5 replies to this topic

[john6185]

The wife and I took the Heartland Express out of OKC to FTW and were impressed with the crew and cleanliness of the train, very nice! However transferring to the Texas Eagle to SAS was deplorable in that the sleeper car was not clean, trash containers were full in in all areas, no coffee nor water available. There was a couple with their mom who had Alzheimer's DZ who found that their rooms were not prepared and after an hour complaining they called AMTRAK and demanded a full refund but I don't know what the final outcome was-they finally did get their rooms, one for the mom and another for them. It should be mentioned that the a/c was out the entire trip to SAS and those in sleepers slept with doors open and lying on top of the bed coverings-it was pretty hot. The SCA was John. Then on arrival at SAS we had a new SCA Craig and he had the place cleaned up in no time and we had coffee, water and all public areas were clean, it was amazing! he was great the entire trip to LAX. We then took an AMTAK vacation to Yosemite and returned to LAX and went to The Reagan Library which was very educational and informative. Returning to LAX at 1215 PM we had to wait until 1000 PM before we met the Texas Eagle/Sunset Limited back to SAS. Just sitting for that period of time was somewhat painful in many ways but without going into it, we received an education watching and waiting! Then we caught the AMTRAK bound for SAS and FTW. Guess what? The commodes were malfunctioning and since we were in a sleeper had to go into coach and dodge everything in the aisles to use the bathroom. This existed all the way to SAS. I don't know if it's worth mentioning but the SCA spent approximately 25% of his time in a lone female's sleeper across form us which in my opinion was unprofessional on his part since he was in AMTRAK uniform but it did seem unusual to us. Then in the diner for lunch, we sat with two other gentlemen and one started telling us he had a masters degree and traveled the world and pulled out and presented his passport which was over stamped. THen he began making sexual comments to my wife and used the "f" word to me and we abruptly got up and left the meal and retired to our sleeper. I thought of slugging the guy but both of us would have been shown the door at the next stop with police waiting. In retrospect, I should have registered a complaint with the conductor. As it was, the guy went from there to the lounge car and became pretty drunk from what I heard and went to the Dining car at supper and began obscenely insulting another guy's wife and he did notify the conductor but I don't know the outcome of that. Then we arrived at SAS and after a lot of noise and clunking we were connected to the Texas Eagle for the ride to FTW. During that ride, we had no coffee or water unless we went into the adjoining sleeper car for same. The wife is pretty disgusted with the nasty condition of cross-country AMTRAK trains and refuses to go again but will ride the trains in California because form the ones we rode are clean in appearance. We do plan on riding the CA AMTRAK trains during the day and getting a hotel after 4:00 PM and repeating this on the next day until we arrive at our destination.


Based on the problems we encountered with AMTRAK we'll send them a letter of complaint but will not ride long distance on AMTRAK ever again. Our sleeper cars were aged and had seen their better days and that contributed to our discomfort. But some of the people riding AMTRAK (the guy at the dining table) are inexcusable.

[Shanghai]

I'm sorry you had such bad experience. Behavior as you describe should not be tolerated
in any public venue and should be reported to Amtrak management. I know how uncomfortable
it can be in a sleeper when the air conditioning and toilets are not working. I traveled
from Charlottesville, VA to Indianapolis, IN in the summertime on the Cardinal without both!!
I wrote a letter to Amtrak Customer Service explaining the situation and received a voucher
for the full cost of the sleeper.

[Railroad Bill]

Sorry you had such a negative experience on your Amtrak trip.
You definitely should have reported the obnoxious passenger at your dinner table to the conductor.
We had a similar experience one time on the CZ and found that several others had complained about the offender. The conductor thanked us for the information and told us he would be detraining the person at the next stop.

Hope you will give Amtrak another try in the future. We have traveled over 40,000 miles on various Amtrak trains in the last few years and I would say that 90 per cent of our rides have been very enjoyable.

[greatcats]

I too am sorry that you had a mostly negative trip. I will be on the Eagle/Sunset in October. Complaints on your part are definitely in order. But I hope that you will take Amtrak again. My last trip this past November: Tampa-Washington=Chicago-Portland was generally excellent.

[TraneMan]

Sorry to hear about the trip. I wouldn't give up on Amtrak just yet. There are other LD trains out there you can try.

[john6185]

Thank you for you empathetic replies, who knows what we'll do in the future. I've learned long ago never to say never.