msm@ucbvax.berkeley.edu (01/15/86)
Received: by ucbvax.berkeley.edu (5.39/1.7)
id AA00938; Fri, 10 Jan 86 12:39:20 PST
Date: Fri, 10 Jan 86 12:39:20 PST
From: menlo70!sytek!syteka!msm
Message-Id: <8601102039.AA00938@ucbvax.berkeley.edu>
To: railroad@TARTAN.ARPA
Subject: Executive Sleeper
Has anyone in this newsgroup been on the Executive Sleeper or
on one of the Night Owl regular coaches? What's it like?
Last summer, my wife and I rode the Executive Sleeper from Washington DC to
New York City. It was a very civilized way to travel! After having dinner in
a nice restaurant near Union Station, we boarded the train about an hour before
departure. We were in a Heritage double bedroom. In our room were two
small bottles of wine and some cheese.
The ride to New York was relatively smooth and comfortable; we slept right
through the uncoupling of our car from the rest of the train at Penn. Station
and didn't wake until a much more civilized hour to the porter serving
breakfast in bed.
If you are traveling between Washington and New York and want to take an
enjoyable trip which takes effectively no time (since it happens while you
are asleep), then this is the trip for you.
When the Spirit of California (the so called "Med-Fly") was running a few years
ago (overnight service from Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area to
Los Angeles), it was the only way that I traveled to LA (which I did about
every other month). Its main feature for me was the "zero" transit time. Many
times, I would race colleagues to a meeting. I would take the overnight train
and they would take the first plane (requiring you to get up at the
uncivilized hour of 5:30 am). Needless to say, I always got there first, and
with a full night's sleep. It's too bad this service no longer exists in
California.
Michael S. Maiten
Silicon Gulch, California
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