u/SharpProfession6

Thinking about heading up to Killington Memorial day weekend with my son, but unfortunately he already gave in his season rentals. Killington is charging an outrageous $75 for rentals, so is there anything else available this late?

Wondering what routes tend to be cheapest for the time or best value for sleepers. It seems routes like the Zephyr seem to usually be pretty expensive.

I just finished 2 trips in the past 2 months, one on Via and one on Amtrak, and I want to compare them

I understand that The Canadian has gone much more all in on the "land cruise" idea compared to Amtrak, but I still think there's some really interesting similarities and differences between them.

• The Trips
• Via Rail
  • #2 The Canadian, Vancouver - Toronto, Room for 1.
  • Mid Feb.

   

• Amtrak:
  • #765 Surfliner, San Diego to LAX, Business
  • #14 Starlight, LAX to EMY, Roomette
  • #6 Zephyr, EMY to CHI, Bedroom
  • #50 Cardinal, CHI to NYP, Roomette
  • Early April
• First, the Food (Winner: Via)
• Amtrak
  • Traditional Dining:
    • Worse then I remember. The "traditional dining" felt like A/B-tier restaurant food, but that's only when it worked. The biggest issue here was the inconsistency. The Zephyr was out of steak and chicken for dinner, the grilled cheese and the patty melt for lunch, and the omelet, quesadilla, oatmeal, and cereal for breakfast throughout the entire trip. On the Starlight, my caesar was fresh and crunchy, on the Zephyr, they were out of the chicken the entire trip, the lettuce was rubbery, and I had to grab my own dressing packet. While this is acceptable in some circumstances, for the premium price charged and how I remember traditional dining, this feels like a real disappointment.
    • My most recent time having Traditional Dining, the dining car did not get electricity overnight so all the food spoiled and they ordered Popeyes and subs for lunch and dinner. Again, this is disappointing and it's frustrating that we have to accept stuff like this as operational challenges.
    • And then, there's the little things, such as the plastic plates, silverware, and glasses, the pre-packaged deserts, and the booth that's used to pile boxes. I'm not trying to be a snob, but again, for these prices it feels sad, and I hope I'm not the only one who feels like it didn't used to be like this.
  • Flex Dining:
    • Not much to be said here. Honestly a little better than I thought for my first time, they seem like if someone put the most possible effort into a microwave meal, but at the end of the day, it's still a microwave meal. I was glad to see table cloths and salt shakers in the cafe car, but still minimal effort was put into presenting a meal. The meals were just left on our table and there was nowhere near the service seen in Traditional Dining. We had very strict time slots on when we could eat, such as 5:30-6:30 for dinner, and there were only 3 available tables.
    • But again, they were out of the Butter Chicken, Salmon, and Alfredo the 2nd day.
• Via
  • For my first time on the Canadian, the food wasn't all it was laid out to be. However, I really appreciated having a new menu every night and everything was available. I was happy with every meal, they just seemed a little uncreative, which is perfectly acceptable for a train kitchen feeding 100 people.
  • However, having real plates and glasses was certainly nice and overall the experience felt much premium. I did miss the Amtrak flowers though.
• Overall, they both had their issues and felt uncreative, but Via seemed to be better managed and have a more premium dining feel that was appreciated.
• However, I would’ve appreciated having a Cafe Car or somewhere to buy snacks on the Canadian. 
• The Rooms and Sleep (Winner: Amtrak)
• Roomette vs. Room for 1:
  • Amtrak's Roomette felt slightly larger and I appreciated having 2 sides of chairs and being able to take a nap above with my chairs down. I didn't enjoy using the bathroom in my room.
• Amtrak Bedroom
  • This was my first time in a bedroom, and I really enjoyed all the space that came with it. The bed was large, and it was incredibly nice having my own bathroom, but I've never been in a Via Room for 2 so I can't compare.
• I also think Amtrak should receive credit for turndown service, which didn't seem present on Via.
• However, Via had nicer bedding and a real duvet/comforter.
• The Train itself and its layout (Winner: Via)
• Amtrak
  • The Superliners have a really cool layout and I love the size. It never feels too tight. However, what really frustrated me was the inconsistency again. I was in an un-"refreshed" Superliner on the Starlight, and it felt extremely outdated and was really showing its age with dirty carpets and plenty of tape. However, on the Zephyr I had a refreshed Superliner that was very nicely maintained and  definitely competed or even beat Via. The wood paneling gave the cars a nice color and the bathrooms and showers felt modern.
  • I really also like having the variety of seats in the Lounge car to look directly out the train.
  • However, a side note, which I often see mentioned, is how staff will take up lots of seats in the cafe car. Of the 7 booths in the sleeper part of the Cardinal cafe, 1 was used to store boxes of food/napkins, 2 were for the conductor and conductor in training, and 1 was used to store their lunchboxes/food. On top of this, there’s the “Conductor Office” on board these cafes that also take up where a booth could be. This left 3 booths for all of the sleepers.

   

• Via Rail
  • What makes Via win is the dome car. I absolutely love being able to see 360 degrees around the train, not just out the sides. The park car as well is pristine. Every car was maintained well, and besides the bathrooms breaking down in some cars, everything was clean and consistent.

   

• The Scenery (Winner: Amtrak)
• Obviously this goes beyond the operations, but still,on my Amtrak trip of similar length the scenery was more varied and longer. The beach, rolling green hills, sierras, desert, rockies, canyons, plains, and appalachia. 
• The Service (Winner: Via)
• Amtrak
  • I had some pretty great staff on Amtrak who were extremely professional and kind. However, I had some staff that were outright rude and even yelled at passengers for offenses as miniscule as walking into the dining car for dinner 2 minutes early. 
  • My attendant on the Cardinal spent most of his time sitting in the baggage area and made it hard to not see his rolling papers. He was very nice, but there was definitely no turndown service and everything felt pretty “figure it out yourself.” Our shower was locked the entire trip, and when I asked if it would be opened, he unlocked it for me and took out his personal products. There was still one locked bathroom. Unlike Via, it seemed like he had no interest in this job, which is of course fair, but you can at least try to hide it. 
  • Additionally, my room was extremely cold and would not stop blasting AC, and they claimed there were no rooms available, which I totally understood. I saw that the two bedrooms on the train were available, and asked if it would be possible to upgrade and how much it would cost (and I of course was expecting to and more than willing to pay a good amount) the conductor very rudely lectured me about how I was not entitled to anything, while a simple “no” would’ve sufficed. Of course, for the entire trip, the two bedrooms sat completely empty and left bookable online. 
  • I could go on with multiple stories off extremely rude interactions with staff onboard. 
  • But for good news, I also met some very good staff who were extremely professional and talkable on the Zephyr and Starlight.

   

• Via
  • Overall, the staff were extremely consistent. No one was extremely talkative or outgoing/friendly, but I have no rude experiences to report and every request I had was met with a level of professionalism.

   

• The People (Winner: Amtrak)
• I think this all comes down to personal preference on what you want, but as someone looking for an adventure more than luxury, I appreciated the people onboard Amtrak. 
• Amtrak had much more interesting people on board to meet and talk to, from bomb squad members to AI tech bros taking the train across the country on LSD. There were definitely some moments when the "interestingness" got too intense and Amtrak became a Greyhound alternative if you know what I mean. 
• Via seemed to, again, have a much more consistent, older population, who were using the Train as a land cruise and honestly didn’t have too much to say. Definitely was a lot more peaceful though. 
• The Vibes (Winner: Via)
• While the people were more boring, Via had much more of an adventure spirit. I think the twice weekly departures had to do with this, but still, it seemed that the train went all in on the adventure/trip experience, while Amtrak was still a public transportation service. 
• Overall and TLDR 
• Via definitely wins overall for quality despite a few small issues. Via felt consistent and like it offered a well built product that they could manage well. On the other hand, Amtrak felt like there was always some issue, and there was always some shortcoming. 
• However, I think that Amtrak still has such an interesting soul to it, and I love sleeping in a superliner and meeting so many people. 
• At the end of the day, I think it all comes down to the fact that Amtrak operates much more like public transportation, while Via is more of a vacation experience.