Amtrak trip VERY poor experience
#21
Posted 30 March 2004 - 06:19 PM
Kevin Korell
OTOL Board Leader
Lakewood, NJ
#22
Posted 31 March 2004 - 12:48 AM
#23
Posted 31 March 2004 - 10:22 AM
Sliding slightly off topic here, you can forget about the employees hearing about it Steve. They won't get a lecture from their supervisor.I know that it must be frustrating for employees to know that AMtrak had failed, and to know that if they so much as gave away cokes as ammends that they would hear about it from the company.
If the cafe attendant can't balance his/her inventory and cash with what they were originally issued, he/she has two days to pay Amtrak back for the missing inventory. Failure to do so results in suspension. This policy is of course due to the few bad apples over the years that used Amtrak as their own cash cow, so now all employees must endure the harsh rules.
However I do think that there should be some provision whereby the LSA could call into headquarters and obtain permission to hand out free sodas in the case of a horribly delayed train.
Take care and take trains!
#24
Posted 31 March 2004 - 03:25 PM
#25
Posted 31 March 2004 - 03:41 PM
And should be doing instead, for instance building enough political pull that Amtrak could apply some pressure to the railroads who continue to give Amtrak the shaft. The railroads get a lot of favors from congress, primarly in holding off regulators and getting mega bucks written into the tax code. A few calls from the right Congressmen to the CEO's of the railroads would get Amtrak trains priority on the systems, but that does not happen. No CEO would put that cushy relationship in danger over a few Amtrak trains a day.And last but not least, believe it or not, I've been told that Mr. Gunn reads every single piece of e- or snail mail sent to him. Keep it short I'm told, or an assistant will highlight the major points, but he does respond to every single piece of mail. This says an awful lot about the man, as it doesn't take much to believe that he's got an awful lot of things he could be doing otherwise.
#26
Posted 31 March 2004 - 06:13 PM
However, I still stand by the argument that anyone boarding a train has to acknowledge that significant delays can and most likely will occur, especially on the long distance routes.
In all of my years riding the CHIEF, I cannot remember ever being more than 2 hours late. Passengers should not EXPECT to have significant delays, otherwise they should not depend on Amtrak as transportation.
You have misunderstood my original post. I was in NO WAY referring to freight interference, as NONE of our delays were due to freight interference. I was referring to the freight at the rear of our own train that caused our original delay. The only delays over an hour I have experienced on the CHIEF have been due to freight issues (adding and removing frieght cars at their end points, etc)."Again, they (Amtrak) have shown that Dollars from Freight are a priority over passengers...
I'll admit that these days people expect china instead of paper for dining service, but it's sometimes hard to know the reasons for these instances. It could be that supplies didn't show up in time. It's easy to instantly jump to the conclusion that the dining staff is lazy.
I asked about paper the first morning, and the server informed me that all breakfasts and lunches on the CHIEF are now served on paper, plus there was no equipment failure in the dishwasher.
I will write to Gunn, but I don't know if my wife will ever try it again - at least on an overnight train. It took me a year of telling her about the fine service, the beautiful scenery, and the wonderful food on the train to get her to try it, and I was totally let down and completely embarrassed. I was very sad between Gallup and Flagstaff, and she asked me what was wrong. I replied that I know that this is probably the last time I will be riding on the CHIEF, and I had such high expectations from this trip - to convince her of how wonderful rail travel was. Instead, we got poor service in the diner, we had to put away our won beds both mornings despite the call button being on for over 2 hours each day, and poor service in the diner. That coupled with NONE of the scenery I had promised her along the rockies due to our extreme tardiness, and the fact that it was almost $500.00 more than flying for the one way trip was just too much. I knew she menat it when she said she would never do this again, and I frekly could not blame her. I would feel the same if it were my first trip. That one way trip cost me over a week's pay, and I just cannot afford to throw my hard earned money (I am a firefighter/paramedic) away on poor service and what you say shouold be expected significant delays. I have riden VIA when we had a significant delay due to a freight derailment and we were rerouted through Banff instead of Jasper. The crew constantly kept a positive attitude, and even bought a glass of wine for those of us that were not bussed to Jasper. THAT showed customer service. Amtrak could learn from them. I just hope that my gut feeling is wrong, and that I just might be able to talk her into another trip if Gunn comps the entire trip with a deluxe room (what we had on this trip), but i seriously doubt even that woueld be enough. Time will tell.
#27
Posted 31 March 2004 - 08:15 PM
Actually guys, the error in that statement isn't "EXPECT" or "significant", the error in Frank's original statement is the word "trains". He should have said "that anyone traveling by public transportation should expect delays."Frank,
In all of my years riding the CHIEF, I cannot remember ever being more than 2 hours late. Passengers should not EXPECT to have significant delays, otherwise they should not depend on Amtrak as transportation.However, I still stand by the argument that anyone boarding a train has to acknowledge that significant delays can and most likely will occur, especially on the long distance routes.
Delays of the magnitude that Rron experienced are not unique to Amtrak. I've personally waited in O'Hare for over 6 hours, when my connecting flight was cancelled due to a mechanical problem and the follow-up flight was delayed arriving into O'Hare. Even tonight here in NYC, there are average delays of around 90 minutes at two of our airports, thanks to the fog, wind, & rain. Some flights have even been cancelled, so for those passengers delays will be much longer than 90 minutes.
Plus I'm sure that we've all seen those horror stories on the news, when an airport gets snowed in. This past December here in NY we had people who were delayed by two days. Several people were even forced to cancel their entire vacations, since they either missed their ship or no longer had enough time to enjoy their vacation.
Yes I will admit that those delays were due to the weather and not mechanical issues, but my point is simple one can and must anticipate that any vacation or trip will not go exactly as planned. Passengers on any mode of tranportation must EXPECT that they can be delayed.
Take care and take trains!
#28
Posted 31 March 2004 - 10:04 PM
#29
Posted 31 March 2004 - 10:50 PM
#30
Posted 07 April 2004 - 01:52 AM
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