photos to see a larger image.

My segment started at home.  I walked out and across a few blocks to board the north bound MAX to Union Station.  The first train that came along was a Yellow Line MAX.  During that time I say three streetcars go by which I snapped a few photos of.  I also decided a bit of sugar and caffeine was in order, so I stepped into the Seattle’s Best at PSU while waiting.  There I snagged a sellable couple of photos and sat watching the streetcars & buses roll by.

With the arrival of the Yellow Line I boarded and enjoyed by 8 minute ride to Union Station.  At this time of the morning, on a Thanksgiving Holiday, almost nobody was around.  I was the first on the LRV, which I took a shot of since it is a rare thing to see a truly empty MAX.  Upon arriving I entered the station to see, as expected, a massive line of passengers waiting to board the #502 extra.  Again, I sat and waited for the line to dissipate, and once there was only 2-3 people left, I stood up, walked to the counter and got my seating assignment.

Off to the train, seated, and rolling at a precise 9:00am, as scheduled.  We left Portland and arrived in Vancouver on time, were father boarded the train and joined me.  A short time later we arrived in Centralia, on time.

In Centralia we walked about the small one street downtown.  There is a coffee shop with their own grounds, St Lucia, that is a cool little place.  We got some hot beverages and then stepped outside to watch some freights rolling in and out of Centralia Station.

We noted the Kansas City Southern engine working the freight load, which is odd being that Kansas City Southern (KCS) is not often running anything out in these parts of the country.  After watching this train do some shoves and pulls we arrived back at the station where I took some Twin Transit photos.

After our short 45 minute wait, the Coast Starlight pulled in nonchalantly into the Centralia Station.  Everyone boarded in a a timely and orderly way, and with a few seconds to spare we were back rolling on the rails.

On the way back we enjoyed lunch on the train, with some pleasant co-riders heading to Portland themselves.  This being their first train trip I had to ask them how things were going.  Everything had been top notch for them so far, and they were much relieved that it was nothing like air travel.  Even waiting in lines wasn’t an issue while waiting for and riding the train.  I’m always glad to hear a first time rider who loves train travel.

Another train trip for the books.

NOTE:  This entry I originally wrote and neglected to post a couple months ago.  Since I had written a substantial entry, I couldn't just leave it unpublished - so here it is available as a completely random post.

Round 1:  Destination Thief River Falls, Minnesota

I travelled to Thief River Falls, MN recently via a selection of transport modes.  I’m here on business, but that’s irrelevant to Transit Sleuth readers, but there are some other points that are relevant.

First I left the house via automobile, for the prime reason no buses run early enough to deposit me somewhere to ride the MAX Red Line to the airport.  Jo rode with me to return with the car to its parking spot where it shall sit for another dozen or more days.  We left at 4:35am heading east on Powell, turned onto I-205 north.  After a few minutes we exited the Interstate at Glisan to park at the Park & Ride at Gateway Transit Center.

After a few minutes, the next MAX Red Line arrived exactly on time, Jo and I boarded, and off we went toward the airport.  After the short 10 or so minute ride we detrained and headed into the concourse.  I picked up my flight tickets and we headed off for some grub in the main commercial area of the concourse.

We bid farewell for the trip and I struck into security with the blank stair of a downtrodden and beaten dog.  Every American should walk into the security lines of the TSA this way, because really, THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT WE ARE for allowing this $8 Billion a year travesty.  It isn’t security, it’s a “customer service organization”!  I’ve seen it on TSA memos so it MUST be true!  Anyway – I’m sure you can tell I am NOT a fan of the TSA.  It’s a waste of billions, and does NOTHING more than the security did that existed before that didn’t cost a single taxpayer penny.

After I made it through the deluge of security idiocy and dehumanization I went and camped out at the terminal the plane would depart from.  After a while we started boarding in preparation for departure.  I got onto the plane in my normal way, with precision and stowed my carry on luggage.  I immediately sat down and attempted to stay out of the way.  Of course, everyone else isn’t like me and could give a crap whether they slam EVERY bag they have into me.  So I sat there in my aisle seat attempting to not get smacked in the face.  In the end I was hit 6 times; 2 to the side of the head, 3 slammed into my arm as I blocked their clumsiness, 1 by a babies foot and the bag the individual carried as she turned to apologize, and 1 more time by some drudge of an idiot just plundering through and hitting everyone on their trip to the back of the plane.

Still in one piece, boarding completed, and off we went.

…or well, so that was the plan.  We pulled away from the terminal air-way and sat for 20 minutes because some luggage guy left some of the cargo netting hanging out of a bay area.  After waiting 19 minutes for someone to come back and fix it, someone appeared and stowed the cargo net in the cargo bay.  Now we finally, after this show of blundering, we where off.

The flight was ok, fortunately it was a big plane.  The 757-200 lumbered through the air with a Cadillac’s ride; smooth yet clumsy.  We started our approach after the few hours of transit, and landed at Minneapolis about 25-30 minutes late!  Weeehooo!  Late planes rock!

I deplaned and met up with my coworker Gary, which we then snagged a Quiznos in one of the airport restaurants.  After that short bite we went and waited for the arrival of our next plane, which would take us to Grand Forks, North Dakota.

We made the flight and headed to Grand Forks.  After the short flight we arrived, amazingly about 10 minutes early.  So overall, we arrived at this point early.  Gary got our car which he would drive to our final destination of Thief River Falls, Minnesota.  We piled into the Toyota Camry and smoothly rolled along the highway clearing mileage at around 65 mph.  We arrived, found our place of residence for the rest of the week and grabbed some food.

Round 2:  Destination Portland, Oregon

We departed Thief River Falls and travelled to Grand Forks to board the 8:10am departure to Minneapolis.  We arrived, Gary turned in the rental car, and we boarded the plane.  A quick flight, and as we landed I jarred awake.  I had fallen asleep for the entire flight and I wasn’t complaining.

After some quick flight research, my gate was F13 for the Minneapolis to Portland leg of the trip.  But before I continue the travelling narrative I really have to add some props for Portland.

There are people, and they seem to be a small number but have grown loud lately, that incessantly complain about Portland.  Most of these people don’t seem to do a real apples to apples comparison of Portland to other cities nor take the current issues here in Portland in context of other cities.  Among all those complaints though, Portland has some awesome amenities compared to…   well I’d say about every single city in the United States.

Where do I start?  I arrived in Minneapolis, and after two days of zero amenities I was glad to be back in civilization.  The first thing I did was get a cup of coffee, from Caribou Coffee.  I don’t want to complain, it was a good cup of coffee, but it by no means is a really good cup of coffee like one expects in Portland.  As I sat with my cappuccino pondering this wire-less the Minneapolis Airport has I was guessing on 5-10 bucks for the day.  Portland’s of course is free.  I got connected and sure enough, one hour is a bloody freaking $4.95!  So much for being business friendly.  I’m all for charging, but they ought to just put a surcharge on the airport fees or something.  It’s just too much mess to be required to dump out $4.95 AFTER I’ve already gone through a dozen different charges and other mess in an airport.

Anyway, a good flight home.  A short ride on the Red Line MAX back into downtown Portland and into the Office.  From there I did a few hours of catch up and then jumped back on the bus for the trip home.  After a short #9 run across the Ross Island Bridge I arrived home.  Overall a good trip, a rare trip, but one for the books.

One major thing, I'm very happy to be back in ole’ PDX.

Google & Valley Metro

While rambling through yesterday’s blog entry I wrote about a desire to be able to click transit and see how to get somewhere in Phoenix.  The lack of this feature to the city’s transit system was part of the underlying cause that led me to rent a car (at $60 wasteful dollars per day) just to get anywhere in town.  30 Minute frequencies on a bus aren’t so bad when you have an idea of where the bus actually is, without a mechanism to track, or plot logistically the bus is almost entirely useless except for the most desperate of users.  Well, to my surprise, there are talks between Valley Metro & Google as I discovered.  I just have one last comment on that, “HURRY UP VALLEY METRO!”  It is services feeds, this isn’t a hard process, I could integrate and make the service feeds needed for Google available in under a month – ALONE, pending I had access to Valley Metro’s Servers.  So hire some software developers, I can provide references for a couple in the area that are awesome, and GET IT DONE!  :)  K, Thx.

Density & City Facts, Portland, LA, and Phoenix

I was curious about densities, size, sprawl, and other tidbits between the three main cities of the trip I’m currently on.  We started in Portland, so I’m including it in the stats, and then headed down to LA and then Phoenix.  Here’s how each ranks.

Phoenix is a lot larger than the last time I checked.  But this is the beginning of my analysis of densities and such between the cities.  Los Angeles has really kicked off further interest to understand that city.  Simply, I knew the reputation LA has wasn’t accurate, but how did the city get to be known as a sprawling catastrophe of a city?  Was it because of movies like “Escape from Los Angeles”?  I am still not sure, but am going to start digging up more information.

That’s it for now.  More analysis of Phoenix to come later.

I wanted to take the #136 north on Gilbert, transfer to the #40, and then transfer to the light rail.  I studied the schedule for the #136 and could not determine when it would arrive near where I was staying.  I would have been happy to just go and wait for it if the bus arrival times where every 15 minutes, but the frequency was 30 minutes.  Strangely I almost went to wait for 30 minutes considering the temperature at 10:30am was an awesome 72 or so degrees.  That temperature however wouldn’t last long, and since I’m rather sun intolerant, I decided a car was unfortunately in order.

I got a ride from Jo’s soon to be married friend Cubers (pronounced “CUBE-ERZ”) to Enterprise Rent-a-Car and picked up a POS automobile.  I then drove directly to the nearest light rail transit park & ride and ditched the POS Chevrolet Cobalt.  That was the end of that turmoil, I could now focus on life, people, architecture, and my surroundings instead of driving.  With the car ditched I walked myself through the expanse of parking spots, filled with automobiles.  Through the parked buses, one a BRT oriented ride, one a normal hybrid bus, and then onto the platform where an LRV set awaited my embarking.

The Phoenix Bus System Fails but the Light Rail Rules

I’m going to clause this next section with my assumptions, thoughts, and ideas about Phoenix.  I figured it was a right leaning, socialistically auto transport oriented catastrophe of pavement ala Los Angeles.  I assumed that there would be no real density, and the downtown would be a corpse with partially sullen people.  I thought the light rail would be at 20-30% occupancy even though I had read the ridership statistics.  I thought all these things, how could this famously inefficient city harbor an intelligent process of zoning and growth.  How could mile long blocks, as inhumane as that is, allow for dense development, beautiful architecture, and above all – intelligently operated and built transit?

Please excuse my excursion in vulgarity, but holy shit did I just get sideswiped into a new consciousness.  Thank you Phoenix.

Mesa, Gilbert, and Bulldozing

I boarded in Mesa.  In my previously stated stereotype of Phoenix.  Mesa, is simply …  well, most of it should just be bulldozed.  Same with Gilbert.  Probably a lot of the outlying suburbs.  These areas are expanses of non-communication, human un-involvement, a faceless expanse of human development without any humans.  Sure, there were plenty of people around, but they were hiding in their cars, in their homes, and away from any actual community.  The sprawl was beyond destructive to the surroundings, but to any human being with a soul that desired community, life, culture, ideas, thoughts, or other elements it was not the place to be.  I’m sure there are some in the burbs’ that would argue this, but sit me down with them and they’d walk away either realizing this and a high likelihood of planning to move inwards toward the city.  Simply put, the surrounding suburbs are a dirge.  Pure death of the soul, no authenticity, no art, no originality.  The suburbs here are the archetype of American mindlessness, allowing corporatism to feed us the majority of our thought, the grand slice of our ideas, from our religion to our diets.

But this ended within just a few stops on the light rail system.  By the third stop the train was full of human beings.  Smiling, some talking to each other, checking their phones for the latest text or E-mail.  The train was primarily college students, young and beautiful.  There were a few people heading to work or other errands, but mostly college students at this time.

By the fifth and sixth stops the train was even more packed.  Even once we reached ASU and unloaded a ton of people, a ton more got on.  We kept rolling at a good speed down the center street alignment.  In about 10 minutes we where downtown, rolling through the streets with cars and people everywhere.  Strangely though, and this is where my idea of Phoenix rapidly started to change.  I thought to myself, wow, “this is enlightening”.

There were people wandering around outside heading for lunch, EVERYWHERE.  This of course is just one test of a city, a good lunch crowd.  I also realized that citizens, regular ordinary citizens, were walking around with their second amendment rights squarely planted in armaments upon holsters on their hips.  Unfortunately for the staunchly anti-gun blue crowd nobody was gunning down each other – hmmm, the twisted irony of that.  On the note of the staunchly anti-transit red crowd, which I thought polluted Phoenix too, the transit was indeed full of riders and even the bus stops garnered decent numbers of people waiting for a ride.  I was, being the Libertarian middle of the road advocate that I am, euphoric to see high transit ridership and armed, proud, happy citizens all over the place.

American Citizens in Phoenix

Speaking of Phoenix citizens, I honestly thought there would be much more grumbling and aggression.  In the suburbs it seemed that this might just be the case.  I saw 3 arguments taking place, heard about a botched robbery and the robber being shot, and other various forms of aggressive crimes.  But here I was downtown being greeted by complete strangers as I walked the sidewalks.  At first I figured it was the camera, so to see I took it off and stowed it in the backpack – but it ALL continued.  People, in full honesty, were greeting me with hellos.  Of course not every single person, but a solid 2 dozen people greeted me with hellos and smiles.  I was, shall I say shocked.  I had not seen this in any city except Portland.  But really, most American cities do seem to be picking up this spirit of camaraderie among each other.  I have to admit, that it has improved even more amid Obama being elected.  His victory truly has made an impact in city life, just by the air of change.  Regardless of what is functionally occurring with the administration, his presence versus Bushy Boys presence has changed the attitudes of millions of Americans.  Phoenix seems to be no exception, except that it has bucked my idea by exponential degrees.

Sandwich Factory

I jumped into the sandwich factory and got an excellent New Yorker Sandwich.  The shop had a great attitude (and armed employees also), and just gave me even more of an exuberant boost.  I gave Tony (of Lightrailblogger Fame) a call, got popped into voice mail.  I then tried to give my coworker from a job in another land, Aendenne a call, but my phone ceased to cooperate for a moment.  After about 15 minutes though Tony txted me back and we had a short txting exchange, which ended with me asking where a good wifi establishment, preferably with coffee, would be.  He pointed me to Lux.

Lux – Community – Coffee - Art

I mapped Lux on my iPhone and found it without much effort.  I fortunately knew where the light rail went, because I looked at the map and hit the “transit button” which failed to work.  I checked and came to the unfortunate conclusion that Valley Metro has not provided their transit information to Google.  I had a message for Valley Metro, GET YOUR INFORMATION TO GOOGLE!  Even without the transit directions I knew where it was, walked over to the light rail and checked the station stops.  A few stops north would land me almost at the front door of Lux.  An LRV arrived and off I went for a coffee surge and some electricity for my montage of devices.

I arrived, and was puzzled at first where Lux was, but then in short order with a tip from Tony, realized the located and stepped inside.  At first, walking into Lux was disorienting because of the darker lighting compared to the excessive sun outside.  My eyes adjusted and I moved forward in better clarity.  Stepping up to the bar I realized there was a roasting machine in the back.  Absolutely a good sign for coffee of credibility.  I got a smile on my face while I set my pack down beside the bar.  I ordered an ice mocha, figuring it would be a good default to jump into after the heat.

The girl at the counter asked, “want whip cream” to which I replied, “no thanks.”  She then got a sad puppy look like I’d hurt her feeling, which she then told me kindly, “we make the whip cream home made…”, to which I quickly changed my tune.  I received my mocha and must say, very tasty whip cream.  The mocha was good too, with a solid rich chocolate flavor and a slight bit of espresso bite.  I’d suggest one.

Lux was pretty packed when I got there, with only 3 seats empty in the whole place.  I was able to snag one after inquiring with one of the beautiful people seated aside me, “may I snag this seat?” to which I received a reply of “oh no, please do” from the young lady seated there.  I took my pack and set it aside, pulled forth my camera, laptop, iPhone, and all requisite cords to plug em’ all up and get juiced back to full batteries.  The pretty gal aside me plugged in my gadgetry for me, since I was across from the plug.  With the zappy electric flow going I commenced upon completion of this blog entry.

Needless to say, if you haven’t been to Lux and live in Phoenix, you should probably go.  You might kick yourself for not having been, especially if you actually like coffee of the higher quality (i.e. Not Starbucks burnt roasts & sugar induced comas).

The Ride to Lux, Light Rail Style

As I stood upon the LRV rolling north out of the heart of downtown Phoenix, I marveled at a number of things.  One of those things was the smoothness of the ride.  Because of the straightness of the alignment, the LRV could really scoot and still sustain a smooth ride unlike some of the twisting, turning, and raised embankments the LRVs in Portland and Seattle ride along.  I’ve come to find that the best riding light rail is planted firmly in cement along straight corridors.  The ride was absolutely chill, I dug it.

The second thing that outright shocked me was the level of development along the light rail.  Of course some was pre-existing and some is new.  But much of the pre-existing has now become transit oriented development (TOD), and garnered options to the lifestyle that being TOD provides.  There where shops, businesses, and massive apartment, condo, and other living complexes along this northern branch.  Every inch of what I had seen so far along the light rail line was in good maintenance, and the entire line tended to run through areas where the buildings where beautiful.  At least in the facade of beauty that many buildings exist hidden inside of.  This level of development continued extensively with only a couple blocks along that line being undeveloped or under-developed.

The other notable thing I noticed, was the continuation of people riding on the light rail.  Not just old, or poor, but everybody.  There was an older guy in a suit, a 30ish old suited man, some young kids in the tweens, some young ladies carrying on about some cute guy toward the middle of the car, probably in their early twenties, and a few single people interspersed in age range, lifestyles.  Also stood gazing into the distance a skate boarder, pondering what no one really knows, or possibly nothing at all.  One thing in common among all of us, was that everyone on the train was relaxed, chilled out, unlike the drivers I had seen earlier in the day in Mesa & Gilbert.

Packed to Crush Capacity

My last comment in this entry, is that while I sat in the wonderful air conditioned space of Lux.  I sat there watching each light rail vehicle make its way by.  When I got off and entered Lux around 1:30pm the trains going by were at about 95% seated occupancy.  By 2:15pm the trains coming by had 100% seated occupancy and had 10-20% standing occupancy.  By 3:15pm the trains coming by had reached 90% of crush capacity.  Each LRV set was going by with approximately 190-200 people each.

I’ll have a lot more to say regarding Phoenix, the architecture, design, zoning, layout of the city, and much more.  But for now, I bid the intertubez farewell for a bit and am off to wander the line a bit more.  This last photo I depart with is a shot of the city from the Lux Light Rail Station.

At the crack of way to early in the morning Jo, Mike, and I broke out of the Balboa Peninsula bound for Santa Ana Station again.  The plan itinerary at this point in the day goes like this.

• 8:17am Metrolink departing to Los Angeles Union Station.
• Red Line to Hollywood for break fast and photo mayhem.
• 2:30pm Board Sunset Limited to Maricopa, Arizona.

At this point anything could change, except that hard 2:30pm departure of the Sunset Limited.

At 8:17am, the arrival and departure of the Metrolink Train was quick.  Jo and I boarded and put our luggage near the lower seating deck of the car.  Again, very nice that trains have this type of capacity, and another reason we rode in a car to the train instead of taking the bus.  The train has plenty of space for luggage and the bus sorely misses any remotely viable place for cargo.  Urban buses do not a make a friendly travelers aid.

Jo and I piddled around the station for a few minutes figuring out where to go grab some breakfast.  Simply, it seemed the only thing we might be able to find would be Mexican food.  That actually didn’t sound like a bad idea, as we love some Mexican Food, but really wanted some eggs, biscuits, or some such traditional style American Breakfast.  Jo and I poked away at the iPhone trying to figure out where to go.  We found this one place, that looked like it might fit the bill.  We headed off in that direction, down Main and then over to Spring.

We both made it to the exact address of where this place was supposed to be, however it wasn’t there.  Nowhere to be found, except down the block we saw something that looked like it would be acceptable.  A place called Phillepe’s stood before us and we walked our hungry selves down the street and into the front door.  What we saw was the jackpot for breakfast.  With long tables and counter ordering, we stepped into the fray to order.  We weren’t exactly sure how or what way their ordering process was supposed to work.  Diving in head first we ended up with Jo getting French toast, sausage patty, scrambled eggs, and orange juice for $6.55.  I plunked down a solid $9.50 for a pair of pork chops, two scrambled eggs, biscuits, and some hash browns.  The hash browns were made of fresh potatoes, something I honestly don’t think I’ve ever had.  We gobbled all our food and were again ready to take on some exploration.

We walked back across the street to Union Station.  Jo went into the open courtyard area and took and break while I walked around the station taking photos.  I must say, the security & staff people didn’t raise a look of distrust.  I was impressed.  LA, scores VASTLY HIGHER on the - “leave me alone I’m just taking pictures” – scale of coolness.  SF was a tomb of harassment, and LA so far has given me no lip.  Rightfully so, I’m not going to blow anything up, especially with a camera!

Subway, The Metro Red Line

After the 10-15 minute session of station pictures and Jo taking a break, we decided it would be off to the Red Line to check out Hollywood.  We headed down to the subway and jumped on the next train after buying our two $5.00 all day fares.  Once aboard we got two seats side by side and enjoyed the ride.  It was a short 25 minute or so ride and we were up on Hollywood Boulevard walking upon the stars’ stars.  It was an interesting walk, even though I must say I’ve never been much to be start struck by stardom.  I’m the dork that find impressive things impressive, actors and actresses don’t usually measure on that list of impressive stuff.  So I stood by and enjoyed others enjoyment of being star struck, not by the people who are the stars, but merely being in the place that these stars once or sometimes are.  I was entertained by the entertained.

Jo and I plied our way around and eventually dove back into the underground to board the Red Line back to Union Station.  Upon arriving we headed back to the waiting area.  But before I could bring myself to end the wandering yet, I told Jo I was going to go see what the Gold Line looked like.  I knew it was light rail, but I wanted to see the light rail vehicles myself.  Jo headed back toward the grand waiting room and I cut off toward the Gold Line.

Gold Line to East LA

With the giant Canon EOS 40D slung around my neck like a giant “steal me” I decided I would do more than just glance upon the Gold Line LRVs.  I was going to use a bit of my last hour before boarding the Sunset Limited to ride the Gold Line.  At least I would go a little ways down the line.

On the thought of, a few stops, I boarded after snapping a few photos.  I barely made it to the first stop and saw an approaching light rail vehicle and couldn’t help but think, “rats, I’ll probably have to wait 15-20 minutes before I can get another one back to the station, I may just miss my train!”  So I stood firm on the LRV I had boarded with my slight worry of missing the Sunset Limited, and possibly worrying Jo, or worse, making her angry.  We snaked through the remainder of the downtown core and immediately paralleled a field of corn & other plants.  The LRV line then increased height and crossed over the huge LA River Canal.  There one could see the railroad tracks coursing both sides of the canal, we crossed over all of these and immediately rolled into east LA.

The first stop, even amid the slight ghetto look that was encroaching the area, was a spot on perfect example of transit oriented development (TOD).  I wasn’t sure which was there first, the transit or the development, but it was a good example regardless.  We rolled to the next station which was sort of in the middle of nothing, just some warehouse yards and parked cars in the station lot.  Here I got off the light rail to wait for, what I hoped, would be another Gold Line Train along soon.  Without more than 2 minutes, a train arrived, which I snapped a number of pictures of.  I boarded, grabbed a seat on a train set that had approximately 25% of seated occupancy.  Again, I couldn’t help but wonder what the ridership was like on this line.  I also neglected to notice if 3 car trains could run on this line, but I believe they could.  The train I boarded however only had two cars.

I arrived back at the station with about 30 minutes to spare.  My adventure had not been the risk I had thought it might be.  I suppose though, I could have rode further but chickened out.  The Sunset Limited only leaves every other day or so, once can’t exactly miss the train and reschedule for the next one!

Aboard the Sunset

After our short wait, Jo and I were more than ready to board the Sunset Limited.  This however was going to be a challenge of retarded proportions.  When I say retarded, I mean it.

First off, when Amtrak does seating, they already have it all screwed up.  There is more touch points to seat a single person on a train than was necessary in 1920 let alone today.  Amtrak has seriously pushed the ticketing and seat assignment process back to the late 1890s as far as I’m concerned.  First off, they always get everyone to stand in a line to get a seat assignment after buying tickets.  Who in the world does that anymore?  FREAKING NOBODY!  The airlines don’t do it, and I can’t recall a single other entity besides Amtrak that makes their own customers wait in lines to manually receive seating assignments.  Just let the customers pick a seat assignment at time of purchase.  There is zero reason for this inefficient nonsense.

Then there is the next step.  The step of actually getting to the seat one has been assigned to.  Since the process is so manual, and often confusing for both the Amtrak Employees and the customers, people end up in each others seats all the time.  Rarely do airlines ever screw their part of this process, Amtrak however is a different story.

So with that in mind, Jo and I start walking toward the train through the underground concourse.  Mind you, the Amtrak seating assignment staff were telling everyone to go to track #11.  Here’s the problem though, there isn’t just a track #11, there is an 11A and an 11B.  The Sunset Limited is also not just the Sunset Limited, it is also the Texas Eagle.  Well all of these people go hurdling down the main concourse toward track #11, for their respective train.  These people don’t understand that the train splits, that it is currently connected as one train, and thus once the hurdling people get to track #11 and realize there is an A and B chaos ensues.  Jo and I realized this along the way and concluded through simple reason that coach cars where down #11B and the rest of the train was down #11A.

We bypass the herd of confused passengers and head down #11B.  However another complication awaited us.  Waddling up the concourse was an obscenely obese woman, pushing a cart.  There wasn’t anything exceptional about her at first glance except she was huge.  Jo walked by the woman with no issue and I began to pass her by too.  Now this lady, being huge, wasn’t moving very fast.  However as I was about to pass her by she swung her cart of luggage directly toward me, I leapt forward to avoid having my ankle smashed by the cart.  I looked back at her with a wicked glare and almost lapsed into obscenities.  I’m really truly not keen on getting my ankles busted, and don’t care what is wrong with someone when I am threatened by such risk. I decided nothing said was a better idea.

Jo and I made it almost to the top of the concourse and onto the platform, but even though the confused herd was in the main concourse hallway behind us, many had made it to the Amtrak Employee standing on the platform directing before us.  Now I’m not really sure what the plan was from Amtrak, but there was a guy at the end of the concourse walkway onto the platform attempting to direct the herd of passengers.  He was looking at tickets and pointing to which car to head to.  This seemed intelligent enough, yet another point of possible error.  Yes, another point of error.  In short order this staffer directing people had sent people going to the further cars directly behind us going to the nearest cars.  The problem with this was, that the concourse entrance left little space near the nearest cars to board, but had an area they could have walked to not have been impeded.

With this cluster of people gathered, there was little people could do but stand in line.  However there was a rude couple that just started babbling about getting by, so myself and a few others squeezed over since they couldn’t wait.  From their cries and whining to get past it appeared they thought the Sunset Limited was going to leave and their idea was we were in the way boarding the Texas Eagle.  The couple got by but a scourge of others poured through our line, now disabling me from being able to give the car attendant my seating assignment so he could direct us to the correct part of the car.  Then, of all twisted evils, the obscenely fat woman poured herself through the cavalcade of people and ran her cart directly into Jo & my things.  She blurted out in stupidity, “I’m sorry, I can’t drive real well.” to which I replied, “I know”.  After my curt response she stammered another statement of, “I’m big and have a hard time steering.”  To which Jo and I managed to tell her to hold on a second while we moved the things she had ran into out of the way.  We finally moved our stuff out of her way, with enough clearance for her to move forward.  She uses this opportunity to plunge into another person, yet this time she falls forward also.  All of her excess largess she pushes the cart into this person.  Fortunately the other person moved out of the way a bit and didn’t take the full force.  The large woman straightens herself out and manages to finally get by.

I finally am able to step forward and hand the seating assignments over to the car attendant.  He directs us up the steps and to the left for our seating assignment.  Finally, the process of seating assignment was complete.  AARRGHBRAAA JEEEEEEEEZZZUUUUM!!  Ok, now that I’ve finished that outburst…  I’ll continue.

Phoenix & Hotel #1, Hampton Inn

We arrived in Maricopa on time and Jo’s friends swooped in to rescue us from the train full of stupids.  My brain immediately shutdown as the only thing either of us could see from the car our friend where driving us in was empty black darkness.  The road went on into nothing, and one couldn’t even see the prospects of the city.

On that note, I’ll continue in the next entry.

On Day 3, Jo and I pretty much stayed put.  We didn’t head into town or even leave the Balboa Peninsula for that matter.  Half the reason was because it is awesome and relaxing just hanging out there, nothing more needed.  We checked out the beach, went out on the pier to Ruby’s.  Ruby’s is an old style diner, burgers, shakes, and such.  Except instead of the traditional location on the side of the road, this one was on the end of the pier.

After that the most transport we did anywhere was rent some bikes and ply the entire Balboa Peninsula.  That was pretty cool, checking the out the area.  Later on she’ll have some awesome photos of our exploration posted and I’ll post links to them here.

Overall, that was the summary of Day 3.  Complete, utter, beach bumness.  It was awesome.  :)

Into the Breach, Day 4

Day 4 started at 7:00am.  Our escape route from the Peninsula was to give our buddy Mike a ride into work, then drive the last few miles into Santa Ana Station and ride the train into LA.  So far being this far from LA, has posed serious complexity to actually getting into the city.  Any route, includes multiple transfers and approximately 2 hours and 46 minutes at minimum.  There is one bus on the Peninsula, which I must admit is fairly impressive considering.  It has almost zero ridership this far south on its route and the people that do ride it are almost all maids or some other service sector employees that come to the Peninsula and then leave the minute they’re done working.  I get the notion this is a running theme in LA.  Half the population seems to serve the other half, directly.

The bus that serves the peninsula is the #71 Orange County Transit Authority Bus Route.  The primary route goes up and down highway 55 off of the Peninsula and into the mainland area.

We managed to head out the door around 8:05am.  This was almost miraculous considering Jo usually won’t budge before 9am.  We dropped our comrade Mike off at the office and headed toward Santa Ana Station.  We pulled out and headed for the sprawling monstrosity of a highway.  We rolled onto 55 north bound and that turned into the lovely 8 lanes of chaos, frustration, road rage, and anger.  It was beautiful in its own sickening way.  We made good time and in about 25 minutes arrived at the station.  We took a minute trying to figure out where to park, eventually found a good place in the parking garage on deck 3.

We walked into the station with plenty of time for our 9:58am departure.  The Santa Ana Station was a masterpiece among stations.  Simple, mission style architecture.  The station stood about 3 stories tall and now serves multiple purposes for the city of Santa Ana.  Downstairs was a pleasant waiting room.  In one corner was a souvenir shop.  Opposite of that was a little cafe.  On the far end of the station stood Jo and I at the entrance, and in the other corner parallel to us was the ticket counter.  We strolled up, and inquired about our reservation.  The ticket clerk courteously printed the tickets, and handed them over to us.  Irony, out of the two tracks that stood outside, he said track #2 and we ended up waiting and boarding the correct train on track #1.

Amtrak Pacific Surfliner

The Pacific Surfliner pulled in at exactly 9:57am.  Like a crack team of operatives, we rolled out of the station at 9:58am.  The trip was pleasant, and definitely beat trying to drive the Interstates or highways into downtown!  After about 10 minutes both Jo and I passed out.  We both needed that extra few minutes of sleep, being up late every night so far.  We awoke about 10 minutes out of the station.  As we passed gateway point into Union Station I realized Los Angeles, compared to about 15 years ago when I visited before, has drastically improved rail operations – or simply put, has rail operations again.  We say Metroliner Trains, other Amtrak Trains coming in, and off on other alignments one could see the subway cars.  Overall impressive.  Los Angeles finally wins some points for drastic improvements from the past!

We got off there and aimed ourselves for the front entrance of the station and our new mission, which was made en route via txting, was to find the Dash B.  The Dash B, under this new plan to go check out MOCA, would take us directly there.  We almost made it out the door without knowing what the Dash B was, or where to find it, but gleaned the information from an information attendant at the information booth.  With a few quarters in our pockets we made our way out of the station, across the street, and onto an arriving Dash B bus.

Dash B

The Dash B route was cool.  The little short buses, running a small route downtown, with a 7-8 minute frequency.  All this frequency and such, for a measly quarter!  I’ll have to check information on these little routes later, they seem interesting.  In no less than 10 minutes we arrived at MOCA and made our way under the outside display.  David met us there and we toured the MOCA, while MOCA was closed.  It is truly awesome knowing people that can hook a person up with tours like that.

After that Jo, David, Sarah, and myself snagged some great sandwiches around the corner.  We discussed the other ideas for the days’ activities and David suggest we ride with Sarah down to Long Beach to save a few minutes and have more time to check stuff out.  We deemed that a grand and awesome idea and after lunch said our farewells and headed off with Sarah.

Sarah got us into downtown Long Beach where we immediately found the Blue Line Light Rail and jumped another bus to tour around Long Beach.  We got to see some cruise ships, checked out a slight bit of the loading cranes from a distance, and generally just kind of viewed the city from the little tour bus we were riding.

Once back into the core of Long Beach a Blue Line approached just a few minutes after we arrived.  We boarded while it sat there at its layover stop.  After a few more minutes, with our 3 long LRV train, we headed onward toward downtown LA.  The run started from Long Beach with about 15 people on the entire train.  By the time we left Long Beach there were at least, and yes I was counting like an OCD case study, approximately 140 people on board.  By the mid-point of the trip there was approximately 210-220 people on the train set.  With the people getting on and off at each station, there is little doubt that the train saw at least 600-700 trips for that single run.  LA has done a very good job with their system.  I’m now going to have to dig up the ridership numbers for the respective light rail lines.

We arrived back downtown at the transfer point to the Red Line.  About 240 people got off of the Blue Line and the majority headed up to the level above to board the Red Line.  Within 5 minutes the Red Line blazed into the station as a subway train does, with heavy breaking the train came to a stop.  Everyone boarded quickly and off zoomed the subway train en route to Union Station.  It is always impressive the speed and mobility enabled by a subway system.

The Red Line, as only a subway train could provide, eclipsed the ridership of the light rail train by a couple hundred.  I wasn’t counting but my estimates where at minimum 4-5x as many as was on the Blue Line.  Again, I need to look up the statistics on this line too.

Back to the Surfliner

Jo and I finally arrived back at Union Station with 12 minutes to spare.  We figured out which track our train was preparing to depart from and headed up.  We boarded the train with 4 minutes to spare, and at 4:10pm sharp, we rolled out of Los Angeles Union Station.

We arrived back in Santa Ana on time and jumped in the ole’ hooptie for our last stretch back to Balboa Peninsula.

LA’s Summary

I couldn’t help but think, “LA actually has better transit than Portland does, what gives?!  Why do I still find it the last place I’d suggest to live?” and immediately came up with a few thoughts on that.

• Portland has contained itself in a reasonable boundary to serve.  LA is and continues to be a total zoning catastrophe.
• The roads and blocks in Portland remain human size versus auto-oriented size, which LA fails miserably at.
• LA has an attitude still and barely a soul knows there is anything besides their car.  Portland absolutely knows there are many options besides the car.
• Downtown LA could be beautiful and alive, instead there is a lot of work to do still.  Even though there are thousands and thousands more living in downtown LA than in downtown Portland, the later has much more life after 5pm than the former, massively larger city.

LA has vast potential to recover from the last half dozen decades of bad zoning and lack of sustainable infrastructure construction.  LA is a city with a short history, but a solid one with a world spotlight fixed directly at its heart.  LA has the stars, it has the port (ok, so that is Long Beach, but it is the metropolitan area), it has a fair environment, and overall sits in an area that people find attractive.  The only problem is overcoming the damning zoning and livability issues it has.  I have no doubt LA will overcome these issues, but there are definitely some very serious speed bumps on the way.

I’m going to catch 40 winks before jumping back aboard the flanged wheel for our next stretch of the journey.

With that here’s a few shots from day 1 and day 2 of the trip.

I’ve had the debate a few zillion times.  I’ll repeat the debate.  Show me a photo that shows a mode of transport that actively moves while you can be this

comfortable!  My lovely Jo is chilling in the Parlor Car.  I’ve never been as comfortable in a plane, bus, or any other mode ever.  Maybe a cruise ship might give a train a run for its money.

I challenge anyone to present a mode that is as remotely comfortable and human as rail travel.

The day started out pretty normal for a Saturday, slow and chill.  I suspect it was about 74, give or take a few degrees, and the sun was out.  Jo and I decided after finalizing our packed luggage to head for some biscuits at Pine State Biscuits.  With that we where out the door and headed for the east bound #4 Bus.

We arrived in short order.  The bus stop at 20th & Division is pretty cool.  It happens to have no shelter, but is near a New Seasons.  So nearby there are chairs and tables just off the paved sidewalk, near the side entranceway.  There are windows all along this part of New Seasons, which give it an open feeling of welcome to any bus riders waiting or coming.  Near the corner of the store there is a art piece that also acts as runoff from the roof.  The piece is kind of a metal scare crow man, holding a wheel of some sort where the water runs in and down.  From there the water runs into a bioswale (spelling?) where it is cleansed and sent into the river runoff.

We stood patiently and waited about 5 minutes for the arrival.  We were a little carried away with getting biscuits so had arrived excessively early.  The bus arrived on time and off we headed toward 39th, where we would transfer to the #75 north bound.  After arriving and transferring we were off again.  Finally we arrived at Belmont, got off the bus, and walked the remainder of the few blocks.

Pine State Biscuits

In standard Pine State Biscuits fashion there was a 30+ minute line for biscuits.  Thanks to some TV shows who showcased their awesome biscuits, we now had a line every Saturday and Sunday of out of towners and suburbanites.  I couldn’t really blame either group of people, the biscuits are awesome, and you just can’t get food like this in the burbs or most other towns for that matter.  But seriously, I’m sickened by the burbites most of the time.  As the statistics point out, urbanites are generally in better shape, healthier, and all around much nicer to look at.  Burbites tend to make the stomach spin and the skin crawl.  The IQ points tend to drop too, just like the general statistics of the bell curve.  One doesn’t have to assume, it is on display by their very actions.

But I do digress.

We got our biscuits, sat down and enjoyed them as one properly should.  Afterwards we left and walked back, a mere few blocks to the bus stop, and boarded the #75 for our return trip.  After the return trip transfer and the short walk from Ladd & Division (the west bound stop parallel to 20th & Division), we got our luggage together and prepared for the grand mileage of this vacation.  The real journey, our multiple hundreds of miles to traverse upon the Coast Starlight to LA.

Back aboard our trusty #9 bus to downtown and Union Station.  As we walked out the door and up to the bus stop the $9 pulled up for our transport.  We boarded with the largest set of packed luggage we’ve ever traveled with and took up almost the whole back seat of the bus (that’s 5 seats for those bus newbs).  Fortunately we didn’t feel too bad about it being that we actually managed to get on a bus that only had about 15 people on it.  This was very strange for today, and for the #9 route.  Often we don’t see buses with only 15 people on this route until about 10pm or so.

We got to the station at 2:35pm.  We had checked earlier and our #11 Coast Starlight was an hour and a half late leaving Seattle.  We figured we would be plenty ahead of her then if we arrived 10 minutes after the original scheduled departure time.  Of course, we were right and took a relaxing break in the Metropolitan Lounge in Union Station.  It is always nice to travel first class like this and have access to the lounges.

The Coast Starlight arrived and we all boarded.  We departed from the station at 3:24pm, exactly 59 minutes late.  A time that could theoretically be made up easily.

#11 headed out across the Willamette, plying the rail bridge as thousands of trains have before us, heading across and turning south for our journey.  We made really good time all the way through until the mountains just before Chemault before we had any additional delays.  This delay was merely a few minutes at that, which left us with a good potential to make up the tardiness.

Train People, British, and Conversations

When we boarded, my mother and father had boarded in Vancouver, Washington to ride with us to Eugene.  We decided after pulling out of Portland to head to the Lounge Car and hang out with them for a bit.  We started walking through our sleeping car, enjoying the slight rocking of the train.  Jo mentioned how she had missed this, as I did myself.  We made our way through the next sleeping car and into the Parlor Car.  We got halfway through the car and there on the lounge couch chairs sat mother and father.  We plunked down and immediately dove into conversation.

Jo & my mother began knitting away in turbo mode while father and I discussed various aspects of the voyage as we travelled along.  We passed through Milwaukee and into Oregon City.  In Oregon City we moved through with a slow order for the work crews doing maintenance on the tracks.  As we crept out of Oregon City we viewed the Willamette, and the water crashing over the dam for the industrial facilities along the river.

Father saw a lady sitting across from us with a book titled “USA by Rail” and inquired where she had boarded.  She answered, “I boarded in Chicago and took the Empire Builder across to Portland.”  He immediately, as did we all, picked up that she had a good and true British accent.  He, and I, discussed aspects of her trip so far.  She was happy to discuss and asked a few questions about various things along the way.  We pointed out a few tidbits for her to keep an eye out for.

We kept a steady banter up almost all the way to Eugene.  In preparation for detraining mother and father decided to head back to their coach seats about 25 minutes before their Eugene arrival.  Jo and I headed off to the Sleeper to enjoy the view and relax while we waited for our 6:30pm dinner reservations.  The view, as always, was magnificent.

6:30pm Dinner Reservations, More Friendliness & Tasty Foods

The announcement was made over the intercom that 6:30pm dinner reservations were ready.  Jo and I immediately shoved our ready feet back into our shoes and off we marched for dinner.  As with all meals in the dining car, all seats at all tables are filled, so often couples sit with other couples, loners sit with others, and the arrangements go on and on.  Needless to say, at any meal in the diner on a train one gets to meet new people.

Jo & I got to meet a couple from Connecticut for dinner.  The couple had just visited Portland for the first time.  The husband of the couple had flown in earlier in the week for business.  His wife, who hates flying, flew out later in the week.  They both had decided that they’d then take the train south just for fun.

We discussed with this couple, as we often do with anyone when they visit Portland, how absolutely amazing the city is.  The conversation ranged from the amazing transit that even tourists feel fine using, the easy access to all parts of town, the beautiful parks, and more.  Basically, I don’t recall ever meeting a single person who isn’t amazed at what Portland is.  They brought up their nearest comparison, Hartford Connecticut and described how horrible it is compared to Portland.  Stating simply, “their mayor of Hartford needed to come spend some really time in Portland to get their city of Hartford straitened out.”

It is moments like these I realize how awesome Portland really is, amid the random bitching and griping that often goes on among a select few of us that push hard for things to be even better.  Portland truly is, one of the best cities in America, hands down no contest.

We finished our dinner, Jo with her Mahi Mahi & I with my crab cakes.  Dessert was a must have of apple tart.  After a tasty dinner topped off with some great Pinot Grigio Wine we headed back again to our roomette.

We carried on about the rest of the night, eventually heading back to the Parlor Car for a late night chocolate and a cappuccino.  Of course, all this being part of the new Parlor Car Service of the Coast Starlight.  Eventually midnight struck, and we both managed to pass out after a great first day of vacation and a grand day around Portland and aboard the Coast Starlight.

Day 2 – Coast Starlight Arriving in Los Angeles

We awoke north of Martinez, California.  The train was back on schedule and making good time.  We were easily running at 79mph, the legal speed limit.  We made it across the water and along the shore, into Martinez.  In short order we were out of Martinez and on our way again.

We pulled into Emeryville and then on to Oakland’s Jack London Station.  There we, for whatever reason, got a third engine attached to our train.  So even though we were back on time, this addition put us back about 5-10 minutes.

As we rolled out of Emeryville we ran parallel to the BART tracks, and along came a 6 car train parallel to us.  At first it easily passed us up, being we had just pulled out of the station.  We gained speed quickly, probably thanks to our additional engine, and kept pace with the BART train.  We gained a little bit on the BART, and then as it came to a station we finally overtook the train and rolled past.  We rode along for another 5-6 minutes and finally caught another BART train, the tracks still running nearly parallel to us, about a block away.  We easily overtook this 4 car BART train and kept rolling fast.

Catching Up From Day 1 PM

The last night somewhere rising in the mountains Wad (a writer from the Metrorider LA blog) had managed to get a call through to me.  Even though my connection was horrible I picked up and we talked for about 10 seconds before the phone lost connection again.  I tired calling back, but unfortunately we’d moved just far enough to eliminate any signal whatsoever.  The iPhone read, “No Signal”, and so I gave up trying for the night.

This morning when we awoke I realized, still here in California just west of Sacramento heading into Martinez that I had really cruddy signal.  Since it was 7am I figured it wouldn’t be prudent to call about at this time anyway.  I stashed the phone away and watched as the scenery flew by.

South of Oakland

After the little BART races, we kept a well intentioned 79 mph through southern Oakland and points further south.  Jo was livid over not being able to photograph the graffiti (mind you, not the tags, but the large pieces of graffiti).  While eating breakfast we determined we would have to make a trip sooner than later back to the area and make a real endeavor to capture some of the graffiti.

It might seem odd, but it is almost like anthropological study of peoples.  The graffiti tells a story, showcases the lives and emotes an expression of various individuals in an area.  Sure it is frustrating and often times, defacement of property, which I am adamantly against.  But once it is there, a sense of history can be derived by capturing it in pictures.  If I used this explanation to state a fascination, at least of my own, with graffiti I may bore any of those graffiti artists into picking up a new art form.

The train, just like so many along this route, travel directly through a lot of industrial areas.  These areas have thousands of pieces of graffiti (and unfortunately tagging) on the buildings.  The train also passes through hundreds of neighborhoods that have popped up over the years along the rail line.  Some sprawl, some urban zoned, some just sporadic catastrophes in the making.

San Jose and Beyond

We pulled into San Jose Diridon Station along the side of a CalTrain Commuter Train (that really sounds redundant).  The station was really fairly nice from the outside.  If I had known that we’d be sitting at the station for 10 minutes (like we seem to do at Sacramento and every station south of that.  Whatever the reason, if we do this heading north, I’m going to go picture taking crazy.

So far, Jo and I haven’t been too motivated to photograph much of anything.  Much of what can be viewed from the train around Emeryville, Oakland, and San Jose make California seem more like a third world nation than part of the the 1st world United States.  I know there are beautiful parts of this area, but the train skips much of it around the urban areas.

We headed out of San Jose for the remaining 10 or so hours of our journey.

As the Conductor Says, “Let’s talk about walking the train.”

Departing San Jose Diridon Station the conductor came over the IC to welcome everyone aboard.  In this new era of train travel there really does seem to be a new exuberance among the employees.  When I say new era, I’m referring to the “Obama Era of Train Travel”.  The conductor explained to people, that at 79 mph along this stretch of rail the walking gets a little bit difficult.  With a short explanation of feet at shoulders width, and walk with purses slung, make sure to have a hand ready so you don’t fall.  I could help but think, “newbs!”  :)

The Popular Choice, Light Rail

Leaving San Jose station we passed over the Interstate and what did we have in the right of way, but none other than the transit mode du jour, light rail.  A single unit LRV was making its way parallel to the Interstate, to which we where running parallel to on the other side.  It seemed to go on for quite a few miles.  This however is one light rail system I literally know nothing about.  Don’t know where it goes, don’t know the ridership, and in all honesty, didn’t even realize it was here.  I will absolutely have to check it out and see what the specs are on that route.

Anyway, we arrived at 8:35pm, 35 minutes ahead of schedule.  I have to say, fairly impressive for the ole’ Star Late.  Our friend actually came an picked us up, as we could figure out reasonable transit to get to Balboa Peninsula.  The rest of this evening I’ll conclude in the next entry, for now, off to the metropolitan area of Los Angeles.

[Written during the trip taken on February 1st from Portland to Seattle and back]

6:00am the alarm rang.  I stumbled forward and out of bed.  After a bit of a struggle, mind you I don't get up at 6 am, I started moving.  After a normal morning routine I slung a few slices of ham, two eggs, and some English Muffins on the stove.  After getting those put together and some breakfast, Joleen and I where ready to hit the #9 bound for Portland Union Station.  After a few more minutes of preparation and packing we headed out the door.  On time at 7:20am the #9 pulled up to 21st & Powell.  We boarded along with a few other passengers, making a completely full bus, with 2 standing.  Not a bad count for an early Sunday morning.

After our trip across Ross Island Bridge, through downtown, and to Union Station, we settled into the benches and began our wait.  I looked up at the station clock and pondered what it would be like to actually trust train time schedules as they did in the early 20th century.

After staying planted for a minute or two I went scurrying about the station to capture some photos.  The first set I got of the station was a grouping I stitched together to achieve this shot from the ticket counter looking out into the main waiting room area.

The second set I stitched together was from the opposite corner looking back out into the waiting area from the boarding gates.

Our train arrived in push mode, with the cabbage car in front.  Just beyond the gates the Amtrak Cascades design shown clearly.

After a short wait Alex & the rest of the Amtrak Crew got to working on getting people assigned for their seats.  Being my party had business class, we had all our assignments already.  Eventually the boarding call for business class was made and off we went.  We boarded and sat down in our seats in car 1.  We where the first people to enter car one and I immediately grabbed some pictures.  All of the seats have been re-upholstered with leather.  With three seats per row there is a bunch of space in business class.  The following are the three basic shots I took to show off the new setup.

Here's a facing shot of the rows in car 1.

The following is a shot of the quad seats in business.

This shot is of car 2, which has the empty space and the single seat space for a wheelchair.

We puttered about a bit and then Alex came on the intercom and made the pre-departure announcements.  I walked toward the Bistro Car to get a drink and see who was working and ran into Alex along the way.  I snapped this shot of him looking all professional (as usual).

I then walked on through a few of the coach class and took the following shots for a space comparison.  If you think coach on a train is all crunched up like the sardine cans they call airplanes, you got another thing coming!  The following is a quad in coach.

The coach class has a table in their quad section, which in many ways I almost prefer sometimes over the single chair table in business, but of course prefer the business treatment and benefits.

The next shots are of regular coach class, with 4 seats per row, they still are easily an inch or three wider than airplane seats.  I always say that it is nice being treated like a human being on a train over a sardine on a plane.

After a smooth ride, and a rather uneventful nap, we pulled into Seattle.  My normal waking hour being about 8am, the 2+ hour nap was something I knew I could recover on the train.  Nothing like a 6am waking hour to knock a person out.  This photo I took of train #500 once we had pulled into Seattle.  Engine #169 had been our pusher this morning, replacing the regular and as late unreliable F59PHI.  I'm not sure if it is the engines, the maintenance scheduling, the lack or type of maintenance, or magic pixie dust in the diesel, but those F59PHIs seem to be broken more often than they aren't.  Same reason Jo and I missed our trip to Centralia was because of a broken F59PHI.

We had conversed with Alex & the #500 Train Crew while en route and walked east into China Town after arrival.  We then ate some Pho at a local place Alex showed us, then headed our various ways.  Alex had to get back to the train for preparation of its turn (when they set the train up for its south bound trip, they don't actually turn the train these days) as #507.

We then finally started footing it into town.  The first bus of the day was a hybrid articulated King County Metro #21, of course, in turn I had to grab a photo of it.

After a few more blocks we found an outlook facing over the sound and I snagged photos of the third mode of transit for the trip.

...and unfortunately, I puttered out there as I got involved in the city of Seattle.  Stay tuned and I'll be posted more shots from this trip at a later time, with my normal commentary.  Enjoy.

Chapter 3

Saturday Chillinz

The next day after arrival Joleen and I woke after a much needed solid night o' sleep, except for the tink tinking the pipes made from the steam heating system they still have in the place from yesteryear.  But we where warm and that is what really mattered.  In this non-metropolis of Forest Grove it appeared to be around 11:30am.  We had a taste for food so we headed out to the main dining area and got some grub.

At 1:25pm we walked out to see if we could tell if anything was running.  The day was desolate, like a nuclear snow holocaust, eerily quite.  Walking in snow crunching below our feet and the sound reinforcement left everything very dense.  Once upon the street we saw a steady stream of cars and trucks, with snow chains and studded tires, rolling in and out of town.  Even the front wheel drive vehicles, when properly equipped where doing ok.  Of course, however, the snow was not as piled as heavy as it would be the coming days.  We where only talking about 6-8 inches at this juncture, without the hardened ice level that would be created on Sunday and last through Tuesday of next week.

We started walking toward the heart of Forest Grove.  After about 40-45 minutes we arrived in downtown Forest Grove and stopped in a cafe style establishment.  I had a mint latte and Jo a hot cider.  After a while we got up and headed toward the #57 bus stop to see about catching a bus back to the Grand Lodge versus walking back for another 40-45 minute trip.  We had seen a #57 when heading to the stop heading west so knew it would be turning and heading back in a short time.  This gave us even more reason to wait.

We walked the last block and a half down to the east bound #57 stop and started waiting.  After about a minute a young guy on a bike arrived that was bound for work in Hillsboro.  He had a freestyle slash BMX bike that he was riding, and seemed to be having fun on the thing.  He said he wanted to cut a C in the snow with his bike, and of course, Joleen and I being the devil's advocates that we are said get on out there and do it!  So he did.

This kid started having an absolute blast at this point with his bike.  Her cut some Cs in the snow and then tried a back flip with the bike.  He fell in the snow and then did a few back flips without the bike, landing in the snow every time.  He lit up with a happy glow at all this goofing about.  We told him we'd watch for the bus coming, and saw it waiting at the time point just west.  Finally it pulled out and we hollered for him to head over.

We all boarded and he mounted his bike and jumped aboard.  A lady that had arrived was still laughing with entertainment at the kids enjoyment of the snow.  He began disrobing his outer layers that where caked with snow on the bus by the back exit door.  Since there was only about 7-8 of us on the bus, it was easy and no problem for him to do.  We talked and laughed about the ridiculousness of the snow while on the bus.  Finally Jo and I arrived at our stop, but we passed it by mistake and got the next stop.  At this point we where both sick and tired of the snow and headed back to the Grand Lodge to warm up.

We arrived back inside and enjoyed a relaxing evening of fire place fires and reading, reading, and more reading.  It was most excellent.  I LOVE fire places and reading.  I honestly don't think there is a more enjoyable relaxing thing to do - except for maybe shredding for hours on the guitar - but yeah, it was a good bunch of hours chilling in front of the fire place, just forgetting about the world.

Departure Sunday

After another night of tink tinking pipes and a warm sleep of a few hours we arose at 8:45am, hungry, and about ready to get back to the city and home.  The parents that had a lacking parenting skill and boisterous annoying kids where running about, chasing the kids and attempting to hush them, to no avail.  This made our home bound trip all the more desirable.  At 9:45 we headed to check out.

With a short walk out into the cold we stood waiting for the #57 east bound to Hillsboro.  It didn't take too long thankfully, but what we got was, well, strange to say the least.  The bus arrived, tilting no less than 20 degrees on the left side.  It appeared, even though no one was truly sure, that the side suspension was completely frozen or blown out.  I would think that the cold probably froze it up and it was either completely stuck, or had been punctured maybe and the air pressure wasn't keeping that side of the bus up.

We wobbled on our disabled #57 back toward Hillsboro at about 5-10 mph.  The operator tried getting up to a little higher speed at one point, which seemed to lift the left side just a bit, but then we hit a few snow bumps and it bounced us so hard she immediately slowed down again.  We traveled like this all the way, bouncing and slowly piddling along.  At one point another #57 zoomed by at what must have been a blazing, lightning fast, NASCAR like speed of 25mph!  We followed this speed demon into Hillsboro where the driver made a smart call and got everyone transferred over to the other, non-disabled #57.  Jo and I meanwhile headed on over to the MAX stop to wait.

The TriMet crew, at this point doing what they did for the remainder of the week, working overtime and busting ass was blow torching the switches to prevent the switches from icing up.  So after a short delay they got our MAX Blue Line train pulled out of the end station and it pulled through the switches and into our station stop.  We boarded and off we went.

The remainder of the trip was almost per schedule.  Smooth riding all the way.  When we arrived downtown we switched over at our transfer point to the #9 and headed out.  It was kind of creepy going across the Ross Island Bridge as you could not actually see ANY of the bridge surface.  We finally pulled up to 21st & Powell, got off, walked across the snow covered and packed street back the half block and into the apartment.

One word at this point, at being home, relief!

Fini

Chapter 1

Making Lemonade from Lemons?

On Friday the 19th I headed in to work as if it where any other day of the week, which it was.  It had snowed a few inches so far, but nothing that seemed excessive.  In Portland though, any snow can seem excessive, but a few inches doesn't even stop a Dallas, Texas, let alone a city like Portland.  These where the thoughts that Friday brought.  Sure there was snow, but I never imagined what was to come.

After a solid days worth of work, and some good accomplishments to boot, I headed for my rendezvous with Joleen (Jo for short) at Union Station in downtown Portland.  It was now 4:58pm and the north bound Amtrak Cascades departure time is 6:15pm.  This is more than enough time to arrive in time and board, from experience I know this.  I walked down to the bus mall area to catch a bus heading toward Union Station.  Almost all of the buses traveling the mall turn off right before or head right in front of Union Station, so it usually saves me a few minutes.

I had called Jo a few minutes before my departure and she was waiting for the #9 bus.  Transit Tracker even reported that the bus was en route and would be there within minutes.  Mind you, it was 4:58pm on Friday.  She said she had seen one bus go by already but it was heading toward the bus garage.  I assumed, as did she that this was normal since the garage is a mere few blocks down the street and on Friday, the returning rush hour buses would be headed that direction.

At 5:06pm I managed to catch the #33 north toward the station.  After wiggling through traffic, we stopped cold with no announcement or any idea of what was going on at 5:09pm.  Without a word from the driver, after sitting for a moment as if waiting for customers, the bus shifts in the rear and he gets off and goes outside.  I step forward and off and notice there is someone fixing something on the tire, probably the chain I assume.  So I sit back down.

After some confusion as if the delay will be long, and the bus driver telling us he had no idea, as if it might be long, I started walking.  That was at 5:12pm.  Already, I should have just kept walking, I would have made better or at least the same time.

I receive a report from Jo that 3 buses have passed by with the route sign showing "Not In Service".  At this time I state that TriMet is trustworthy, it has only been 14 minutes, give em' a little longer.  As if, mind you, during rush hour and nowhere to park at the station she could drive.  The only way to the station at this time, this close to departure.  So she hangs in there and tries to stay calm.

At 5:21pm I arrive finally at Union Station and retrieve tickets.  I had been texting Jo the entire time via my phone and at this time we call and talk.  She is stuck still, not having left 21st and Powell.  I think to myself without mentioning to her that this is "cutting it extremely close".  I however can't blame her, TriMet still has no bus at this location and has driven by with 4 buses now.  None of them in service.  I told her to stay calm and just wait, we didn't have much choice.  She at this point was pissed to the point of flailing vulgarities at TriMet.  I too was mad that TriMet was about to cost me a multiple hundred dollar weekend with my girlfriend because of some stupid middle tier mismanagement of buses.  I thought, wow, Dagny Taggart must have finally went on strike (Atlas Shrugged for those who know).  So far, she'd been waiting 23 minutes with no bus on a HIGH THROUGHPUT bus route!  In addition to her she mentioned to me, knowing I'd be counting and paying attention, that 8 other people where standing and waiting also.

The snow at this point was still NOT BAD yet, but unbeknownst to me things where already starting to completely fall apart.  I assumed that this was merely a very BAD screw up on part of TriMet.  So far, that's exactly what it was.

I glanced at my phone again and it read 5:24pm.  Anything after 5:38pm for Jo would mean we'd basically miss the train.  Mind you, I'm getting insanely pissed at this point.  I had never missed a train in my life.  NEVER.  I took that as a point of pride.  I don't screw things up like that.  I am flawless in my logistics, always have been, always intend to be.  So here I am, about to encroach upon my first failure to meet a train because of TriMet's incapability to run its own bus system?  I couldn't believe it.  TriMet, one of the systems I actually trusted to some degree, was about to lose its rank as a reliable system.

At 5:32pm I'm about to just say screw it and call it an attempt that failed.  Jo calls and tells me that there is still no bus.  I tell her at 5:38pm if there is no bus I'll come home and we'll drive all the way to Centralia.  Just for spite I'll poke a hole in the exhaust so we can consume more carbon into the atmosphere (I was mad, I say silly things when I'm mad - but dammit, we where going to drive if need be).

Then it happened.  This is when things started to make sense.  Not for TriMet, but for the coming days.  The strange thing is, what happened next isn't because of the snow either, it's because of bad management and a large gap in funding necessities.

Amtrak Fails, Again

Amtrak has old equipment, most of it they don't take care of appropriately because of those fat cat idiots in Washington DC.  Not because of the CEO (because really, Amtrak's CEO gets paid crap compared to even the lowest CEO average, he gets paid crap compared to some non-CEO exec jobs out there), but plain and simple because of incompetence at the political level, both Democrat and Republican equally to blame.  So with that context, one can derive that Amtrak has equipment reliability issues on a fairly regular basis.  As I write this, several weeks after these events, Amtrak Cascades have been using BNSF Switcher power as their head end power on the Cascades Trains.  This means the trains are currently traveling back and forth at a top speed of about 60mph consuming 2-3x more diesel and spewing an equal multiple of carbon pollution into the air.  Good job Washington and Oregon on keeping this small investment going that carries over 600,000 trips per year!  With a small few extra hundred grand (a couple dollars per passenger) these engines could most likely be kept in good shape, but instead they continuously fail because of a lack of maintenance.

So when I state what happens next, you won't see this as some surprise.  Amtrak announced at exactly 5:33pm that the north bound Amtrak Cascades that departs, usually, at 6:15pm  is being canceled and passengers will be provided tour buses to ride to their destinations on.

At this point a long string of vulgarities flew from my mouth as I stepped away from the hundreds of people in the main waiting room of Union Station.  With tickets in hand I grabbed my phone and called Joleen back.  As she answered I said, "Do not get on a bus, I'm heading home on the next bus, or taxi."  So I put my tickets in my backpack and headed toward the doors.  I was so furious that Joleen had been standing for 40 minutes in the snow, without a single one of the 4+ buses that where scheduled to show up showing up, and not a single one of the 4+ buses that went by not in service being dynamically rerouted to handle the brewing and unknown emergency.  Since TriMet was obviously in the middle of becoming completely disoriented I decided it best I just get a Taxi, since a half dozen where waiting anyway.

The Taxi Ride and New Plans

I got a Taxi in short order and headed for the apartment.  Joleen was waiting when I arrived and visibly upset, as was I.  We where seething in anger at this incompetence.  Like I had mentioned, at this juncture this incompetence was NOT because of the storm.  It rests solely at the heels of politicians and management.  I was MAD!  Joleen was MAD!  I was out several hundred dollars over these people completely botching up the entire weekend we had planned.  Whatever, who is John Galt - blagh.

So we sat around a bit and tried to figure things out.  I pondered whether if I canceled the hotel and train tickets we might get the money back and be able to use it on another outing.  However, we wanted the outing NOW because we had planned for weeks.  It's been a LONG last couple months and we both wanted out of downtown and free of such thoughts.  We where traveling without computers and where going to have a weekend of reading, eating good grub, and just being free from constraints and sitting, discussing, and reading some more.

I proffered that we go to another McMenamin's near Portland, but far enough out that we would be away from the temptations of the computers and downtown itself.  We came to the conclusion to go to Forest Grove and check in at the McMenamin's Grand Lodge.  I made some calls, we planned our logistics via TriMet (hopefully a bus WOULD come today sometime), and we prepared for our second attempt at departing Portland.  Hopefully we'd be more successful this time around.

To Be Continued...