Amtrak - Abusive Train Crews

I was invited to a conference at the Research Triangle Park at Durham, NC, and I decided to go by Amtrak from Miami, Florida. I had a very enjoyable ride and I stayed over the weekend. On Sunday, September 11, in the evening, I took the ride back to Miami on Amtrak. Again, I enjoyed meeting people in this overnight ride. I met this guy and when we stopped in Tampa, I got off with him to talk before he left. On my way back to the train, I got hungry and went to the vending machine at the station, but the machine did not dispense my product. So, it took me some time to find out that I had to call the vending company.

While I took the company's telephone number, I realized that I had been held-up too long, so I hurried back to the train to find that everyone had boarded. By the way, I did not hear any call to return to the train. Anyway, I hurried to go to the third wagon and began to call to wait for me as the train started to part. Immediately, I panicked because I had left my entire carry-on luggage and had taken my wallet out of the back of my pocket because it was too bulky on my sit. So, the panic included the fact that here was the train leaving and I did not even have my credit card.

So, I ran very vigorously as I yell to wait for me. Someone took his head out and apparently saw me. The train kept going for about a block when it stopped. So, I took the opportunity and finally reached the train I took a step on the first door and knocked on the door. Within a few seconds, the door opened and I stepped in. Full of gratitude and relief that I had reached the train without leaving (I had flashed back at the Durham Station where there was a Duke University Student who was waiting at the station for 2 hours as she had left her laptop in the train), I was glad that I was able to gain entrance to the train.

However, as I was walking to my sit, the conductor, a Ms. **, showed up a bit disturbed, stating that she was going to call the police. I surely wasn't sure why, but I thought to myself, this lady seemed upset and no matter what I say, I did not want to escalate any further problem, so I quietly went back to my sit and started talking to a lady, who was getting off in Sebring and whom I have met before, telling her what just had happened. She assured me that that was much that it was more likely to be about doing an incident report.

However, while I was talking to this lady, I saw Ms. ** went back to my property and looked through it to find my name. When I saw her, I told her that she could ask me and I would tell her my name. When we reached the Lakeland Station, the police came on board and in an authoritative fashion told me to get my luggage and to come out of the train. I thought that this was such big deal and for the first time, I thought I was to be arrested.

Outside, Ms. ** has apparently been already being talking to the Lakeland police, and when I got there, I was just hearing her say, "He did not even wanted to talk to me." She never asked me to, and although I wondered what she wanted to speak to me about, I was relieved that I was able to get my property and reach the train and it did not leave me stranded. Apparently, she was claiming to the police that I had created some kind of disturbance. While the only disturbance, I guess, I caused was that they stopped the train to pick me up.

I actually did not know what to answer because I thought I was actually very quiet about the whole matter because I was embarrassed. The station manager, who was watching the whole affair and listening as I was at the station, seemed to be sympathetic to me. He apparently had perhaps similar experience with this conductor before. He could see that I was not acting out, drunk, or even creating a disturbance. He took me outside the station and turned to me and said, "She did not even leave the rest of the ticket." He could have given me a refund or perhaps give me a train for the following day without having to pay. He did suggest that I called Customer Relations. Perhaps he thought that Customer Relations could launch an investigation or perhaps try to make up for this conductors misbehavior.

After a week of calling at many different times, I was able to reach them a week later. I was disappointed that after a few minutes of conversation with this customer relation agent, she actually said to me that she could not do anything about it. Initially, she sounded quite friendly and appeared to want to resolve the problem. After a few minutes, her demeanor appeared to have changed. I was shocked that she did not seem to care that this conductor had acted a bit off and that I had to come up with extra funds to reach my destination. I wondered whether she was reading a prepared report as if something that had already been reported by the conductor and that if I call in, that perhaps, this was the decision that had been made.

She did not seem to care that a new customer had encountered a great inconvenience that could have been avoided. Who knows what this conductor claimed? Before I left Lakeland, I went to the police station and got the three officers name and the report of the telephone call to the police station, if I was to need it in the future. The report, in fact, stated that the train had called as a passenger had caused a disturbance. I actually doubt that I would ride Amtrak again if I can avoid it. Being put out of the train by the conductor was humiliating. For customer relations to say that she could not do anything about it and seemed to take a serious posture toward me, is quite disturbing to me.

My two children and I just completed an Amtrak trip last week after our annual summer visit with my family in Central California. We have always traveled by plane and had never gone by train, but I thought Amtrak would be a unique experience for all of us, especially my children, in addition to avoiding the higher airline costs. I had received wonderful reviews from my parents who had traveled by the Sunset Limited 18 years ago and was looking forward to the adventure.

For the outgoing trip to Fresno, I purchased coach seats. We boarded at 5:00 a.m. I never received any orientation to the layout or workings of the train car: bathrooms, cafe, dining car or making reservations for meals, etc. I eventually asked other passengers for all this information. Trying to find out how to make a reservation for lunch that day was also a mystery. I asked the attendant, Denise, from the next car for instructions but she rudely told me to wait for someone to come to take the reservation. The waiter that afternoon was rude and kept forgetting to bring us cutlery and the condiments I requested.

My assigned seat was not in working condition. When I told Cynthia, our car's attendant, she said that she would tell the conductor. Hours later, in the middle of the night, as I tried unsuccessfully to sleep sitting up, I summoned the conductor. He said, "There's nothing we can do about it. It won't get fixed on this trip." No other seats were available in proximity to my children in that car. I arrived in Fresno thoroughly exhausted.

Because our first trip was such a bad experience for me, I called Amtrak on July 29 to see if I could upgrade our seating to a sleeper car. The Amtrak agent I spoke to was very accommodating and helpful, telling me that she had a roomette available on the Texas Eagle for our return trip. She explained that it had two seats that were made up into one bed and a bunk above and that it was not a problem for the three of us to share the seats/beds. She also said that all dining car meals for all three of us would also be included. I asked her repeatedly if this was correct and she confirmed that I and my two children would share the roomette and would also receive meals for all three of us.

Our return trip on the train began in Los Angeles' Union station, having taken the Amtrak bus from Fresno to LA. As we were about to board the sleeper car for which we had tickets, the car's attendant, Denise (the rude employee from the first trip), told us that we could not have the roomette because it was only meant for two passengers and that one of us would have to sit in the coach. I explained my story of upgrading over the phone and that the ticketing agent had assured me that it was allowed and that the three of us would fit just fine. She called her supervisor, Gregory **, who discussed it with the train's conductor, Michael. Then, he assured me that there would be no problem for the three of us to stay in the roomette, as long as I was assigned a seat in coach (car 13, window seat 13--which I never had to use).

He came aboard the train before we left to tell me that he had spoken to the head of the dining car to make sure that we would receive three meals at all meal times. Mr. ** was very helpful and polite. However, when our sleeper car's attendant, Denise, came to our compartment, she denied that Mr. ** had told her to allow us to stay in the roomette and that we were allowed all our meals. Later that evening, Dustin **, the head of the dining car, came to take our three reservations and guaranteed that there would be no problem with us receiving our meals. He said that he had spoken with Mr. ** and advised us to ignore any comments that Denise had made, as she was misinformed.

The dinner that night (10 Aug 11) in the dining car took 2 hours and 20 minutes. The service was painstakingly slow and the waitress was rude. No explanations were offered for the delays. Throughout our trip, the rudeness, laziness and unhelpfulness of Denise was unbelievable, and in any organization geared towards customer service, should be downright unacceptable. Here are specific examples:

1. An elderly woman with a prosthetic leg, while boarding the train and having to climb the stairs, asked Denise for assistance with her bag. Denise refused and another passenger carried up the woman's bag.

2. She never prepared our beds after dinner--not for our entire roomette car--we had to do everything ourselves.

3. When I pushed the attendant's button at 1:00 p.m. on 11 Aug 11 to order lunch for delivery (Dustin had missed us when he came by to take reservations and had told me that Denise could still bring us lunch), she took a long time to respond. I went down to her compartment and found her just opening the door, complaining that I had woke her up. She said that she only had this time to sleep and that I would have to wait until she went to the bathroom and freshened up before she could see to my request. She took her time and acted quite put out that I was making her do her job! We ended up following her to the dining car to make sure that she followed through with our request. However, she still gave us our food without cutlery or drinks, which I had to go get from Dustin myself.

4. At the end of our trip, I allowed my kids to nap before arriving in the San Antonio station. I had already packed up most of our belongings in preparation to disembark. At 10:00 p.m., Denise knocked on our compartment door, telling us that we were to arrive in San Antonio in 15 minutes and that we had to immediately exit the roomette so she could make up the beds for the next passenger. So, we quickly packed up our remaining items, while she stood over us watching.

As we walked down the car's aisle, she followed us and went to sit in her compartment, where she stayed until 10:25 p.m. (per the passenger who occupied the roomette opposite hers). She did not make the beds as she had said she needed to; she was just bullying us and being mean! My children and I stood at the exit door while the train was still moving for another 20 minutes, until the train stopped in San Antonio at 10:30 p.m.

Every single sleeper car passenger whom I talked to on this trip had similar complaints, not just about Denise, but to the other sleeping car's attendants as well. Dustin ** was excellent. Although I could tell that he was also tired and stressed, he did not outwardly show it and was extremely polite, friendly and helpful with everyone who came to him with a need or concern. Denise's full name, when we asked her at the end of our journey, is Debra Denise ** **. Her laziness and inefficiency could reflect on the long hours required of each employee because of the lack of enough personnel.

Obviously, something needs to be done to correct this problem if Amtrak ever hopes to compete with the airline industry and to improve its poor reputation. I have posted my terrible train trip experience on Facebook and have advised all my friends, especially those who have told me that they were considering taking the Amtrak for their next vacation, to avoid Amtrak. It's definitely not worth your time, money; it's just a hassle.

Perhaps it was a lot harder because I was completely exhausted from the journey home. The train from Buffalo to NY was crazy; by the time I got to NY--and figured out a way to get home from there--I guess I was just completely drained, physically and emotionally. To be attacked in such a manner while I was in this state was really a horrible experience. I collapsed in tears on the shoulder of the person who picked me up from the station in NJ, unable to even express for a time what had happened. I will never take the train again, if I can help it. If I can't drive, I'll fly.