My Amtrak Experience.

[Jack Boudreaux]

This has to be the most entertaining thread around here in a long time!
My two cents: Amtrak can and does deliver some pretty nice travel experiences with great on board service. I've been there. But they also sometimes deliver service that is just, plain awful, with the worst being when service employees treat paying customers like they are prisoners at Leavenworth. I've been there for that also – first hand. I travel a reasonable amount, and from my experience, no transportation provider has such a wide range of service delivery quality than Amtrak, and yes that includes United. I get consistently good service on Southwest, good to indifferent service on the legacy carriers (US, UA primarily), but only Amtrak occasionally serves up truly horrid personal service. This has been an issue from Day One, and even pre-dates Amtrak into the dark days of the Penn Central and the PRR. Too many passenger rail supporters, including groups like NARP, close their eyes to this problem or just assume it is unfixable. That is really a disservice to the goal of improving passenger rail service.

As for amenities for sleeper passengers, this is an area that could be improved at very little cost. Those of us who travel on Amtrak know what to expect in sleeper and measure performance accordingly. But picture someone who regularly travels by air. They book Amtrak's top long-haul class and then have to pay for wine at dinner and non-meal soft drinks and snacks? Even domestic coach passengers get free soft drinks. Compared to air, the offerings in sleeper service are pretty thin (including the sheets). Those people come away from an Amtrak long distance trip in sleeper feeling cheated.

Why not provide each sleeper passenger with coupons for drinks and snacks in the lounge? That would solve any theft issue. How about including wine at dinner in the "free meal" (as is done on the Auto Train). And yes, let's head over to Bed, Bath and Beyond and get some decent bedding. That stuff used now is, well, not so good. Two Amtrak pillows barely equal one real pillow.

None of this would cost a fortune, and could easily be covered by a modest increase in the room charge (say $20) that most of us would not even notice. The end product would seem more like what someone paying for the best service would expect.

Great ideas and you have it nailed as what the situation is and how it could be fixed.

One other thing I would add - they need to bring back some sort of on-board manager that would be in charge of sleeper, coach, and dining car staff.

I just was on #8 from PDX to CHI and the Seattle Operations manager was on board. I was able to meet and talk with that person. That meeting didn't happen until about half way through the trip. But, once I learned a person in that position was on board it was easy to see why the crew in the sleepers and dining car were working as hard as they could, were courteous, caring and efficient. Perhaps it was because the "boss" was on board with them. And, that boss was stopping and talking with passengers, wandering back and forth in the cars and constantly checking on how everything was going.

It seems the reason there is sometimes poor service is because no one is checking up on these employees first hand. Maybe we need secret riders, too, who the crew doesn't know are checking up on them.

But, of course, with tenure and the union, there may not be much the company can do about the poor service employees that never get the job done.

We had a good attendant on the way up. He really tried his best so I tipped him $20 bucks. You know if you try to make people feel comfortable most people will tip you. I think people still like money. Some of these Amtrak people are just plain lazy and rude.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Lots of good posts here, especially notable are Mr. FSS and penny k, pretty much explains the situation!

As for me, I'd rather be on a train going anywhere,anytime and I'm no Amtrak employee or apologist but am a retired government employee! While maybe not the most traveled person on this forum, I am amongst them, and Ill be the first to say EVERYTHING can be made better with more funding,more training, more supervision IF the customers are willing to pay for it! (AKA taxes, there is no free lunch!) In closing, since tastes vary, which is better: an 18 hour over the pond flight for $10,000 or an 18 hour train ride for $1,000? Which makes you sleep better, a night in a La Quinta Inn all in for $79 a night or The Four Seasons,a la carte @ $500 a night plus? Point made I think, noone should make up their mind based on one experience, give Amtrak a chance! If you choose not to, so be it, wont see you along the way but will lots of interesting,fun people and get to see fantastic scenery that doesnt look as good @ 35,000 feet! And I'll continue to let Amtrak know about the GOOD,THE BAD AND THE INDIFFERENT!!!!

 

[dlagrua]

The man is right. Go back to the days when George Pullman ran the sleepers. Each Porter was impecibly dressed, well trained and ready to serve the customer to the best of his ability with a smile. Today the onboard staff does have some (but not all) uncaring or disinterested service personel. In all fairness I must say that some aboard Amtrak are very good and willing to accomodate, but some are really bad. It is this inconsistancy that is sometimes hard to tolerate.

I move that we post the names here of employees on Amtrak that are both good and bad. While I do not remember the names of the bad service people on our last #29 CL train trip (6/9/10) I do remember that on train #30 CL returning from Chicago on 6/14, we encountered two that did a real good job and should be commended. One was a waitress girl named Robbie and a heavyset SCA by the name of Darrell. These two employees were friendly, helpful, cheerful and courteous. They did their job well, were tipped accordingly and are an asset to Amtrak.

As for comparing Amtrak personnnel to those doinf first class work on airplanes. There is a difference between having a private sector job where you can get fired and having a government job where you are all but entrenched as a permanent lifetime employee.

 

[Donctor]

As for comparing Amtrak personnnel to those doinf first class work on airplanes. There is a difference between having a private sector job where you can get fired and having a government job where you are all but entrenched as a permanent lifetime employee.

That's true. Which is the government job?

 

[sunchaser]

As for comparing Amtrak personnel to those doing first class work on airplanes. There is a difference between having a private sector job where you can get fired and having a government job where you are all but entrenched as a permanent lifetime employee.

That's true. Which is the government job?

Isn't it true that both Airlines & Amtrak are typically union jobs? In my experience, most of the time, if you are in a union, it is difficult to be fired from that job.

While both Airlines & Amtrak receive subsidies, Amtrak is receives all funds & is 'owned' the by the Federal Government.

So technically, Amtrak jobs could be considered government jobs.

We have hashed & rehashed the pile of issues that Amtrak has many times on this board.

I don't think money is the only issue.

It may be that some, not all employees feel that their job at Amtrak could fold at any time because of lack of funding.

If you felt that you could lose your job at any time, you really would not care as much about your performance.

It may also be that some, not all don't like their job, but are not willing for whatever reason to seek another.

Some seem like they are going through the motions with their jobs, doing the bare minimum.

Others seem to do a bit more, because they are motivated by getting a good tip.

Still others seem to really enjoy their job, want to do it right, & go the extra mile to make the trip even more enjoyable.

All that being said, you will have that same behavior in any job. If someone is not doing their job, or the amenities are not available as advertised on amtrak.com, then you should call & let them know!!!

IMHO, I have flown more than riding the train. Flying has never been a great experience. It has degraded over the years, cutting back on services, while prices of course have gone up. Last summer, just prior to our first train ride, we had to fly to Ca for a funeral. I thought I had all the bases covered, & that we could have one bag each for free.. NOPE, we had to pay for both of them. Wow, we got a cookie, (hard as a rock) & part of a coke. Whoopie. I remember actually getting a meal on the same flight, & being able to smoke if I wanted, too. Couple that with having to empty my pockets, remove my shoes & be careful about how many liquids I have with me & being scanned for metal (sounds like what people in jail have to go through), it is not worth the hassle unless it's my only option!

 

[but that's the point]

Lots of good posts here, especially notable are Mr. FSS and penny k, pretty much explains the situation! As for me, I'd rather be on a train going anywhere,anytime and I'm no Amtrak employee or apologist but am a retired government employee! While maybe not the most traveled person on this forum, I am amongst them, and Ill be the first to say EVERYTHING can be made better with more funding,more training, more supervision IF the customers are willing to pay for it! (AKA taxes, there is no free lunch!) In closing, since tastes vary, which is better: an 18 hour over the pond flight for $10,000 or an 18 hour train ride for $1,000? Which makes you sleep better, a night in a La Quinta Inn all in for $79 a night or The Four Seasons,a la carte @ $500 a night plus? Point made I think, noone should make up their mind based on one experience, give Amtrak a chance! If you choose not to, so be it, wont see you along the way but will lots of interesting,fun people and get to see fantastic scenery that doesnt look as good @ 35,000 feet! And I'll continue to let Amtrak know about the GOOD,THE BAD AND THE INDIFFERENT!!!!

If people like you continually inform Amtrak as to good and bad experiences/employees, then why doesn't the message get translated down to the workers and overall improvement result?

Perhaps Amtrak is not a government corporation perse, but the employees do have the attitude that they are immune from the consequences of offering mediocre service.

I think everyone would be willing to pay $5 to $10 more a ticket if that money was used specifically to educate employees on the imperative of providing friendly, professional service at all times and to arrange supervision so that such service is consistently provided.

In my own experience, I had a bad experience on the Sunset and told the conductor, in a very polite, almost apologetic way, about it. He shrugged and said to call Amtrak after the trip was over. (I later found out that since the conductors, tho nominally in charge of the train, only ride short distances and don't much care to get involved in on-board service matters.) I did call Amtrak public relations and got a voucher for $75 after some 15 minutes of explaining and re-explaining what had happened. Nice gesture. I never used it, tho. $75 doesn't go very far in paying for a sleeper trip in the hundreds of dollars, and I just didn't want to risk another bad experience.

I was no way irate to the level of the OP, but I have ended up not riding Amtrak again except for one- or two-hour trips, where all I expect is a seat acceptable for parking my rear-end for that time period. I do like train travel, but I do not like gambling with my money, whether it is for a long-distance train ride with decent service or a Las Vegas slot payoff.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I think everyone would be willing to pay $5 to $10 more a ticket if that money was used specifically to educate employees on the imperative of providing friendly, professional service at all times and to arrange supervision so that such service is consistently provided.

I don’t know about everyone. Some folks use Amtrak for commuting or for other relatively short trips. If I'm riding from San Antonio to Austin and paying $15 all-in I might not be too happy with an extra fee that costs 30-60% of my ticket price. Not that your idea is a bad one, it just might not be appealing to everyone who rides. As for me I'm wondering if Amtrak could actually move in the opposite direction by unbundling the costs that pay for the SCA and make that an extra fee paid by folks who actually want whatever it is the SCA’s do for them.

In my own experience, I had a bad experience on the Sunset and told the conductor, in a very polite, almost apologetic way, about it. He shrugged and said to call Amtrak after the trip was over.

It’s hard to judge the response without knowing what the “bad experience” was. Care to elaborate?

 

[AlanB]

If people like you continually inform Amtrak as to good and bad experiences/employees, then why doesn't the message get translated down to the workers and overall improvement result?

The message does get translated down and things have improved considerably from where they used to be. The issue is that it does take time and it does take more than just the word of one passenger. And far too many passengers either never say anything or if they do complain, they don't have the name of the crew member. Amtrak is a union shop; they can't just fire someone at the drop of a hat. It takes multiple complaints and documentation to force someone out; as I understand it from GG-1 who is in a union (not Amtrak) and has been in a position of considerable responsability within a union, it's quite an involved process to terminate an employee. Making matters tougher, even if the union knows that the person in question is useless and worthy of being fired, by Federal law the union must still fight to protect that member's job. If they don't fight, they could lose their ability to remain a union.

And for all those who think that management doesn't ride trains; let me tell you that they do. They aren't on every train, but they are on far more trains than many people here seem to think. I've bumped into more than one during my travels. But remember, more supervision means greater cost to Amtrak and it means 1 less roomette available for sale!

 

[rrdude]

For all of you who enthuse about Amtrak:
Why cannot the service be consistent? Even the Amtrakafoamers concede that service is a crapshoot.

Do you know of any airline or other service that is so maddeningly inconsistent?

Yes. United.

I was going to say "all of them". Just go over to Flyertalk.com and read some of the forums.
And go ahead and keep saying that poor service on a train is exactly the same as the deliberate, systematic murder of millions of people. I like what Jon Stewart (The Daily Show) had to say:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-june...itler-reference

Adolph Hitler -- one of the worst mass murderers in all of history -- has now become the go-to metaphor in comparison for anyone you have a minor disagreement with....

You know who was Hitler? HITLER!

I was thinking the same thing, but I wasn't sure if anyone here would know of Jon Stewart.

Watched the "Hitler clip" many times, months ago, and both agree and disagree with JS. But the point is, it is a way to simply EMPHASIZE how bad (usually) a situation was. I mean, how far can "political correctness" go?

I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!

 

[Ryan]

It's not a matter of political correctness, it's a matter of perspective. It's not all that different than when my 7 year old acts like it's the end of the world when he's not allowed to do something.

Some people grow up and gain that sense of perspective. Others? Not so much.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Watched the "Hitler clip" many times, months ago, and both agree and disagree with JS. But the point is, it is a way to simply EMPHASIZE how bad (usually) a situation was. I mean, how far can "political correctness" go? I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!

It has nothing to do with political correctness and everything to do with making a logical argument based on a reasonable position. Equating anything as trivial as a disappointing train trip with mass genocide is just plain ludicrous to anyone above the age of fifteen. It's basically the same as admitting you have no ability to form a coherent response and are thus giving up and shutting down your overheated brain. Whenever I see people make enormous leaps like this it just confirms they're not capable of being reasoned with. Frankly, I'm getting a similar vibe from you right now. You seem to be having a highly emotional response to a rather obvious and mundane rebuke.

 

[Jack Boudreaux]

Watched the "Hitler clip" many times, months ago, and both agree and disagree with JS. But the point is, it is a way to simply EMPHASIZE how bad (usually) a situation was. I mean, how far can "political correctness" go? I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!

It has nothing to do with political correctness and everything to do with making a logical argument based on a reasonable position. Equating anything as trivial as a disappointing train trip with mass genocide is just plain ludicrous to anyone above the age of fifteen. It's basically the same as admitting you have no ability to form a coherent response and are thus giving up and shutting down your overheated brain. Whenever I see people make enormous leaps like this it just confirms they're not capable of being reasoned with. Frankly, I'm getting a similar vibe from you right now. You seem to be having a highly emotional response to a rather obvious and mundane rebuke.

The whole Hitler and **** reference was a brain hickup. It made me think of this clip

 

[BlueJeanGirl]

ALC does not work for Amtrak. This has been repeatedly stated in this thread.

I, however, do.

I'm terribly sorry your recent experience with Amtrak was not to your satisfaction. I really am. Please call 1-800-USA-RAIL (1-800-872-7245) with train numbers, room numbers, reservation numbers, dates, and names, and please file a complaint with Customer Relations.

Continuing to complain on this forum will get you nowhere.

For many years, Amtrak has operated with aging rolling stock (as has been stated previously in this thread) and insufficient funding (as has also been stated previously in this thread).

Add to that an aging workforce, inept management, and other factors beyond the control of the train crew (who do not stock the linen closet, for example; that's the job of the contract commissary employees,) and you will be dissatisfied.

I hope you find air travel more to your liking. Please do not board one of my trains: we will both be happier that way.

~Blue Jean Girl

(I also wish to address the observations regarding inconsistencies in service: you're dealing with humans.)

Okay for like the third time..
Amtrak employees are NOT employees of the federal government! It's not that hard... Their paychecks come from Amtrak, not the US Dept of Transportation.

If you want Egyptian cotton than save your money, fly to wherever you are going, and stay at the Four Seasons.

Wow! You must work for Amtrak. This is the Amtrak attitude.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Thanks BJG, couldn't have said it better! Makes me think of the old saying about flying updated for today:

Fly the UNFRIENDLY SKIES of _________!!!! :angry:

 

[frj1983]

To show that this does not happen just on Amtrak:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/06/23/trave...dex.html?hpt=T2

An interesting read........ :huh:

 

[oldtimer]

If people like you continually inform Amtrak as to good and bad experiences/employees, then why doesn't the message get translated down to the workers and overall improvement result?

The message does get translated down and things have improved considerably from where they used to be. The issue is that it does take time and it does take more than just the word of one passenger. And far too many passengers either never say anything or if they do complain, they don't have the name of the crew member. Amtrak is a union shop; they can't just fire someone at the drop of a hat. It takes multiple complaints and documentation to force someone out; as I understand it from GG-1 who is in a union (not Amtrak) and has been in a position of considerable responsability within a union, it's quite an involved process to terminate an employee. Making matters tougher, even if the union knows that the person in question is useless and worthy of being fired, by Federal law the union must still fight to protect that member's job. If they don't fight, they could lose their ability to remain a union.

And for all those who think that management doesn't ride trains; let me tell you that they do. They aren't on every train, but they are on far more trains than many people here seem to think. I've bumped into more than one during my travels. But remember, more supervision means greater cost to Amtrak and it means 1 less roomette available for sale!

A disclaimer first: I was a 36 year Amtrak employee that was put on disability by Amtrak one year to the day before my scheduled retirement.

Alan your information from GG1 is basically correct. The rail industry is covered by the Railway Labor Act, which predates almost if not all current labor regulation. I have a BA in management and some post grad work in labor relations and collective bargaining and have served as a uniion representative in many positions for more then 25 years of my Amtrak career. The problem with dismissing an employee lies in the facts that the company is the judge, jury, and executor at the first hearing and is very quick to dismiss employees. ( NO ONE at Amtrak has a "job for life".)

Some departments do formal consoling before the first hearing but others do not. If discipline is assessed at the first hearing it is appealed and all appeals are just rubber stamps at Amtrak. No part of this process is really fair and impartial. The final decision is usually made by some form of arbitration (there as several.)

If the initial charge was not well prepared by the Amtrak manager the impartial arbitrator will either mitigate or completely overturn the decision and if that is done the employee is returned to service and all of his losses are made up by Amtrak.

I have represented Amtrak employees at hundreds of these investigations and can tell you that discipline is assessed. Employees are given time off and even dismissed. In most cases the discipline is needed, but as Alan B stated that the union has a "duty of representation" for all members be they good or bad.

The union does not like the bad apples but as I have told many an Amtrak manager, The union did not hire them and Amtrak had an opportunity to outright dismiss them in their probationary period.

I can personally tell you that many bad apples have been dismissed and the dismissal sustained. It is the dismissals that are overturned that give some employees the felling that they are untouchable. The overturned decisions are maybe 1 in 25.

Another Amtrak morale lowering fact has been that the company in the past has used the Railway Labor Act to draw out the negotiation period for years, in a recent session it was over 8 years for a significant number of Amtrak employees. This combined with an uncertainty of funding (which translates to will I have a job in October). does not help the morale. Hope and Change have arrived at Amtrak as now it is a priority for the Obama Administration as five years authorization has been made and Amtrak has made a contract offer to the unions in a timely manner.

PS Alan out here in the wilderness(not on the NEC or west coast) management riding trains if like finding hen's teeth.

:unsure:

 

[AlanB]

PS Alan out here in the wilderness(not on the NEC or west coast) management riding trains if like finding hen's teeth.

That's actually pretty funny then, as in all of my travels, I've only ever encountered one supervisor on a corridor train; an Acela out of Boston. And we just happened to have a very good crew in FC that day, one I had seen several times before, so I knew that they weren't just "behaving" because the manager was there. I made it a point to talk with that manager and let him know about the FC crew, which coincidentally happend to be his crew since they were Boston based just like him. He was most receptive and thanked me for letting him know my thoughts.

It's been on the LD's where I've seen the most management over the years, and while I've covered almost all the LD routes now from end to end, I do far more riding on the NEC. But I've met, or at least seen, management of some level on about 7 or 8 LD's over the last 10 years. So either I'm extremely lucky, with an average of 3 or 4 LD rides per year, or there are more managers out and about than people think.

Ps. Thanks for the rundown on the union stuff, most informative!

 

[rrdude]

ALC does not work for Amtrak. This has been repeatedly stated in this thread.
. Please do not board one of my trains: we will both be happier that way.

~Blue Jean Girl

WOW. That's all I can say, "WOW". As a former OBS employee, I took it upon myself to attempt to make every passenger's journey a delight. Regardless of the bad order AC, diner with no food, drunk pax, etc., etc. I surely did not succeed, but tried.

But to state "........Please do not board one of my trains.........."

Reminds me of a quote from the movie Rudy, when the coach was talking to a back-up QB, who knew he would never play a single down for the Irish, he said something to the effect, "You just summed up your entire sorry career here in one sentence! If you had a tenth of the heart of Ruettiger, you'd have made All-American by now! As it is, you just went from third team to the prep team! Get out of here!........."

I think you summarized the attitude of FAR TOO MANY Amtrak employees. Perfect, Amtrak perfect. Let me know WHAT trains you work, I'll do MY best to avoid them.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I think you summarized the attitude of FAR TOO MANY Amtrak employees. Perfect, Amtrak perfect. Let me know WHAT trains you work, I'll do MY best to avoid them.

Yeah, I was actually thinking the same thing. Guess it was just meant to throw more fuel onto the fire. Oh well, stay classy Amtrak. <_<

 

[Trogdor]

Amtrak is receives all funds & is 'owned' the by the Federal Government.

Actually, over 65% of Amtrak's funds come from passenger revenues.

Even if you are only considering subsidies, a decent amount of money comes from state governments.

 

[Big Iron]

If people like you continually inform Amtrak as to good and bad experiences/employees, then why doesn't the message get translated down to the workers and overall improvement result?

The message does get translated down and things have improved considerably from where they used to be. The issue is that it does take time and it does take more than just the word of one passenger. And far too many passengers either never say anything or if they do complain, they don't have the name of the crew member. Amtrak is a union shop; they can't just fire someone at the drop of a hat. It takes multiple complaints and documentation to force someone out; as I understand it from GG-1 who is in a union (not Amtrak) and has been in a position of considerable responsability within a union, it's quite an involved process to terminate an employee. Making matters tougher, even if the union knows that the person in question is useless and worthy of being fired, by Federal law the union must still fight to protect that member's job. If they don't fight, they could lose their ability to remain a union.

And for all those who think that management doesn't ride trains; let me tell you that they do. They aren't on every train, but they are on far more trains than many people here seem to think. I've bumped into more than one during my travels. But remember, more supervision means greater cost to Amtrak and it means 1 less roomette available for sale!

A disclaimer first: I was a 36 year Amtrak employee that was put on disability by Amtrak one year to the day before my scheduled retirement.

Alan your information from GG1 is basically correct. The rail industry is covered by the Railway Labor Act, which predates almost if not all current labor regulation. I have a BA in management and some post grad work in labor relations and collective bargaining and have served as a uniion representative in many positions for more then 25 years of my Amtrak career. The problem with dismissing an employee lies in the facts that the company is the judge, jury, and executor at the first hearing and is very quick to dismiss employees. ( NO ONE at Amtrak has a "job for life".)

Some departments do formal consoling before the first hearing but others do not. If discipline is assessed at the first hearing it is appealed and all appeals are just rubber stamps at Amtrak. No part of this process is really fair and impartial. The final decision is usually made by some form of arbitration (there as several.)

If the initial charge was not well prepared by the Amtrak manager the impartial arbitrator will either mitigate or completely overturn the decision and if that is done the employee is returned to service and all of his losses are made up by Amtrak.

I have represented Amtrak employees at hundreds of these investigations and can tell you that discipline is assessed. Employees are given time off and even dismissed. In most cases the discipline is needed, but as Alan B stated that the union has a "duty of representation" for all members be they good or bad.

The union does not like the bad apples but as I have told many an Amtrak manager, The union did not hire them and Amtrak had an opportunity to outright dismiss them in their probationary period.

I can personally tell you that many bad apples have been dismissed and the dismissal sustained. It is the dismissals that are overturned that give some employees the felling that they are untouchable. The overturned decisions are maybe 1 in 25.

Another Amtrak morale lowering fact has been that the company in the past has used the Railway Labor Act to draw out the negotiation period for years, in a recent session it was over 8 years for a significant number of Amtrak employees. This combined with an uncertainty of funding (which translates to will I have a job in October). does not help the morale. Hope and Change have arrived at Amtrak as now it is a priority for the Obama Administration as five years authorization has been made and Amtrak has made a contract offer to the unions in a timely manner.

PS Alan out here in the wilderness(not on the NEC or west coast) management riding trains if like finding hen's teeth.

:unsure:

I went from a management position to a sales position within the company I work for. Now I don't manage employees and am much happier. It is equally as difficult to document a case to dismiss a bad employee in the private sector as it appears to be in a union shop. The one difference is, in the private sector, the option of arbitartion does not generally exist. The end result, union or not, is that a bad employee has the opportunity to poison the company over and again until the disciplinary system catches up with them.

Mr. Oldtimer2, if you were part of the on board service staff for Amtrak, what type of customer service training did you receive? Not trying to bait you just genuinely interested in how Amtrak trains on board service staff to deal with the riding public.

 

[ALC Rail Writer]

I think you summarized the attitude of FAR TOO MANY Amtrak employees. Perfect, Amtrak perfect. Let me know WHAT trains you work, I'll do MY best to avoid them.

Yeah, I was actually thinking the same thing. Guess it was just meant to throw more fuel onto the fire. Oh well, stay classy Amtrak. <_<

Actually she pointed out many faults in Amtrak, including 'inept management'... that could really get her in trouble. She's being honest.

The 'stay off my train' sentiment comes from the fact that some of you are being silly.

I'll add to the sentiment. Pax who can't keep their mouth shut about how sucky things are, are the reasons I wear big-ass headphones when I travel.

I hope we never meet in person, be it on a train, plane, or in outer-space. It would be an annoyance of the highest calibre.

 

[Donctor]

PS Alan out here in the wilderness(not on the NEC or west coast) management riding trains if like finding hen's teeth.
:unsure:

I happened to walk down Canal as 8/28 arrived into CHI today (late), and there were a few business cars on the end. I assume that means Boardman was riding. Consist:

113 — P42DC

19 — P42DC

1249 — Heritage Baggage

32015 — Superliner I Sleeper

31030 — Superliner I Coach/Bag

34085 — Superliner I Coach

33006 — Superliner I Lounge

34026 — Superliner I Coach

31026 — Superliner I Coach/Bag

38000 — Superliner I Diner

32001 — Superliner I Sleeper

32005 — Superliner I Sleeper

39015 — Superliner II Trans-Dorm

10021 — Heritage Sleeper (ex-crew dorm; business car)

10031 — Heritage Dome/Lounge (business car)

10001 — Beech Grove

 

[sunchaser]

PS Alan out here in the wilderness(not on the NEC or west coast) management riding trains if like finding hen's teeth.
:unsure:

I happened to walk down Canal as 8/28 arrived into CHI today (late), and there were a few business cars on the end. I assume that means Boardman was riding. Consist:

113 — P42DC

19 — P42DC

1249 — Heritage Baggage

32015 — Superliner I Sleeper

31030 — Superliner I Coach/Bag

34085 — Superliner I Coach

33006 — Superliner I Lounge

34026 — Superliner I Coach

31026 — Superliner I Coach/Bag

38000 — Superliner I Diner

32001 — Superliner I Sleeper

32005 — Superliner I Sleeper

39015 — Superliner II Trans-Dorm

10021 — Heritage Sleeper (ex-crew dorm; business car)

10031 — Heritage Dome/Lounge (business car)

10001 — Beech Grove

What! No pictures??

 

[Green Maned Lion]

Have you ever had an SCA who was nowhere to be found when it was time to turn-down or make up you bed? Or one that didn't deliver a newspaper in the morning, or made sure coffee was available?

Not one. Not ever.

The man is right. Go back to the days when George Pullman ran the sleepers.

Absolutely. Lets go back to the time when they were underpaid, overworked, and forced to sleep in a bathroom with a worn out blanket. Lets go back to a time where they were treated with disrespect by everybody.

Finally, I am sick of your whining about service on Amtrak. This Jack dude hasn't hit any nails on the head. He's so far off, I think I'd like it if he hit himself on the head.

Some people are simply never happy and like to complain about everything. We have invented things for people like this in real life. We call them "ear plugs". On the internet, it is even simpler. You determine that the person is that kind of [troll], and hit the little "x".