An Open Letter to Amtrak

In case you ever think it would be "cool" to take a trip by train, I offer my experiences from which you can learn.

Dear Amtrak people:

I just spent the last two weeks with my wife and four children traveling from Chicago to Washington DC, Washington DC to Philadelphia, Philadelphia to New York City, and New York City to Chicago. We had sleeping accommodations on the long legs (Chicago to DC and NYC to Chicago) and business class on the short trips.

Overall we're convinced we'll never travel by train again. Here's just a small sample of the problems:

In the Chicago Metropolitan Lounge, they don't allow you to have your luggage with you -- you have to stash it in their little closet that has only one door. They wouldn't let us take it out in advance of our train's departure. Since Amtrak doesn't pre-assign seats the way the airlines do, there was a mad rush for luggage as the coach passengers ran for the door to be the first down the stairs. (Airlines pre-assign their seats. I guess airplanes have been around longer than trains, so perhaps they have more experience with transporting large numbers of people, right?)

The train was a couple hours late leaving Chicago. It was scheduled for 6:40 PM and left sometime after 8:00 or 8:30. We had delayed our dinner knowing that we'd have dinner on the train. Dinner wasn't served until around 9:30, which was not only late, but well after our smallest children's bed time.

For first time train travelers, the whole dining experience was confusing. We were told the dining car would open soon after departure. We heard an announcement for the "cafe car" and made our way to the diner only to find that the "cafe" and "diner" are two different things. We were told to go back to our rooms and we'd be told when to come to the diner.

A few minutes later someone showed up to tell us dinner was ready. We were among the first car load of diners (tables 13 and 14) yet when they came to take our order we were told they were out of both the chicken and the vegetable lasagna. They were also out of their normal kids meals. How could they be out of food on the first carload of passengers? Was this the first train that's ever served a meal? Didn't you know how many passengers had tickets?

While we waited for our food I went to the cafe car to get hot dogs for the two youngest kids. Our porter/attendant/whatever ("Edward" I think) had told us that it would be no problem to get something free from the cafe car for the kids if there was nothing on the menu, but the cafe car attendant was less than enthusiastic about giving us something for free. He told me to tell Edward to ask him first before telling passengers they could get free stuff at the cafe car. So I'm supposed to be the go-between for two of your employees who are having a dispute?

Back at the dining car our waiter couldn't handle the simplest requests. Our two daughters had asked to split an entree, but he brought them each their own (not good when you're running out of food faster than you're serving it). We had to ask several times for drinks or things that were forgotten. It was almost like a comedy act. He'd leave to get something he'd previously promised to bring and people in the tables around us would make wise cracks about him. He was a joke.

Everyone at my table was done eating by the time I got my meal -- stuffed pork chops, only they weren't stuffed because they were out of the stuffed ones (along with  the chicken and the lasagna).

We finally got everyone in bed. We had expected the noise and rocking of the train to induce sleep, but instead we found that the violent thrashing of the train as it careened down the tracks kept us awake most of the night. We think this was exacerbated by being on the upper floor of the car, so that side-to-side motion was amplified. It was especially noticeable when the train was going fast. Perhaps too fast for this section of track?

The next morning I decided to take a shower. Unfortunately there was only a trickle of water. I mean a trickle, not just the normal low pressure that you might expect on a train. I'm talking about water coming out of only one of the little holes in the shower head. I managed to get wet enough to take a shower, and to brace myself sufficiently to keep from being killed by the intense shifting of the car from side to side.

Nobody had shown up the night before nor in the morning to set up or take down our beds, so I did this myself in all three of our sleeping rooms. I was pretty sure the attendant said he'd do it during dinner and breakfast. Frankly, I didn't see him very often.

Breakfast was a repeat of dinner. They were out of many of the items on the menu and the waiter took several trips to remember to bring portions of our meals. It was at this point that we all decided it would have been better to WALK than to put up with Amtrak "service". Unfortunately there were three train rides left in our trip.

Throughout the trip we struggled to hear announcements. We messed with our volume controls to no avail and finally figured out the speakers for the PA system were in the hallway, not in our room. And then they were very faint. So if you thought you heard an announcement you had to run to the hall and find a speaker and strain to hear what was going on.

A few days later we were scheduled to go from Washington to Philadelphia. We arrived early, found our gate and sat down to wait. At the last minute they announced we'd be leaving from a different gate, so we all got up and moved. People were lined up well in advance (since coach is first-come-first-served instead of reserved seats like on an airplane) but we knew we'd be seated first since we were in business class. But when the announcement for business class pre-boarding came, they told us to board through the original gate! So now we had to fight our way past all the lined up coach people to get back to the other gate. We did manage to find pairs of seats together for our entire party, but it would have been simpler if they hadn't changed plans in the middle of the boarding process.

After a weekend in Philly we went to the station to go to New York. After learning our lesson in Washington we knew that Amtrak's boarding plan is for the passengers to kill each other to get to their non-reserved seats, so we arrived early to observe the process and made sure we were at the front of the line as soon as the gate was announced. This time they didn't pre-board the business class people and they made a slight change in how they let people through the ropes to get to the escalator to the train, so we had to push a few elderly people out of the way to make sure we were first. But we knew we could do that in good conscience, knowing that it's the "Amtrak way" for the passengers to fight for the limited seats -- unlike the airlines where seats are assigned in advance. By doing this we got the four kids in pairs of seats side-by-side, though my wife and I had to split up (no big deal for a short trip).

For the trip from NYC to Chicago we had the bedrooms with two seats and a toilet. What a stupid arrangement! You either have to watch your roommate do their business or alternate stepping out into the hall. And then instead of smelling up a common restroom you smelled up your living quarters. They should re-name these accommodations as "deluxe toilets" instead of "bedrooms". It was like traveling to Chicago in a really fancy bathroom.

Again our attendant ("Albert") said he'd set up the beds during dinner and put them away during breakfast, but he was nowhere to be found during those times. I not only had to do our beds but I also assisted another passenger with setting up his beds.

Dinner was confusing. There was no announcement, so about the time we though they might be serving dinner we went to the dining car. It was better on this trip... they seemed to have everything on the menu (except one of the kids items -- macaroni and cheese), though the waiter was just as confused as on the first train -- you just had to keep asking for stuff and eventually you'd get it.

The next morning I went down to the shower room and found it full of stuff -- Albert's luggage, piles of toothbrushes and tampons, etc. Albert happened by and cleaned it out for me. I got undressed, put all my stuff in the shower, climbed in... and no water. I mean NONE. Not a trickle, not a drop. I got re-dressed, gathered my stuff, tracked down Albert, and he sent me to another car to shower. That went fairly well.

When I got back to my room, my wife said she had tried to brush her teeth and wash her face, but there was no water. It turned out there was just plain no water in the car after about 6:00 AM.

The schedule card says we get "coffee, tea, and juice" in the morning, but only coffee was available. No other drinks were offered. I had spotted some water bottles in the shower and grabbed a few after our water went out. That way the kids could at least brush their teeth.

Breakfast was confusing. They were full when we went so we had to leave our name. The head waiter came and got us about an hour later and we had breakfast. They were out of pancakes. How can you be out of pancakes? It's a box of mix to which you just add water! Throw another box or two onboard and feed a couple hundred more people. Stupid.

We were eating when they made the final call for breakfast, and then they announced the dining car was closed. A couple minutes later a lady and little girl who we had seen put their names in before us showed up and said they had never been called. The head waiter recognized them -- even called them by name -- but apparently had missed them. So they un-closed the dining car long enough to serve them.

Of course we were late getting into Chicago. Scheduled for 11:10 AM we arrived at 1 PM. This of course meant a delayed meal, which is tough for kids, and tough for everyone when there's no snacks or anything else onboard the train to eat. (We would have eaten our promised "bedtime sweets" -- whatever those are -- but they had never been given to us.)

Overall we're not satisfied with any aspect of our trip. If you want to make us happy you could refund the portion of our fare that is the difference between coach and the sleeping cars (or business class for the two shorter trips). But having tasted what Amtrak calls "service" I'm guessing you're going to offer me a discount on a future trip -- an offer that only a self-mutilating psychopath would take you up on.

I debated whether or not to take the hour or so it's taken to write all this. I figured my best chance for paying you back for this horror ride was to not give you any feedback, thus assuring you wouldn't fix anything and you'd lose lots of future business. But then I thought I should at least give you the chance to respond, in case somewhere at Amtrak there happens to be someone who still cares about your passengers.

Craig Rairdin

In response, Amtrak sent me a coupon good for $1500 off my next trip. That's over 40% of my original fare. So on the one hand it's quite a discount. On the other hand, I don't know when I'll ever use it.

Amtrak told me the reason they don't offer reserved seating is because the passengers on the east coast would just sit wherever they want no matter what the ticket said. This seems to be the Amtrak Way: "It's the passengers' fault."