RailFanLNK
Conductor
Well arrived home from our 2 week trip last night safe and sound on the first CZ permitted to traverse the rail line that has been down since June 13th. Amtrak made our trip, delighted us, made us mad, held a train for us so we could connect, gave us two sleeper cars that made us feel like we were in the desert, one that made us feel like we were in Siberia, fed us well, treated us fantastically 
, great, average and of course...rudely. :angry: (but only one employee) AGR treated us great, but was closed on the the 4th and 5th of July when we needed to change our reservations back to the CZ. A rep named "Ken" at AGR was tops. He will be complimented when I get all my facts together to call the 800 number. I think my girls (girlfriend and two daughters) are trained out for the time being, but still love travelling by Amtrak. What is so neat is the "lingo" that the girls are picking up. "OTP, FTI, Julie, Metropolitan Lounge, Club Acela, were taking a Regional" are now terms the "girls" are throwing around quite regularly. There will be alot more to follow on our trip. I will try not to skimp, but don't want to bore you to death!
Lastly, met up with Alan B in WAS on the very end of our trip and also with rmadisonwi. Both of those guys got to see us in pretty bad shape. We were at the end of our trip. We were tired, hungering for our own beds and the girls were missing thier dogs. This trip had CURVE BALLS up the ying-yang due to midwest flooding. We had to change reservations for trains, planes and rental cars to make for sure we got from point A to point B. I had a 3 ringed notebook with PAGES of info for this trip. It almost looked like a flight manual a pilot carries with certain aircraft. I felt like a travel agent. I'm going to give out a few "shining stars" for the Amtrak employees who went way beyond the "call of duty".
1. Ken at AGR. You made our trip, you helped with our trip. You made us smile, laugh and "high five" when we realized we weren't going to have to fly ANY part of this trip. Your actions sucked out a180 lbs of anxiety that my body was holding. You also made it possible to not have to fly from Omaha NE to CHI. You provided us with the SWC, a train that was not in the "itenirary" but got us where we needed to be. That man deserves a raise!
2. Felicia at Amtrak a clerk at WUS. You got us on the first train #5. You couldn't arrange this through AGR cuz they were closed on the 4th of July. You were trying to get us on a train that the site said was "shutdown" but the same site was selling seats for. You had to figure out a way to give us AGR accomodations instead of paid seats. You smiled when I was exhausted and you made me laugh when I was burnt out. You got my family on the train that had us de-train 30 feet from our car in our hometown of Lincoln NE, not 220 miles in KCY where we would have needed a rental car and hotel room just to get home. You cared, you treated me like a customer and not another human being passing through a large metropolitan area with a serious travel problem. This woman deserves a raise!
3. Marcella a sleeper attendent on the "hot" SWC. "I can't believe I get paid to do this" was her first comments to us. The SWC had been opened back up only to be cancelled again and we were on one of the first "through" trains with no bussing. There had been bussing, then the whole route, then bussing and back to full route. So the train was less than soldout due to the accomodations being cancelled. You gave us the run of the lower level and pretty much catered to all our needs. Your offer to "bring us meals" to our rooms due to all the confusion of the start of our trip was a nice touch. Thank you for your smile. And thank you for telling us that "there trying to hold the LSL for all the connecting passengers on the SWC". That made us feel so much more comfortable with the start of our trip.
4. Amtrak Management! I have no clue who decides to "hold" a train for a late arrival but someone somewhere decided to hold the LSL. The SWC was 7 hours late and we were going to miss our connecting train by 30 minutes. The reason I picked the LSL to get us to the east coast was that it has a 3 hour later departure from CUS and the CZ is always running late. So...we are no longer on the CZ cuz of the flooding, we are on the SWC which has a very good OTP but on the "Chief" we boarded in KCY, it had stopped 3 TIMES for Paramedics and had kicked 2 people off for smoking. It was 3 hours behind arriving into KCY and then had slow orders due to all the flooding and FTI as well. So hats off to whomever decides to "hold" a train. Getting to NYC a day late would have made us eat $250 in off-broadway show of Blue Man Group for Friday evening.
5. Alex the dining car steward on the LSL. He hustled like I have seen no one else hustle like this. Made us laugh, amazed us how he could almost "run" on a moving train and catered to our needs. Your sense of humor was fantastic as well!
, great, average and of course...rudely. :angry: (but only one employee) AGR treated us great, but was closed on the the 4th and 5th of July when we needed to change our reservations back to the CZ. A rep named "Ken" at AGR was tops. He will be complimented when I get all my facts together to call the 800 number. I think my girls (girlfriend and two daughters) are trained out for the time being, but still love travelling by Amtrak. What is so neat is the "lingo" that the girls are picking up. "OTP, FTI, Julie, Metropolitan Lounge, Club Acela, were taking a Regional" are now terms the "girls" are throwing around quite regularly. There will be alot more to follow on our trip. I will try not to skimp, but don't want to bore you to death!Lastly, met up with Alan B in WAS on the very end of our trip and also with rmadisonwi. Both of those guys got to see us in pretty bad shape. We were at the end of our trip. We were tired, hungering for our own beds and the girls were missing thier dogs. This trip had CURVE BALLS up the ying-yang due to midwest flooding. We had to change reservations for trains, planes and rental cars to make for sure we got from point A to point B. I had a 3 ringed notebook with PAGES of info for this trip. It almost looked like a flight manual a pilot carries with certain aircraft. I felt like a travel agent. I'm going to give out a few "shining stars" for the Amtrak employees who went way beyond the "call of duty".
1. Ken at AGR. You made our trip, you helped with our trip. You made us smile, laugh and "high five" when we realized we weren't going to have to fly ANY part of this trip. Your actions sucked out a180 lbs of anxiety that my body was holding. You also made it possible to not have to fly from Omaha NE to CHI. You provided us with the SWC, a train that was not in the "itenirary" but got us where we needed to be. That man deserves a raise!
2. Felicia at Amtrak a clerk at WUS. You got us on the first train #5. You couldn't arrange this through AGR cuz they were closed on the 4th of July. You were trying to get us on a train that the site said was "shutdown" but the same site was selling seats for. You had to figure out a way to give us AGR accomodations instead of paid seats. You smiled when I was exhausted and you made me laugh when I was burnt out. You got my family on the train that had us de-train 30 feet from our car in our hometown of Lincoln NE, not 220 miles in KCY where we would have needed a rental car and hotel room just to get home. You cared, you treated me like a customer and not another human being passing through a large metropolitan area with a serious travel problem. This woman deserves a raise!
3. Marcella a sleeper attendent on the "hot" SWC. "I can't believe I get paid to do this" was her first comments to us. The SWC had been opened back up only to be cancelled again and we were on one of the first "through" trains with no bussing. There had been bussing, then the whole route, then bussing and back to full route. So the train was less than soldout due to the accomodations being cancelled. You gave us the run of the lower level and pretty much catered to all our needs. Your offer to "bring us meals" to our rooms due to all the confusion of the start of our trip was a nice touch. Thank you for your smile. And thank you for telling us that "there trying to hold the LSL for all the connecting passengers on the SWC". That made us feel so much more comfortable with the start of our trip.
4. Amtrak Management! I have no clue who decides to "hold" a train for a late arrival but someone somewhere decided to hold the LSL. The SWC was 7 hours late and we were going to miss our connecting train by 30 minutes. The reason I picked the LSL to get us to the east coast was that it has a 3 hour later departure from CUS and the CZ is always running late. So...we are no longer on the CZ cuz of the flooding, we are on the SWC which has a very good OTP but on the "Chief" we boarded in KCY, it had stopped 3 TIMES for Paramedics and had kicked 2 people off for smoking. It was 3 hours behind arriving into KCY and then had slow orders due to all the flooding and FTI as well. So hats off to whomever decides to "hold" a train. Getting to NYC a day late would have made us eat $250 in off-broadway show of Blue Man Group for Friday evening.
5. Alex the dining car steward on the LSL. He hustled like I have seen no one else hustle like this. Made us laugh, amazed us how he could almost "run" on a moving train and catered to our needs. Your sense of humor was fantastic as well!
