Train – RobinCravey

Texas Eagle: Something new, something old

A couple of days after my wedding, my bride and I boarded the Texas Eagle to Chicago for our honeymoon. Every ride on the Texas Eagle is a different experience. The rolling stock changes, the crew changes, the service changes, and the season changes; all combine to make a trip comfortable, entertaining, friendly, or annoying. My recent ride has showed a real decline in service.

The Texas Eagle is a short train, with two or three sleeper cars up front behind the engine, and three or four coach cars down back, divided by a dining car in the middle. The sleeper cars are first class, with a hall down the length of the car lined by doors to private cabins. The coaches contain row after row of recliner seats, two on each side of the aisle, and big windows to the outside. On some trains, the order is reversed, with the coaches in front and the sleepers in back.

The cars are two-level, meaning you have to climb a spiral of stairs to get from the outside door to the main level. Below with the entry door are luggage racks, bathrooms, showers, and special accommodations. Above are the rooms in the sleeper cars or the reclining seats in the coach cars.

Dining/Café Car

The dining car, or café car, is the meeting place and the divider between sleeper and coach passengers. The dining/café car serves double duty as a fast-food café for the coach passengers and a full meal diner for the sleeper passengers. The dining room on the sleeper side, usually the front side, serves three sit-down meals daily to first class passengers. The café on the back side of the car serves fast food over the counter to coach passengers for ten or twelve hours a day. It’s a high-traffic café with a small dining room.

The dining/café car also served as the crew break room, and the crew would stake a few tables in one area or the other. This could be a chance for friendly mingling with the passengers, but sometimes there could be uneasy friction.

Lounge Car

One improvement in the train came last year, when the lounge car was added. The lounge car was pulled off for a while and loaned to the Illinois Central, so coach passengers had nowhere to go but their seats, and sleeper passengers had nowhere to go but their rooms. Still better than flying, but confining. They could go to the dining car, but on some trips the crew didn’t allow passengers to use the tables except at meal times.

The addition of the lounge car changed everything. Most important, it provided a common living room where all passengers could go to relax. The huge seat-to-ceiling windows give a panoramic view of the passing landscape. The spacious floor plan, with seats facing the windows and a few booths with tables give ample space for sitting and reading, listening to headphones, entertaining kids, working on a computer, snacking, or just chatting with friends or strangers.

Also important, the lounge car has a café downstairs. It’s open from six or seven until ten, with breaks during the day. Now it serves as the café for the coach passengers. Sleeper passengers can drop in, too, for a cocktail or a snack when the diner is closed. There are a few booths for diners in the café, and there are tables upstairs in the lounge where diners can take their meals or drinks at leisure.

Dining Car

With the restoration of the Lounge Car, the Dining Car has become a much less busy place. The café is closed. The small dining room behind the galley, where coach passengers ate hurried meals, has become the crew lounge, where crew members have a little privacy for relaxing and chatting among themselves. Passengers passing through can stop to chat with the crew.

The large dining room in front of the galley has become the domain of the sleeper passengers.

Curiously, these innovations have brought a severe reduction in meal services for the sleeper passengers. Previously, sleeper passengers were served three sit-down meals per day. The chef always had at least one helper to put the food on the table. Depending on the chef, table service could be just adequate or approaching elegant. Now the chef has no helper, and two meals a day are bagged and handed out over the counter for the passengers to carry to their tables. There is still table service at supper, and it is just barely adequate.

I’ve seen this service before, on the Crescent. https://robincravey.com/2024/09/16/on-board-the-crescent/. Now, I’m told that management has ordered this second-class service on these two trains.

Sleeper

On long-distance trips, I always take a sleeper for the night. Generally, I’m in a roomette, which is a tiny cabin with two facing seats during the day and two bunks at night. On this trip, I have my bride, and we’re taking a room.

The room is tight but comfortable. A couch along the back wall faces forward to the sink next the door and the small conversation space next the windows. In the conversation space a jump seat sits next the window. Opposite, a door opens on the combination toilet and shower.

Unfortunately, this is one of the inferior cars. The ceiling is low, not far overhead, with no upper shelves for storage, and a cramped upper bunk.

The couch pulls out into a bed, but it’s cranky. The porter makes it work. When bedtime comes, there is barely enough room for my bride and me. I could go to the upper bunk, but I think not.

Onward

Since Amtrak Joe pumped a slug of money into the system, improvements have been lurching forward very slowly. This train shows it. The crews show it. A few years ago the crews on this train seemed optimistic, imbued with a team spirit. Now they seem disappointed, embarrassed, cynical. For their sakes as much as for the traveling public, I hope management does their duty and gets on with the improvements.

Young lovers ready for railroad adventures. — Robin and Jeffee prepare to board the Texas Eagle outside the lounge car.

Railroading — Robin and Jeffee prepare to board the Texas Eagle outside the lounge car.

Onward by rail

Why do I ride the rails? First, because it’s the mode of travel that contributes least to the destruction of the natural world. Second, because it’s miles better than the flying torture chambers of the airlines. Third, because it’s much less work than driving. Most of all, because it restores romance to the sense of travel. It’s adventure!

I had a hard time sleeping this trip, going north. My insomnia is unpredictable. My trip going south, crossing different track during the night, I slept well in the roomette. Can’t say much for sleeping in coach: it’s possible.

Think about all those train stations named Union. Remember that President Lincoln, while he was wrestling with a civil war, promoted the building of the first coast to coast track that tied the Union together. We can do it again.

Look for upcoming adventures:

The rolling stock; The tracks; The politics; The funding; The cost; The alternatives.

The routes, Austin to Providence

Providence is about 1600 miles from Austin. By air it takes about five hours. By car it takes about 30 hours. By train it takes about 60 hours. That’s three days and two nights.

Take a look at the route map. First, notice that there is a gap in the network along the Gulf Coast. That section was taken out by Hurricane Katrina. It is scheduled for restoration this year. Something the map doesn’t show is that on most routes, the train only runs once a day, and not fast, either. It’s a skeletal system.

To fly between Providence and Austin can cost: basic economy under $200; first class about $500. To ride between Providence and Austin can cost: coach, under $300; business, up from $300. Here’s the kicker. You’re going to be on the train for two nights. You want a room. A roomette adds about $500 per night, or $1000.

You can compromise by riding coach one night and sleeper one night. That’s what I did this trip. Or, you can fly part way and take the train part way. I’ve done that, riding the Acela to Washington and flying from there. That’s pretty easy, and comfortable—a one-day trip, no overnight.

How about one overnight and a shorter flight?

Here’s something I want to try next. I could fly to Chicago and ride the sleeper from there. I like the crew on the Texas Eagle, and I’d like to see them again. But the tracks have some rough patches. And the dining is decent but not great.

Amtrak pulled all the full service diners for all the trains during covid, or so I’m told. Since then, they’ve restored full service dining to some trains, but not the Texas Eagle.

Or, I could ride the sleeper down to Jacksonville and fly from there. The Silver Star runs from Washington to Florida. And the Silver Star has full dining.

The Crescent runs from New York to New Orleans. If I get off in Atlanta, I can get a direct flight to Austin. Or, I can ride all the way to New Orleans. Then the Sunset Limited to San Antonio and the Texas Eagle into Austin. I don’t know how well the connections match up. I could fly from New Orleans.

So, there are choices to check out.

In the diner on the Texas Eagle

I’m sitting in the diner on board the Texas Eagle. We pulled out of Austin about 9:30 this morning (Saturday). I’ll be rolling into Providence, Rhode Island about 9:00 pm Monday night. It’s a relaxing way to travel, but it takes a while.

Outside my grand picture window, miles and miles of Texas are rolling past. This grand view is one of the things I love about train travel. A cup of whiskey sits on the table beside my macbook as I type. This is livin’.

I’m in the forward dining room, where ten booth tables line the center aisle. Behind me is the kitchen, and behind the kitchen is the café. The diner serves the sleeper (first class), and meals are complimentary. An adult beverage is included with dinner. The café serves the coaches.

After a while I go back to the counter in the café and order another drink. Christie, the café gal, serves it with good cheer. She’s busy.

I spend a lot of time in the diner. There’s always a table or two or three of crew members hanging out nearest the kitchen, jawboning about this train, other trains, this crew, other crews, management, and life in general. I learn a lot just eavesdropping.

I’m waiting for supper now. Todd, the diner man, came by my room while ago and took my order. I ordered the beef Burgundy, vegetables, and mashed potatoes with a glass of red wine. I’ve had it before. It’s pretty good.

Dining is one step below fast casual. The food is all packaged and heated in an oven, served on plastic covered with foil. But it’s decent—pretty tasty.