Bad experience on Amtrak with sleeper rooms

[Ryan]

I keep thinking i'm reading this wrong. i can understand being annoyed at being asked to leave the room, but otherwise i don't see what the person is all hot and bothered about. they were sleeping, they needed to get off the train. in my experience, traveling with children is not the speediest. personally, i'd rather be awake a little bit earlier and actually ready to get off the train rather than rushing around at the last minute. i'd also rather not be the person getting on the train in Rochester and finding that my room still has people in it, which i suppose could happen.

I'm with you, I'm still trying to put together a timeline that makes sense. The LSL is scheduled into ROC at 11:00PM, it sounds like they were correctly roused 30 minutes prior to arrival. Sometime in that half hour, something happened to delay the train before its arrival into the station?

She said an hour later (so 11:30, 30 minutes after the train was supposed to depart) they were still sitting in a room.

But the line "It sat at the station for almost 45 minutes." confuses me - if they were at the station, why didn't they get off and go home? According to Amtrak's Status, the train arrived at ROC at 11:12 and departed at 11:28. If that's the case, than at most they would have been on the train for an extra 12 minutes. While somewhat annoying, I can't see getting upset over something as trivial as that.

I just can't make the timeline fit the complaint in my head. Am I missing something?

 

[VentureForth]

You should be entitled to stay in your berth until your arrival, but not a moment beyond that.

 

[Ryan]

But that isn't physically possible when the train may only be stopped for a minute or two.

 

[Cho Cho Charlie]

But the line "It sat at the station for almost 45 minutes." confuses me - if they were at the station, why didn't they get off and go home? According to Amtrak's Status, the train arrived at ROC at 11:12 and departed at 11:28. If that's the case, than at most they would have been on the train for an extra 12 minutes. While somewhat annoying, I can't see getting upset over something as trivial as that.

I thought felt they paid for, and thus deserved, the extra 11 minutes of sleep; that they paid for the room until 11:28 (not just until 11:12) and had every right to stay in their room right up until 11:27.

 

[chandj]

... sounds like you are due a Voucher and an apology for a rude/uncaring SCA!!!

I don't know where you got that from. Sounds to me like all went fairly typically ... except for the fact the passenger did not 'get to sleep longer'.

No, NO voucher. No reason.

I have to agree. It's pretty standard procedure to wake sleeping car passengers approximately 30 minutes prior to arrival. Also there really is no indication from the OP that the SCA was rude in any way. At least not from what I read anyway.

No problem with getting waked up 30 minutes before arrival--I appreciate that courtesy--but I don't expect to get rushed out of my room with (or without) groggy children to go sit up in another room while I wait. The room should belong to the paying passenger(s) until arrival. Part of the reason I hoof up for a room is to lie down at night for as long as I can. I didn't see in OP's posting that the Service Attendant was rude, but that's not the point. I would complain politely, but I sure would complain. I don't want this to become any kind of standard practice, as I ride sleepers quite often. However, you still won't find me switching to planes!

 

[Ryan]

Unfortunately, the person boarding the train at 11pm expects to occupy the room as soon as they board and those two expectations are mutually exclusive.

 

[City of Miami]

I have been told by the attendant when boarding that I cannot occupy my room yet because it was just vacated and hasn't been prepped.....so please sit in the empty room across the hall. I guess it all depends on the circumstances.....

 

[AlanB]

I have been told by the attendant when boarding that I cannot occupy my room yet because it was just vacated and hasn't been prepped.....so please sit in the empty room across the hall. I guess it all depends on the circumstances.....

Yes, I have that happen to me before and I generally seem to find myself boarding more at end/origin stations that intermediate stations. On the other hand I've also recently been left standing on the hot/humid platform at Memphis while the attendant scrambled to clean up rooms that had just been vacated and weren't ready for our use.

So it can go either way unfortunately, and frankly it's always going to be a toss up as to who gets inconvenienced, but one thing that is sure is that someone will be upset. Be it the boarding passenger who can't go directly to their room or the detraining passenger who gets kicked out early so that the room can be cleaned.

 

[VentureForth]

Again, though, as a boarding customer, hearing that the room was just vacated is much more reasonable, in my opinion. Yes, I may be tired and ready to crash, but it can't take more than 10 minutes to prep a room unless the previous inhabitants were total slobs. I used to work at a hotel and a good house keeper could turn the worst of rooms in 15 minutes.

 

[SarahZ]

PS Sorcha--just noticed you're from West MI too! I'm from GRR. How are you liking the snow we're finally getting?

It's lovely. I just hope this winter isn't as long as last winter.

 

[BigRedEO]

Living in NE Ohio, I've had to board/de-train during the CLE hours between 1am and 6am every trip. I usually ASK to be awakened at least 30 minutes before to pull myself together and they usually just have me sit in the room until about 5 minutes before, then I head down to the door. Almost every time boarding, I've had to wait maybe 5-10 minutes in the hall while they got the room ready, which I don't mind at all. A couple of times, I was lucky enough to be on a train that wasn't fully sold and the rooms were all ready for me. Either way, I realize the job they have to do and am ready for it!