Texan Eagle
Conductor
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2011
- Messages
- 1,705
In the last one month now I am 3 out of 3 on my score of "poor Amtrak trips". Having quite a month I guess!
After riding Coast Starlight with broken HVAC and rude attendant, today I rode Capitol Corridor from Oakland to Santa Clara and back, and Amtrak disappointed me on both legs. I had convinced a co-worker to ride the train with me instead of dealing with traffic, and now he hates me
The morning Cap Corridor departed fine from Oakland, and came to an abrupt halt between Oakland and Hayward. 15 minutes of no movement, no updates from the crew, just waiting, and then started moving and never recovered from the delay. With Amtrak, delays are measured in hours so 15 minutes seems like nothing, but remember this is a commuter route. Reaching Santa Clara at 8.40am instead of 8.24am meant we missed the connecting bus, had to pay up for cab and got late to a meeting. Oh well.
On the way back, we were to take the 12.26pm Cap Corridor from Santa Clara. That time came and went, no signs, no announcements, no train in sight. After 20 minutes of waiting, I called 1800-USA-RAIL and after a long hold, tells us the train is only 8 minutes late, when I was standing at the platform 20 minutes beyond departure time! Anyway, it arrived 30 minutes late, stopped abruptly near Great America and dropped us at Oakland 45 minutes late. 1 hour commute ended being almost 2 hours.
I contacted Amtrak Customer Relations and his response was- "if a train is less than 30 minutes late, it is on time. There is no reason to complain". He also decided to add his unasked-for advice that if I did not want to miss my appointments I should "have just taken earlier train".
It sucks that unlike Europe and Japan where trains run to the minute, Amtrak runs on the philosophy that if a train delay is not measured in hours, it is all good. And oh, the absolute disinterest among crew to keep the passengers informed what is going on.
After riding Coast Starlight with broken HVAC and rude attendant, today I rode Capitol Corridor from Oakland to Santa Clara and back, and Amtrak disappointed me on both legs. I had convinced a co-worker to ride the train with me instead of dealing with traffic, and now he hates me
The morning Cap Corridor departed fine from Oakland, and came to an abrupt halt between Oakland and Hayward. 15 minutes of no movement, no updates from the crew, just waiting, and then started moving and never recovered from the delay. With Amtrak, delays are measured in hours so 15 minutes seems like nothing, but remember this is a commuter route. Reaching Santa Clara at 8.40am instead of 8.24am meant we missed the connecting bus, had to pay up for cab and got late to a meeting. Oh well.
On the way back, we were to take the 12.26pm Cap Corridor from Santa Clara. That time came and went, no signs, no announcements, no train in sight. After 20 minutes of waiting, I called 1800-USA-RAIL and after a long hold, tells us the train is only 8 minutes late, when I was standing at the platform 20 minutes beyond departure time! Anyway, it arrived 30 minutes late, stopped abruptly near Great America and dropped us at Oakland 45 minutes late. 1 hour commute ended being almost 2 hours.
I contacted Amtrak Customer Relations and his response was- "if a train is less than 30 minutes late, it is on time. There is no reason to complain". He also decided to add his unasked-for advice that if I did not want to miss my appointments I should "have just taken earlier train".
It sucks that unlike Europe and Japan where trains run to the minute, Amtrak runs on the philosophy that if a train delay is not measured in hours, it is all good. And oh, the absolute disinterest among crew to keep the passengers informed what is going on.