RAILforum: Trip Report

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Posted by TALKrr (Member # 683) on :

Just returned from a one-way trip between Pittsburgh and Winter Park, Florida.

Well, "disaster" struck from the very beginning !! The Three Rivers was SIX HOURS late arriving into Pittsburgh from Chicago. We were told that the reason was a "purposeful" work slow-down in Chicago. The strange thing was that the Three Rivers arrived into Pittsburgh BEFORE the Capitol Limited. So somehow the Three Rivers got ahead of the line out of Chicago.

Anyhow, I had to make a connection in Philly to train # 97 , the Meteor , later that nite at about 8:30 PM. I (naturally) KNEW I would not be able to make the Philly connection , and wondered just exactly what Amtrak would do with me. I really wanted SOMEHOW to connect with #97 that same day , but did not know how this possibly could be arranged. Well, I found out.

The Three Rivers arrived in Harrisburg, PA about 8:15 PM that nite. It was decided that I (along with six other passengers who were scheduled to connect with train #97) would be TAXIED from Harrisburg to DC to connect with the departing #97 at 11:00 PM that nite.

So we SPED to DC in two taxis (SPED being an under-statement !!) I was ready to kiss the ground when we arrived in DC at about 10:50 PM !!! What a wild ride !!!

Well, anyhow we MADE the connection and I had a fairly uneventful ride down to Florida.

Service on the Meteor was all right---certainly not exceptional , but I really had no complaints. We arrived into Winter Park about 50 minutes late.

I don't know what the taxi fare was for the two taxis to DC , but I presume it was substantial. I was just happy to make #97 which I did NOT think I would be able to do.

By the way , in a situation like this where Amtrak picks-up the taxi fare , is a gratuity included for the drivers or not. I presumed there was NOT , so I tipped my driver , although I noticed that I was the ONLY one to do so.

I will be watching future posts here to learn if anyone else is experiencing these "purposeful" work slow-downs. I guess it is only natural that remaining employees are more than just a little upset about the recent lay-offs and are "protesting" with service "interruptions."

Posted by disgusted (Member # 1373) on :

You wouldn't believe one engineer we have here in the midwest. He's been dogging the trains for years. He's been trying to get a disability pension due to hitting to many people. One day the conductor reamed his ass, saying he wanted to get to Chicago on-time, and lo and behold, they did.
I can't believe management has let this guy get away with this for so many years.