Tag: Amtrak

Remembering the Hoosier State

March 1, 2017 / Charles Fulton / 0 Comments

Today Amtrak resumes full operation of the Hoosier State, ending an 18-month experiment in which Iowa Pacific proved rolling stock and on-board services. I had an opportunity to take this unusual train in June 2016 while on a business trip to Indianapolis. What follows are my notes on the experience.

Aboard the Hoosier State

We’ve just wrapped up the CLAMP’s Hack/Doc Fest at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana. You can read Ken Newquist’s daily updates to see how the conference went, including all the gory details on the updated annotation in Moodle 3.1. Short version: it needs love. I’d like to talk about a most unusual aspect of the conference: Amtrak and Iowa Pacific’s Hoosier State, which runs between Chicago and Indianapolis.

Background

Horizon coaches on the Lincoln Service in 2009. These are a common sight on the Hoosier State. Photo by Jeramey Jannene from Milwaukee, WI, United States of America (Train Boarding) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Train service between Chicago and Indianapolis has a tortured history in the Amtrak era. Amtrak does not, except in a few cases, own its own track, and must therefore rely on access to rails owned by private freight companies. The most direct routes to Indianapolis were abandoned or downgraded in the 1970s and 1980s as freight traffic moved elsewhere. Amtrak trains which serve Indiana have repeatedly moved to less desirable routes in order to maintain service.

By the 2010s the Hoosier State operated with a couple coaches and no food service on a slow, bumpy, five-hour journey. The train ran quad-weekly; on the other days the long-distance Cardinal ran over the route.

Indiana takes control

The federal Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act 2008 (PRIIA 2008) required states to provide funding for short-haul trains operating within their borders beginning in 2013. Indiana cobbled together an agreement involving state and local money for 2013, but only after prolonged debate. It was clear that Indiana wasn’t satisfied with its level of service and sought alternatives.

For 2014 Indiana decided to make a change. The discussions, negotiations, false starts, and accusations would take forever to recount here and make my head hurt. The end result is that Indiana brought in a private company, Iowa Pacific, to provide rolling stock, marketing, and on-board service personnel. Amtrak personnel operate the train itself; Amtrak sells tickets and the train remains part of Amtrak’s system. The new train began running on August 2, 2015 and after some hiccups it seems to be a success. According to a recent press release, ticket revenue is up, customer satisfaction is up, and delays are down.

Hack/Doc at Butler gave me a perfect opportunity to inspect this strange new service.

First impressions

Iowa Pacific coaches on the Hoosier State. Photo by David Wilson from Oak Park, Illinois, USA (20170205 13 Hoosier State @ Rensselaer, Indiana) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

I haven’t been on this route in six years. In 2010, after the Hack/Doc at DePauw, I caught the Cardinal from Indianapolis back up to Chicago. I remember an unpleasant station, a crowded cafe car, and a slow slog through rail yards south of Chicago. The brioche French toast was pretty good.

We board from the Metropolitan Lounge in Chicago, and you can’t miss the Hoosier State. Most of Amtrak’s equipment is stainless steel with red, white, and blue striping. Iowa Pacific has painted the cars for this service in classic black-and-orange Illinois Central Railroad livery. The cars themselves are unusual: an old Santa Fe Big Dome, the Summit View, and old Budd coaches with large picture windows.

Inside I’m impressed by the leg room. We’re in the Du Quoin, a 44-seat leg-rest coach. The leg room is comparable a long-distance Amfleet coach, maybe even better. There’s a proper 120V wall outlet and folding tray table. The picture windows have blinds which you can pull down. The upholstery is sort I’d expect to find on a couch or easy chair in my grandfather’s living room.

The bathroom is most unusual. It’s off to the side, about the size of a bedroom. You enter and there’s a couch, and two sinks. The toilet and urinal are in a separate room which locks. Ken likened it to a receiving room.

Crawling out of Chicago

The creature comforts on Iowa Pacific can’t do much about the route. You really do feel as though you’re sneaking out of Chicago. It’s 28 miles from Chicago to the first station stop in Dyer, Indiana. It’s timetabled for 90 minutes. A car could do it half the time, barring shenanigans on the Dan Ryan Expressway.

After a brief run down the Chicago Line and Metra track we hit the Belt Railway of Chicago at 75th Street and slow to a crawl. I took these notes at the time:

“Pretty good run here, but we’re doomed once we hit the Belt. There’s no escape from the BRC. Yep, we’re on the Belt and everything is slow and grinding. No one around me shares my concerns about the Belt.”

We use the Belt to reach the Union Pacific Railroad’s Villa Park Subdivision. This is a slow crawl through the south side, and it reaches its nadir at Riverdale. We have to cross the Little Calumet River, but there’s a freight train ahead of us which has to be recrewed and we need to cross a major interlocking. Having done all that, we will crawl past Dolton Yard.

We hit Dyer a little early at 6:50 PM. I can’t emphasize how frustrating the stretch on Union Pacific is.

Dinner time

The dining area on the lower level of the dome car. Photo by David Wilson from Oak Park, Illinois, USA (20170205 09 on board Hoosier State) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Business class passengers get meals as part of their booking (and sit in the dome!), but the dining car is open to everyone. We’re summoned by destination, with the Indianapolis passengers going last. As with standard Amtrak trains Iowa Pacific practices community seating. This is usually a high point of the trip. You never know who you’re going to be with.

As we hit Dyer I find myself seated in the lower level of the Summit View with my boss and a newlywed couple from Marion, Ohio. Their kids are down in Texas so they honeymooned in Chicago for the weekend. I had the pork chop, asparagus, potatoes, and a side salad. IPA to drink. Overall it was pretty good. I found the food service a little more competent than average Amtrak. I think they were a little overwhelmed—too many people summoned at once. No real complaint though.

What is to be done?

We made good time all the way to Indianapolis. The coaches rode well and we didn’t encounter many problems once we got on to CSX in Indiana. The A/C wasn’t working in our coach but it didn’t bother me much. We arrived at our destination before midnight and headed off to our hotel while the Hoosier State headed for the yard.

Fast-forward to March 2017. I appreciated the improvements in on-board service but wondered whether Iowa Pacific could really be making a go of it. The answer is that they couldn’t, although that may be more due to the parent company’s problems than the Hoosier State itself. Certainly they couldn’t have done it without Amtrak’s incremental access rights and logistical support.

What’s next? Amtrak probably puts Horizon coaches back on the Hoosier State. With everything else that’s going on a quad-weekly train from Chicago to Indianapolis isn’t high on their list of priorities. Iowa Pacific could afford to give this train individual attention; Amtrak can’t. The real question is this: what will Indiana do next? They don’t want to kill the train but they don’t like the level of service Amtrak gives them.

What needs to happen, but won’t, is finding a better route out of Chicago. That means real money; tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars.

Featured image by David Wilson from Oak Park, Illinois [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

By David Brossard [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Two new route guides

March 8, 2014 / Charles Fulton / 0 Comments

I’ve posted two new Amtrak route guides: the Pennsylvanian and the Wolverine.

Image of the Pennsylvanian by David Brossard [CC-BY-SA-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

The Lake Shore Limited at Croton-Harmon. Photo taken by Adam E. Moreira, [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Lake Shore Limited redux

December 17, 2013 / Charles Fulton / 0 Comments

Back in March I enumerated seven reasons why I wasn’t going to take the Lake Shore Limited on future trips to the Midwest. To these I might also have added that the ex-New York Central route between Cleveland and Buffalo is particularly vulnerable to weather-related delays in the winter. Unfortunately I was called back on short notice to Michigan and the Lake Shore Limited was the only train I could catch in time. Let me quote from what I wrote in March:

CSX’s handling of the train in western New York. Amtrak is dependent on the freight railroads for dispatching. CSX does an absolutely terrible job between Schenectady and Rochester. They’re incapable of getting the train though on time. It’s just frustrating.

Now, here’s how my train fared across western New York last night, courtesy of the invaluable Amtrak Status Maps:

* ALB  1  620P  1  705P  618P  750P  Departed:  45 minutes late.
* SDY  *  *     1  731P  *     821P  Departed:  50 minutes late.
* UCA  *  *     1  844P  *     1009P Departed:  1 hour and 25 minutes late.
* SYR  *  *     1  941P  *     1130P Departed:  1 hour and 49 minutes late.
* ROC  *  *     1  1100P *     137A  Departed:  2 hours and 37 minutes late.
* BUF  1  1155P 1  1159P 300A  320A  Departed:  3 hours and 21 minutes late.
* ERI  *  *     2  136A  *     533A  Departed:  3 hours and 57 minutes late.
* CLE  2  327A  2  345A  818A  829A  Departed:  4 hours and 44 minutes late.
* ELY  *  *     2  418A  *     915A  Departed:  4 hours and 57 minutes late.

We were late leaving Albany because we had to wait for the eastbound Lake Shore Limited, which was late, to arrive. CSX is an equal-opportunity railroad; having stabbed the eastbound train it makes sure to stab the westbound train in compensation. Add that to the heavy snow and ice along the coast of Lake Erie and it’s not gone well.

I’m not complaining exactly. I’ve had a good trip: good meals, good company. My roomette is comfortable. I will arrive in Michigan well within my timetable. The snow is messing with the airports too. It’s just that the Capitol Limited, having come up from Washington and missed most of the weather, was only 57 minutes late out of South Bend and will probably hit Chicago within 20-30 minutes of its arrival time.

This is why I don’t take the Lake Shore Limited.

Image by AEMoreira042281 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

HEWEBNE: outbound

March 16, 2013 / Charles Fulton / 0 Comments

This coming Monday I’m giving at talk at HighEdWeb New England about collaborative development in open source, focusing on liberal arts colleges. If this were one of my movie reviews that would be the “A plot.” The “B plot” is that I’m taking the train to the conference, and that unusually for me it’ll be 100% new mileage.

The conference is Mount Holyoke but I’m taking the Vermonter from New York up to Brattleboro. There are two reasons for this. The first is that my friend who’s picking me up lives closer to Brattleboro than Amherst. The second is that this train will be rerouted to the west bank of the Connecticut River in a year or two, and I want to ride the old route before that happens. Again, I’m that guy.

The ride in from Easton to New York was uneventful. Trans-Bridge Lines does a good job. Its buses are comfortable (for 90 minutes anyway) and the free wifi gets the job done. I-78 was remarkably empty. The only hiccup was finding New York Penn overrun with mouth breathing collegians dressed in green. Sigh. Amtrak Police finally showed up with a bullhorn and cleared them out. Yay!

Today’s Vermonter has five Amfleet cars: four reserved coaches and a cafe/business class car. At the front is an EMD AEM-7, one of Amtrak’s venerable “toasters” now in its fourth decade of service. It brought the train up from Washington and will pull it to New Haven, where we’ll swap it out for a GE P42DC “Genesis” diesel locomotive. We have to do this since there’s no electrification north of New Haven. Lunch today consisted of a turkey panini (good), hummus plus pretzel bits (okay), and iced tea. I’m pleased to finally ride over the Hell Gate Bridge but it really is more impressive from the park below looking up.

Early into New Haven and the power change starts at once which means no head-end power (HEP). I think of this as a staple of American railroading, though very few passenger trains do it now. The long-distance trains which travel south from New York (Silver Star, Silver Meteor, Crescent, Palmetto) change engines in Washington. The Vermonter does here in New Haven. The Pennsylvanian does in Philadelphia. I think some of the upstate New York trains do in Albany (switching from dual-mode electro-diesel to straight up diesels). Fascinating to think about the long-haul diesels which run, essentially uninterrupted, for fifty hours on the Western trains.

I hope I don’t offend anyone (too much) when I opine that Connecticut, at least what I can see of it, is ugly. Admittedly March is an unkind month for viewing the outdoors when there’s no snow on the ground.

We hit our dwell stops (New Haven and Springfield) with plenty of time to spare. Amtrak’s issuing a faster timetable on Monday, and I’d say that’s reasonable. I’ve arrived or departed from Springfield numerous times over the years but this is the first time I’ve headed east. We go as far as Palmer, and then perform a thankfully rare “backup” maneuver. There’s no northeast/southwest connecting track at Palmer, so we have to make what amounts to a J-turn in railroading–crossing the connecting track, stopping, throwing a switch (manually, no less), then reversing direction. The re-route I mentioned earlier will eliminate this step.

Here’s some very crude text art illustrating what we’re doing:

            C
            \_ 
             \\_________________
A_____________\_________________\(E)______B
               \
                \D

A-B is the CSX main between Springfield and Boston. C-D is the New England Central Railroad. The direct intersection between the two has no switch. We pull past toward B to the switch at (E), then backup on to the second track which links up at C. It’s horribly slow and inefficient. You leave Springfield at 3:15 PM. By 3:45 PM you’re just getting down with this nonsense and heading north.

Amtrak’s obviously embarrassed about it. There’s a nice long warning about it over the PA, emphasizing that this is normal and planned. I think the only constituency who enjoys this are the railfans who gather since it’s such a great photo-op.

I’m now on the stretch that Amtrak will leave in a year or two. This New England Central RR track is rough; some stretches are worse even than CSX around Buffalo, which has always been my “gold standard” for an unpleasant ride. It makes no sense to rehabilitate it of course when Massachusetts and the Feds are fixing up the new, more direct, route. I don’t disagree with the logic at all. Still, damn. There’s some talk of new service over this route to link Amherst with New London. I don’t see it getting done without serious federal money, and there are other more pressing passenger rail projects.

As I submit this we’re fifteen minutes out from Brattleboro and dead on schedule. No better way to travel.

Leaving the Lake Shore

March 10, 2013 / Charles Fulton / 0 Comments

I keep track of all my train mileage because I’m one of those people. By my reckoning I’ve done over 41,000 miles on Amtrak alone and another 10,000+ on other systems, mostly in Europe. A full quarter of my Amtrak mileage is on a single train: the Lake Shore Limited, which operates between Chicago and New York, with a section to Boston. I’ve taken it to three Moodle Hack/Doc Fests: Summer 2009 at Smith College, Winter 2010 at Lafayette College, and Summer 2011 at Hampshire College. I’ve ridden it to a pair of weddings. I took it to HighEdWeb 2012 and B-Fest 2013. I’ve made three trips on it in the last eight months. This makes writing the following all the harder: Lake Shore Limited, I’m afraid that we may have to break up.

Here’s the situation. I have cause to make the trip between New York and Chicago at least once a year for the B-Movie Festival in Evanston, Illinois. I’m likely to make it another time for business related to the German Studies Association, and it’s a fair bet that I’ll make at least one trip for pleasure to the Midwest. I’ve never made less than two round-trips in a calendar year since 2009. I’ve done one already this year, another is booked and at least one more is on the horizon. I’m just not sure I can do it on the Lake Shore Limited anymore. I think my future lies with the Capitol Limited.

7 things I don’t like about the Lake Shore Limited

The eastbound departure time from Chicago. The Lake Shore Limited is Amtrak’s cleanup train, handling misconnecting passengers from the west. This is a necessary and useful function, but the 9:30 PM departure is a hardship. You’ve got to find dinner in Chicago, though if you’re a sleeper passenger they give you all the wine you want. If the Empire Builder got stuck in the Dakotas you might be a few hours late leaving.
The eastbound afternoon crawl across upstate New York. Because of the late departure time from Chicago you spend all the daylight hours between Buffalo and Albany. It’s very, very boring. You do get lunch.
CSX’s handling of the train in western New York. Amtrak is dependent on the freight railroads for dispatching. CSX does an absolutely terrible job between Schenectady and Rochester. They’re incapable of getting the train though on time. It’s just frustrating.
The toilet in the Viewliner roomette. Amtrak experimented with the design of the Viewliner and included a toilet in each roomette. There’s no problem with smells or anything like that it’s just…awkward…in an already confined space. I can’t tell you how many times I wished for a public restroom instead, even though it meant a walk.
The track quality around Buffalo. It’s very rough around Buffalo, and westbound you hit it around midnight (ish, depending on how badly CSX screwed you, see point #3) which guarantees you’ll be woken up.
The Amfleet lounge. I’ve discussed this in the various route guides linked above but the Amfleet lounge/cafe simply doesn’t compare to the Sightseer Lounge on the Capitol Limited. There’s no good place for sitting and watching, and perhaps more importantly there’s not enough seating.
The Amfleet lounge, Part II. It’s located on the back of the train because it travels to Boston. If you’re a New York sleeper passenger you’re walking through five coach cars to reach it.

The Capitol Limited improves on all these points. Its most significant drawback, of course, is that it doesn’t go to New York–it terminates in Washington, D.C. Passengers traveling to and from New York must take a Northeast Regional. That adds about four hours to the trip, allowing for connection times. This April I’m testing out taking the Capitol Limited westbound. We’ll see how it goes.

eAmtrak, Part III

October 2, 2012 / Charles Fulton / 0 Comments

Yesterday I showed my phone to gate agent in Chicago and successfully boarded the Wolverine. This morning we boarded the Blue Water in Kalamazoo using only a phone. Our conductor beeped the QR code on the screen without incident.

Folks, I’m here to tell you that e-ticketing works. The only open question is how well these trips post to my rewards account. I don’t expect problems but I’ll check in a week or two to see if the points post. As I said in Part I the only thing missing from the app is my room and car assignment on the sleeper, and that’s only for my benefit.

Previous posts about e-ticketing:

eAmtrak, Part II

September 30, 2012 / Charles Fulton / 0 Comments

Yesterday I discussed Amtrak’s rollout of eticketing nationwide. I outlined four tasks which required a proof of ticket and which I hoped to accomplish with my phone alone. So far, we’re two-for-two. At the baggage counter, the attendant didn’t bat an eye as I offered her my phone with the eticket displayed. Our bag was ticketed through to Chicago and whisked away. Painless. At the Club Acela, I showed my phone again and the attendant verified that we were ticketed for a roomette on today’s Lake Shore Limited, allowing us access. Two steps to go.

As an aside, the baggage attendant had no problem with ticketing our bag to Chicago even though our ultimate destination, Kalamazoo, has no baggage service. I’m still puzzled by Seattle’s refusal to do the same thing in May 2011 with the Empire Builder, and I have to assume it was because of the endemic delays at that time (those delays will be covered in a future post).

eAmtrak, Part I

September 29, 2012 / Charles Fulton / 0 Comments

This summer Amtrak rolled out e-ticketing on all its routes. This is long overdue and a step in the right direction, not just in itself but for the efficiencies which should follow. One of the interesting features of the old system is that the paper tickets had cash value–that is, they were important in themselves. I once had to mail my actual ticket stubs via certified mail to 30th Street Station in Philadelphia in order to procure a refund (long story, and Amtrak fulfilled my request). With e-tickets Amtrak’s on the same footing as the airlines–your e-ticket holds no value of its own. This is a huge step forward.

And tomorrow I’m going to find out how well it works. I’m going to try to do all the following with my phone (I do have printouts available as a quick safety):

Check a bag through to Chicago
Gain entry to Club Acela (Amtrak’s lounge at Penn Station for First Class and sleeper passengers)
Board the train (thus satisfying the gate agent, an institution Amtrak can abolish whenever it wants)
Get my actual ticket checked.

I’ve already noticed a limitation that will probably require the printout for step #4. When you book a sleeping accommodation with Amtrak (in effect, a hotel room) you’re assigned to a car and room. This information is on the printout. However, it’s not visible on the phone. Doing this with the phone alone I would have no idea where my room was. The New York section has two sleeping cars (normally); each has two bedrooms, a handicapped-accessible bedroom, and twelve roomettes.

The last time I took the Lake Shore Limited was in May, before the nationwide rollout. I’m honestly curious to see the effect on boarding procedures. I’ve boarded at all four stations I’ll be using this trip (New York Penn, Chicago, Kalamazoo, Milwaukee) so I have a basis for comparison.

Getting there from here

June 2, 2012 / Charles Fulton / 0 Comments

Today I’m grandly announcing a new series: Getting There From Here (GTFH). Perhaps one of the most mystifying things for people accustomed to flying is making sense of Amtrak’s routes. The trains have different names, go to different places, and (sometimes) offer different levels of services. They all cost varying amounts at different times. You’re starting to panic.

Relax: I’m from the Internet and I’m here to help.

I’m starting this series with my favorite problem: getting from Chicago to the East Coast (Washington-New York-Boston). I make this trip about twice a year. There are four different ways of doing it, and I’ve done three of them:

The Lake Shore Limited from Chicago to either New York (train 48/49) or Boston (train 448/449).
The Capitol Limited from Chicago to Washington (train 29/30), and then a connecting Northeast Regional or Acela Express from Washington to New York, Boston and points in between.
The same as #2, except switching to the Pennsylvanian (train 42/43/44) in Pittsburgh and continuing to New York.
The Cardinal from Chicago to New York (train 50/51) via Washington.

In later posts I’ll break down the difference between these four options. For now I’m going to explain selection criteria, or what Donald Rumsfeld might have called “unknown unknowns.” Here’s how to pick a train.

Timing

Trains depart and arrive at different times. Amtrak also publishes an endpoint-to-endpoint travel time for each train. Some times use a more direct route and may be faster, but may also leave at less convenient times. Consider what works for your schedule, and when you’d like to be onboard.

Cost

Amtrak uses a pricing strategy similar to that of airlines. Prices fluctuate based on time of purchase and demand. Railfans refer to “buckets” of pricing, with the “low bucket” being the lowest available fare for a given train between two given cities and the “high bucket” the opposite. To get a sense of what a reasonable fare between two cities, try plugging in your desired route about 5-6 months out. In most cases that will give you the low bucket, or something close to it. Amtrak fares will rise noticeably in the last few weeks, particularly for long-distance trains. Don’t wait! You can always cancel and rebook at a lower price–up until the day before in coach, and a week before in sleeping accommodations.

On-board amenities

Over the last twenty years Amtrak has pushed to standardize its offerings across the system. Like a Hampton or a Holiday Inn, you’re going to get the same experience on most trains, with a few noteworthy exceptions which we don’t need to get into here. What’s most important is to recognize the character of the train and the classes of services it offers. See this guide for more information.

Scenery

You’re on a train. Unless it’s the Acela Express you aren’t doing it for the speed and you’ll spend a good deal of time looking out the window. Amtrak publishes route guides for many of its routes full of information about the sites along the route and things to watch out for. I’m slowly adding guides of my own under the “Route guides” heading based on my own observations.

Equipment

Okay, this one is really nerdy. Amtrak operates several different types of equipment. If you’re like me this is actually a consideration. If you’re not like me it’s not.

Amtweets?

May 16, 2012 / Charles Fulton / 0 Comments

I’m on the road today, heading back to Michigan for a friend’s wedding. This involves three different transit operations playing ball: Trans-Bridge Lines between Easton and the Port Authority Bus Terminal (PABT) in New York, the MTA between the PABT and Pennsylvania Station (Penn), and finally Amtrak from Penn to Kalamazoo, via Union Station in Chicago.

One of the minor pleasures of taking the bus from the valley to New York (and there aren’t many so you really can’t be choosy) is running along the Northeast Corridor near Jersey City. Today, a little bit after 11 AM, I spotted the Silver Star, just a few minutes into its 31-hour, 1500-mile run to Miami and points in between. I recognized it from the two Viewliner sleepers behind the HHP-8 locomotive (see this page for more on train identification). Pleased, I tweeted the following:

On the bus to NYC and just saw the @AMTRAK Silver Star go by. Too fast for a picture!

This drew a quick reply from Amtrak’s social media folks. I’ve found them to be pretty responsive…

@mackensen Very cool! We’re glad you got to see it 🙂 How’s your ride going?

Amused that I’d gotten them interested, I replied with the following:

@Amtrak not bad but we’re crawling through the Holland tunnel. Happily I’m on the Lake Shore Limited this evening.

That tweet went out from the tunnel, incidentally. I continue to be impressed with Verizon’s coverage. That last tweet drew an odd reply, ending our little colloquy:

@mackensen We are sorry for any delay, we hope to have you to your destination ASAP! We look forward to having you on board again later!

I’ve been thinking this one over. At first I was deeply confused, but I’m coming to realize that I never said whose bus I was on, although I don’t think Amtrak operates any Thruway services in New Jersey. Also, it probably comes naturally to Amtrak to apologize for service delays (*cough*), even ones it isn’t responsible for.

Anyway, thought I’d mention all this. It really can be fun to tweet at Amtrak and see what you get back. A couple months ago I was coming back from New Orleans and got help up by Norfolk Southern maintenance in northern Indiana. I started including @Amtrak in my tweets slagging away at NS and eventually drew a friendly reply.

From Amtrak, that is. Those bastards at NS never said a word.