Bad Amtrak customer service and maintenance- Disastrous Calif. Zephyr

[Devil's Advocate]

It's very difficult to repair a car en route. There's a very limited time at each stop, and they have to make sure they do it in a manner that is not posing any kind of hazard to the passengers. I get that it sucked to have a broken A/C in the summer, but there are limits to what they can do about it once the train is underway.

Apparently this car left the originating station with an already defective HVAC and that it had been out for several days prior to departure. For me that's a different situation than working at departure and then suddenly failing unexpectedly while en route.

This is a really bad experience, but I don’t think it’s an indication that Amtrak mechanical has fallen. Anyone who isn’t looking through Richard-Anderson-hate-colored-glasses would note that Amtrak mechanical has essentially always been bad, and Chicago in particular has had the reputation of being the worst of the bunch. This goes back decades. There may be patches of time here and there where things got slightly better for a bit, but by and large, what you experienced on this trip (a broken car that departed Chicago without being repaired) has been going on since forever.

The man in charge right now is Anderson and at this moment the buck stops with him. That's why he's being criticized for bad ordered stock being sent out on his watch. Just as you would expect at any other company. Equating basic criticism with blind hatred is both irrational and childish.

 

[ohle]

This is a really bad experience, but I don’t think it’s an indication that Amtrak mechanical has fallen. Anyone who isn’t looking through Richard-Anderson-hate-colored-glasses would note that Amtrak mechanical has essentially always been bad, and Chicago in particular has had the reputation of being the worst of the bunch.

This goes back decades. There may be patches of time here and there where things got slightly better for a bit, but by and large, what you experienced on this trip (a broken car that departed Chicago without being repaired) has been going on since forever.

This is a really bad experience, but I don’t think it’s an indication that Amtrak mechanical has fallen. Anyone who isn’t looking through Richard-Anderson-hate-colored-glasses would note that Amtrak mechanical has essentially always been bad, and Chicago in particular has had the reputation of being the worst of the bunch.

This goes back decades. There may be patches of time here and there where things got slightly better for a bit, but by and large, what you experienced on this trip (a broken car that departed Chicago without being repaired) has been going on since forever.

Who's to blame, then?The man on the moon?

The buck stops with a company's CEO.

When he verbally attacks his own company's product, it shows he cares little about his product or his customers.

Thirdrail has said in other threads that action is being taken on this. Results won't show up overnight, especially from a place that is as bad as Chicago mechanical.

The problems seem systematic.

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2013/07/09/passenger-on-amtrak-train-stuck-for-horrible-14-hours.html

"...Passengers who were stuck overnight on a disabled Amtrak train for 14 hours had to put up with balky toilets, intermittent air conditioning and train personnel who were absent during most of the ordeal..."

 

[jis]

Well, unfortunately a guaranteed solution to the problem is not to send out trains with marginal equipment. The unintended consequence may be a slew of canceled trains or trains with many missing cars in the short.run. Whatever the fix is, which probably involves significant staff turnover, Union battles and what not, won't happen overnight. None of the scenarios are very positive at least in the short run. What is disturbing though is that each time someone tries to do something to fix the problem in the long run, either some arcane regulation or contract gets in the way or Congress is unwilling to fund it.

For example, at one time there was a plan to use the same maintenance discipline that is used for the Acelas, on all equipment. Very soon it became apparent that it ws going to cost considerably more to do so, and the whole program was canceled by Boardman. And so here we are.

Bad situation all around.

 

[spinnaker]

Amtrak mechanical has really fallen.

It's routinely placing malfunctioning cars in service, a big no-no for a business that wants to please its customers.



Amtrak's quality control is getting really bad. The sleeping car me and my elderly mother rode in on the California Zephyr this month had no AC. The crew said it had been like this for a week, meaning the car has been routinely running when it shouldn't have.

Maintenance in CHI didn't fix it, and didn't replace it with a working unit. This made a lot of passengers angry with summer temps in the 90s on the California Zephyr. Many said "Never again..."



I called Amtrak customer service en-route (the first day, of 2 nights) to see if the car could be repaired at Salt Lake City or Denver, the next major service stops. Nope. Nothing to be done.



The crew recommended sleeping in coach or in the lounge, which weren't acceptable solutions. The train was sold-out, so there weren't any rooms available.



The family room in our car was evacuated, so me and a gentleman across the aisle took those big beds (per directions of our attendant). It was a little cooler, and better than the other rooms, which were infernos. The 2nd night, at 1 a.m., the conductor moved us to a roommette in the crew car at Holdredge, NE, which was air conditioned. But a 1 a.m. transfer wasn't convenient.



A large group of America by Rail travelers boarded at Glenwood Springs. They were very upset at the heat. One was looking into an overnight bus from Denver or renting cars, none of which were practical, so they remained aboard.



The crew (and I) recommended contacting customer service for refunds. We got a $500 voucher, which seemed fair.

This reflects badly on Amtrak management. The buck stops at the supposed CEO's desk.



There was no rational reason the defective sleeping car should remain in service. This points to Amtrak's lousy customer service and maintenance. Things like this shouldn't happen, particularly at the peak of summer travel.

This sounds like the same car I was on in July. Fortunately for me only half the car was out and there was plenty of open rooms in the other half. It failed as we were coming in to Chicago which was also fortunate. But our SCA was very annoyed as he reported the issue with the AC a couple of times before.

What car were you in? I was in 632 Room 11.

Car 0631, Room 11.

The car's physical, or identifying, number is 32041 (the number painted on the end of the car).

I was told on another list that the first number, 0631, can be changed per train trip.

Oh yes! I should have gotten the actual car number. We still very well could have had the same car.

 

[Trogdor]

The man in charge right now is Anderson and at this moment the buck stops with him. That's why he's being criticized for bad ordered stock being sent out on his watch. Just as you would expect at any other company. Equating basic criticism with blind hatred is both irrational and childish.

So where were all of the "Boardman must be fired" threads every time there was an equipment problem when he was in charge?

 

[Ziv]

The worst part isn't that the car was hot due to non-functional AC, it is that the crew seemed to acknowledge that it had be non-functional for a week and it hadn't been repaired or pulled off the route. That is horrible service. You shouldn't put your crew in that position, let alone ask customers to ride in a car that has no AC. If you can't keep enough cars running right, reduce the amount of cars and accept the fact that you will have to take fewer reservations.

I meant customer service, overall, not only after the trip.

That car should've been repaired while en route, not a week later.

Am sure CEO Anderson -- who's responsible for the company's product and quality of its product -- would IMMEDIATELY have his AC repaired if his office lost AC.

It's very difficult to repair a car en route. There's a very limited time at each stop, and they have to make sure they do it in a manner that is not posing any kind of hazard to the passengers. I get that it sucked to have a broken A/C in the summer, but there are limits to what they can do about it once the train is underway.

 

[ohle]

The man in charge right now is Anderson and at this moment the buck stops with him. That's why he's being criticized for bad ordered stock being sent out on his watch. Just as you would expect at any other company. Equating basic criticism with blind hatred is both irrational and childish.

So where were all of the "Boardman must be fired" threads every time there was an equipment problem when he was in charge?

Boardman never viciously attacked his company's principal produce (the LD trains are Amtrak's "brand," and are the ones available to most Americans, in terms of geography).

He never bad-mouthed his customers or the trains which serve them.

He never parroted the anti-Amtrak BS perpetrated by longtime Amtrak-hating "think tanks."

He never proposed discontinuing the valuable and successful LD trains, so the NEC could scoop-up all the funds lawmakers dedicated for national system trains.

He never proposed the idiotic idea of substituting established and popular trains with BUS ROUTES.

 

[cpotisch]

The crew (and I) recommended contacting customer service for refunds. We got a $500 voucher, which seemed fair.

Lucky You! When boarding the A/T, the car attendant was surprised at our being there (???) BOTH of our rooms were flooded...carpet a sopping mess. He said he had told the counter and the maintenance to take our rooms out of service. No body told us!!! Standing on the platform, our choice was...well...the car was already loaded, so driving to Florida was out. Our only choice = pile the luggage on top of the toilet off the floor, spread out a dozen towels to hold the water, stay off the floor. Contacted "Customer Service". Result = N-O-T-H-I-N-G - NO REFUND, NOTHING!!! "Hey - We got you there...".

Wait, did you talk to customer service or Customer Relations?

 

[cpotisch]

This is a really bad experience, but I don’t think it’s an indication that Amtrak mechanical has fallen. Anyone who isn’t looking through Richard-Anderson-hate-colored-glasses would note that Amtrak mechanical has essentially always been bad, and Chicago in particular has had the reputation of being the worst of the bunch.

This goes back decades. There may be patches of time here and there where things got slightly better for a bit, but by and large, what you experienced on this trip (a broken car that departed Chicago without being repaired) has been going on since forever.

This is a really bad experience, but I don’t think it’s an indication that Amtrak mechanical has fallen. Anyone who isn’t looking through Richard-Anderson-hate-colored-glasses would note that Amtrak mechanical has essentially always been bad, and Chicago in particular has had the reputation of being the worst of the bunch.

This goes back decades. There may be patches of time here and there where things got slightly better for a bit, but by and large, what you experienced on this trip (a broken car that departed Chicago without being repaired) has been going on since forever.

Who's to blame, then?

The man on the moon?

The buck stops with a company's CEO.

When he verbally attacks his own company's product, it shows he cares little about his product or his customers.

Again, I'm not defending this. But where has Anderson "attacked his own company's product"? He's made some changes that are pretty questionable and that he claims is an improvement, but that really doesn't equate to him verbally attacking Amtrak. And Anderson himself did not break that car's air conditioning or fail to fix it. As Trogdor said, Amtrak has always had issues of equipment breaking down. This wasn't started by Anderson. Maybe Amtrak could do more to keep equipment fully functional, but considering how short they are on cars, the choice likely was to either fix the A/C or take the car out of the consist altogether and re-accommodate all those passengers, including yourself. I get that you had a very sucky experience, but likely compensating you afterwards was the best thing they could do about it.

 

[cpotisch]

The worst part isn't that the car was hot due to non-functional AC, it is that the crew seemed to acknowledge that it had be non-functional for a week and it hadn't been repaired or pulled off the route. That is horrible service. You shouldn't put your crew in that position, let alone ask customers to ride in a car that has no AC. If you can't keep enough cars running right, reduce the amount of cars and accept the fact that you will have to take fewer reservations.

I meant customer service, overall, not only after the trip.

That car should've been repaired while en route, not a week later.

Am sure CEO Anderson -- who's responsible for the company's product and quality of its product -- would IMMEDIATELY have his AC repaired if his office lost AC.

It's very difficult to repair a car en route. There's a very limited time at each stop, and they have to make sure they do it in a manner that is not posing any kind of hazard to the passengers. I get that it sucked to have a broken A/C in the summer, but there are limits to what they can do about it once the train is underway.

I'm still trying to understand, do we know that the car had had a broken A/C for a week? I don't think this was ever confirmed.

 

[Skyline]

There's a thousand reasons air conditioning can fail. A failed fitting on a line can be fixed with a generic part, some refrigerant, and a guy with a wrench. A seized compressor is going to require shop time for replacement or repair. Just because one problem can be fixed while the train is en route doesn't mean another could.

Back in Amtrak's first decade, running all sorts of heritage rolling stock, the Broadway Limited (and other trains) had a full time maintenance worker travelling with it. I saw this multiple times as I rode the BL twice monthly on business then, and there was one particular guy who stood out. He was in high demand day and night, and was good at his job. A regular MacGyver this guy was! Unless a major piece of equipment was broken so bad that it needed to be totally replaced in-shop he could save the day in almost any situation. Amtrak needs people like "MacGyver" once again.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

The man in charge right now is Anderson and at this moment the buck stops with him. That's why he's being criticized for bad ordered stock being sent out on his watch. Just as you would expect at any other company. Equating basic criticism with blind hatred is both irrational and childish.

So where were all of the "Boardman must be fired" threads every time there was an equipment problem when he was in charge?

So the reason Anderson should not be criticized for poor maintenance today is because Boardman wasn't criticized enough in the past?

 

[jis]

There's a thousand reasons air conditioning can fail. A failed fitting on a line can be fixed with a generic part, some refrigerant, and a guy with a wrench. A seized compressor is going to require shop time for replacement or repair. Just because one problem can be fixed while the train is en route doesn't mean another could.

Back in Amtrak's first decade, running all sorts of heritage rolling stock, the Broadway Limited (and other trains) had a full time maintenance worker travelling with it. I saw this multiple times as I rode the BL twice monthly on business then, and there was one particular guy who stood out. He was in high demand day and night, and was good at his job. A regular MacGyver this guy was! Unless a major piece of equipment was broken so bad that it needed to be totally replaced in-shop he could save the day in almost any situation. Amtrak needs people like "MacGyver" once again.

The Cascade Talgos appear to have a Talgo maintenance person traveling on board on all rains.

But realistically, I think it will be a cold day in hell before each train gets a full time mechanical assigned to it for the entire journey

 

[VentureForth]

There's a thousand reasons air conditioning can fail. A failed fitting on a line can be fixed with a generic part, some refrigerant, and a guy with a wrench. A seized compressor is going to require shop time for replacement or repair. Just because one problem can be fixed while the train is en route doesn't mean another could.

Back in Amtrak's first decade, running all sorts of heritage rolling stock, the Broadway Limited (and other trains) had a full time maintenance worker travelling with it. I saw this multiple times as I rode the BL twice monthly on business then, and there was one particular guy who stood out. He was in high demand day and night, and was good at his job. A regular MacGyver this guy was! Unless a major piece of equipment was broken so bad that it needed to be totally replaced in-shop he could save the day in almost any situation. Amtrak needs people like "MacGyver" once again.

The Cascade Talgos appear to have a Talgo maintenance person traveling on board on all rains.

But realistically, I think it will be a cold day in hell before each train gets a full time mechanical assigned to it for the entire journey

Reassign the onboard Chef? Working a microwave is like fixing an AC...

So, I think to clarify, the OP's gripe is not with the Customer Service Department, but rather customer service in general. Every employee has a responsibility or duty to provide excellent customer service.

It's inexcusable that the car left Chicago in an inoperative condition - only rationale I can think of is that there physically weren't any available that were in a better road-worthy condition. And THAT could be the result of a lazy staff that is protected by their shop steward.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

There's a thousand reasons air conditioning can fail. A failed fitting on a line can be fixed with a generic part, some refrigerant, and a guy with a wrench. A seized compressor is going to require shop time for replacement or repair. Just because one problem can be fixed while the train is en route doesn't mean another could.

Back in Amtrak's first decade, running all sorts of heritage rolling stock, the Broadway Limited (and other trains) had a full time maintenance worker travelling with it. I saw this multiple times as I rode the BL twice monthly on business then, and there was one particular guy who stood out. He was in high demand day and night, and was good at his job. A regular MacGyver this guy was! Unless a major piece of equipment was broken so bad that it needed to be totally replaced in-shop he could save the day in almost any situation. Amtrak needs people like "MacGyver" once again.

The Cascade Talgos appear to have a Talgo maintenance person traveling on board on all rains. But realistically, I think it will be a cold day in hell before each train gets a full time mechanical assigned to it for the entire journey

For the TE and SL there is a limited maintenance service at SAS that can make basic outstation repairs. This is probably more useful for the TE during the overnight rest but I've also witnessed quick repairs done on the SL when it has enough dwell time. Are there any other long distance trains with midway maintenance depots?

 

[Bob Dylan]

I've seen repairs and switching of bad ordered equipment done in Albuquerque ( Chief)and Spokane ( Builder) but not sure about the extent of what's possible.

Oakland( Starlight)has a yard where emergency work can be done also.Since the Zephyr is serviced there, probably more major services are available.

 

[cpotisch]

There's a thousand reasons air conditioning can fail. A failed fitting on a line can be fixed with a generic part, some refrigerant, and a guy with a wrench. A seized compressor is going to require shop time for replacement or repair. Just because one problem can be fixed while the train is en route doesn't mean another could.

Back in Amtrak's first decade, running all sorts of heritage rolling stock, the Broadway Limited (and other trains) had a full time maintenance worker travelling with it. I saw this multiple times as I rode the BL twice monthly on business then, and there was one particular guy who stood out. He was in high demand day and night, and was good at his job. A regular MacGyver this guy was! Unless a major piece of equipment was broken so bad that it needed to be totally replaced in-shop he could save the day in almost any situation. Amtrak needs people like "MacGyver" once again.

The Cascade Talgos appear to have a Talgo maintenance person traveling on board on all rains. But realistically, I think it will be a cold day in hell before each train gets a full time mechanical assigned to it for the entire journey

For the TE and SL there is a limited maintenance service at SAS that can make basic outstation repairs. This is probably more useful for the TE during the overnight rest but I've also witnessed quick repairs done on the SL when it has enough dwell time. Are there any other long distance trains with midway maintenance depots?

There definitely aren't any where the train is schedule to be stopped there for nearly as long as the TE and SL in San Antonio.

 

[Steve4031]

The air conditioning equipment on superliner equipment has been in need of an overhaul/refurbishment for years. When the sl 1 sleepers were overhauled the AC was neglected. I remember Alan Burden telling me this in 2007 when we traveled on the cz to sfo. The AC was not working in the bedroom end of our car. He and Grace suffered in a bedroom. I was comfortable in a roomette.

The long and short of it is that the climate control equipment is in need of overhaul. This is something that would be done at beech grove during the winter and if Amtrak had the money, materials and expertise to do it.

 

[bratkinson]

On the 'good' side of customer service, starting about a year ago, they've instituted an 'enroute cleaning' crew member on some NEC regional trains.

At first I thought it was the lounge car attendant but it isn't. A uniformed Amtrak crew member boards at some station (NYP among them) and makes a pass through the train with a large trash bag asking for any trash people may have at their seats. A few minutes later, they come back again with restroom cleaning materials and take care of those. I'm thinking it was limited to, say, TRE-NYP, but this past Tuesday on train #141, the cleaning occurred after Stamford and was done by NYP. It certainly helps keep the NEC trains a lot cleaner than they used to be.

Until the schedule change this past June for Springfield trains, #148 WAS-SPG was an absolute pig sty when I walked through to get off at Windsor Locks, the last stop before SPG. I lost track of the number of times I boarded at PHL, NWK or NYP only to find a bunch of trash awaiting me at my seat by its previous occupant. I was continually amazed at how many bottles, cans, carry trays, food wrappers, newspapers and magazines were either left on the seats or stuffed in the seat backs. Moving 148 to a slot 2 hours later has really done the job at minimizing trash when I walk through at WNL. I don't know whether it's the result of a non-rush hour departures from PHL and NYP or enroute cleaning before I got on at NYP. I'll be on 148 on 9/7 from WAS, so I'll have to make 'note' if there's an enroute trash & restroom cleaning.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

On the 'good' side of customer service, starting about a year ago, they've instituted an 'enroute cleaning' crew member on some NEC regional trains.

At first I thought it was the lounge car attendant but it isn't. A uniformed Amtrak crew member boards at some station (NYP among them) and makes a pass through the train with a large trash bag asking for any trash people may have at their seats. A few minutes later, they come back again with restroom cleaning materials and take care of those. I'm thinking it was limited to, say, TRE-NYP, but this past Tuesday on train #141, the cleaning occurred after Stamford and was done by NYP. It certainly helps keep the NEC trains a lot cleaner than they used to be.

Until the schedule change this past June for Springfield trains, #148 WAS-SPG was an absolute pig sty when I walked through to get off at Windsor Locks, the last stop before SPG. I lost track of the number of times I boarded at PHL, NWK or NYP only to find a bunch of trash awaiting me at my seat by its previous occupant. I was continually amazed at how many bottles, cans, carry trays, food wrappers, newspapers and magazines were either left on the seats or stuffed in the seat backs. Moving 148 to a slot 2 hours later has really done the job at minimizing trash when I walk through at WNL. I don't know whether it's the result of a non-rush hour departures from PHL and NYP or enroute cleaning before I got on at NYP. I'll be on 148 on 9/7 from WAS, so I'll have to make 'note' if there's an enroute trash & restroom cleaning.

I noticed the cleaner on a couple of trains between WIL and BAL recently. I, too, initially thought it was the LSA collecting the trash. Though that would be weird since I'm sure the cafe was still open.

I joked with someone that here was another case of Amtrak becoming more like airlines.

In this case, I don't think that's a bad idea.

 

[bratkinson]

The air conditioning equipment on superliner equipment has been in need of an overhaul/refurbishment for years. When the sl 1 sleepers were overhauled the AC was neglected. I remember Alan Burden telling me this in 2007 when we traveled on the cz to sfo. The AC was not working in the bedroom end of our car. He and Grace suffered in a bedroom. I was comfortable in a roomette.

The long and short of it is that the climate control equipment is in need of overhaul. This is something that would be done at beech grove during the winter and if Amtrak had the money, materials and expertise to do it.

When the Superliner Is were new in the late '70s, I traveled fairly often on business and usually returned home to Milwaukee on the train from wherever I was.

My impressions of the Superliners was they were noisy in the lower level rooms. I booked the handicap room at roomette rate the day before traveling once, and a 'hollow' sounding rolling wheel on steel rails sound came right through the metal-only wall separating the wheels from the room. A year ago, I booked the family room due to a change of itinerary necessitated by the bridge being hit north of Sacramento causing the Coast Starlight to be cancelled. It was pretty much dead silence all the way except for the whoosh of the air conditioning.

The other impression I got in those early days was they didn't heat or cool very well. The best I could get my room warmed up to when it was 10 below outside in Montana and North Dakota was maybe 50-55 degrees. I wore my overcoat during the day and long johns and sweat shirt to bed with an extra blanket, too! In the summer, then, as even now, I'm down to my shorts and a sheet for sleeping. I don't think they get any cooler than maybe 72-75 degrees.

Compare that to the Amfleet Is on the NEC that's either 50 degrees in the summer and 80 in the winter... THOSE HVAC units really do the job! Those settings are necessary when the train is packed on a hot day or not so packed in the winter.

 

[ehbowen]

During a September 2010 trip with my father in a bedroom from CHI>>LVW>>HOS, Chicago Mechanical dispatched a sleeper with no A/C on the Roomette end (on our side, it was working fine). The passengers sweated and cursed all the way to St. Louis. There, St. Louis's mechanical rep was able to repair it in fifteen minutes. One wonders why Chicago couldn't have accomplished the same feat.

 

[Amtrak706]

Both my Southwest Chief and California Zephyr that I took on my big trip this month had one sleeper car with no AC on the roomette end. On the Chief it was my car which was rough, but on the Zephyr it wasnt. The car number, incidentally, was 32041 as well. That was early August.

Crew on both trains told me that these cars had been written up dozens of times but Amtrak decided to keep sending them out anyway without fixes.

 

[railiner]

There's a thousand reasons air conditioning can fail. A failed fitting on a line can be fixed with a generic part, some refrigerant, and a guy with a wrench. A seized compressor is going to require shop time for replacement or repair. Just because one problem can be fixed while the train is en route doesn't mean another could.

Back in Amtrak's first decade, running all sorts of heritage rolling stock, the Broadway Limited (and other trains) had a full time maintenance worker travelling with it. I saw this multiple times as I rode the BL twice monthly on business then, and there was one particular guy who stood out. He was in high demand day and night, and was good at his job. A regular MacGyver this guy was! Unless a major piece of equipment was broken so bad that it needed to be totally replaced in-shop he could save the day in almost any situation. Amtrak needs people like "MacGyver" once again.

I remember that era...we used to have BN electrician's riding trains 5 and 6 between Denver and Chicago (they changed at Lincoln). These guys could also 'do it all'...electrical or mechanical, on cars or locomotives...

Speaking of that era, in the summer of 1979, before Heritage equipment or Superliner's, our Denver station supervisor spent a fortune in airfare when hot cars had to be "blanked" in the consist, and the passenger's could not be reaccommodated in another car. They were also offered the option of staying over a day, if they chose not to fly.

 

[MARC Rider]

On the 'good' side of customer service, starting about a year ago, they've instituted an 'enroute cleaning' crew member on some NEC regional trains.

At first I thought it was the lounge car attendant but it isn't. A uniformed Amtrak crew member boards at some station (NYP among them) and makes a pass through the train with a large trash bag asking for any trash people may have at their seats. A few minutes later, they come back again with restroom cleaning materials and take care of those. I'm thinking it was limited to, say, TRE-NYP, but this past Tuesday on train #141, the cleaning occurred after Stamford and was done by NYP. It certainly helps keep the NEC trains a lot cleaner than they used to be.

Until the schedule change this past June for Springfield trains, #148 WAS-SPG was an absolute pig sty when I walked through to get off at Windsor Locks, the last stop before SPG. I lost track of the number of times I boarded at PHL, NWK or NYP only to find a bunch of trash awaiting me at my seat by its previous occupant. I was continually amazed at how many bottles, cans, carry trays, food wrappers, newspapers and magazines were either left on the seats or stuffed in the seat backs. Moving 148 to a slot 2 hours later has really done the job at minimizing trash when I walk through at WNL. I don't know whether it's the result of a non-rush hour departures from PHL and NYP or enroute cleaning before I got on at NYP. I'll be on 148 on 9/7 from WAS, so I'll have to make 'note' if there's an enroute trash & restroom cleaning.

Definitely a good umprovement. About 8 years ago, I rode the Vermonter from Essex Jct to Baltimore on a crowded simmer Sunday. The crowds thinned out after NYP, but for the rest of the ride, the reek from the restroom was almost unbearable. I have always wondered why they didn't have a cleaning crew in New Haven to swab out the restrooms during the time they were switching locomotives. It's great to see that they're actually doing something like that.