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I'm sitting in a Holiday Inn in Washington, DC, with my 2 small children. We took train 92 north from Orlando last night. Scheduled for 4:35 pm. it arrived at 11:30 pm. We had no dinner-- there was no dinner service and the snack car was closed when we boarded. We were taken off the train in DC and put up in this hotel, as way missed the 3:55 train 29 we were scheduled for. The hotel's not bad at all-- but I will be a day late getting back to work and the kids a day late getting back to school. It's cold here and we were accosted by street people at the station-- scary after dark in a big city. Until 4 PM we wre told we would be taken off the train in Richmond and bused to catch 29 in Pittsburg. We waited 8 hours at the Orlando station-- I met some people who'd waited as long as 11 hours. There were at least a dozen of us in the same boat. This has been miserable. I've always said I love trains and I am terrified to fly, but I can't see travelling this way again. I know it's a really complicated situation and not one person's fault, but the bottom line is that I think Amtrak lost a lot of customers last night in Orlando. Yes, the gave us a free hotel room, viouchers that will cover about 75% of two modest meals, and $15 toward cab fare. Very nice, but thet didn't give me what I wanted, which was a hassle-free trip and arrival home on schedule.
Posts: 51 | From: La Crosse, WI, USA | Registered: Jun 2004
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If you were flying you would have ended up sleeping in the airport and on your own for meals. That is what happened to many people during the big snow storm on the east coast. There were pictures on the news of people sleeping on the floor in the airport. After the storm people were bumped off flights because they were overbooked. It is frustrating to go through what you are doing but when if one travels one must expect the unexpected. Make some lemonade from the lemon. Tomorrow your kids can learn a lot about this gov't, take them to the Museum of American History. They will love it.
Posts: 1577 | From: virginia | Registered: Jun 2005
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Train Lady is right. If you fly semi-regularly you get to the point that the uneventful trip is an event. Among the most aggravating was having your plane held for a connection and then being told at your connection point that the connecting flight you needed was not held resulting in a near miss of the event for which we were taking the flight. This is followed closely or surpassed by an international flight out of the US that boarded and deboarded twice before finally taking off 28 hours late, resulting in a missed connection and another night in a hotel with no local currency or means of getting any and consuming two days vacation time I did not intend to take.
George
Posts: 2808 | From: Olive Branch MS | Registered: Nov 2002
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Well, the snowstorm in the northeast had nothing to do with this. There was an "equipment problem" with the train leaving Miami. If my flight had been cancelled, I could have gotten another one. There are loads of flights everyday into my home town, but only one train in each direction. As I said, I know it's complicated and not one person's fault, and I'm very glad for the hotel accommodation, but what we all wanted was to get home. I have cash, credit cards, and a cell phone, as well as children who are seasoned travellers. I had a laptop computer and movies to play on it. I knew enough beforehand to pad my schedule with an extra day off this week. Not everyone at the Orlando station was so lucky. It was very upsetting to be getting off in Richmond and then being told to get back on. We were told in Orlando at 9:45 that the train would be here in 15 minutes. They just kept repeating the "15 minutes" thing and the train showed up at 11:30. It was the lack of information as well as the surliness of the staff in Orlando that ticked me off as much as anything. One elderly lady said, "An apology would have gone a long way here," and I agree. I know trainbuffs delight in sharing their various bad trip stories, but I'm in the midst of one and there's nothing delightful about it.
Posts: 51 | From: La Crosse, WI, USA | Registered: Jun 2004
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Sounds, Ms. Wood, as if you are about to pledge the Nu Alpha sorrority - Never Again.
Based upon your report, I wouldn't blame you in the least.
As for myself, I have chosen to curtail LD travel save the Auto Train. I simply made that decision based upon well documented horror stories such as yours, the downgrading of the on-board service product, the continued deterioriation of on-time performance, and the apparent unraveling of Mr. Gunn's "state of good repair program".
Regarding use of the AT, that does not mean I will be routing my annual Florida trips via Washington so I can have an excuse to use it, it simply means that, being originally from the New York area, I often combine my Fla trips with visiting family and friends in both NY and Wash. Also, a comforting thought; there are no connections to worry about with Auto Train; when it get there, you always have your auto - and that does provide you with far more command over a situation than is the case with your instant dilemma.
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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As with Mr Norman, I am relooking my transportation options. I prefer Amtrak for leisure travel. That said, the combination of expense, delays reported, and food service changes seem to be taking the fun out of rail travel during vacation period for many posters, here and at two other boards I patronize.
To make matters worse, at some point in the past year Amtrak removed the AmShuttle from KC to Omaha, so I now must travel myself to get to 5/6.
As to flying... I had a very tough experience on January 2. Flew home SWA from Christmas with my son. The weather at Las Vegas was such the airfield was closed. THE GOOD NEWS: SWA moved mightily to get people along their routings. In fact, I wrote Ms Barrett to compliment three employees of SWA by name (???when??? was the last time I did that for Amtrak??).
Yes, the bags had to stay overnight in Las Vegas, but they caught up to us by Noon on the 3d.
In fact, looking back to my very first flight ever in 1969, my very worst experience was a bad-ordered C-141 MAC flight to a training exercise in Idaho. We ended up waiting a day to deploy.
Amtrak has much to do to mend its Customer Service house. The State of Good Repair does not seem to extend to the State of Good Service.... Posts: 1404 | Registered: Oct 2001
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As for myself, I have chosen to curtail LD travel save the Auto Train. I simply made that decision based upon well documented horror stories such as yours, the downgrading of the on-board service product, the continued deterioriation of on-time performance, and the apparent unraveling of Mr. Gunn's "state of good repair program".
Sadly Mr. Norman, not even the Auto-Train is safe from the ravages of CSX. I was aboard a northbound AT in December 2004 which arrived 6 hours late due to 'frozen switches'. This just eight months following an on-time full speed trip from Vancouver to Winnipeg through an Albertan blizzard on VIA Rail. I told my wife at the time that if this had been Amtrak on CSX we would crawl at 10mph for an hour. Stop and sit for two hours, and then be told we were being delayed for frozen switches.........exactly what happened when we tried the AT.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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