
DATE: Sunday, August 3, 1997                TAG: 9708040266

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  284 lines

THE NIGHT TRAIN TO BOSTON AMTRAK SLEEPING CAR IS RELAXING, IF YOU'RE NOT FINICKY ABOUT ARRIVAL TIME

WE'D DO IT again - which separates us from about 40 percent of Amtrak's first-time passengers.

This wasn't my first time on an Amtrak train, but it was my wife's. Six years ago, I took a hellish 28-hour trip in coach-class from Chicago to Newport News. I couldn't sleep in the cramped car reeking of cigarettes. The only highlights came as I sat in the viewing car while the train passed through Pittsburgh at 3 a.m. The city and its hillsides were aglitter, and a misty dawn was spreading in some Appalachian gap.

But when the opportunity came last week I grabbed at it. The Virginian-Pilot wanted somebody to review Amtrak's new Twilight Shoreliner sleeping car service from Newport News to Boston and back.

My wife, Michele, is very pregnant, and we figure our lives are about to be turned upside down. It was our last chance for a weekend getaway. Even if it had to be on Amtrak.

So it was with no small amount of trepidation that I boarded the Twilight Shoreliner in Newport News at 4:15 one recent Friday afternoon.

The Shoreliner consists of several regular coach-class cars, a custom-coach class car and a new Viewliner sleeping car. The custom-coach is essentially Amtrak's version of first-class airline seating. There is an attendant for custom-coach travelers who enjoy a car with fewer and larger, more comfortable seats than regular coach.

The Viewliner sleeping car, on which we had reservations, is billed as a luxury car with first-class service, but I was wary. Amtrak has a reputation for uneven customer service and for running late.

For us this trip would challenge the former gripe, but reinforce the latter.

If you absolutely, positively have to be there at a certain time, then Amtrak probably isn't the way to go. But if you're flexible and you want a stress-free trip, the Twilight Shoreliner is a nice alternative. If you can afford it, that is: For the price Amtrak charges for its top-end service, everything ought to be perfect. For us it wasn't, but all in all it was a pleasant weekend adventure.

It also could be one of the last opportunities to enjoy rail travel. Government-owned Amtrak is under the gun in Congress. It is being weaned of federal subsidies and in dire financial straits. Ridership is down, and a recent Amtrak survey found that at least 40 percent of first-time riders say they will not come back.

In light of those difficulties, tacking a sleeping car onto the back of the Amtrak train to Boston struck me as a little odd. From Newport News a traveler can get to Washington by 8:20 p.m., Philadelphia by 10:50 p.m. and New York by 12:35 a.m., if train stays on schedule.

Traveling by coach or the new, much roomier custom-coach class makes more sense to those cities from Newport News. I think I'd only take the sleeper again if I was going through to Providence, R.I., or Boston, where it is supposed to arrive at 5:21 a.m. and 6 a.m. respectively.

Traveling south from Boston and other stops in New England, the Twilight Shoreliner sleeper makes more sense because the train arrives in Washington, a major market, at 6:15 a.m. and proceeds south to other tourism markets like Williamsburg. A bus will take travelers to or from Newport News to Norfolk and Virginia Beach.

``I don't know if they're advertising it enough,'' said Richard Kowal, our sleeping car attendant on the trip north. ``It's been popular from Boston to Washington, but not too much south to Newport News.''

What stood out about the trip was how relaxing it was. Driving would have taken just as long and been a lot more stressful. Flying may have cost less, but it's frequently a hassle. On the train you can get up, walk around, get a drink, snack or meal and meet people.

The Viewliner sleeping car we boarded was clean. It practically had that new-car smell. About a year old, the car featured 10 sleeping compartments, a shower, two deluxe bedrooms and special bedroom that can be accessed by wheelchair. It could accommodate 30 adults.

We were booked into a deluxe bedroom, and I was slightly shocked when we entered the cramped cabin. While it was nicely appointed in gray with green fabric rug, sofa and curtains, it seemed small.

The room had a sofa along one wall that converts into a bed and another bed that pulls down. There are big windows, a sink, a toilet/shower stall, a slide-out table with a chess/checker board and room for an armchair facing the sofa across the table.

There's also a tiny flat-screen television for the train's closed-circuit system.

It's a tight squeeze. The folding armchair makes getting in and out of the toilet an exercise in contortions.

For the round-trip to Boston for two, such a room can cost $740 to $958, which is pricey compared to flying, unless you're flying first-class. The fare includes food and drinks plus a traveling kit with some toiletries.

Throughout the trip we had trouble with our cabin door, which would be easy to slide open sometimes and difficult at others, and our bathroom door, which was supposed to open at the push of a button but didn't. We eventually found the button's sweet spot.

As Michele and I put our baggage in an overhead cubbyhole, the attendant, Kowal, knocked on our door. Polite and eager to please, he told us about the room's features, what movies he would be playing on the closed-circuit system and what was on tonight's dinner menu. We could eat in the lounge car or he could bring it to our room.

The train pulled out promptly at 4:30 p.m. If all went according to schedule, we would arrive in Boston at 6 a.m. the next day.

But we went off schedule somewhere north of Williamsburg. Signaling problems on the tracks, which are owned and operated by CSX Transportation, delayed the train. It literally crept through Richmond, past old brick tobacco factories and through the CSX yard there.

I had been warned about delays in Alexandria, which are the result of track damage from an accident in which a leaning trailer on a CSX freight train swiped the side of an Amtrak passenger train, causing a minor derailment.

The train was an hour late into D.C., and it pulled out an hour and 15 minutes behind schedule.

But it didn't bother us. Right after leaving Newport News, we'd wandered up to the lounge car, where we ordered drinks and a snack. We had some juice and a small microwaved Pepperidge Farms pizza and watched the Peninsula's verdant countryside roll by.

The lounge car had been recently redecorated. The dining area featured 10 booths with white linen and fresh flowers. (They were real; I checked.) The comfortable seats were covered in a supple taupe vinyl.

The kitchen area in the car's midsection dated it; the orange walls and bar screamed 1970s. But prompt service from the lounge car attendant kept exposure brief.

We returned to our room to watch ``Prefontaine,'' one of two featured movies on the closed-circuit system. The other was ``Beautician and the Beast.''

The tiny flat-screen produced a decent picture only if it faced you directly, but it swiveled, so we were able to position it so we both could see well.

The Viewliner sleeping car's compartments are behind the deluxe bedrooms. Five line each side of the hallway down the center of the car. The compartments have two seats facing each other that can be folded down to make a bed. There's a slide-out table between the seats. Another sleeping berth is stowed near the ceiling and can be pulled down for use.

Like the deluxe bedroom, the compartments have sliding doors with a window and a shade that can be closed for privacy. Each space, roughly 7-foot-by-3.5-feet, also had a small-screen television. A toilet was hidden in what would be a side table and a pull-down sink sat above that.

These made our room seem big. However, the compartments seemed to be all the space two people traveling together really need. Two could probably even travel this way with a baby.

One of these would have cost us $598 to $690 for the round trip. For those with infants: Children under 2 travel free on Amtrak.

We returned to the lounge car for dinner as we left Richmond. I enjoyed a complimentary Sam Adams beer, and we got to know some of our fellow sleeping car passengers, including two women from Massachusetts who were returning from a trip to Williamsburg. A woman from Mississippi traveling in the custom coach class joined us, and as usual the conversation revolved around my wife's pregnancy.

For dinner Michele had a chef salad and I had chicken Parmesan over pasta. Our other choice was beef tips in gravy, which the women from Massachusetts had. We all agreed the food was better than airline fare, but not quite as good as an average restaurant.

The hot food is pre-prepared and rewarmed by microwave. My chicken was moist and tasty and the pasta supple, but the cheesy topping was a little hard and the vegetables soggy. A good coconut cake topped it off. Michele found little wrong with the salad, which was fresh and served with a fat-free dressing. I declined wine with dinner.

One nice thing about traveling by rail is the people you meet and get to know along the way.

A retired couple from Florida, originally from Richmond, joined us. They were traveling to Boston to see family and just didn't want the hassle of driving from Richmond.

``Everybody's so nice,'' declared Ann Fitch.

``Nicer than they are on the airlines,'' added her husband, Willard.

We all talked well past dinner, until we arrived in Washington. The lounge car attendant would come out and refill our drinks as needed.

We retired to our room about 10:30 and read for a while. The ride was very smooth and wasn't all that noisy. The incessant clickety-clack that one expects from a train was utterly absent.

At 11 p.m. we decided to shower so we wouldn't need to get up early in the morning. It took Michele a while to find the right setting to get hot water. The water was fine for my shower, the low pressure head providing just enough to get wet and rinse off. I wouldn't want to be much bigger than I am and shower in that stall, however.

The communal shower in the back of the car was bigger.

We didn't like the water pressure in the room's little sink. It squirted out and soaked my pants the first time I used it. An ``ice water'' tap on the sink served only lukewarm water. (Later I checked one of the compartment sinks, and its water flowed nicely.)

The sleeping-car attendant came promptly when we paged him to set up our beds.

The bedding was comfortable, and Michele, who spent a lot of time on boats when she was younger, went right to sleep. But I made a mistake showering right before going to bed. I have enough trouble sleeping in cars and planes, so I knew sleeping on the train would be a challenge, and the shower left me wide awake.

I tossed and turned for a few hours as the train rocked back and forth. A loose plastic panel in the overhead light rattled all night. While I'm sure I got some fitful sleep, it didn't feel like it. Michele, however, slept as fine as she could given that she isn't sleeping well this late in her pregnancy.

The sleeping car attendant woke us a half-hour before we arrived in Boston, as we had requested. It was 6:30 a.m., and the train was an hour late. To us it was no big deal. We needed all the sleep we could get, and there's little to do in Boston so early anyway.

After dressing we had breakfast in the lounge car as the train pulled into Boston's South Station. I had French toast and sausages. The French toast was tasty, though the crust was too tough and the sausages weren't hot enough. It was served with real maple syrup. Michele enjoyed her breakfast sandwich of an egg, ham and cheese on a bagel.

The biggest disappointment of the morning: The crew had failed to pick up the Saturday New York Times they promised they would provide free.

We spent Saturday bopping around Boston, taking in Harvard Square and the USS Constitution (the Navy's oldest commissioned ship), having a seafood lunch and going shopping. By the end of the day we were beat.

The southbound train departed at 8 p.m., and we piled into the same room. The sun was setting over downtown Boston as the Shoreliner pulled out. The Northeast Corridor is supposed to make for some interesting sightseeing from the train, but since we rode mostly at night, there was little to see.

The room had been cleaned well, but when I showered I was surprised to find that the same bar of soap I'd used the night before was still sitting in the soap dish.

We had dinner in our room, splitting a roasted half chicken. It was a touch greasy, but it hit the spot.

Since both of us were tired we went to bed earlier. This time sleeping was not a problem. Occasionally I was awakened as we pulled into a station or as another train powered by us in the other direction, but I was back under in no time.

I woke up as we left Washington. Going south, the train stayed on its schedule a lot better, in part because Amtrak owns most of the line from Boston to Washington. Even south of D.C. the going was clear, and we arrived in Newport News just a half-hour late.

Again the crew failed to pick up newspapers in New York. I was really looking forward to a free Sunday New York Times. The conductor said the problem had to do with the vendor there.

The lounge-car attendant toasted me a fresh bagel. The coffee was decent. The service on the way south wasn't as Johnny-on-the-spot and enthusiastic as on the trip north, but the crew was friendly and polite.

A New York woman traveling to Newport News to visit family with her four-month old baby boy and 16-month-old son were the only other passengers to join us for breakfast in the lounge car. She had taken a sleeping compartment on the way down for the first time. In the past she'd traveled by coach.

``It's so easy to go at night like this,'' Monique Sorel said. ``You wake in the morning and you're there.''

She said the train's rocking put her boys right to sleep. When they woke, they played on the lower berth and watched the television, she said.

``This is the only way to travel,'' Sorel said. ``I don't drive, the bus is not an option and flying is too expensive.''

Michele agreed. ``If it weren't for the time involved, it's much better than flying, better than driving, better than going by bus,'' she said. ``It's just so much more comfortable.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos

MICHELE DINSMORE

The sun sets over the Boston skyline...

...Ann Fitch...

IAN MARTIN/The Virginian-Pilot

Salmon is one of the culinary...

The Viewliner features two deluxe bedrooms...

Map

AMTRAK'S TWILIGHT SHORELINER ROUTE AND SCHEDULE

SOURCE: Amtrak

Graphic

TWILIGHT SHORELINER

Route: Newport News to Boston and back