Big Apple to Windy City ticked off bucket list

In a hectic world where we often feel the need to get somewhere else the quickest way possible, there remains something romantic about the notion of train travel.

Having taken a few train trips throughout Europe, it had long been a dream to travel the US by train. We had never had time or money to do the entire trip from coast to coast (69 hours or more) but while planning a trip to New York and Los Angeles last year, I threw Chicago into the mix.

My daughter would get to see Cloudgate at Millennium Park and I could tick US train travel off my bucket list.

The chosen route was New York to Chicago, a 19-hour trip with Amtrak on the Lake Shore Limited. The equivalent trip by air with no stopovers takes about three hours.

I splurged and booked a sleeper cabin, known as a Viewliner roomette, which accommodates two people and comes with its own toilet and fold-down hand basin.

The tickets cost $US606 for two adults, which at last year’s exchange rate, was about $833. That was roughly double the cost of two one-way airfares.

The roomette also gave us access to the Acela Club, a basic lounge at New York’s Penn Station. It’s no Qantas Club but we weren’t there for long.

Getting into Penn Station was the most stressful part of the trip because we had gained extra luggage thanks to the Thanksgiving sales. Although I had used Amtrak’s helpful Twitter support account to check which of Penn Station’s many entries we needed to use, our unhelpful taxi driver still deposited us at the wrong one (this is one of several reasons we mostly used Uber).

Despite reading there would be baggage assistance, none was to be seen. We managed to get downstairs to the check-in area and handed over our bags. If they were security screened for the banned items I had read about, we didn’t see it.

When I first investigated US train travel almost a decade ago, travelling from west to east on the California Zephyr, reading reviews about the shared toilets was one of the things that turned me off.

Having a toilet in our roomette eliminated that concern but raised a new one. How would I cope sitting and sleeping next to a toilet?

For the first hour or two, it was odd. There were strange marks on the lid I felt compelled to remove with antibacterial wipes. I didn’t want to put anything on top of it. Eventually, I got used to it.

Our helpful sleeper car attendant, Miles, was a cool cat masquerading as a tough talker. He shook his head at my daughter after she assembled her pull-down upper bunk bed (his job) but couldn’t work out the seat belt. I got tut-tutted when he found me wandering around the wrong sleeper car.

The Lake Shore Limited departed on schedule at 3.40pm and within an hour or so came time to collect our dinner boxes. Breakfast, dinner, tea, coffee and soft drinks come with its roomette fare, as does the first alcoholic beverage.

Sadly, the dinner service but not the dinner car was dispensed with on this train in the middle of last year. Sleeper car passengers now collect pre-made meal boxes and have the option to eat them in the dining car or in their roomette (yes, near the toilet).

My daughter, who has severe food allergies, had the vegan option and I had the grilled chicken and kale Caesar salad bistro box. The Lakes Shore’s current menu includes chicken penne alfredo, beef provencal, an antipasto plate and a vegan Asian noodle bowl. Breakfast boxes include fruit, muffins and granola.

The compact roomette had everything we needed; face washers, hand towels, bed linen, pillows and ample lighting and charging points, although the toilet paper was “bog standard” one-ply. Passengers sit opposite each other, with the lower seats converting to one bed. You need to be reasonably nimble to climb into the top bunk.

Although we were close to other sleeper car passengers, once our door was shut, we couldn’t hear anything. The sleeper car had a drink station at the end with self-service tea, coffee, juice, ice and water and the free wi-fi worked well throughout the journey.

Perhaps two or so hours into the journey, at Albany, carriages were added to the Lake Shore including a cafe car, with food and drinks available for purchase. On our trip, there were apparently 10 passenger cars and two baggage cars.

I took a long walk eight cars forward to the front to check out the other cars and was glad we had opted to go sleeper class. Although the regular seats were spacious, there seemed to be a lot of tired and slightly smelly people travelling home after Thanksgiving.

We woke after a good night’s sleep (I slept better than my daughter up top) — better than anything I’ve had on a plane — about 7am, although it could have been 6am because there was a time change somewhere on the trip. My fears about showering on the train were unfounded. Our car’s shower was spotlessly clean and had fancy folded towels. Thanks, Miles.

During the little daylight we had, we saw plenty of small towns covered in snow and lots of cute houses done up for Christmas. We arrived about 10.30am, about half an hour or so behind schedule, and walked into Union Station. Miles had offered to take our cabin bags but we were happy to wheel them. After we collected our suitcases from the baggage claim, we had to show baggage tag ends to prove they were ours.

With our memorable journey at an end and with two days to explore the subzero streets of snow-covered Chicago, we headed with our silly amount of luggage to street level to catch a taxi.

There we were promptly fleeced by a guy who didn’t turn his meter on and charged us US$20 for what probably should have cost half the amount (again, this is why we mostly used Uber).

Amtrak trains can be booked direct at Amtrak.com. Fares vary according to the day of travel. For example, at the time of writing, travelling from New York to Chicago on Sunday, November 24, two reserved coach tickets at saver rate cost $US176 ($260) while a premium rate roomette costs $US537 ($795). Travelling the next day, the premium roomette goes down to $US454 ($642).