If you love trains, then help them!

[RRSignal]

I refuse to take Amtrak, and will drive. Amtrak's customer service is a case study in mismangement; indeed, they are the stereotypical inefficient, bungling, deadweight government agency. In the last year, they have bungled not one, not two, not three, but four separate reservations of mine as well as well as those of others with whom I had intended to travel. Plus, I almost lost $70 for a Trenton-DC trip because they kept screwing up the re-reservation. Amtrak is the only agency I know of in which a "reservation" doesn't reserve anything.

It's worth noting that all the problems I and others had stemmed from their phone purchase/support, at 1-800-USA-RAIL. If you make a reservation from their website, you'll be fine. But if you have to change or cancel it, don't even bother calling: You can write off that money gone. The only reason I didn't lose my $70 if because my credit card company is pretty good about stopping payments, and they know about Amtrak.

 

[RooRocz]

It's called "unreserved coach" for a reason, dude.

(I've had my ticket changed at the station and had no problems.)

 

[RRSignal]

They called it a "reservation", dude. Reservation means it's reserved. Only on Amtrak is a "reservation" not a reservation.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/reservation?s=t

 

[amtrak2041864]

I refuse to take Amtrak, and will drive. Amtrak's customer service is a case study in mismangement; indeed, they are the stereotypical inefficient, bungling, deadweight government agency. In the last year, they have bungled not one, not two, not three, but four separate reservations of mine as well as well as those of others with whom I had intended to travel. Plus, I almost lost $70 for a Trenton-DC trip because they kept screwing up the re-reservation. Amtrak is the only agency I know of in which a "reservation" doesn't reserve anything.

It's worth noting that all the problems I and others had stemmed from their phone purchase/support, at 1-800-USA-RAIL. If you make a reservation from their website, you'll be fine. But if you have to change or cancel it, don't even bother calling: You can write off that money gone. The only reason I didn't lose my $70 if because my credit card company is pretty good about stopping payments, and they know about Amtrak.

So your going to refuse to take the train because of past reservation mistake. That seems as if you are letting stupid past mishaps, stop you from enjoying the pleasure of train travel. I ride the commuter rail service a lot, NJT rail. And sometimes the conductors are not that friendly and maybe the people also. And sometimes you forgot you over paid and not you have two tickets of the same price, then later come to find out your broke and have to find a new way home, or you miss the last departure of the night. And your really screwed. But that doesn't stop me from riding the train and or encouraging others to as well. Because riding the train, going through cities and country sides. And seeing how they are all connected is I have say the best feeling a person can experience. No other words can describe it. And Amtrak may at times come up slow, unreliable, or obsolete. But the reason why is we have people like yourself we always look in the bad in America's passenger railroads, but not realizing the good in it. Amtrak is a Gem and it is remarkable how long it has lasted with people like yourself always bringing it down. And when I

 

[AMTRAKwannabe]

I refuse to take Amtrak, and will drive. Amtrak's customer service is a case study in mismangement; indeed, they are the stereotypical inefficient, bungling, deadweight government agency. In the last year, they have bungled not one, not two, not three, but four separate reservations of mine as well as well as those of others with whom I had intended to travel. Plus, I almost lost $70 for a Trenton-DC trip because they kept screwing up the re-reservation. Amtrak is the only agency I know of in which a "reservation" doesn't reserve anything.

It's worth noting that all the problems I and others had stemmed from their phone purchase/support, at 1-800-USA-RAIL. If you make a reservation from their website, you'll be fine. But if you have to change or cancel it, don't even bother calling: You can write off that money gone. The only reason I didn't lose my $70 if because my credit card company is pretty good about stopping payments, and they know about Amtrak.

So what, with the price of gas these days you're better to ride than you are to drive. And if you don't want to pay $70 use their reward program, buy some points for $20 and ride a train with a $100 fee free.

 

[RRSignal]

Jeez, I don't know where to begin with that statement, other than to say it's obvious why train fans are called "foamers"...

Ok, let's see. Let me mention once again that it was not a single incident, but four MAJOR ones, and that's only the ones that happened to me. And they screwed up reservations for travelling companions as well. So, that's really six mistakes.

It's only because I'm a train buff that I put up with as many as I did. In the real world, people won't put up with that many. You see, outside that little bubble of train-foaming, there's a big, big world out there. Many if not most us travel primarily for business reasons. So, not everyone thinks the choo-choo is as "fun" as you or I; it's a place to get us from A to B. And, it must be reliable, especially to those of us who travel on business. Having a "reservation" that doesn't actually reserve anything is a huge problem. When you make a reservation with an airline, hotel or rent-a-car, you actually get a reservation (they may overbook, but that's a separate issue, and they generally don't do that to established business travellers.)

Reliability is important. To a business traveller, it's usually more important than speed or even cost. On top of that, bad customer service can wreck the best product, let alone a mediocre one like Amtrak, so that's two huge strikes against them.

 

[RRSignal]

So what, with the price of gas these days you're better to ride than you are to drive. And if you don't want to pay $70 use their reward program, buy some points for $20 and ride a train with a $100 fee free.

I haven't looked at their reward program, but costing out the price of driving, it's a lot cheaper to drive.

Upper Makefield, PA - Washington DC - 173 miles
My Santa Fe gets 24 MPG
That's 7.08 gallons burned each way.
At $3.40 a gallon, that's $24.08 each way. On Amtrak, that's $71 each way (Trenton to DC) on the cheapest option, the Northeast Regional. Or about 1/3rd the cost. And while parking costs money, so do cabs to your ultimate destination. It's still a lot cheaper.

I'm willing to look at their reward program for fun, but after those awful customer experiences, I doubt I'd ever go back to Amtrak even if it was cheaper, for the reasons stated in my previous post.

 

[amtrak2041864]

Well that is a personal choice and I can respect that. But to shed some light on that price, it is really $49 each way, if a person thought ahead. But the reason why something like that may happen, overbooking. One or two reasons, not enough equipment (funding problem) or they expected a much smaller group of people to use the train that day. Remember passenger numbers on Amtrak's system is growing. But I feel it was both of the problems, one reason why Amtrak needs to build those tunnels under the hudson. After the construction of the tunnels, regional services are going to run like a large subway system. With 5 departures a hour from Penn Station.

 

[Bluewater]

That's the trick with Amtrak booking: the earlier you reserve, the cheaper the prices. If you reserve about a month ahead for a ticket from Kalamazoo to Chicago, prices can be as low as 7 dollars

 

[SD45T-2]

Amtrak is not run like a railroad. It's run like a government agency. Fix that, and we won't be having these problems.

Just my opinion....

Also, what if someone needs it now, like a worker? That happens more often then you think.

 

[RRSignal]

Amtrak is not run like a railroad. It's run like a government agency. Fix that, and we won't be having these problems.

This is probably the best, most concise summary of Amtrak I have ever heard. If some reform-minded pro-rail Amtrak supporters could just run on that message, worded as you did, I'd bet Amtrak would run a lot better regardless of how it was funded.

 

[amtrak2041864]

Pro Amtrak, a little

Pro passenger rail in America, Yes. The only reason I defendant Amtrak is that it is the only passenger rail service in America. If a railroad called Amtrak-2 came along that is a subdivision of the main four railroads. Then with all means, I will support them until I get my head hit in. But because Amtrak is the only one, it has exclusive devotion even though it's ran terribly.

 

[amtrak2041864]

But I feel everyone here can say that Amtrak's management is garbage. Unless you work for Amtrak but I still will tell you in your face that Amtrak can be better ran.

 

[RRSignal]

Unfortunately, the problem IS government. Government has no competition; thus, there will be no Amtrak-2 and Amtrak-1 knows that. So there is no incentive for it to do anything better and that's exactly why it's so crappy and expensive. And, it's not like you can opt-out of government or paying taxes.

 

[SD45T-2]

Amtrak is not the only answer.

But, I have read about a better Amtrak. When W. Graham Claytor, Jr. was in charge, it became a railroad. But, as soon as he left, it turned into a bureaucracy, again.

If only we could get a person who understood railroading and how to make one run efficiently.

Unfortunately, the government does not put many good people in that position.

Unfortunately, the problem IS government. Government has no competition; thus, there will be no Amtrak-2 and Amtrak-1 knows that. So there is no incentive for it to do anything better and that's exactly why it's so crappy and expensive.

Good point there.

 

[AMTRAKwannabe]

Pro Amtrak, a little

Pro passenger rail in America, Yes. The only reason I defendant Amtrak is that it is the only passenger rail service in America. If a railroad called Amtrak-2 came along that is a subdivision of the main four railroads. Then with all means, I will support them until I get my head hit in. But because Amtrak is the only one, it has exclusive devotion even though it's ran terribly.

What about Metra, MBTA, Metro North, NJT, MARC, VRE, RailRunner, CTA, etc?

 

[TweetsieDude]

If I am not mistaken those are commuter trains, and don't go far out, or across many states. Amtash is the only one to my knowledge that goes across the country.

Rock On!
~Dusten

 

[RRSignal]

If I am not mistaken those are commuter trains, and don't go far out, or across many states. Amtash is the only one to my knowledge that goes across the country.

Rock On!
~Dusten

True, but commuter rail is funny in the northeast, at least: If SEPTA and MARC could agree on a connection point, there would be connecting commuter service from New Haven, CT to Washington, DC. MARC goes pretty far west, to West Virginia. I can't see commuter service supplanting Amtrak for long-distance interstate service, but not all commuter service is essentially short-haul.

 

[JCitron]

True, but commuter rail is funny in the northeast, at least: If SEPTA and MARC could agree on a connection point, there would be connecting commuter service from New Haven, CT to Washington, DC. MARC goes pretty far west, to West Virginia. I can't see commuter service supplanting Amtrak for long-distance interstate service, but not all commuter service is essentially short-haul.

Actually one could almost go from Boston to Washington via commuter trains. We would have to take a short bit of Amtrak in Rhode Island between Providence and New Haven, but other than that it's commuter all the way.

Leaving Boston South Station. we could hop the MBTA commuter train to Providence.

Take an short Amtrak ride to New London then hop on a Metro North Shoreline East Commuter train to New York City, then hop on a NJT then SEPTA to Baltimore to pick up a MARC to Washington.

I don't know how long the trip would be, but it sounds like fun.

John

 

[AMTRAKwannabe]

But Amtrak is not the only passenger railroad