My Auto Train trips August 10-11 & August 18-19, dining crew rude

I have been riding the Auto Train for many, many years. Even back to before Amtrak in the Auto Train corporation days. I generally love the trip. I've switched in the past several years to roomettes vs. coach. Partly I travel it solo lately and don't like sleeping next to a stranger.

Everything on both legs was great EXCEPT the dining room experience as seems to be the general state of things lately. Station check in, sleeping car attendant, lounge attendant etc. all were cheerful, polite and a credit to Amtrak. Very friendly and made one feel welcome.

Both ways the dining staff were surly and rude which seems to be worse each trip I make lately. Both on my northbound and southbound trips they came to the table seemingly angry and were quite rude and short with everyone at the table. On the southbound trip he even started pulling plates from in front of us from which we were still eating, fork in hand! Note while this was the 9 O'clock seating I'd estimate 75% of the diners present were not as far along in their meal as us so it's not as if we were slow or holding things up. Even if were among the late folks that'd be no excuse.

Amtrak seriously needs to have some undercover 'secret shoppers' ride the train and check service. I know there have been cut backs and there are reasons for them to be unhappy, but chasing away customers will only make it worse. The rest of the on board train staff is awesome to be the point of reminding me of Disney Park 'cast members' so I wonder if the dining car staff is dealing with worse issues or if dining car staff management is incompetent.

I will ignore it and hope they get better, but I'm sure some folks are being turned off enough to reconsider the train at all.

Still love the overall trip, and will do again in few weeks. If it weren't for the pleasure of meeting fellow travelers I'd probably just bring a box dinner and each it in the lounge.

A random shot of the lounge from this trip...

This is inexcusable!

Please call Customer Relations ( 1-800-USA- RAIL), when "Julie" answers, ask for Agent/when connected ask for Customer Relations and give them this information!

One of our members is a Retired OBS from this once proud train, and he will be appaled at this! That jerk waitperson and probably the LSA need retraining or detraining ASAP!

Please let us know what they tell you and any follow up!

I hope you get a better Diner crew next time, most are excellent, but as they say, few sour apples can spoil the barrel!

I had great service both ways in the Dinner on my Auto Train trip in JUne. Sorry to hear you hit a grumpy crew.

After being accidentally logged off for a few days, I finally got back in with the help of OBS and Penny. Thanks and Kudos to you both!

It bothers me to hear about problems on the Auto Train. I've always had a special feeling about it. AUers usually travel in sleepers on LD trains, and that is a factor here. On the Auto Train, the coach and sleeper diners are operated differently. The sleeper diner has its own dedicated staff. In the coach diner, the LSA and Chef do the preliminary setup with the help of TA's for a little while, but then the TA's have to break away to board the coaches. After boarding, one TA remains in the coaches and the rest become diner SA's. By the time all dinner seatings are finished, those folks are tired and all they want to do is get some sleep.

This does not excuse anything. In the past, the climate was one of "Get R done", and the staff of both diners have kept up their spirits and energy to do things right, as a point of pride, in spite of their tiredness. But things began to change about 20 months ago, when a new management team arrived. On the new management team, nobody above the level of Chief had any prior Auto Train onboard experience, and there was precious little OBS experience at all.

First, a "Town Meeting" was called. To me, a Town Meeting is an opportunity to exchange ideas, get to know one another, express concerns, etc. No such thing. Questions, suggestions, etc. were given short shrift or ignored. This was a big shock to veteran Auto Train employees who were used to solving problems and facing new challenges in a cooperative, mutually respectful climate. No such thing. The clear message from management was "My way or the highway".

There was just one Town Meeting scheduled. That made no sense. There are 5 Auto Train crews. Housing is expensive in the Lorton area, so many people live a long distance from there. For me, the commute was about 85 miles each way. It wouldn't be very reasonable for an employer to expect an employee to come to an unpaid meeting on his day off even if he lived next door. Since it is well known that the Auto Tran has a wide "diaspora", this was all the more unreasonable. Those who arrived from Florida at 9 AM that day were not inclined to wait 3 hours on their own time for the beginning of an unpaid noon meeting. Those who were scheduled to begin a trip would have to take time out of their preparation for the trip, making them start out behind their normal work schedule. For me and my crew, we were on our turnaround at the opposite end of the run. The obvious answer was to have several meetings over several days. However, no additional meetings were scheduled, so most of us learned about this by word-of-mouth. The stories we heard were disturbingly consistent.

Immediately, there were questions about management decisions. An excellent example is the decision to eliminate one lounge car. Anyone with any sense, and certainly those of us with practical Auto Train experience, knew it would be ridiculous to have only one lounge car to serve 500+ passengers. Nevertheless, they dropped one lounge, with disastrous results. They have quietly brought back the second lounge car without any apologies to those who gave them good advice before the mistake was made. Management has played around with the order of the cars in the consist, with similarly poor results. They do not seem to have any respect for the fact that these things were set up as they were for good reasons. Management has shown no respect for those who figured these things out and determined the best way a long time ago. They still show little or no respect for the people who made the Auto Train the success it was.

That's the climate. It does not excuse anything, but I think it explains a lot.

Thanks Tom! Good info from one who's been there in the trenches!

And it sounds like yall's Union is doing a lousy job if crap like this goes on with OBS! Isn't unpaid work illegal?

Sadly this has become common practice all over Amtrak, and the Suits in Washington have been busy letting this Management by Fiat spread!

AFAICT every single Department /Division and aspect of Amtrak is a victim of incompetent,uncaring and unqualified Managers.

"Let them eat cake!" and "Cut your way to prosperity while charging more" and "My way or the Highway" are proven, successful.business models, so problems solved! Pass the Champagne!

So far, nothing illegal that I know of. The meeting was not mandatory. It was supposed to be an opportunity to get to know the new manager. Nobody was required to attend. A cynic would say that gave the managers the right to say "if you don't know, it's your own fault for not going to the meeting." Of course I'm not a cynic, so I would never say that.

An long as they don't violate the letter of the contract, the Union can't do much. Empathy, decency, courtesy, and respect for employees is not mandated in the contract.

I'm curious what the CSI scores are right now. That's "Customer Satisfaction Index", as measured by the surveys, complaint/compliment letters received, etc.

Tom

P.S. to Jim: We disagree on one thing. I've stopped capitalizing "management".

Thanks Tom, I'm joining you but I will use mica-management when referring to Amtrak's braintrust from now on!

As for the dictator types you refer to, I had many such "Bosses" in my working life. They didn't last or else the organization didn't if they were allowed a free hand!

Remember the old "Peter Principle?"

Amtrak evidently hire these types from outside, people aren't allowed to learn about the job and work their way up through merit!( we all know an exception!)

To my knowledge, they were NOT hired from outside the Company. However, I am told they had little or no OBS experience, and no Auto Train experience before they took over.

Tom

Bleah.

It's not necessarily bad to have managers with little or no experience, but such managers need to *listen*. High-handed, arrogant people with no experience are by definition incompetent.

Chiming in:

My rail travels over the past decades have been, in a word, extensive. I am hardly a novice at that sort of thing, much less life itself.

I have found that a dining car staff can make or break one's experience. Cheerful, friendly and attentive are the buzz words. Sadly,

there have been times where I too have been totally turned off in the dining car because of a staffer having a bad day or just plain

sullen, irrespective of the situation. The latter get reported promptly to Customer Relations. My feeling is if "they" do not get the

word, nothing will be done (not that there are any guarantees, mind you!).

Sleeping car attendants can also ruin one's day. Being less than attentive just does not get it whether a coach passenger or in a

sleeping car. Report the transgression and move on with life is the way I approach it.

ALSO, report the good times as well. It is oh so easy to be negative. The good news travels a lot slower than the bad, but if "they"

do not get the word, praise will never follow.

Later . . .