posted
First, I want to thank the members of this forum for the advice I received prior to my trip. It was very helpful. Myself and my family (wife, 3 kids 11,11,13) were on the first train (98) back north after Amtrak cancelled Florida service due to Fay. We were scheduled from Deerfield Beach to Philadelphia. This was our fifth trip, but our first time in Coach...
We arrived at the station at 8:30am for a 9:30 departuture. Our train hit a tractor trailer just outside the station prior to ours. The impact broke the window on the engine and they had to send a new one from Miami. We left Deerield a little before 2pm.
As you may remeber, when we left, Fay was lingering around the eastern seaboard and was not yet to Jacksonville. The storm madea turn to the west and crossed Jacksonville causing many signal outages and flooding, It took from 2pm to 3am to get from Deerifeld to Jacksonville.. we were still on restricted speed until we reached the SC border..The train ran out of food and water in the rest rooms.
In my opinion, this train should not have been allowed to leave Miami before the storm passed Jacksonville,and Amtrak should have waited one more day before resuming service.
One of the troubling parts of this situation was that the crew ,including the conductor,had little or no information on the cause of the problems. If they did, they did not communicate this to the passengers.
The crew did not keep the restroom facilites or common areas very clean. They ran out of food and gave us some beef stew, soda, and sandwiches during the delay. Our 24 hour trip in Coach became 35 hours...
As I mentioned earlier, this was our first trip in Coach...I had a very young child behind me up and back..lots of noise and seat kicking..but the part that bothered me the most was the lack of parental responsibility on the train for their kids. I did not stop being a parent, unlike many others, and the crew was not really doing much to deter that type of activities. The other point was the lack of common couetesy using headphones..some did and some did not..another area where crew intervention would have been helpful... Overall, I do not think I would do coach again for that long of a distance. Clearly this trip was out of the ordinary, but a not very enjoyable trip. Amtrak did refund my return fare 100% with a credit for future travel..
Posts: 14 | Registered: Jul 2007
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posted
Thanks for your report - too bad it was 'one of those trips'.
I am surprised they didn't terminate the train at Jacksonville with all those problems. At the least the train should have been resupplied, cleaned and watered there. Since it was the middle of the night probably all those who could help had gone home. Amtrak doesn't handle crises very well.
Just to let you know, it is possible to have a good coach trip on 98. Grudgingly I found myself in coach from Florence, SC to Washington recently. The coach was clean and quiet and the diner did a good job with the food. The train arrived only about 30min. late. Still though, I found it impossible to sleep. Sleeper is the only way to go on an overnight trip - especially with a family.
Posts: 2397 | From: Camden, SC | Registered: Mar 2006
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It was my observation on my 98 trip in July that the train crew refilled the tanks with water, which could have been done at JAX - no station help required. Running out of food seems to be a chronic Amtrak problem. A news report about the crash stated that there were 188 passengers on board out of Miami. This leads me to believe that Amtrak may stock food on the basis of cost (set dollar amount) and not the number of passengers that need to be fed. They ran out of food on my trip also, which was almost full NB and completely full SB. As for unruly children with oblivious parents, that has become a "fact of life" most everywhere - department & grocery stores, public transportation, etc. The conductor on my 97-SB trip directed her rules/regs speech (including proper headphone use) to the offending family, but after about 45 minutes they were back to their errant ways. Other than a crew member standing over these kind of people for the entire trip, there's not much that can be done until society in general changes its views on childrearing/public behavior. I would definately recommend sleeper for families traveling together. For those traveling alone, coach is fine - but, to paraphrase Paul Newman, "it ain't for sissies!" Posts: 20 | From: Zephyrhills, FL | Registered: May 2008
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