Well, the trip turned from bad to worse. 48/448 finally pulled into the station and hit the road at about 12:30A, Sunday instead of 9:30P, Sat. The other surprise was being told on the platform about to board that our 4812 sleeper was out of service due to malfunctioning toilets, presumably frozen lines. They were not clear whether 4812 was on the train or not; turns out it was. The other two sleepers were o.k. The OBS were told that we knew about this (we didn't) and that we would be put up in biz class. The heat along the walls in the biz class car was out, too but blankets and pillows were provided. There was another communication breakdown where the diner crew didn't know that the 4812 passengers were switched to biz and it looked like we might have to pay for breakfast. Happily, this was resolved.
There were some very unhappy customers; most of us were over 60 and were looking forward to the beds we paid for. Several had been on the Zephyr or CONL and were already tired. I paid for my roomette 4 months earlier. Everyone remained pretty civil to the OBS but I'll bet there are a pile of annoyed customers contacting customer relations.
I certainly understand the sleeper shortage problem but one wonders why after all these years, solutions haven't been found to keep car systems from freezing; trace heaters, better insulation, etc. It's not like cold, crappy weather is unusual in winter. As the train was 4 hours late into Buffalo, I didn't have an extended wait for the Maple Leaf to Toronto, which was nice.
I'm a railroader and fan and will continue to take Amtrak but I wonder about the other 10 or so that went through this. Communication in advance of the problems would have helped a lot.
