Round trip Chicago - East Coast and back

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fulham

Service Attendant
Joined
Jun 22, 2012
Messages
110
Just finished a round trip on the Capitol Limited Chicago to Washington, Regional to Berlin, CT, Berlin back to NYC, and Lake Shore NYC to Chicago. Capitol was fine, train about 15 minutes late into DC, but made connection to Berlin. Regional was fine..cars seemed a bit cleaner than in the past.

On return, bus to New Haven, and Regional to NYP. No issues. But the Lake Shore was a disappointment. I was in car 4912. This car seemed liked it had been pulled off one of the Silver trains. It was clean, but no LSL timetables (only Atlantic Coast timetables) no water in the sleepers, etc. SCA asked me what time I wanted my bed made down, and I told him it did not matter. He said to buzz him. I did, starting around 8:30 PM...no response for 45 minutes, finally I tracked him down in his room. "Diner Lite" service was poor. The LSA, a young man, was trying to keep things organized, but he was not getting much help from his staff. One older attendant, in a loud voice, was openly criticizing his decisions...all passengers could hear what she was saying. Very unprofessional. Food was poor and in small portions. No one came around to ask about desert, so I just left without leaving a tip. No last call for dinner. Coach passengers were wandering in looking for food. I told the LSA he needed to make an announcement as to the location of the cafe car. To his credit, he did.

Very few announcements were made regarding station stops even into Chicago in the morning. No "welcome aboard" announcement upon leaving NYP...this is where cars are located, etc. No announcement from the LSA in the cafe car that was added in Albany. None whatsoever. Had a breakfast sandwich from the cafe in the morning. Still frozen on the inside. If Mr. Moorman wants to "fix" Amtrak, it is these little things that need to be addressed. And you know what, these type of fixes, don't cost a dime. One of my worst trips on the LSL. Let's hope things improve under Moorman.

One other item that sill baffles me. In the "diner lite" car, there are probably 10 tables. Each attendant has 5 tables, plus the LSA, to help out. Yet they still can screw it up. It can't be that complicated. Don't restaurants have about the same number of tables assigned to each waitperson? Granted you can get lousy service at a restaurant...but Amtrak has been around for 45 years, and THEY STILL CANNOT GET THE CONCEPT OF WAITING ON TABLES DOWN ON A CONSISTENT BASIS!
 
Sorry about your negative experience on the LSL. It seems to be a mixed bag of service quality. My eastbound ride last June was good with attentive attendants, decent food, etc. Westbound I had the same experience with the disappearing SCA who never came around to put down the bed and only saw him in CLE when he was standing outside the door waiting for a tip. Consistency in service is a major problem for Amtrak that should be easily remedied with proper supervision.
 
Sorry about your negative experience on the LSL. It seems to be a mixed bag of service quality. My eastbound ride last June was good with attentive attendants, decent food, etc. Westbound I had the same experience with the disappearing SCA who never came around to put down the bed and only saw him in CLE when he was standing outside the door waiting for a tip. Consistency in service is a major problem for Amtrak that should be easily remedied with proper supervision.
Yep consistency of service is Amtrak's biggest single problem fully within its control. I've had a lot of trips like Fulham's, unfortunately, but a lot of better trips as well. Amtrak's onboard service is definitely a YMMV situation, and has been for decades.
 
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