filthy restrooms/showers on almost all Amtrak trains I've been on

[Sarah Kirschbaum]

I wan to comment on the filthy restrooms on almost all Amtrak trains I've been on in the last couple of years.

I know it's a public restroom and it's only as clean as the people who have used it. However, it really makes the trips unpleasant.

It doesn't matter if was the restroom in business class(NEC), first class(Acela), coach(CONO), or even the public showers in sleeping cars(Silver Meteor).... they were all filthy. Filthy as in urine on toilet seat and adjacent wall, unflushed toilets, dirty paper towels on floor, wet and dirty sink, stuffed trash receptacle, etc....

Sorry for the rant.... I love taking Amtrak, but hate having to use the restroom....

Edited to change public restroom in sleeping cars (Silver Meteor) to public showers.

 

[pennyk]

I, too, do not like filthy restrooms and opt for a bedroom when traveling on a superliner, so I do not have to share with anyone. I am confused by your statement regarding public restrooms in sleeping cars on the Silver Meteor. The Silver Meteor is the train on which I most often travel and have not encountered public restrooms in the sleepers. It will happen soon when the new viewliners come into service, but now, the roomettes have a toilet and the bedrooms have a toilet and shower. However, the coach restrooms on the Silver Meteor leave a lot to be desired, especially if one is boarding in Orlando and going south.

 

[Guest]

It will happen soon when the new viewliners come into service, but now, the roomettes have a toilet and the bedrooms have a toilet and shower. However, the coach restrooms on the Silver Meteor leave a lot to be desired, especially if one is boarding in Orlando and going south.

This is why I am so deeply concerned with the new Viewliner II's. The coach bathrooms on the Silvers are indeed a frequent mess, and I am fearful that the new public sleeper bathrooms will be the dreadful same.

 

[zephyr17]

There are no public restrooms in the current generation of Viewliner sleepers that are on the Silver Meteor.

The public restrooms on Superliner sleepers are generally in pretty good shape, in my experience. Of course it depends on whether or not the SCA keeps up with it, and there is the occasional passenger who's a total pig, but generally they are fine.

 

[spot1181]

If the women would just sit down when they pee.

 

[Sarah Kirschbaum]

If the women would just sit down when they pee.

sometimes women don't sit on the public toilet seats to pee.... only hovering an inch or two above the see to avoid contact....

the end result is that... well... you get the picture.

 

[me_little_me]

Considering how many people are in a car, coaches simply are not cleaned often enough. Yes, some people are pigs but I almost never see staff clean them in spite of it being a requirement. This all goes back to Amtrak's failure to have good customer service as an ENFORCED requirement on trains.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

Considering how many people are in a car, coaches simply are not cleaned often enough. Yes, some people are pigs but I almost never see staff clean them in spite of it being a requirement. This all goes back to Amtrak's failure to have good customer service as an ENFORCED requirement on trains.

STRONGLY AGREED! And I have seen the same in Superliner Sleepers where the public cans have slipped into pretty nasty shape by end of run. Now I must be a rare breed of passenger as I use towel paper to wipe dry the surface around the basin and the faucets and if I managed to leave any "evidence" around the commode I make that gone too.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

The bathrooms in rhe sleepers were fine for me on the CL & CZ in 2011. The few times I've used the bathrooms on the NEC, they were not disgusting.

 

[guest in the west]

On Surfliners, the bathrooms generally do not get cleaned between the first and last runs of the day--so that means an AWFUL lot of passengers are using the toilets because each consist makes probably two-and-a-half to three round trips each. I have seen an Amtrak maintenance individual from time to time run through the trains at their endpoints, checking quickly to see if there is a need for toilet paper. But cleaning, cosmetic or thorough, between arrival and departure times? Never. I don't know if an Amtrak Rulebook designates an employee on board to clean, but other than the cafe car attendant, there are no employees but conductors, and I seriously doubt a conductor would EVER clean a bathroom, no matter how filthy--though he or she might put up an out-of-order sign and lock the bathroom up if the disgust factor got to an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10. I assume that on LD trains, there is a designated person, either the sleeping car or coach car attendant, but as someone has pointed out, the efficacy of those cleanings depends an awful lot on the willingness of the individual CCA or SCA to do the job.

Which leads me to a question: for those sleeping car pax who have stayed in a transdorm sleeper on an LD, are those bathrooms generally kept cleaner because they are for the crew? Or are they just cleaner because fewer people are using them? Or are they generally as filthy as those on the rest of the train?

At least on Southwest Airlines, someone gives the two or three on-board bathrooms a good cleaning after each arrival, no matter how pressed for time the airline is--and it usually is--to get the next passengers boarded and onwards to the next destination. There's no reason Amtrak can't do the same. It's all up to good employee training, morale and pride.

 

[MiRider]

One of the reasons I'll never travel Coach on the LSL.

I've never seen or smelled worse on any other LD train.

Twp toilets for too many people and a crew that doesn't give a crap or clean one up for that matter.

 

[guest in the west]

should add that more than occasionally on a Surfliner running at night, the toilet won't even flush because the "tank full" sign is lit. So you can imagine how much more disgusting the bathroom becomes at that point. C'est la vie

 

[the_traveler]

(AU member posting)

The OP lost all credibility with me with the "public restroom in the sleeping car on the Silver Meteor" comment. It must be real dirty, because (as pointed out) there are no public restrooms on Viewliners at all. Every toilet in the car is in a room, both for bedrooms (including the H-Room) and every Roomette in the car.

And yes, I do think bathrooms are filthy. I wish people would leave the rest rooms like they do at home.

(Moderator posting)

I ask everyone to please not to talk about women (or men for that matter) "hovering" or "missing". Please! Thank you.

 

[Acela150]

I've found the Bathrooms on AE to be clean. I believe Business Travelers have respect for their fellow peers. Agree or not that's my feelings. Regionals in coach gets to be a little messy after a while, while BC stays clean most of the way. When I rode the Cap back in February the restrooms I used on the Lower Level were very clean. I was in Room 14 and the lower level was full. In the morning I was one of the only riders to use the shower and that was clean as well. When in Bedroom B on the Card I found it tight to get in and out. I would walk in, and back out. I'm 6 foot about 250. But it was manageable.

 

[henryj]

People now days are just pigs. They only care about themselves.

 

[calwatch]

On the San Joaquins they put in a in car cleaner between Merced and Modesto. The satisfaction scores went way up after that, but due to limited staff is one takes a leave there is no one to cover their shift. It also only applies to the busiest trains during the day. Still I have seen them work while onboard and they do a great job wiping stuff down, although I would still try to use the restroom elsewhere before using the one on the train.

 

[Sarah Kirschbaum]

I'm not sure if I can add "public shower" to the thread title... but that was what I intended to say.

Restrooms are bad enough, but some people really trash the shower rooms as well. On my return trip, I rushed to the shower room immediate after the train started moving, so I can have a clean shower....

 

[pennyk]

I'm not sure if I can add "public shower" to the thread title... but that was what I intended to say.
Restrooms are bad enough, but some people really trash the shower rooms as well. On my return trip, I rushed to the shower room immediate after the train started moving, so I can have a clean shower....

I added the word shower to the title of the thread (to avoid confusion) and changed to public showers in the text when referring to Silver Meteor.

 

[Dan O]

I took a shower on the Southwest Chief when it was a few hours away from the end of the trip (arriving in CHI) and it was very clean. Coming back to CA the bathrooms did stink to high heaven on and off for a while. The smell was terrible in coach. The attendant did something and it helped but she had to do it a couple times.

Dan

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Considering how many people are in a car, coaches simply are not cleaned often enough. Yes, some people are pigs but I almost never see staff clean them in spite of it being a requirement. This all goes back to Amtrak's failure to have good customer service as an ENFORCED requirement on trains.

STRONGLY AGREED! And I have seen the same in Superliner Sleepers where the public cans have slipped into pretty nasty shape by end of run. Now I must be a rare breed of passenger as I use towel paper to wipe dry the surface around the basin and the faucets and if I managed to leave any "evidence" around the commode I make that gone too.

I make sure to do that every time as well. If I get the restroom dirty one bit, I will make sure it will be gone before the next passengers. I do the same on Greyhound buses to try and counter the reputation that Greyhound restrooms are dirty. This is really hard on those old Western G4500s that have leaks all the time, but I'll still try!

We can't tolerate dirty restrooms and passenger facilities, if the attendant won't do it and the other passengers won't do it, then do it yourself!

 

[Sarah Kirschbaum]

The smell was terrible in coach. The attendant did something and it helped but she had to do it a couple times.

you mean in the coach car itself or in the coach restroom?

what did the attendant do? not air fresheners, I hope?

 

[choochoodood]

It will happen soon when the new viewliners come into service, but now, the roomettes have a toilet and the bedrooms have a toilet and shower. However, the coach restrooms on the Silver Meteor leave a lot to be desired, especially if one is boarding in Orlando and going south.

This is why I am so deeply concerned with the new Viewliner II's. The coach bathrooms on the Silvers are indeed a frequent mess, and I am fearful that the new public sleeper bathrooms will be the dreadful same.

Generally, the clientele in a Sleeper is much different than in Coach. (I ride both, so I do speak from experience.) I have not encountered filthy restrooms in Sleepers,as the Attendants seem to do a good job. And even with the new Viewliner IIs, I don't think that will be an issue, primarily due to the "social level" of the Sleeper passenger as compared to that of Coach.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Great. Another we vs them comment.

 

[Ryan]

It will happen soon when the new viewliners come into service, but now, the roomettes have a toilet and the bedrooms have a toilet and shower. However, the coach restrooms on the Silver Meteor leave a lot to be desired, especially if one is boarding in Orlando and going south.

This is why I am so deeply concerned with the new Viewliner II's. The coach bathrooms on the Silvers are indeed a frequent mess, and I am fearful that the new public sleeper bathrooms will be the dreadful same.

Generally, the clientele in a Sleeper is much different than in Coach. (I ride both, so I do speak from experience.) I have not encountered filthy restrooms in Sleepers,as the Attendants seem to do a good job. And even with the new Viewliner IIs, I don't think that will be an issue, primarily due to the "social level" of the Sleeper passenger as compared to that of Coach.

It can't possibly have something to do with the difference in the number of people that use the restroom, no sir. Definitely because those dirty peons in coach have no sense of decency.

 

[VentureForth]

Interestingly, the last time I was on the Silver Meteor in a Roomette to NYC, I couldn't use the shower because it was full of crap. Not literally, but all the stuff the SCA wanted to stuff in there. Didn't want to have the Wrath of the SCA upon me, so I didn't mention it.