San Antonio to New Jersey by Amtrak



By Larry Walsh, November 2004

The checker cab picked us up at 7:00 AM. and delivered us to the Sunset Station by 7:30 AM where Amtrak’s train # 22, The Texas Eagle, was on the ready track and about to board. The porter escorted us to our bedroom where we settled in awaiting the 8:00 AM. departure. The Eagle has had a checkered past, enduring threats of cancellation and bouts of poor timekeeping. Our 1300-mile trip to Chicago would be largely on host Union Pacific’s rails. San Antonio’s other train, The Sunset Limited runs on the notoriously congested Sunset Route between Los Angeles and New Orleans. This train is chronically late. Worse, it carries a through coach and sleeping car from Los Angeles. At San Antonio, these two cars are detached from the Sunset Limited and attached to The Texas Eagle. In less congested times, the 5:00 AM. arrival of the east bound Sunset limited gave plenty of time to make this maneuver before the scheduled 8:00 AM departure of the Eagle. As the Sunset Limited arrived later and later in San Antonio, so too did the departing Eagle find itself delayed. In years 2002 and 2003, The Eagle ran on-time barely 20 percent of the time. Something had to be done as Amtrak faced declining ridership and the possibility that The Eagle would be discontinued. A major marketing campaign was mounted to boost Eagle ridership and it has worked! The Eagle is no longer held for a late-running Sunset Limited. At 8:00 AM. it leaves San Antonio, with or without its connection. The connecting cars lay over in San Antonio until the next day, or passengers are bussed to their destinations. Thus far in year 2004, Eagle ridership is up 10 percent and is running on time 70 percent of the time. The goal is to get that one-time performance up over 80 percent and host Union Pacific Railroad seems to be cooperating.

The halcyon years for rail travel between San Antonio and the Northeast cities was 1946-1956. The Missouri Pacific’s Texas Eagle was newly “streamlined”, replacing The Sunshine Special. It carried a planetarium dome car as well as through sleeping cars to New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The cars were of two-tone blue, conveying a solid, conservative and elegant image suited to a carrier emerging from 30 years of bankruptcy. Its San Antonio competitor, The Missouri-Kansas-Texas, often called "The Katy," launched its all new Texas Special, all dressed out in eye-catching red and silver cars. Katy, the smaller of the two roads, wanted to convey their “we try harder” effort. The MoPac’s Eagle left San Antonio with two through cars to the east coast. But the Katy had three through eastern cars on the Texas Special. Both The Eagle and the Texas Special were essentially through trains to St. Louis, where eastern connections were made as well as Chicago connections. Both trains arrived in St. Louis at precisely 8:30 a.m. and down through the years they were fierce competitors. Today, alas, the St. Louis connection is gone. Everyone must continue on to Chicago to change.

At precisely 8:00 AM we had the highball and began to move—not forward but backward! Traffic north to New Braunfels and San Marcos is essentially directional; with northbound trains taking the old Katy tracks and southbound taking the old MoPac tracks. Apparently the easiest way for a passenger train sitting in Sunset Station to access the Katy is to back up to the old tower 112 where the Katy tracks crossed the Southern Pacific. From here The Eagle reverses direction and moves forward via the old Katy Line. About 30 miles north, at Ogden Junction, The Eagle crosses over to the old Missouri Pacific line, moves through New Braunfels and 17 miles later comes to its first stop at San Marcos. Since New Braunfels is also a sizeable population center, why don’t we also stop there? Because the Union Pacific dispatcher needs the flexibility of routing trains via either the old Katy line or via the old Missouri Pacific line. There is still a station and loading platform on the "MOP" but alas, the Katy station and platform is gone. Where do you ask passengers to assemble when the dispatcher won’t know until the last minute which route he will take? New Braunfels as a scheduled Eagle stop just won’t work.

The northbound Eagle, AMTRAK #22, carries coaches, sleeping cars, a dining car, plus a sightseer lounge car. At 10:30 AM. we cross the Colorado River and make a sharp left-hand turn before sliding into the Austin Station. A sizeable crowd boards here. The diner opens for early lunch shortly after leaving Austin as we stay on the old Missouri Pacific line to Taylor, Texas. The 35 miles that separate Austin and Taylor are normally congested, but not today. We zip right through and find ourselves waiting for “time” at Taylor. Leaving Taylor, we round another sharp left-hand turn as we leave the old "MOP."  For the next 38 miles, we ride the Katy main line again as far as Temple. At Temple, we swing off the Katy and move on to the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe at the historic Temple station. For the next 128 miles we are not on the Union Pacific route to Chicago. We run right on schedule to Fort Worth, arriving 20 minutes early, not requiring the built-in recovery time.

The new Fort Worth Transportation Center is a busy place. City buses hurry in and out of their stalls. Trinity River Express commuter trains hustle in and out en route to Dallas and intermediate suburban stations. Our northbound Eagle meets its southbound counterpart here. The Heartland Flyer idles on a nearby track awaiting its 5:25 p.m. departure for Oklahoma City. The old and ornate Santa Fe station lies idle nearby. However, the 1925 era Texas and Pacific station sits just a ½ mile to the west, newly restored and used by Trinity River Express trains.

From Fort Worth, it is an hour over to the beautiful Dallas Union Station. This landmark was quite busy until about 1960 when the long distance trains began to abandon Dallas. By 1971, it was served by AMTRAK's  "Eagle" just three times a week (each way). It was a beautiful white elephant with all of the former passengers on the freeway or out at Love Field or Dallas-Fort Worth International. Would it be demolished? As we slid to a stop at 4:30 PM, precisely on time, its renaissance is apparent. There are six active passenger train tracks very much in use. The first two contained DART, (Dallas Area Rapid Transport), the highly successful Dallas light rail system whose sleek trolleys moved through on frequent 10-minute headways. The next two tracks were reserved for the Dallas-Fort Worth Trinity River Express, still in its early years and shuttling commuters along the old Rock Island right of way. Being we were at rush hour, a TRE train was loading next to us, and another was idling awaiting its berth space right behind it. The loading train appeared full of commuters grateful to be off the freeway on the way home. The outermost two tracks were for AMTRAK, and here we were taking aboard a good crowd for Little Rock, St. Louis and Chicago. Long live Dallas Union Station!

We left Dallas on time and moved east on the old Texas & Pacific main line toward Mineola, Longview and Texarkana. This is still a single-track railroad albeit with passing sidings about every 10 miles. It is saturated with Union Pacific traffic and obviously needs to be double tracked (but where will the enabling earning comes from?) To his credit, the Union Pacific dispatcher does his best for us. We lose about 40 minutes getting over to Texarkana, late for the first time on this trip.

I turned into my upper berth as we entered Arkansas, not awakening until we were in Southern Missouri running alongside the Mississippi River nearing St. Louis. The Union Pacific uses directional running for much of its mileage through Arkansas, using the old Missouri Pacific for northbound trains, and the old Cotton Belt for southbound trains. We were moving in the proper direction of travel so we were hustled right through the night and arrived in St. Louis at 6:40 a.m., 85 minutes ahead of schedule. All of that schedule padding and recovery time would not be required. Instead, we would have a lengthy two-hour dwell time in St. Louis waiting for “time”. We are parked at the "AM shack" just outside of the classic St. Louis Union Station and within sight of the Arch. The new light rail line (Metro Link) runs right next to us and over the next two hours we welcomed the crowd downtown for work.

At last, 8:45 AM. arrives and we promptly move out of St. Louis and cross the Mississippi on the Merchants Bridge. For the next 25 minutes we move through East St. Louis, Granite City and other erstwhile manufacturing strongholds. If you need any proof that American industrial jobs have been “outsourced” this trip will prove it to you. It is quite visible, mile after mile, as you move through the “rust belt”.

This final leg of the trip to Chicago is on the old Chicago and Alton Railroad line, once a largely double track and allowing 5 hour St. Louis to Chicago trains in the 1930’s. It is now a Union Pacific single track main line with a 5 hour and 40 minute schedule for us and lots of freight train congestion to contend with. Once again, the Union Pacific dispatcher does us justice. We arrive in Chicago just 10 minutes late, being delayed largely by a raised bridge over the Chicago River. The ride was great and the passengers were friendly. We enjoyed it.