I was present for the media event and was booked on the inaugural train. Here's my trip report:
I read an announcement saying that Amtrak was extending the Lynchburg service of Northeast Regional train to Roanoke on Halloween 2017. I've flown on inaugural flights, and have attended inaugural transportation infrastructure opening ceremonies, and find it exciting to witness the event in person.
When I first booked my ticket, Amtrak was still selling this as a Thruway Connection. I read that the Thruway service was to cease operations the day before the inaugural train, so I booked with the confidence that I would be rebooked onto the train service once Amtrak put in the schedule change. Business Class was a very small upcharge ($7 difference) so I opted for the Business Class ticket.
On Monday Oct 30, the day before service began, I went to the train station to catch the "media special" train that Amtrak was operating that day for publicity purposes. After the media detrained and set up, the inaugural ceremony began.
Being unfamiliar with Virginian elected officials, I did not remember everyone's names. If the photo is missing a caption, that's because I don't remember who they are!
Roanoke Mayor Sherman Lea
Virginia Secretary of Transportation Aubrey Layne
Virginia State Senator John Edwards
A view of the station platform.
After the speeches, a ribbon cutting took place, but I couldn't get any photos of that since the media swarmed the stage. The event staff had the engineer blow the horn on the locomotive as the ribbon was cut.
After the ceremony, the train was open to the public for tours. That's when I realized that Amtrak was not completely honest in the impression that they were trying to give the media. The train consisted of the locomotive, three
Business Class cars, a cafe car, and Amtrak's executive office car, Beech Grove.
The interior of the Business Class cars were reconfigured, contained the new upholstery, and were scrubbed clean.
They also installed tables at the ends of each car, four tables per end. These tables appear to be brand new. Regular reupholstered Business Class cars do not have these tables as far as I know (the one I had going back did not)
The cafe car was also the cleanest one I've ever seen, and they put tablecloths on the tables to make it look nicer.
On the next day, on Halloween, I boarded the train, and was slightly disappointed to see that Amtrak did absolutely nothing (for the passengers) to celebrate the inaugural train. The crew seemed very cheery, but that's because they operated with a double crew of six conductors. I bet they also had to be cheery because the media took over the cafe car and was going up and down the train taking photos and shooting footage. For me, it was an uneventful six hour ride to Baltimore where I got off the train, boarded a plane, and flew home.