Recent content by AlecL

You know what, now that I think about it you might be right. Because there was a freight that struck a car last night. And there was a body found by the tracks. My two stories might be getting mixed together. There were a lot of delayed trains last night out West. For now, forget I said anything...

There was a body found near the tracks, believed to be non-rail related. Police stopped train traffic. Train 4 was held at FUL.

Some stations have it set up so that their local number actually forwards directly to the 800 number. Frequently we'll answer the phone in Philadelphia and people will mistakenly think that they're talking to someone at the station in Bakersfield, Birmingham, or somewhere in between. :blink...

Yes this is standard. When calling the public numbers at stations there is almost always a recording directing you to call 800-USA-RAIL. Don't waste your time calling over and over, nobody will ever pick up. Instead, call the 800 number and ask the agent if they will call the station directly on...

The e-ticketing communications team at Amtrak has provided sales employees with the following timetable in regards to e-ticketing. Early Dec - Pilot program continues on to include Capitol Corridor trains Late Dec - Pilot program continues on to include Long Distance trains Feb - e-ticketing...

When refunding coach seats, as long as the tickets have not yet been printed, you can call for a full 100% refund even after you no-show for a train that has already departed. Coach seats have no 10% cancellation fee prior to ticketing... period.

Except we can't charge the difference to his credit card, only the one that is already on file. And if she changes it at the window, they'll need his credit card present to charge the difference.

The problem you'd run into is that over the phone there is no way to charge the difference to a different credit card than the one that was originally used. And if the reservation was unpaid, there's no way to split payments by phone. Essentially one person or the other is going to have to cover...

That could be a little complicated. I'm assuming she already paid for the coach ticket and you just want to pay the difference for the roomette upgrade? Would you be able to accompany her to a ticket window prior to her boarding?

Just know ahead of time that the roomettes are smaaallllll. Sometimes when I try to explain this to others, they will respond by saying, "Oh, so the mattress is like a twin sized bed?" Not even close. I'm not going to bother looking up the exact dimensions but the entire roomette is probably...

I would do CLT-NYP-PVD. As far as the sleeper availability, booking the Crescent to WAS instead of NYP doesn't affect your chances. The train doesn't pick up any new passengers from WAS on so there would be nobody booking a roomette from say, PHL-NYP. It will either be available to WAS and...

Probably not going to get better anytime soon. Freight congestion, speed restrictions, late arrivals and turn arounds have been severely delaying the Zephyr. Detour around Omaha could continue until sometime this fall and trackwork in CO is scheduled on select days through Aug 27.

One time when I rode in FC on Acela I had the interesting experience of riding with Lynn Cheney and her Secret Service entourage, who took up a good third of the car. When we got to the final destination of WAS and everyone was ready to detrain, the crew made an announcement that they were...

Having no racks in the baggage cars can definitely be a problem. Amtrak is pretty good about not losing baggage. But sometimes on the Silver Service trains, for example, where you have a lot of major stations with baggage service in close proximity (down in Florida,) things can get a little...

That $36 NYP-PHL fare is the non-refundable EO8N special fare. If you have a printed Amtrak ticket already, there is no way to get a refund... exchange only. On the other hand, if that ticket has not been printed, you can call up with your reservation number to request a full refund.