Southwest Chief (what a fiasco)

[AZDesertGal]

On April 27th I took the shuttle from Phoenix AZ to Flag to get the train to LA. This was the beginning of my 5 week tour which included Via rail from Vancouver to Toronto. Did not get off to a great start in Flag. I had requested assistance with my luggage. AMTRAK employee (only 1 person working) took my luggage outside to the fence. Told me this was all he could do. When train arrived it was about 3 cars to where I had to get on. There was a female conducter and a male attendant. I could not get my bags to this car and 2 men who were meeting the train offered to help. They got it fairly close and I got in line to show my ticket. (was supposed to be boarded among the first group who were seniors and handicapped). So much for that happening at Flag. When I handed the gal my ticket I told her I was supposed to have assistance and had 2 bags which needed to be loaded. She goes "Lady, I suggest you go back into the station and cancel, your reservation and book it for another time when you can have someone here to help you". She was entirely out of ine with that kind of comment. I have reported her and am waiting for someone from AMTRAK to get back to me and hopefully get her fired, The train was about 40 minute in leaving for LA.

On my return from Chicago to Flag there were problems again. Arrived in Flag about 60 minutes late. All the trains I took between were mostly on schedule or just about 10 minutes late.

 

Had been told by Res Agent that I could choose my seat on the Chicago train since it was boarding here. Attendant James assigned my seat. I asked where it was and he says up the steps to your left. I could not find the seat number and instead found it to the right. I asked him to assign a different seat to one that I would choose. as the seat he put me in was at front near the doors. He would not move me as he said all seats were assigned. I told him since I had preboarded since I was Sr citizen and had handicap that he could put someone else in that seat. I was very uncomfortable and the doors opening and closing every few minutes was very disturbing. After about 1-2 hours of this I again asked him to move me to an empty seat. He said I could go downstairs and sit there. I was only there 5-10 minutes when he came down and told me I would have to move. I told him then why did he move me to a seat only to move me again. He said I could stay there for awhile but would have to move. I asked him if it would be before 8 hours as I had to take my meds and would be unable to move during that time. He insisted that if it were then I would have to move no matter what. He told me I could move to the lower level in the car ahead and would be OK there. I went to that car only to find out there was no seating on that level. He had sent me to the baggage car. That was really an insult. I ended up back in my original seat with the banging doors. I never got a pillow offered to me and waitied until 9:50. In the morning I again told him I needed to have a place to sit that was peaceful and quiet. He moved me again only to come back after about an hour or so to tell me he needed the seat for someone getting on and I would have to move once again. He made no sense at all. He could have given my original seat to someone boatrding and just let me alone to try to enjoy the remaining time in peace and quiet. He insisted that I move once again to what he says was a "better seat". He tried to give me an aisle seat and I refused. I had stated when I made my res that I needed a window seat due do a medical condition. Another attendant "Candace" says she could provide a seat for me in her car. I do not think James is capable of doing his job efficiently. He doesn't seem to try to please the passengers and seems to be verry forgetful. I had left something in the compartment above my seat and I knew where it was but he didn't even remember what car he had sent me to previously. ALso by not remembering when he told me I could sit somethere and then telling me that I couldn't. This was the end of a 5 week acrosss Canada and US trip. The SW Chief was the only train which had rude, uncourteous employees. Not all thouogh as Candace was very courteous as well as another gal who was fairly new and Shirley in the club car. There is always someone who sheds a bad light on the company.

Another person on this train had the same problem with James. She had been assigned a seat along with her family and they sat a smoker next to her. She was getting sick from the stench which was affecting her allergies. She asked him to move them and he says he had to wait until the next stop as he would probably have someone else for those emply seats. She kept asking him why then couldn't he just assign her current seats to the new people getting on. This made no sense to her nor me. If someone is not already seated then there is no reason for this, just give them another seat. I know even I would not want to be forced to sit next to someone who smells like cigarettes. They should put all smokers in a separate car and just keep that car for smokers on all routes. Once you get that smell in a car you can't get rid of it.

 

Other than the above problems the rest of my trip went fairly well. Although the food on my train from LA to Tacoma had some weird food (choice of lamb or duck) which I do not eat either. Also food on train from Buffalo to Boston also weird. Spinach salad unlike any I have ever eaten. No bacon or hard boiled eggs or special bacon dressing. Side order of salmon which I thought was cold and on top of salad was served hot and with MUSHROOM GRAVY. EEEW, nasty. Where did that chef attend culinary school? Decided against any more train food. Albany NY had a decent restaurant with tasty wraps, I had the turkey which I highly recommended on my return trip from Boston.

 

Great food on via rail. Fillet mignon, prime rib, etc. While in dining car one evening we were stopped for a while and found out we were in a forest fire. How kewl!!!!! Saw plane swooping in to put it out. When we later proceeded there were the firefighters on the hillside waving to us.

 

Employees of Viarail were very courteous and went out of their way to accomodate people.

 

[Rail Freak]

Ya ever thought about taking a cruise?

RF

 

[Bob Dylan]

Sorry your time on the Chief was unpleasant for you, as you said sometimes one bad apple can spoil the barrel! It sounds like you should have reserved a lower level seat, this is possible if going coach! Also perhaps coach isnt your thing, if you enjoyed the VIA trains perhaps a sleeping car would be more to your liking, you took a long trip so it doesnt sound like finances were a problem! Ive always had real good experiences on the Western LD trains, the Chief usually is known for experienced, professional staff!

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Ya ever thought about taking a cruise?

I didn't know you worked for Amtrak. Must be the customer retention department from the sounds of it.

 

[rrdude]

Ya ever thought about taking a cruise?

I didn't know you worked for Amtrak. Must be the customer retention department from the sounds of it.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[frugalist]

Other than the above problems the rest of my trip went fairly well. Although the food on my train from LA to Tacoma had some weird food (choice of lamb or duck) which I do not eat either. Also food on train from Buffalo to Boston also weird. Spinach salad unlike any I have ever eaten. No bacon or hard boiled eggs or special bacon dressing. Side order of salmon which I thought was cold and on top of salad was served hot and with MUSHROOM GRAVY. EEEW, nasty. Where did that chef attend culinary school? Decided against any more train food. Albany NY had a decent restaurant with tasty wraps, I had the turkey which I highly recommended on my return trip from Boston.

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?

 

[caravanman]

A great adventure to be on the trains for such a long trip, and good of you to post your trip report.

I am an Amtrak fan, and have travelled many thousands of miles on Amtrak trains.. I would say that your experience of lack of care by some staff is not that uncommon. I am in New York on the last day of my own Amtrak adventure, and have seen with my own eyes a disabled guy trying to manage his baggage while the coach car attendant stood and watched, then looked the other way.. This was also on the SW Chief, a few days ago.

Passengers are told one thing by a ticket agent, another by station staff, and another by the train staff, and are often made to feel they are just annoying the staff by trying get a straight answer.

I am sure that Amtrak staff have a lot to put up with, but barking at passengers as if we were aliens, rather than customers, is the wrong way to go.

When fares are low, one can almost excuse poor service, but fares are through the roof nowadays, and still some staff don't pull their weight.

Eddie

 

[MrEd]

it has been my experience that if you call amtrak to book a reservation where you require assistance, they will indicate that on your ticket and also notify the amtrak crew on the train. We have never had them unprepared for our arrival.

 

[caravanman]

I think you are correct about "advance notice required", but on the other hand, there are many 1st time passengers who don't know how to "work the system", who end up being given the wrong advice and info by staff..

Ed

 

[lv2serve]

Other than the above problems the rest of my trip went fairly well. Although the food on my train from LA to Tacoma had some weird food (choice of lamb or duck) which I do not eat either. Also food on train from Buffalo to Boston also weird. Spinach salad unlike any I have ever eaten. No bacon or hard boiled eggs or special bacon dressing. Side order of salmon which I thought was cold and on top of salad was served hot and with MUSHROOM GRAVY. EEEW, nasty. Where did that chef attend culinary school? Decided against any more train food. Albany NY had a decent restaurant with tasty wraps, I had the turkey which I highly recommended on my return trip from Boston.

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?

OMG thats a crack up, how'd you like the play!

 

[CNW]

I just read this laundry list of complaints and I think it is hilarious. Just too funny! No one could be that dissatisfied with everything. This person should live in a plastic bubble like the "bubble boy". My husband smokes cigarettes and does not travel I don't smoke and do travel but I suppose my clothes could smell of smoke because of him and this person would probably put me in this imaginary car where people who have smoke smell on their clothes must sit! What medical condition requires a window seat I'd like to know? My husband drove Greyhound bus for 30 years and when AIDS was first being heard about a lady who wanted to have two seats to herself put a sign in the seat beside her reading "I have AIDS sit here at your own risk"....it didn't work!

 

[Guest]

This post is most puzzling. In addition to must be seated next to window I would like to know how she manages not to move after taking meds. 8 hours? Poor thing can't get up to use the retroom get a meal or stretch? I think tis illness must be the horrid overactivus imaginationus.

 

[CNW]

This post is most puzzling. In addition to must be seated next to window I would like to know how she manages not to move after taking meds. 8 hours? Poor thing can't get up to use the retroom get a meal or stretch? I think tis illness must be the horrid overactivus imaginationus.

I didn't understand the 8 hour thing either. I saw a sad thing on the CZ the other day riding coach. The man behind us, who seemed unhinged, kept the conductor delayed for at least 10 minutes and I think the conductor showed remarkable patience. This man traveling with his little boy who was about 8 years old was trying to get a sleeper upgrade he claimed he had been "promised" when it wasn't happening he lauched into a litany of Amtrak sins and just would not give up. Finally his little boy said, "Daddy can't we just have fun?". It really made me feel sad.

 

[Ozark Southern]

This post is most puzzling. In addition to must be seated next to window I would like to know how she manages not to move after taking meds. 8 hours? Poor thing can't get up to use the retroom get a meal or stretch? I think tis illness must be the horrid overactivus imaginationus.

I didn't understand the 8 hour thing either. I saw a sad thing on the CZ the other day riding coach. The man behind us, who seemed unhinged, kept the conductor delayed for at least 10 minutes and I think the conductor showed remarkable patience. This man traveling with his little boy who was about 8 years old was trying to get a sleeper upgrade he claimed he had been "promised" when it wasn't happening he lauched into a litany of Amtrak sins and just would not give up. Finally his little boy said, "Daddy can't we just have fun?". It really made me feel sad.

Out of the mouths of babes....

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Reminds me of my own dad. What an ignorant prick he was. Oh well, don't have to worry about that anymore.

 

[craftsman]

I just read this laundry list of complaints and I think it is hilarious. Just too funny! No one could be that dissatisfied with everything. This person should live in a plastic bubble like the "bubble boy".

She did say ViaRail was very pleasant.

So, is it the rider, or is it Amtrak?

 

[rrdude]

Most of us here know that no company can please everyone. Hell, I've had a few customers of mine over the years that I have "fired". Just told them, "ya know, no matter what we do, we just can't seem to please you. As much as I'd like to keep you as a customer, I won't subject my staff to your rants and impossible demands any longer. Here's the name of two or three other companies that can service your system........"

Back to the point, "Is it Amtrak, or is it the Customer" ?

Well, I know what I feel it is. Remember that golden rule, "The customer is always right" ?

There are exceptions to every rule, even the golden rule, but Amtrak seems to make the exception, the rule.

 

[amtrakwolverine]

with amtrak the customer is ALWAYS wrong and preventing the crew from slacking off and getting paid to sit on their a$$ god forbid some people should actually have to work for their paycheck. GASP work that's a four letter word that should be bleeped out.

 

[Trogdor]

with amtrak the customer is ALWAYS wrong and preventing the crew from slacking off and getting paid to sit on their a$$ god forbid some people should actually have to work for their paycheck. GASP work that's a four letter word that should be bleeped out.

amtrakwolverine, what do you do for a living? It seems your full-time job is to bash Amtrak employees. I've never seen you post anything positive about Amtrak or its employees.

While I agree that there are plenty of "bad apples" at Amtrak, when a company has nearly 20,000 employees, it's going to be impossible to avoid having a few.

On the other hand, to state that the customer is "always wrong" and that employees just want to slack off and get paid to do nothing is incredibly ignorant and offensive, and suggests to me that you actually don't know a damn thing about what an Amtrak employee's job is.

Since you live in Michigan, the only "service" attendant on your trains would be the LSA. I have ridden Michigan trains 2-3 times a year for the past decade, and have never met a rude LSA on the Michigan service. One of the greatest LSAs I've ever met works that train. This man (whose name is Henry, if any of you have the pleasure of encountering him) is one of the most efficient people I've ever seen on the system. He can take food orders from four or five people at a time, throw several things into the microwave, fill everyone's tray correctly, tell them the total of their purchase before he even rings it up on the cash register, etc. He knows the menu like the back of his hand, and never ceases to impress the customers that I have seen riding his train. And this guy works a train in your back yard.

Even if the other LSAs I've seen out there aren't quite so impressive, I've never seen passengers specifically dissatisfied with the service the LSA provides.

But, according to you, they're all jerks. Well, maybe you need to look in the mirror.

The conductors are the other onboard crew you'd see. Their primary responsibility is the safe operation of the train. But, then again, I guess you consider keeping track of speed restrictions, maintenance of way bulletins, crossing restrictions, etc., making sure the engineer doesn't run through any of them in violation of the rules, recording every minute of delay along the entire trip and noting the cause, collecting tickets and filling out the required paperwork (while simultaneously making sure the engineer knows about the speed restrictions, bulletins, etc.) the equivalent of sitting on their ass and doing nothing.

Now, I will agree that there are some conductors that may have some harsher personalities. That's unfortunate, and some of them can rub passengers the wrong way. But these conductors are there to keep the train operating safely. They are the ones that have to get on the ground in the dirt and mud and rocks to check the air hoses and the HEP cables and the couplers when things go wrong. They're also the ones that can be fired if any rules violations occur while the train is operating, so you should be a bit more understanding if they might have something else they're thinking about when walking through the train.

Not that it matters, to you, of course, because according to you, they're just lazy and want to get out of doing any work.

Whatever.

 

[trainrider guest]

Great retort. It is so refreshing to have someone stand up for Amtrak. My feeling is if you don't like it fly or go Greyhound.There are so many holes in gal's post I wonder if it is for real or just a hoax. I am a long time train rider and yes I have had some "dicey" experiences. But it is still better than sitting on a plane on the tarmac for hours or spending night sleeping in the airport.

 

[Trogdor]

Just to be clear, I actually believe that the OP's story could be true (perhaps embellished a bit here and there, but the underlying events probably occurred). She does say she was on a five-week trip (though we don't know specifically if she was on a train for five weeks, or if she was just away from home for five weeks). She also does state that the rest of her trip, other than her two Southwest Chief complaints, went fairly well. It seems half the people reading this thread have missed that.

Sometimes, I wonder if people even bother to read posts before they respond attacking the OP.

She complained about not being able to get priority boarding and luggage assistance, and someone has the nerve to tell her to take a cruise instead, or say she should live in a plastic bubble. Seriously, a good number of members on this forum need to take a long look at themselves and decide if they're even contributing anything worthwhile.

Now, I understand many people are probably still thinking of the other thread where someone made the outrageous comparison between an Amtrak trip and an atrocious historical event in which millions of people died, and then subsequently attacked anyone that tried to explain Amtrak's situation by calling them apologists or stating they were Amtrak employees. However, the OP in this thread had two specific, somewhat believable complaints, and in exchange, gets told she should live in a bubble. That is absolutely inexcusable, and I think those that made such ridiculous and hurtful statements should post an apology on this thread.

My earlier post was not to state that Amtrak is perfect and that nothing ever can go wrong. It was in direct response to someone who took the complete opposite extreme position, and made very offensive statements that Amtrak workers are all lazy and anti-customer, and want to get paid for doing nothing. We really have no room for either type of post on this forum, because it discredits every member on here. Most reasonable people (and, sadly, I'm not sure how many "reasonable" people there are in this world, given the typical level of political discourse that we see all over these days) will immediately realize that both sides (the 100% good and the 100% horrible) are full of it. But if you can't have a reasonable thread about service levels without the extremist views coming in and taking over, mocking anyone that doesn't fully believe their line of thinking, then the reasonable people will give up and go elsewhere.

There are plenty of intellectually dead message boards on the internet that used to carry good conversation, before the crazies took over and scared away all the decent folk. There's no need to have that happen here.

Amtrak is not a perfect company, by any means. But, it is a good company. Train travel can be fun and relaxing, but, particularly when riding Amtrak long-distance trains, it requires patience and the understanding that you are not going to get pampered. What you will get is a reasonably comfortable accommodation, usually decent food, and usually decent people working on board the train. In ten years of riding Amtrak, I have experienced a few horrible service failures. Some of these were Amtrak's fault. Some were clearly beyond Amtrak's control. I have also seen Amtrak take what could have been a horrible service failure, and turn it into a decent experience for the passengers thanks to some quick and creative thinking.

However, the vast majority of my trips have fallen into the first category: reasonably comfortable, with decent service. That's what people should expect, and that's what they should get. If they expect more, they will be disappointed. If they get less, they should be disappointed. If they are disappointed, they should call Amtrak customer service, so that it can be documented and possibly corrected in the future.

 

[amtrakwolverine]

Trogdor i have a real job outside of this forum i clean commercial buildings. i don't put up with bad service. how do you explain passengers having to open the outside sleeper door to exit, beds not being made or dirty or the single person the dining car cooking and serving the food while the LSA or whatever just sits and watches movies on a laptop. yes there employees who are the best of the best and make damn sure there passengers are satisfied. i have taken the swc twice the lsl twice the TE/SL once.

i have also seen allot on the wolverine when the train is even 30 minutes late getting into Chicago the crews turn nasty like its our fault its late. some crews are nice but then their shift ends and the not so friendly come on. i was the secretary of state of Michigan getting my address changed and the woman was not friendly at all. never said how can i help you or nothing throws the papers at you.

or crews that never tell you why the train is stopped in the middle of nowhere either cause it hit a car or to wait for a passing train. quit defending the bad crews and stick up for the good crews. i may bash the crews but until the good posts outweigh the good what should we do. oh the LSA had a bad day is going through a divorce. its like a wife getting beat up by her husband cause he had a bad day at work.

i was on the LSL going up to Boston when both engines computers dropped off line and we coasted at 70MPH. that crew explained what and happened kept us up to date and even asked if i needed help with my luggage getting off the train.

 

[Ozark Southern]

i was the secretary of state of Michigan getting my address changed and the woman was not friendly at all. never said how can i help you or nothing throws the papers at you

Well, if you were Secretary of State, perhaps she was from the other party. :giggle:

 

[Devil's Advocate]

For what it's worth, the guy who cleans my office is real nice. Never bashes Amtrak or anything. :lol:

 

[train rider no more]

I totally agree with the women that had all of the problem on her trip. My husband and I just finished a 4 day trip out to california and back on the southwest what a horrible time from rude agents conductors cabin attendants and dinning car staff. our 1st class rooms from chiago to la smelled like a sewer which after the trip found out that it is a normal problem. we did find some nice and helpful crew on board. Most seemed over worked and tired and just told us to call headquarters as they do not listen to them. we did that and after paying 3978.00 for the trip we were offered 1,000.00 travel ticket like we would ride a train again after be treated like crap. we were yelled at made to feel like a bother when ask for anything could not find our porter when we did need him etc the list could go on. Maybe amtrack needs to ride this route and see what it is like to sleep in a port-a-pot. and maybe give the crew some more rest. take care of them they will take care of your coustomers.