posted
It's started, 700 mostly midwestern employees are getting the shaft. How were supposed to provide the services Amtrak advertizes is beyond me. We'll be lucky to get passengers ticketed and on board in a timely manner. Get ready for some disgusting delays and watch the Michigan trains starting Friday. Oh yes, if your handicapped you won't get any service unless you warn us your coming 72 hours in advance. That's the most ignorant thing I have ever heard of.
Oh yes, Amtrak is cutting 300 management jobs, the 300 they have added since announcing cuts of 800. The 800 they never cut. So Amtrak will have the same number of managers it had as of October 2001.
Warrington is the most putrid,disgusting, lying sack of s**t, walking on the face of the earth.
[This message has been edited by disgusted (edited 02-24-2002).]
posted
After reading two of your posts, I am asssuming that you are an Amtrak employee.
I believe that many of your customers including me are "disgusted" with the service that Amtrak provides. If Amtrak treats its employees in the manner I can sense from your posts, it is not any wonder why the service is so poor.
The employees that deal with the passengers are not being treated properly by Amtrak management. That makes them less inclined to provide quality service, and it takes away some of their ability to provide good service, even if they were inclined to do so. I am disgusted with Amtrak also, but I am not sure what is best to change things.
I would like to read more of your opinions about the treatment of Amtrak employees.
------------------ Elias Valley Railroad (N-scale) www.geocities.com/evrr
posted
I've been wondering if anyone associated with Amtrak was participating here. Its good to get your perspective.
I got a RailPAC e-mail today which said Amtrak is now down to one long-distance coach attendant per four cars, but Acela business class has three attendants PER CAR. More evidence that Amtrak doesn't give a hoot about anything outside the NEC.
If Amtrak kills the long distance trains I'll be the first person writing my elected representatives telling them to cut off funding for the NEC. I'll be damned if my tax money is going to be spent on a handful of Northeast states while the rest of us have nothing.
"Good night America, how Are you? Don't you know me? I'm the NEC and the rest of you can take a bus for all I care." -G.W.
..."This train's got the disappearin' railroad blues..."
------------------ Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth. -Mr. Toy
posted
Yes, i'm an Amtrak employee. All I go by is I treat people the way I want to be treated. I'm not defending anyone else. Sometimes passengers would get more out of the employees, if they would leave the attitude at the door. It's not the ticket agent's fault the train was 3 hours late. We don't like it either. We have a lot of lattitude in what we can do for someone. I will give more to a calm, friendly person, then someone who is trying to berate me.
Posts: 49 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I agree with you Disgusted about the way you treat customers. I am a high school teacher. When students respect me and my classroom, I treat them better than the disrespectful ones. The nice students tend to think that I am one of the best teachers they have ever had, and the rude students tend to think that I am the worst teacher they have ever had, and that's the way I want it to be.
I have posted a lot of messages here about the poor quality of service that many Amtrak employees provide. To be fair, I will say that I have seen a lot of customers treat Amtrak employees with a lot of disrespect.
posted
Just this past weekend I rode the Capitol Ltd (Saturday) and Cardinal (Sunday), and both were very close to the scheduled times and the onboard staff seemed ok.
One way I can help the long distance trains out of my area is to 'vote' via purchasing tickets to ride.
What do you (Disgusted) advise...should we mention the importance of on-board staff in letters to congress? I know people often mention trains but I'm not sure if they remember to stress the importance of the people running the trains, stations, etc.
Mr. Toy: great quote, but who is the author? I know Arlo Guthrie sang the song, but maybe Tim Hardin wrote it (not sure)
M Palmer
Posts: 874 | From: South Bay (LA County), Calif, USA | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
MPALMER, the writer of the song (The City of New Orleans) was Steve Goodman. I understand that he used to ride the train between his shows in Chicago and his home in New Orleans, which inspired the song.
------------------ Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth. -Mr. Toy
posted
I was told by my supervisor today that which station personnel were cut or what station was spared cuts had nothing to do with revenue figures. Management in Washington has their minds made up what they want to do, and it doesn't matter how many people ride the trains, they won't be saved at this moment. Buying a ticket just won't do it.
Train 350 departed Chicago 30 minutes late yesterday, due to overflow passengers. What did we do? Bus the excess. Sad
Revenue figures at some stations have never been higher, and this is with 2 for 1's, 5 dollar internet tickets special fares on certain days, and a lack of coaches.
[This message has been edited by disgusted (edited 02-25-2002).]
posted
Disgusted, from your posts and other things I have read I get the idea that we are right back where we started circa 1969 when Penn Central went belly-up. That event got people in Washington off of their collective butts to actually do something. The result was Amtrak.
So now what do we do? What, in your opinion, would get the trains back on solid ground?
------------------ Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth. -Mr. Toy
posted
My guess, and it's just a guess. There's a bill is both the House and Senate to let Amtrak or the Government sell tax free municipal type bonds to finance Amtrak for the next 10 years. This would get Amtrak funding off the books which would please the Republicans, and let Amtrak keep running some kind of newtork which would make the Democrats happy. I think the best option would be .01 cent of the federal gas tax dedicated for train service. That would a tough one to pass due to highway lobby.
Posts: 49 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I like the idea of the .01 of the gas tax for the rail. Considering all the taxes that go to the Highway Dept. and I still drive everyday avoiding potholes that go unrepaired for months. Sideout1961
Posts: 15 | From: Holyoke, Ma. ,Usa | Registered: Jan 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I, too, advocate the gas tax increase. The Amtrak Reform Council, in its 2001 annual report suggested a two cent increase, with one cent going to national interstate trains, and one cent to state projects. That would generate a total of $3.2 billion per year. More than enough to support existing operations and for modest growth of the system.
The highway lobbies might not like it, but I think it would be an easy sell to the public at large. After all, gasoline prices usually fluxuate by more than two cents from week to week. In practice, nobody would even notice the difference.
------------------ Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth. -Mr. Toy
posted
Seen it. They tried to get the penny for Amtrak through Congress before all hell started breaking loose from '95 to '97. My impression is that the highway and aviation killed it. HUGE surprise there. Why can people not understand it when I say I'm ashamed to be an American at this point because WE LET the system get so screwed up in the first place. Mr. Gusted, I've seen apathy by Amtrak employees before, but you are currently topping the list. I know I'm just another damned buff watching you do your job, but I will not tell you directly how to do it. I won't respond to many of your pessimistic posts, though. I want to hear: 1. NAMES of ACTUAL AMTRAK EMPLOYEES who consistently provide bad service, 2. NAMES of Amtrak administrators who are not pulling their weight or steering the company the right way 3. IDEAS of possible solutions to the problems without canning the entire thing, and 4. WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT IN THE FIRST PLACE.
WE KNOW WHAT THE PROBLEMS ARE. Repeating them wherever possible makes people feel bad about themselves. See?
I know this country is run by highway lobbyists who don't care about public safety, air quality, reliability, gridlock, peoples' jobs, et cetera. I know PEOPLE ELECTED legislators that prove how much of am IMBECILE they can be whenever possible in certain southwestern states just adjacent to California. As many times as I see these people doing drastic disservice to the country they were elected to serve, I don't think anything can be done about it. I'm an optomist. That's what pisses me off so much in light of recent events. How can I be optomistic about this? I can't.
AMERICA SUCKS.
THANK YOU for ruining my day and making me feel bad about everything I've worked for being useless. We might as well give up since nothing's going right anyway. Hey, let's let the airlines run Amtrak. That would work great? See? I can be a political dipshtuff if I want to. Don't even bother trying to fix the problems. It's hopeless.
Employees get laid off everywhere. Politics sucks everywhere. This is not a personal attack on you. I'm just sick and tired of hearing about the problems when nobody is going to do anything to FIX IT.
If your baseball team is trailing in the bottom half of the ninth inning and there is only one out, they don't just walk off the field and let the other team win it. They make the remaining two outs playing baseball, not whining to interviewers in the dugout about what could have happened. Even IF Fox is televising the games.
posted
Sorry for my pessmistic posts, but after working for something for 26 years and always having the revenue figures dangled in your face and now with revenue at the station I work at increasing by double digits percentages and being told by management "revenue no longer matters" you have to throw up your hands. If revenue does matter, what does? It's now in the hands of the politicans and who and the hell knows what silly games will be played there. Rude employees? I have a 1/2 dozen or so that should be canned right off the bat. All trainmen or conductors. Management? There is none, at least on the local level. Quick story- All of a sudden our trash dumpster quit being emptied. We called our manager, e-mailed our manager, left messages for our manager, all ignored. Did this go on for 3 weeks?-nope. 2 months-nope,4 months-nope, 6 MONTHS!!!! We had over 400 garbage bags rotting in our storage garage. It took going 3 levels over his head to get something done. Then when it was solved, he called and was upset we did it. Solutions? I though we had it by concentrating on the intercity trains, and whacking some of the long distance, guess not by the focus of the cuts.
[This message has been edited by disgusted (edited 02-26-2002).]
[This message has been edited by disgusted (edited 02-26-2002).]
posted
Amtrak207: I can appreciate your frustration. After all, I've spent a lot of money on tickets that may turn out to be the most memorable trip of my life, for all the wrong reasons.
Still, consider the position in which "disgusted" finds himself -- 26 years down the toilet through no direct fault of his. I hear the frustration in HIS voice, too.
Now if you REALLY want to get frustrated, go to the SaveAmtrak website and read what people like McCain are trying to do to train travel: http://www.SaveAmtrak.org
Very enlightening. I've already sent emails to McClain and Mica -- but really, I've emailed everyone before (including Dubya) and I'm not sure anyone's reading. They all seem determined to dismantle long-distance rail.
I guess the prevailing attitude is: Don't confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up.
Posts: 52 | From: Lithia, Fl, USA | Registered: Oct 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I've e-mailed quite a few also, without any response. It just seems like a snowball effect is going on here. Rest assured, if this keeps going the way it is right now, it's going to be one horrible summer. Starting Friday, just watch station dwell times start to creep up due to people carrying on too many bags on the trains. In turn, train running times will take a beating. Just the facts, without the Amtrak propaganda mixed in. BUT!!!! I should still be on a crummy shift somewhere, and to try to keep people happy, i'll be handing out my usual assortment of free tickets, discount tickets, and humor.
Posts: 49 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Amtrak 207: As a passenger, I have the names of several Amtrak employees who I think should be fired. When I write letters to Amtrak, I include the names and detailed exlanations of what these people have done.
On a public forum such as this one, I do not think it is polite to mention names unless they are prominent people. I typically post the names of good employees on this forum, but I do not post the names of bad ones.
------------------ Elias Valley Railroad (N-scale) www.geocities.com/evrr
posted
Konstantin, you are wise to not give names of bad employees in public. it goes beyone mere politeness. You could land yourself and/or trainweb in legal hot water for slander.
Now, for the issue at hand, it seems that there are a variety of opinions about what is needed. Some say Amtrak needs more money. Others say Amtrak needs to be completely restructured. In my mind BOTH need to be done and they need to be done within the next six months.
------------------ Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth. -Mr. Toy
Printer-friendly view of this topic
