Amtrak reservations insisted that they didn't even have a train called the Sunset Limited. Yep, talking to the lady on the phone, with me in Florida having just ridden the train from California. The reason I had called was that I wanted to show my folks about Amtrak. The Amtrak web site routed me from Florida through Philadelphia, Chicago, LA to San Diego because I picked a day that the Sunset didn't run. Of course, their route took 4 days, and didn't mention that if I left one day later on the Sunset I would get there at the same time but with a 3 day trip.

I had been very lucky, we had arrived only 1 hour late, exemplary by any standards. Of course, the Amtrak connecting bus had already left, empty. They then had over a hundred people stranded at a (luckily) staffed station. Amtrak got a new bus in a couple of hours, and shipped us all off to the Tampa station (which is in a VERY bad part of town). The station is beautiful, kinda Disney, all decorated up for Christmas. Amtrak then got every single rider their OWN taxi, and paid for the ride, which for me was a 2 hour trip south. 2 hours! Man, that was a big bill!

Wouldn't put my folks through that.