Quote Originally Posted by John Herrell View Post
Amtrak does ok. It’s not great but neither is it terrible. I took the old Santa Fe Southwest Chief route. The worst thing about it is that Amtrak doesn’t own or maintain the tracks and they are in terrible shape. Really terrible. But nevertheless, it was a fine 3 day excursion, with a sleeping car and decent fare in the dining car.
This is the old ATSF route. The stretch across KS had the very worst track (still owned and "maintained" by BNSF). Even in a sleeper I felt somewhat gypped (got a lousy night's sleep) because of the rough ride. At one point during the night in KS I literally was nearly thrown out bed due to the crappy rails. I'm not the least bit surprised by the derailment early this morning. (Looks like the "steerage" cars behind the club car are the ones that bit the dust. The sleepers are up front. Guess you gotta spend more bucks to arrive safely.)