C855B
Service Attendant
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2015
- Messages
- 148
First of all, this is not an "I hate Amtrak!" rant. We're both railfans, we love LD train travel and what Amtrak tries to be, but it's becoming clearer train travel in its current incarnation doesn't love us back.
After our experiences last week are taken in combination with numerous similar trips over the past several years, I'd say the odds of our taking another cross-country trip on Amtrak are slim. Not zero, but still unlikely. In a way, it's about Amtrak service, but mostly in relation with how it fits with how we live our lives. There are two issues, really. And a contributing third problem.
First issue is that the sleeper bunks are fairly uncomfortable. I hadn't previously processed just how uncomfortable they were until we got back home and I crashed on our sofa - which is also too short and narrow for me to stretch out - but I slept really well given the softer, thicker cushions. It's that simple. At any rate, neither of us were sleeping well on the train and by the end of three days we were both tired and grouchy (and therefore my sleeping on the sofa!). My wife commented that the sleeper beds are just shy of a sleeping bag. I disagreed, but probably only because she's never experienced a sleeping bag on rocks without an air mattress.
But the second issue is likely the biggest one - the regimented dining car schedule, and the officious and surly DCA who enforces it. We don't eat three big meals a day on a strict timetable, and, being retired, we sure as hell don't get up at 6:00am just so we don't miss the breakfast service. By day two we feel bloated and lethargic, and no amount of walking the length of the train at service and crew-change stops mitigates it. Uncomfortable, again. I know we can't change the dining car management culture, but, rather, if the sleeping car passenger had the option of using their pre-paid meal allowance in the lounge car for lighter meals on their schedule, not the DCA's, I'm sure we would have a much more enjoyable experience. Or, offer discounted sleeping accommodations without meals (but that would break their system, too).
Third, and well-documented on AU, the new points redemption system sucks for the LD customer. At least twice as many points for the same trips, and that's after shopping around for fare "buckets". It's still sort of a deal, but we are having serious conversations over breakfast over how good a deal it really is considering the time it takes for us to recover from each leg of a trip.
So... it looks like we're returning to car trips for our annual West Coast outings. Not happy about that, either, because it takes more time and is still very stressful and tiring, but in different ways. We were hoping the train would be a relaxing way to get from here to there and back, but after multiple tries it's just not working out that way.
[sigh]
After our experiences last week are taken in combination with numerous similar trips over the past several years, I'd say the odds of our taking another cross-country trip on Amtrak are slim. Not zero, but still unlikely. In a way, it's about Amtrak service, but mostly in relation with how it fits with how we live our lives. There are two issues, really. And a contributing third problem.
First issue is that the sleeper bunks are fairly uncomfortable. I hadn't previously processed just how uncomfortable they were until we got back home and I crashed on our sofa - which is also too short and narrow for me to stretch out - but I slept really well given the softer, thicker cushions. It's that simple. At any rate, neither of us were sleeping well on the train and by the end of three days we were both tired and grouchy (and therefore my sleeping on the sofa!). My wife commented that the sleeper beds are just shy of a sleeping bag. I disagreed, but probably only because she's never experienced a sleeping bag on rocks without an air mattress.
But the second issue is likely the biggest one - the regimented dining car schedule, and the officious and surly DCA who enforces it. We don't eat three big meals a day on a strict timetable, and, being retired, we sure as hell don't get up at 6:00am just so we don't miss the breakfast service. By day two we feel bloated and lethargic, and no amount of walking the length of the train at service and crew-change stops mitigates it. Uncomfortable, again. I know we can't change the dining car management culture, but, rather, if the sleeping car passenger had the option of using their pre-paid meal allowance in the lounge car for lighter meals on their schedule, not the DCA's, I'm sure we would have a much more enjoyable experience. Or, offer discounted sleeping accommodations without meals (but that would break their system, too).
Third, and well-documented on AU, the new points redemption system sucks for the LD customer. At least twice as many points for the same trips, and that's after shopping around for fare "buckets". It's still sort of a deal, but we are having serious conversations over breakfast over how good a deal it really is considering the time it takes for us to recover from each leg of a trip.
So... it looks like we're returning to car trips for our annual West Coast outings. Not happy about that, either, because it takes more time and is still very stressful and tiring, but in different ways. We were hoping the train would be a relaxing way to get from here to there and back, but after multiple tries it's just not working out that way.
[sigh]