My First Amtrak Trip: It Went Well

On Friday, June 23rd, 2023, I took my first Amtrak passenger train trip. It went well.

My train, the Route 50 Cardinal, was scheduled to depart from Indianapolis, Indiana, at 12:15 a.m. on Friday, June 23rd, 2023. It left on time. And it arrived at my stop, Washington DC’s Union Station, at 6:40 p.m., 4 minutes ahead of its scheduled 6:44 p.m. arrival. You can learn more about Amtrak on its website.

I live in Lexington, Kentucky, which has no passenger train service. I took a Greyhound bus from Lexington to Indianapolis, devoted a day to sightseeing in Indianapolis, then caught the train.

Boarding the Train

After boarding for the train was announced at Indianapolis‘s Union Station, I joined a crowd of others climbing up the stairs from the waiting area to the train platform. In the waiting area, I'd seen one elevator with two "out of order" signs on it. All persons seemed to take the wide stairs, which had railings on both sides and a platform midway up them. An employee asked persons who needed assistance to wait till last.

At the top of the stairs, I followed those ahead of me to the right. I saw a line of persons preparing to board a train car. An Amtrak employee there instructed Coach passengers to keep walking, and said, “Sleeper passengers talk to me.”

Sleeper passengers are those who’ve paid extra (much extra) to get a private room with furnishings that include a bed. The other type of passengers are Coach passengers, which just have a seat.

I was a Coach passenger, so I went on down to another line at another car. When I got to the front of the line, an Amtrak attendant scanned my ticket. Then he told me I was assigned to seat #11, a window seat, gave me a piece of paper with the number 11 on it, and said to go up the stairs and to my right. I asked him, “Are the numbers on the seats?” He politely replied, “No, above the seats.” I thanked him for the information.

Then I walked up the train car stairs with my two carry-on bags. Amtrak allows substantially more baggage than Greyhound buses or planes. Amtrak allows two checked items of up to 50 pounds each, two carry-on items of up to 50 pounds each, and two personal items of up to 25 pounds each. That's a total of up to 250 pounds of luggage.

I didn’t check any baggage, and only had two carry-on items, an American Tourister carry-on bag and a JanSport backpack.

When I reached my seat, which was on the right side of the train, I saw the number above it, 11. I met my seatmate, Al, a friendly guy with significant prior Amtrak riding experience. Al had the seat beside me, seat #12, an aisle seat. He was putting his bags into the overhead luggage rack.

I think there were a total of 60 seats in the Coach car I rode on, but I’m not sure.

After folks were boarded, and probably after the train had left the station, though I don't remember, an attendant came down, asked our destinations, and wrote them on a paper he attached above our seats near the seat numbers. My seatmate Al was going to Baltimore, which was beyond my Washington, DC, stop.

Our train was sold out. At one stop, the attendant told us that many persons would be getting off, but the train was sold out and others would be getting on to fill those empty seats. We should not change seats without permission. He said passengers could change seats after the Washington, DC, stop if desired.

Furnishings on the Train

A restroom was located in the rear right of my car. In the rear left of the car was a tank of water with a push-button spigot and paper cone-shaped cups to get drinking water.

The train’s restroom was clean and wellstocked both times I used it. The drinking water tasted okay, and seemed to be about room temperature.

On the left side of the rear of the car was a baggage area for carry-on baggage, near the water tank. It would have held large luggage. But I didn’t use it. I put one of my two carry-on bags in the overhead compartment above my seat. I put the other one, my backpack, in the floor in front of me, though it would have fit overhead too.

My seat legroom was generous. I had room for my backpack as well as my feet.

Amtrak seats are well padded. They include a foot rest that can be lowered to use if desired. They also include a padded calf rest that can be adjusted to support one’s lower leg much like a home recliner chair. The padded seat back reclined nicely and supported the back and head well. It didn’t recline quite as much as a home recliner, but it was comfortable. However, I’d have liked to have had a neck pillow. I think Amtrak did sell them on board as part of a “comfort package” that I think also included ear plugs and a blanket, but I didn’t buy one. 

Al, my experienced seatmate, patiently answered my questions, and explained how to adjust the seat.

A fold-down table was at my seat. Also, there was an electric outlet at my seat. And the train offered free wi-fi, which worked well in the Indiana portion of the trip. But after reaching Cincinnati and for much of the rest of the way it seldom worked. Fortunately, I had plenty of data on my phone when I chose to access it for news, weather, etc.

On this train, the Coach cars were directly behind the engine. They were followed by a lounge/dining car. Coach passengers can sit in the front part of the lounge/dining car. The middle part is the café where food can be ordered a la carte. The back part of this car is reserved for Sleeper passengers. A sign at its entrance states that Coach passengers can’t go beyond its doorway into it.

I took many snacks with me, as well as water. But I tried out the café, ordering two blue corn tamales and an orange juice. The tamales at $5 each were tasty, but small. The $3 orange juice was a bottle of MinuteMaid aseptic juice, and had a bit of burnt oranges taste, as aseptic orange juice often does.

Sleeper passengers get free complete meals included in their ticket price, and can make purchases at the café if desired. Coach passengers may be able to order meals in the café similar to those of Sleeper passengers, but I’m not sure. At any rate the prices are relatively expensive.

If I was traveling long distance and eating all my food from the café, I think I could spend over $100 a day just on food and drinks. That may be a bit of hyperbole, but maybe not.

Stops and the Train Whistle

During my scheduled trip of over 18 hours, the train made many scheduled stops. But according to the schedule, none of the stops was to be more than 10 minutes. Since we arrived a few minutes ahead of schedule, I’m guessing they adhered pretty well to that timetable.

Most of the train stations seemed to be on the left side of the train. However, one on the right side was the one in Alderson, West Virginia, shown in two pictures below. According to Amtrak's website, Alderson is just a "platform with shelter" and no restrooms, indicating Amtrak passengers cannnot actually go in the station itself.

Amtrak may have added cars and/or taken away cars at one or more of the stops. But if so they did it quickly.

For at least part of the journey, my car was directly behind the engine. It seemed that I could hear the train whistle blow every minute or two for a crossing of some type. I was in the rear of the car, so it wasn’t as loud as it probably was in the front of the car.

When I walked back to the lounge/dining car, the sound of the whistle was much quieter. It was probably relatively quiet in the Sleeper cars at the rear of the train.

Scenery and the Trip

I’d seen many pictures online of views from Amtrak trains. Those pictures typically came from western train routes. I can guess a reason why. Much of the scenery on my route was of deciduous forests, except for when we were in towns or near roads. During the winter you can probably see more.

During a significant portion of the trip, from Charleston, West Virginia, to somewhere in Virginia, an onboard guide read from a script and spoke through the train speaker system telling about numerous significant points. More than 80% of the things she described were on the left side of the train, and I couldn’t see most of them. Still, I enjoyed the narration.

Below is a photo of some trees and a river. White water rafters were in parts of the river, especially earlier in the journey, west of where this photo was taken, when the river was on the left side of the train.

There were three or four times during the Virginia portion of the trip when my train car leaned toward the left. On one occasion especially, I thought it might turn over, which was a bit disconcerting. The train was moving very slowly at this time, presumably due to bad tracks.

My seatmate who had much experience riding Amtrak, said it may have almost turned over there. He said he’d never had that happen before.

Not far after that location I saw a large piece of construction equipment near the track. Maybe repairs are being made.  

Al told me that most of his Amtrak experience was in the western United States where the tracks were in better shape. He stated that the eastern tracks were much older and had a lot of heavy freight traffic that damaged them. His explanation makes sense. He also said that the western United States is less congested, and the train can go several miles without blowing its whistle.

Exiting

After arriving at Washington's Union Station, I debarked, then walked along a sidewalk platform that was perhaps 12 feet wide, with others who had exited the train. Yellow lines perhaps two feet from the right and left edges allowed spacing before train tracks on either side. This left perhaps an eight-foot sidewalk platform to walk on. After walking perhaps a few train-car lengths, we debarked passengers came to an escalator up. After riding the escalator up, I got off it and I followed signage to Union Station's shops, etc.   

Closing Thoughts

Amtrak trains offer much more leg room and comfort than buses or planes, based on my limited experience. The opportunity to get up and walk to the lounge/dining car and other Coach cars is nice too.

I’d recommend a train over the bus or a plane for trips of a few hundred miles. For persons with the time, I think even a lengthy rail trip of several hundred miles that includes one overnight period is preferable to flying, due to cost savings and extra comfort, and preferable to  bus travel due to increased comfort.

However, persons traveling Coach who desire to sleep might want to wear earplugs, or maybe ear plugs + over the ear, noise reduction ear muffs. Though I had both with me, I slept some without wearing them. But many, if not most, other passengers might not sleep that easily

I did miss the meal stops on Greyhound buses though. If I were traveling a long way, I’d prefer a stop for 20-30 minutes at least once a day to buy a meal from a restaurant or snacks from a convenience store instead of paying Amtrak prices for its limited café menu, or buying an expensive meal.

My Coach ticket from Indianapolis to Washington, DC, only cost $73 purchased well in advance, which is probably comparable to the cheapest Greyhound ticket and much cheaper than flying.

My trip went well. I’d love it if Amtrak covered as many locations as Greyhound and offered much more frequent service.

NOTE:

This article was last revised on July 5th, 2023.