(The following story by Jeff E. Schapiro appeared on the Richmond Times-Dispatch website on August 30.)
ABOARD AMTRAK TRAIN NO. 194 — They started the party without us.
The train carrying 70 Virginia delegates, campaign operatives and home-state reporters to the Republican National Convention yesterday was slowed by, among other things, a faulty switch on a sylvan stretch of CSX Corp.-owned track south of Fredericksburg, delaying arrival in New York by nearly 3.5 hours.
When not trapped in the bone-chillingly air-conditioned carriages, the Virginians endured the seemingly interminable day with frequent strolls to the club car for hot coffee, cold water, soft drinks or something stronger.
“What makes it tolerable is the good company,” said Apostolos D. Catsaros, a delegate from Charlottesville. “These are all associations I made across the state. It’s made up for the delays – the fellowship.”
Catsaros rose at 6 a.m. yesterday to catch the train in Richmond at 10:50 a.m. However, a holdup down the line in Newport News pushed the departure to 11:30 a.m. Forty-five minutes later, the train stopped because of the equipment breakdown. It was two hours before crews from CSX completed repairs.
E. James “Jay” Hughes III of Spotsylvania County, a first-time delegate, was at the snack bar when another passenger – noticing the GOP credentials strung around Hughes’ neck – struck up a conversation.
“Then he piped – jokingly – ‘I thought Republicans don’t like Amtrak,'” said Hughes, a systems analyst for a federal contractor. “And then we just got into a friendly discussion about how Republicans who gravitate toward free-market principles might have a problem with Amtrak.”
Train No. 194 finally slid into Pennsylvania Station at 8:29 p.m. Delegates trudged through the steamy station, which sits below the convention venue, Madison Square Garden, before heading up to and across West 33rd Street, 11⁄2 blocks to two waiting buses. By 9:45 p.m., most of the travelers had made it to their hotel, the Helmsley Park Lane, overlooking Central Park.
The tardy arrival meant delegates missed some of the preconvention festivities, including a Broadway show, the Walt Disney Co. production of “Beauty and the Beast” and a reception for U.S. Sen. George Allen, the Virginian who heads the campaign arm of the Republican caucus.
But John C. Van Hoy, a delegate from Stafford County, was not concerned.
“It just means we’ve got to stay up later,” he said.
Doing what?
“You know,” Van Hoy, a geologist for a Richmond engineering firm, replied with a smile. “There’s bound to be something to do in New York City.”
Mary Pauline Jones of Vienna, who turned 18 on Friday, is the youngest of the 125-member Virginia delegation. A first-year student at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Jones is skipping class for a week with the blessing of the school’s president, Paul S. Trible Jr., a former Republican U.S. senator who sent an e-mail to her five professors excusing her absence.
Jones has been active in politics since she was 8, stuffing envelopes and knocking on doors. Serving as a delegate is another step toward her goal of elective office, perhaps starting with the General Assembly.
“At my age, not too many people like politics,” said Jones, operating on three hours of sleep. “They feel it doesn’t effect them because they don’t pay taxes.”