Amtrak's customer facing IT issue

[EchoSierra]

They should just bring it back. When people see the train is almost full, it's an incentive to book immediately.

 

[Amtrak25]

Load indicators were removed several months ago. They have gone the way of the public timetable.

 

[Siegmund]

I had had the impression the load indicator was always wrong anyway and was only sowing confusion, so haven't missed it. If it actually worked, I'm sure people would like to have it back. (Though if it were me, I would use it to find the least-busy days, not to 'hurry and book because it's almost full.')

 

[trimetbusfan]

Yes, the load indicator was taken away a few months ago, but does appear to be intermittently appearing again.

Note that the indicator does not always appear on the first search, it sometimes takes multiple searches. And I haven’t noticed it on the website, just the app. This leads me to believe its an error rather than intentional for now.

 

[Amtrak25]

Last week, when making a reservation, the agent said the website is troublesome, the App is more reliable.

I had been on the website trying to make a reservation for the summer, and the button to proceed after entering all the information including payment would stay gray (inoperative) and would not turn green, no way, no how. I checked every box and entered all information I was supposed to. I gave up and called to have them do it.

The agent came up with a fare that was 58 cents more than what I was quoted when I tried. I let that go. (It was a Senior + 15% NY State discount - mathematically comes the same regardless of which discount you apply first)

 

[Cal H]

Just joined. Count me in as disappointed that it's gone.

 

[Willbridge]

Flix has a compromise version. It only appears when the trip is nearly full.

Naturally, the most sophisticated version of this info is the DB's.

• High demand expected (in red)
• Medium demand expected
• Low demand expected

https://int.bahn.de/en/booking-information/how-full-is-my-train

"The current demand indicator in the connection information shows you how busy your train is expected to be. This tool helps you to decide in advance whether you want to reserve a seat or travel on another service."



And here's Flix.

 

[Amtrak25]

Amtrak put up those percentages so that people could avoid crowded conditions during Covid. With the pandemic gone, so is that feature.

Amtrak gets a juvenile sense of power and authority with obfuscation of information, whether it be load factors, timetables, laziness in posting Twitter delays and cancellations, Adirondack suspension, you name it.

 

[joelkfla]

Amtrak gets a juvenile sense of power and authority with obfuscation of information, whether it be load factors, timetables, laziness in posting Twitter delays and cancellations, Adirondack suspension, you name it.

Ouch!

 

[jis]

Amtrak put up those percentages so that people could avoid crowded conditions during Covid. With the pandemic gone, so is that feature.

I do not understand why Amtrak cannot simply publish how many seats are available at what fare at any given point in time. Airlines are able to do this and even third world railways like in India are able to do this even on trains and accommodation which are subject to yield management, and of course on trains and accommodations that are not subject to yield management (there are both types of trains in their system), and even publish status of waiting lists (WL) and reservation against cancellation (RAC) lists. It may have something to do with Amtrak not having a single source of truth database like these other systems do, and being hamstrung in funding to get to such a state.

Amtrak gets a juvenile sense of power and authority with obfuscation of information, whether it be load factors, timetables, laziness in posting Twitter delays and cancellations, Adirondack suspension, you name it.

I think Amtrak is significantly handicapped by having chosen less than competent contractors to revamp their customer facing IT platform, together with ill conceived destaffing of functions that are important for providing useful and convenient information to the customers in a usable for.

The loss of timetables falls in this category. It is not like it took an army of people to create and provide timetables. We are talking of one, maybe two people. Witness the effort it takes the volunteers to provide timetables to RPA. The timetable fiasco was a typical self-goal that Amtrak is so expert at.

Similarly it is mind boggling how Amtrak has failed to put together an event notification system that actually works. Again possibly due to people who are managing the system having little domain knowledge and are experts and juggling spreadsheets alone.

 

[slasher-fun]

I do not understand why Amtrak cannot simply publish how many seats are available at what fare at any given point in time. Airlines are able to do this

Airlines just give a figure between 0 and 9 (9 meaning 9+). You don't want to give too much insight on your business to competitors...

 

[jis]

Airlines just give a figure between 0 and 9 (9 meaning 9+). You don't want to give too much insight on your business to competitors...

Actually that is sufficient information for most purposes. Of course in an environment where trains mostly run full and are more often than not sold out a few days before departure there are additional facilities available and numbers associated with those like Waiting Lists and Reservation Against Cancellations which carry different fare supplements. But Amtrak can barely manage straight reservations so we won;t worry about such complications.