Green Maned Lion
Engineer
I have been an avid train rider for many years- twenty in fact - and am a major supporter of inter-city and long-distance trains in this country, as an important part of our infrastructure. For most of those years, I have also been a supporter of Amtrak and its management, but my last trip changed my mind somewhat.
I have long accepted that things can and do go wrong, but my trip this November wasn’t irritating because of what went wrong, but rather Amtrak’s responses to what went wrong. Many of my trips in the past on Amtrak have been the result of pure leisure travel, such that missing time at my destination would be unpleasant, but not disastrous.
This trip was different- I had to get to my cousins Bar Mitzvah, an event I was truly anticipating. With that in mind, I built a cushion of nearly 24 hours into my booking to ensure I would get there on time. It would prove inadequate.
My father and I left Trenton on time aboard Regional 148 enroute to Washington D.C., which we arrived at about 4 minutes late. We enjoyed the facilities on offer at the Club Acela, and boarded number 29, the Capitol Limited on time. We were in sleeper and found ourselves to be in a well turned out refurbished Superliner I. The train departed Washington about a minute late, and we enjoyed a reasonably tasty meal in the dining car served on real china before turning into bed.
We arrived into Chicago Union Station about an hour late, which given the nature of connections I deemed acceptable. We boarded number 5, the California Zephyr, on time and departed roughly on time as well. We enjoyed a tasty dinner- actually, I had an excellent Duck L’Orange - and we headed to bed. Up to this point, the trip was nice. It bore no resemblance to the horror which was to follow.
About 30 minutes after departing Ottumwa, Iowa the train ground to a halt. Five minutes later, the conductor made an announcement that there was a bridge fire up ahead and that we would be waiting here some time. Fortunately, my father and I had already requested our beds turned down for the night. Maybe twenty minutes later the conductor told us the gory details- the fire was in Theyer, Iowa, some 75 miles away, and the freight trains had backed up that far.
Maybe 35 minutes later, the conductor informed the passengers that we were going to be proceeding to a siding up ahead where the engines would be run around the train and placed on the other end. The conductor didn’t know if that meant we were going to go back to Ottumwa, just that the powers that be had declared they were to move the engines to the other side of the train.
Meanwhile, our sleeping car attendant, a lazy woman largely not present up to this point, let herself be known. She wanted to “save us the trouble of having to be woken up” and so refused to put down passengers beds. She proceeded to continue making announcements until I finally told her I was trying to sleep, as were other passengers- sitting up, since she refused to let them put their beds down.
By this point, the train had pulled into the siding and the conductor announced that we would be losing head end power for “about twenty minutes” as they ran the power around to the other end. With that, power was cut and the train plunged into a darkness that would last close to two hours. Fortunately, this did result in the attendant no longer making announcements, and I fell asleep.
The conductor made an announcement when the power had finished being ran around, explaining that they had “switching trouble.” Naturally, this woke me up. Perhaps 30 minutes later, we started moving, and the attendant finally told us that the rumor was we were going back to Chicago, and so she would now let us “poor dears” get some sleep by putting our beds down for us. How kind.
My response to that rumor was, based upon seasoned understanding of Amtrak management and operating procedure, and I quote, “Nah.” I assumed that she and the rest of the train crew would be returning to Chicago with the passenger load from train 6, while train 6 would become train 5 and head back to Frisco out of Lincoln or Omaha.
As we approached Ottumwa, we found out that our conductor was going to be getting hoglawed shortly. In fact, we made it with two minutes to spare. At that point, they opened the doors and let some passengers who were anxious for a cigarette out, and also made it official that we were going back to Chicago.
Panicking that I might miss my cousins Bar Mitzvah, my dad and I briefly attempted to rent a car from Enterprise, but this proved fruitless. I spoke briefly with the conductor, who admitted to me that a bus bridge had been preposed, but he got the impression that management hadn’t really worked that hard at finding busses before they gave up.
We returned to Chicago, finally getting in around 10 AM the next morning due to difficulty in finding crew to dog catch us. Through a ticket agent I know at Amtrak Chicago, Jennifer V., who I wish to commend strongly for her help both at this point and later in the report, managed to help me book us on to #3, the Southwest Chief, to La Junta, where my father and I rented a car to drive to Colorado Springs, the final destination we were heading to via Amtrak and Front Range Express.
This was a wise decision, as the rerouted California Zephyr ended up getting into Denver around 2pm the next day. We got into La Junta about 2 hours late, and while missing my cousins Torah portion, we managed to see the rest of the ceremony.
I had an entertaining time in Colorado, including a ride up to Pikes Peak on the Cog rail, and then we were bound back to Denver, where the California Zephyr pulled in an hour and a half late, and started us back to Chicago. The trip was largely uneventful, we had a very good sleeping car attendant, although we lost an additional two hours as we approached Chicago.
At that point, more insanity occured. The late, about to misconnect with train 30, train 6 was held on a one way back up siding to for the number 5 Zephyr, and then again as it neared Chicago, it was held for the #3 Chief. It pulled into Chicago 15 minutes after train 30, for which it had over 50 connecting passengers, was scheduled to leave. They failed to hold it.
No sleeping cars were available on 48, terrible for both my bad back and my fathers bad back. I informed Amtrak “Customer Service” of our bad backs and they offered to put us up overnight, although no guarantee of sleeping space was offered. Unfortunately, both my father and I had work we needed to get to, and so we couldn’t use that option.
Fuming, and ready to kill any Amtrak employee that looked at me cross eyed, I went to the ticket counter to get us re-ticketed on 48. The agent I got was none other than Jennifer V., who went to considerable effort and energy talking to management attempting to find some way we could get some sort of sleeping accommodation over night through some opening at some point on the trip. She failed, but the degree of effort with which she attempted to serve us calmed me down, and reminded me that Amtrak employees come in only two flavors: excellent, and terrible.
After this, we were reminded of this more strongly by an obnoxious and arrogant Metropolitan Lounge employee. We asked to be given priority boarding for the coach car. That this was refused was not the issue. The obnoxious and sarcastic attitude was. I praise Jennifer again for calming me down, or I might be facing a murder rap via manual strangulation.
We boarded 48 and found two seats, and other than my keeping half my coach up with my snoring (if any of you were on that train, I sincerely apologize), the night passed without event, and forbearance was granted to us by grace of God on our backs. The trip continued to pass relatively uneventfully until lunchtime came.
The lunch was edible. But our waiter not only looked a bit like Will Smith, he seemed to think that actors obnoxious attitude on screen was exactly what passengers want. He was mistaken, I assure you. His name was Miles. I brush off things like that, but one of our table mates took considerable offense to Miles mocking his Caribbean accent.
My father took care of my lunch bill (Thanks, Dad), settling this up with the LSA. Why is this detail relevant? Because maybe 45 minutes later, Miles marches up to me halfway across the train, interrupts my conversation with an older gentlemen in which we were fixing the US economy, and tells me that I can’t “steal from Amtrak”. After insisting that my father paid my bill, and telling him where to find my father so he can ascertain that the bill was infact paid, Miles insisted that I come with him to point out my “so-called father.”
I admit I was having a bad trip, and I shot out of my seat saying something to the effect of “I have had it with stupid, incompetent, obnoxious ****ing Amtrak employees,” and marched off towards my father as Miles muttered behind me, “Yeah, sure, I’m an incompetent, obnoxious Amtrak employee.” At least he realized it. When I got to my dad who produced my receipt, Miles muttered an apology insincerely. I demanded his full name and Employee number. He directed me back into the dining car.
The LSA refused to give me the information requested, instead hoping to bribe me with a desert or a drink or something. Begging me not to report the louse. No. I didn’t want anything. I don’t need his employee number to report him, and report him I shall.
I don’t blame Amtrak for the bridge fire. That is not their fault. I blame them for not bussing us. I blame them for the “it doesn’t matter when you get there” attitude. I blame them for failing to try their best to get us their on time and run their system properly. I blame them for both allowing outbound trains priority and not holding the Capitol Limited for a short period of time. I blame them for hiring and not firing obnoxious, incompetant, stupid employees.
Amtrak needs a god damned overhaul from the top on down. Not only that, NARP doesn’t do enough to promote the kind of effective, efficient, and punctual long distance rail system our country needs. I’d say NARP needs an overhaul, but its too poisoned. I agree with Jim Cameron: Bunch of foamers. I am going to found a nationwide passenger transit advocacy organization.
I have long accepted that things can and do go wrong, but my trip this November wasn’t irritating because of what went wrong, but rather Amtrak’s responses to what went wrong. Many of my trips in the past on Amtrak have been the result of pure leisure travel, such that missing time at my destination would be unpleasant, but not disastrous.
This trip was different- I had to get to my cousins Bar Mitzvah, an event I was truly anticipating. With that in mind, I built a cushion of nearly 24 hours into my booking to ensure I would get there on time. It would prove inadequate.
My father and I left Trenton on time aboard Regional 148 enroute to Washington D.C., which we arrived at about 4 minutes late. We enjoyed the facilities on offer at the Club Acela, and boarded number 29, the Capitol Limited on time. We were in sleeper and found ourselves to be in a well turned out refurbished Superliner I. The train departed Washington about a minute late, and we enjoyed a reasonably tasty meal in the dining car served on real china before turning into bed.
We arrived into Chicago Union Station about an hour late, which given the nature of connections I deemed acceptable. We boarded number 5, the California Zephyr, on time and departed roughly on time as well. We enjoyed a tasty dinner- actually, I had an excellent Duck L’Orange - and we headed to bed. Up to this point, the trip was nice. It bore no resemblance to the horror which was to follow.
About 30 minutes after departing Ottumwa, Iowa the train ground to a halt. Five minutes later, the conductor made an announcement that there was a bridge fire up ahead and that we would be waiting here some time. Fortunately, my father and I had already requested our beds turned down for the night. Maybe twenty minutes later the conductor told us the gory details- the fire was in Theyer, Iowa, some 75 miles away, and the freight trains had backed up that far.
Maybe 35 minutes later, the conductor informed the passengers that we were going to be proceeding to a siding up ahead where the engines would be run around the train and placed on the other end. The conductor didn’t know if that meant we were going to go back to Ottumwa, just that the powers that be had declared they were to move the engines to the other side of the train.
Meanwhile, our sleeping car attendant, a lazy woman largely not present up to this point, let herself be known. She wanted to “save us the trouble of having to be woken up” and so refused to put down passengers beds. She proceeded to continue making announcements until I finally told her I was trying to sleep, as were other passengers- sitting up, since she refused to let them put their beds down.
By this point, the train had pulled into the siding and the conductor announced that we would be losing head end power for “about twenty minutes” as they ran the power around to the other end. With that, power was cut and the train plunged into a darkness that would last close to two hours. Fortunately, this did result in the attendant no longer making announcements, and I fell asleep.
The conductor made an announcement when the power had finished being ran around, explaining that they had “switching trouble.” Naturally, this woke me up. Perhaps 30 minutes later, we started moving, and the attendant finally told us that the rumor was we were going back to Chicago, and so she would now let us “poor dears” get some sleep by putting our beds down for us. How kind.
My response to that rumor was, based upon seasoned understanding of Amtrak management and operating procedure, and I quote, “Nah.” I assumed that she and the rest of the train crew would be returning to Chicago with the passenger load from train 6, while train 6 would become train 5 and head back to Frisco out of Lincoln or Omaha.
As we approached Ottumwa, we found out that our conductor was going to be getting hoglawed shortly. In fact, we made it with two minutes to spare. At that point, they opened the doors and let some passengers who were anxious for a cigarette out, and also made it official that we were going back to Chicago.
Panicking that I might miss my cousins Bar Mitzvah, my dad and I briefly attempted to rent a car from Enterprise, but this proved fruitless. I spoke briefly with the conductor, who admitted to me that a bus bridge had been preposed, but he got the impression that management hadn’t really worked that hard at finding busses before they gave up.
We returned to Chicago, finally getting in around 10 AM the next morning due to difficulty in finding crew to dog catch us. Through a ticket agent I know at Amtrak Chicago, Jennifer V., who I wish to commend strongly for her help both at this point and later in the report, managed to help me book us on to #3, the Southwest Chief, to La Junta, where my father and I rented a car to drive to Colorado Springs, the final destination we were heading to via Amtrak and Front Range Express.
This was a wise decision, as the rerouted California Zephyr ended up getting into Denver around 2pm the next day. We got into La Junta about 2 hours late, and while missing my cousins Torah portion, we managed to see the rest of the ceremony.
I had an entertaining time in Colorado, including a ride up to Pikes Peak on the Cog rail, and then we were bound back to Denver, where the California Zephyr pulled in an hour and a half late, and started us back to Chicago. The trip was largely uneventful, we had a very good sleeping car attendant, although we lost an additional two hours as we approached Chicago.
At that point, more insanity occured. The late, about to misconnect with train 30, train 6 was held on a one way back up siding to for the number 5 Zephyr, and then again as it neared Chicago, it was held for the #3 Chief. It pulled into Chicago 15 minutes after train 30, for which it had over 50 connecting passengers, was scheduled to leave. They failed to hold it.
No sleeping cars were available on 48, terrible for both my bad back and my fathers bad back. I informed Amtrak “Customer Service” of our bad backs and they offered to put us up overnight, although no guarantee of sleeping space was offered. Unfortunately, both my father and I had work we needed to get to, and so we couldn’t use that option.
Fuming, and ready to kill any Amtrak employee that looked at me cross eyed, I went to the ticket counter to get us re-ticketed on 48. The agent I got was none other than Jennifer V., who went to considerable effort and energy talking to management attempting to find some way we could get some sort of sleeping accommodation over night through some opening at some point on the trip. She failed, but the degree of effort with which she attempted to serve us calmed me down, and reminded me that Amtrak employees come in only two flavors: excellent, and terrible.
After this, we were reminded of this more strongly by an obnoxious and arrogant Metropolitan Lounge employee. We asked to be given priority boarding for the coach car. That this was refused was not the issue. The obnoxious and sarcastic attitude was. I praise Jennifer again for calming me down, or I might be facing a murder rap via manual strangulation.
We boarded 48 and found two seats, and other than my keeping half my coach up with my snoring (if any of you were on that train, I sincerely apologize), the night passed without event, and forbearance was granted to us by grace of God on our backs. The trip continued to pass relatively uneventfully until lunchtime came.
The lunch was edible. But our waiter not only looked a bit like Will Smith, he seemed to think that actors obnoxious attitude on screen was exactly what passengers want. He was mistaken, I assure you. His name was Miles. I brush off things like that, but one of our table mates took considerable offense to Miles mocking his Caribbean accent.
My father took care of my lunch bill (Thanks, Dad), settling this up with the LSA. Why is this detail relevant? Because maybe 45 minutes later, Miles marches up to me halfway across the train, interrupts my conversation with an older gentlemen in which we were fixing the US economy, and tells me that I can’t “steal from Amtrak”. After insisting that my father paid my bill, and telling him where to find my father so he can ascertain that the bill was infact paid, Miles insisted that I come with him to point out my “so-called father.”
I admit I was having a bad trip, and I shot out of my seat saying something to the effect of “I have had it with stupid, incompetent, obnoxious ****ing Amtrak employees,” and marched off towards my father as Miles muttered behind me, “Yeah, sure, I’m an incompetent, obnoxious Amtrak employee.” At least he realized it. When I got to my dad who produced my receipt, Miles muttered an apology insincerely. I demanded his full name and Employee number. He directed me back into the dining car.
The LSA refused to give me the information requested, instead hoping to bribe me with a desert or a drink or something. Begging me not to report the louse. No. I didn’t want anything. I don’t need his employee number to report him, and report him I shall.
I don’t blame Amtrak for the bridge fire. That is not their fault. I blame them for not bussing us. I blame them for the “it doesn’t matter when you get there” attitude. I blame them for failing to try their best to get us their on time and run their system properly. I blame them for both allowing outbound trains priority and not holding the Capitol Limited for a short period of time. I blame them for hiring and not firing obnoxious, incompetant, stupid employees.
Amtrak needs a god damned overhaul from the top on down. Not only that, NARP doesn’t do enough to promote the kind of effective, efficient, and punctual long distance rail system our country needs. I’d say NARP needs an overhaul, but its too poisoned. I agree with Jim Cameron: Bunch of foamers. I am going to found a nationwide passenger transit advocacy organization.
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