Mica bait?

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PaulM

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Jun 27, 2008
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Quincy, IL
Recently we traveled from LMY (Santa Fe) to St. Petersburg, Fl the last segment being on Thruway Bus 6091 that connects with the southbound Silver Star at TPA (Tampa) and stops in STP (Clearwater/St. Pete). From STP we wanted to continue to SBG (Sebring, FL). According to the timetable thruway bus 6098 arrives in TPA at 10:40AM and the southbound Silver Star departs at 12:45, leaving plenty of time for the connection.

However, neither Amtrak.com's standard query nor the multi-city option show STP to SBG, or anywhere south of TPA for that matter.

I asked the STP agent about this; and he said that the bus doesn't arrive in time for the connection. Not having memorized the schedule at this point, not to mention being a bit disorriented after 3 days on the train, I had to accept this BS.

I then called the 800 number; and when the agent said it can't be done, I countered with the info from the timetable. She said that was an out of date edition. The effective date on the timetable: January 13, 2014. I then asked to speak to customer relations. The agent did her best, but eventually concluded, it can't be done, but could give me no reason why.

When I got to TPA, I asked the agent; and his response was: you tell me. He had been trying to get an answer from Amtrak to the same question for a long time.

I sent an email to Customer relations explaining what I wanted to do and asking the rhetorical question of why Amtrak would turn away business from an existing service. If there is one thing I've discovered from several trips to Florida is that there is a huge amount of interstate passengers. I consider the response nothing less than insulting, whether a human actually concocted it or not.

Thank you for your inquiry.

Please contact Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) online at www.psta.net for schedule and fare information about local travel from St Petersburg to Tampa.

We hope that this information will be helpful and we look forward to serving you onboard Amtrak..

Sincerely,
John
Amtrak Customer Service
In fact I did use PSTA. The disadvantages of this option are many and the subject of another rant.

So what's my next step?
 
Forget Mica; if you wish to write a letter, I suggest you write to Sen. Nelson or Congressperson Corrine Brown.
 
For all you know it could be the likes of Mica that prohibit that particular connection because that would compete with their friend's Bus Company run service. You can never tell what the true story is without somewhat deeper investigation.

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum
 
looks to me like 6098 is for Orlando traffic, while 6092 is for Tampa traffic. See the banners across the top of each column ?

and you really think this is worth writing to a congressman who hates AMTRAK ?
 
looks to me like 6098 is for Orlando traffic, while 6092 is for Tampa traffic. See the banners across the top of each column ?
This is begging the question. It's like putting a banner on the Illinois Zephyr timetable saying you can only connect to selected trains out of CHI, regardless how long the layover.

and you really think this is worth writing to a congressman who hates AMTRAK ?
The Mica part was sarcasm. I guess he would have to weight the opportunity to embarrass Amtrak against forcing it to do something that would increase revenue at no extra cost.

I really liked St. Pete and want to go back; so you betcha it's worth writing to someone.
 
I'd suggest writing to Boardman, since it's not clear who in Amtrak is responsible for the bus contracts in Florida. It's possible that 6098 *doesn't let people off* in Tampa; bus contractors can do weird things like that.

Remember the weird California rule that you can't take an Amtrak Thruway bus unless you're connecting to a train (done as protectionism for other bus companies)? The rule is still there even though the other bus companies have dropped out of several of the markets where Amtrak Thruway buses go!
 
I'd suggest writing to Boardman, since it's not clear who in Amtrak is responsible for the bus contracts in Florida. It's possible that 6098 *doesn't let people off* in Tampa; bus contractors can do weird things like that.

Remember the weird California rule that you can't take an Amtrak Thruway bus unless you're connecting to a train (done as protectionism for other bus companies)? The rule is still there even though the other bus companies have dropped out of several of the markets where Amtrak Thruway buses go!
You are right, bus 6098 seems to be "receive" only. You can't connect to the northboundd SS either. But at least there is another bus that does - 6092. But this still begs the question, why?

The first thing I thought about was the California rule. But here I want to connect to a train,

But you did answer my original questiion, what's the next step. Anyone know the best address to use?
 
Being a user of Tampa Union Station, this has been one of my pet peeves for years.

Another one? Try buying a train ticket from TPA to LAK/LKL (Lakeland, FL). Can't get there from here. Why?

If you write, here's the address:

Joseph Boardman

President and Chief Executive Officer

Amtrak

60 Massachusetts Avenue, NE

Washington, DC 20002

These are "can't do" issues which shouldn't be "can't do"!
 
Another one? Try buying a train ticket from TPA to LAK/LKL (Lakeland, FL). Can't get there from here. Why?

If you write, here's the address:

Joseph Boardman

President and Chief Executive Officer

Amtrak

60 Massachusetts Avenue, NE

Washington, DC 20002
Thanks for the address. An another one: why is LAL receive only and LKL discharge only? or is it the other way around?
 
Ah, yes, the enigma that is Lakeland, FL This is what happens when you run a Toonerville Trolley operation on the Silver Star in order to serve Tampa. Nothing more stupid than taking a train on a 90-mile detour up and back on a cul-de-sac rather than making Tampa a terminal, which is how it was designed. You wind up with no local service at all on the detour itself, forcing anyone who actually wanted to travel between Lakeland and Tampa or vice versa to use another means of transportation.
 
I suspect the reason for the absurd Tampa detour operation is that Amtrak doesn't want to have servicing at Tampa for only one train. If the Silver Star reversed at Tampa as you would expect it to, Amtrak would have to service it at Tampa.

The "750 mile rule" has made the situation even worse: Tampa-Miami service provides a lot of riders, but Amtrak is no longer allowed to provide it by itself unless the state funds it, so it has to be tacked on to something else. If Florida High Speed Rail hadn't been killed by the felonious Rick Scott, this probably would have become academic.

The inability to get a ticket from Lakeland to Tampa is something else again, and is due to insufficiently imaginative programmers working with Amtrak's reservations system.

This is how I'd do it: Add two more station codes (LTN and LTS) just for travel between Lakeland and Tampa, one representing travel on a train to/from Miami and the other representing travel on a train to/from Orlando. The front end would have to notice a request for Tampa-Lakeland tickets and translate it into these two options.
 
OP reporting back.

I did write to Boardman and the explanation for not being able to use Bus 6098 to connect from STP to the southbound SS is that there is no corresponding northbound Ambus connection from the Silver Star to STP, and that the buses were established to provide service to and points north of Orlando. Apparently it is just a coincidence that the bus 6098 from STP also connects to the southbound SS.

The author of the letter must have realized how illogical this is because they added

Generally it is preferable to offer round trip service, however given the request to add this connection, Amtrak may consider adding it on a pilot basis; therefore your comments have been forwarded to the appropriate management.
As of now it hasn't happened.
 
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