# Bad trip on the Texas Eagle



## Amtrak Watcher (Aug 26, 2003)

When taking a small group of five people on a business retreat I arranged from Dallas to San Antonio on a recent Friday, all was going well until the Texas Eagle was halted for six hours in Temple, Texas by a UP derailment a few miles to the south. Rumors circulated about busing the hundred or so passengers to San Antonio who had to meet the Sunset Limited on its way California, but no news was forthcoming from the operating crew who seemed content to keep worried and confused passengers in the dark until 05:30 the next morning when the Texas Eagle finally arrived in San Antonio about six hours late. It turns out that the Sunset Limited was late getting out of Houston, so buses were not necessary. Neither the Sunset Limited passengers, nor those getting off in San Antonio were allowed to exit the train for another 50 minutes while both trains (the waiting Sunset Limited and the northbound Texas Eagle scheduled to depart to Chicago at 08:00 on Saturday) were bumped around and reconfigured with everyone aboard. None of the passengers or the service staff were happy about the additional 50-minute delay, but the operating crew snapped back with comments like the one I heard from the conductor, “If you people don’t like the way I run things here, then I suggest you find another method of transportation in the future.”

My clients were so upset with their first experience with Amtrak, that they opted to fly back to Dallas. Assuming people simply get tired and upset, I stayed with the train. My trip back to Dallas on the Texas Eagle the following Sunday found me in a coach car with about ten other passengers. I took the liberty of spreading me, my laptop computer, and sundry papers across two seats. About two hours into the journey, the attendant came by to ask me “what the hell” I was doing. I explained that I was “doing my work.” He angrily replied that I should confine “my junk” to the seat I was assigned, which I promptly did even though there were less than a dozen seats occupied in the entire car. Another hour passed when the attendant returned to tell me that my “constant working” was “distracting to vacationing passengers,” and that if I had “so damned much work to do, I should consider flying to Dallas instead of taking the train.” I was completely stunned by the remark, packed up everything, got off the train in McGregor, took a cab to Waco, and took the bus back to Dallas.

It seems that Amtrak staff has finally convinced even me to abandon the trains forever.


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## Amfleet (Aug 26, 2003)

I'm sorry that you experienced such a horrible trip on Amtrak However, abondoning trains forever is not a way to approach such a bad experience. What you really should do or should have done is taken down the employee names (the conductor and coach attendant) and sent them in with a story describing the situation to costumer services (or call them first, then send a letter for double action). It has been known in the past for action to be taken and employees given warnings. If you do not have the names of employees you can certainly tell customer services the day you were traveling, on what train, from where to where, and the position the employee was working. With that they can probably track back right to the exact worker. Obvioously these crews are just tired of UP's derailments and poor dispatching, which have been delaying both the Texas Eagle and Sunset Limited for up to 16 hours this summer (both trains have near a 0% on-time record). The Texas Eagle has also experienced major cut backs from Amtrak and I don't think it has been known to have a good reputation.


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## Amtrak Watcher (Aug 26, 2003)

I have, indeed, done exactly as Amfleet suggested, both by telephone and letter. I even had the foresight to take down all the names. I’ve clearly noted the stress in the crews the recent cutbacks have brought throughout the system these past few months, and have wondered when the whole system would finally start to come apart. I suppose this latest incident was so bizarre that it indicated the point of no return; the point when the crews and staff would turn on the passengers who were doing nothing more than sitting quietly, and the point when even the loyal passengers would not return.

I remember my father telling me about his experiences with U.S. passenger rail service just before Amtrak was formed. It got so bad, he said, that it seemed the railroads were deliberately driving their passengers away in a disparate move to get out from underneath government rules that forced them to run trains they didn’t want to run… unless those trains could somehow have no passengers.


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## Bill Haithcoat (Aug 26, 2003)

What you experienced is totally and completely inexcusable.I hope you do write a letter ASAP detailing all the rude comments.

I think the treatment you recieved on the return was perhaps the worst since it seemed much less provoked by the circumstances---going down obviously the crew was mad at the delays, etc. But not being allowed to spread out and work with only 12 passengers in a huge superliner coach is beyond ridiculous. And somebody (besides us here on the forum) should know about it.

Please don't throw in the towel, yet.


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## Amtrak Watcher (Aug 26, 2003)

There has been lots of discussion in this forum about Amtrak’s future: would the subsidies come up to a sustainable level, would the states come to the rescue, could services, routes, and schedules be made more attractive, could new equipment be purchased and old equipment refitted? But like many institutions, death comes slowly. I’ve never seen a service organization come back to health on the backs of the work-a-day staff.

I am a physically small person who even though I am healthy, looks frail and fragile. My diminutive stature has forced me to be a passive person all my life sitting quietly avoiding conflict at all costs. As I explained in my letter to Amtrak management, I feel the service crew, tired of the stress and frustration, attacked me because I was an easy target. I feel that way, and will be avoiding Amtrak in the future to avoid further attacks. The anger of hundreds of passengers enraged by the haughty remarks from the conductor on Saturday morning was bad enough. The personal attack on me Sunday morning during an otherwise uneventful trip was more than enough for me.


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## AMTRAK-P42 (Aug 26, 2003)

I am very sorry to hear that this happend to you. People like this, that work for Amtrak, really give Amtrak a bad rep. I dont understand why people would work in a job that they would hate so bad, that they would need to snap at paying customers. It seems to me that they are not really doing their job. It sickens me. :angry:

I hope you will give Amtrak another try though, as this type of experience has only happend to me twice out of 56 Amtrak Trips, but never this bad.


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## Steve4031 (Aug 26, 2003)

Quite honestly, I dont blame you if you don't ever travel on Amtrak again after your experience on the return trip. What was the response when you called customer service?

When I reported an overly rude employee in Chicago, my travel partners and I received a 10 dollar credit towards future travel on Amtrak.

Guys, just wondering if there is a way of notifying Gunn of this extreme level of rudeness instead of doing a dance with a customer service department that does not seem capable of responding appropriately to such events?


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## Amtrak Watcher (Aug 27, 2003)

Got a well-trained (in a customer service sense) ear on the phone, and my letter got me a form letter, 2 free drink coupons (also good for alcohol up to $5.25), and 2 space-available upgrade coupons (discount code H174 on upgraded seating accommodations; not good for sleeper upgrades). All 4 coupons expire on February 29, 2004. Contacting Mr. Gunn is, in my view, useless. Since I've recently seen other passengers suffer even worse than I had to endure, I'm sure he is aware of this kind of thing, and is frustrated with them. The current situation demands cutbacks, but angry staff lashing out at paying customers is merely one of the results of cutbacks. Too many people cling to jobs they hate, because they become a slave to them (the pay, the benefits, the routine, etc.). People hate change. People will put up with an amazing amount of crap to avoid having to move, or the uncertainty of looking for a new job.

I pitched the coupons in the trash, as I'll not be using them.


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## battalion51 (Aug 27, 2003)

Amtrak Watcher said:


> Contacting Mr. Gunn is, in my view, useless.


I wouldn't say that. I know that Mr. Gunn is one of those people who does take time to read letters from people, and respond to them. I think his view (this is my view too) is that he can't be everywhere, see everything, and know all the problems passengers and employees alike face. In my opinion letters to Mr. Gunn produced the fifth coach and second full time attendant on the Silver Meteor, menu changes have resulted because people wrote letters to the top and said, "We don't like this, this needs to change." A successful company is one that gets feedback from their customers so they know what they are doing right and wrong.


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## Steve4031 (Aug 27, 2003)

Battalion,

How do I contact Gunn without going through customer service?

Thanks


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## battalion51 (Aug 27, 2003)

Write him a letter, I would address it this way

David Gunn

National Railroad Passenger Corporation

Washington Union Station

60 Massachusetts Ave., NE

Washington, DC 20002


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## railman (Aug 27, 2003)

You can address your letter to Mr Gunn at 60 Mass Ave., NE; Washington, DC 20002. He reads every letter sent to him and provides a personalized reply via his secretary.


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## Steve4031 (Aug 28, 2003)

THANKS, THANKS, THANKS.    

I will add this information to my contact's list now. I want to help Amtrak improve, rather than just complaint and get a fefund or credit for future travel. I think this info will help address serious issues of rudeness on the part of some Amtrak employees. Obviously, I will use discretion as to what I write to him about.

Steve


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## tp49 (Aug 28, 2003)

Sad that this happpened especially since Amtrak Watcher seems to be a regular rider of this route for business purposes (at least this is the impression I got from previous posts) it makes absolutly no sense to treat any customer this way, totally unacceptable.


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## warbonnet (Aug 28, 2003)

Interesting thread...I have met many people in business that have been physically small, but very powerful in getting things done, and changes made. Let's not forget how Southwest Airlines has become a company to admire, and maintained constant profitability. It is because of their people, and the leadership of founder (now retired, but the culture remains) of Herb Kelleher. If you wrote a letter to Mr. Kelleher at Southwest, you would, and probably still can, expect a personal reply to your issue. I think Mr. Gunn has somewhat the same kind of thinking. A company must listen to it's customers. The kind of rude Amtrak employee's mentioned in this topic should be rooted out, and terminated. We all have bad days, late trains, or whatever. We don't take it out on our customers, or families. If you don't like your job, you will never be good at it. Good luck and get that letter sent to the top man ASAP.

Wb


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## Amtrak Watcher (Aug 29, 2003)

I did not write directly to Mr. Gunn, because I think he already knows what is going on. I think this, because there have been so many of these kinds of incidents recently, and if I’m seeing so many, there must be many, many more. An account of my relatively minor episodes would add nothing to the other letters he is already getting; letters describing much worse. Here are two examples I’ve seen.

One recent event was when I was in the last coach on the southbound Texas Eagle that stopped, an hour late, at its Taylor, Texas stop for what seemed like an unusually short time, perhaps 20 seconds. The train continued on its way to Austin only to stop about 10 miles south of Taylor, in the middle of nowhere, for 10 minutes, and then back up all the way back to Taylor. While backing up, I made my way up to the lounge car passing through another coach car, where I heard crying and yelling at the bottom of the stairs. I made my way down to see what was wrong. There I saw the attendant and the conductor yelling at a very old lady who evidently missed her stop at Taylor. Judging from the way she was standing and the yelling from the crew, it seemed she was still recovering from a full hip replacement or something else that had her in the lower level seats. She was evidently too slow to get to the door at her stop at Taylor, and was being thoroughly scolded for being the cause of the additional delay. The attendant was yelling “old retard, old retard, old retard…” over and over. She was crying bitterly and shaking. In my usual cowardly way, I said and did nothing.

Another recent incident found me in a sleeper in central Illinois on the northbound Texas Eagle, which looked like it was going to be about 4 or 5 hours late into Chicago. A young married couple new to Amtrak in the standard bedroom across the hall from me finally got the attention of the conductor to ask, in urgent and worried voices, about their connection to the Lake Shore Limited at 7:00 p.m. that night. The conductor replied, “I wish you would stop asking me these stupid damned questions. I don’t know what the hell will happen with your connection,” and went on his way. Even though I had no authority to do so, I apologized to my fellow passengers on behalf of Amtrak, and offered my view of how things might work when we finally arrived in Chicago. They made their connection with plenty of time to spare.


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## Bill Haithcoat (Aug 29, 2003)

Amtrak Watcher, please, these things you report are CRIMINAL not just bad manners, esp. the way the the elderly lady with a possible hip replacement was treated. Please DO cc: Mr. Gunn directly. Maybe everybody thinks as you do that he "surely knows" when maybe he does not know as much as we think.

If you don't want to do it for yourself, think of that old lady, what if she had been somebody close to you...................also, the way you were treated for spreading out your work in a huge superliner coach with only 10-12 other people was pretty close to criminal as well.


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## National Limited (Aug 29, 2003)

Reading about the experiences is making me sick. I do have a question, however, about the elderly lady with the hip replacement. Is it not the responsibility of the conductor to know what passengers are scheduled to get off/on at a given stop? Even when I have traveled in coach and knew very well where my stop was the conductor or a car attendant would remind me that the "next stop is your stop."

And another question. To whom dose the car attendant report? If these attendants are behaving in this way it is an indicatioin that the entire train crew is allowed to behave this way and thus the person at the top needs to go (in addition to the attendant) for allowing this type of behavior. This type of outrage has to be encouraged to get to this point.

I have had two trips on the Texas Eagle, one in coach, one in a sleeper. The coach experience was not positive--took a group of HS students from Dallas to San Antonio and the attendant apparently didn't want to bother with us and wasn't afraid to tell the students how he felt, but the guy didn't even have the guts to look at me when we passed in the aisle. He knew what he was doing was inappropriate. It didn't sit well with the students, many of whom had never been on a train before and most likely after that experience won't ever again. Interesting side note, the train was exactly on time both ways! What a rare occurance. I was so worried that it woudl be running late with all these HS students bitching about it and their parents waiting at Dallas for the train to arrive. At least I didn't have to worry about that.

My second trip on the Texas Eagle was in a sleeper from Dallas to St. Louis. On my departing trip I had a wonderful sleeping car attendant, very helpful. On the return trip the attendant wasn't helpful at all and apparently was more interested in talking with her friends than helping passengers. I was so mad that I didn't tip her on the way out and made it very obvious that I was unhappy with her service. The dining car service on both of these trips was not good either. In fact, on the departing trip one of the table staff got very loud when he was expressing his opinion to a customer about the future of Amtrak--obviously concerned for his job--but he kept saying very loudly that he could get a job on the spot at any Chicago 5-star restraunt because he was a good waiter. I wish he had gotten that job before he got on the train!

All this to say I think the Texas Eagle has a sick crew that needs to be eliminated as a group and new "management" put in place. This is the type of stuff that Amtrak does not need. Can anyone on this list get these loosers a job at one of the airlines? That is where they belong!


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## P40Power (Aug 29, 2003)

If I EVER saw an attendent on a train yelling at an old lady and calling her a retard like in Watcher's post, I dont care I would have just attacked the guy and just let loose on him, I dont care if I get thrown off the train because I CAN NOT STAND guys like that. I would have tossed HIM off the train, but your right that was COMPLETELY wrong and calling an physically handicaped old woman that, uggh man I hope he is going to get or has already gotten fired :angry:


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## Amtrak Railfan (Aug 29, 2003)

So this is a very bad trip on the Texas Eagle thats right?


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## P40Power (Aug 29, 2003)

Hence the title of the whole subject !


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## Amfleet Fan (Aug 29, 2003)

I can certainly agree with the original poster on this subject. I took the TX Eagle from CHI to DAL and back last month in a standard sleeper.

I can definitely say the crew on this train is lackluster at best.

When you're afraid to approach a crew member, you know it's time to get rid of them.


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## AlanB (Aug 29, 2003)

The car attendant reports to the Lead Service Attendant, if there is one. It was also the responsability of the car attendant to make sure that she detrained and help her if she needed help.

I suspect that the conductor read the riot act on him, so he took it out on the poor old lady. What I don't understand is why the conductor was also yelling at her, nor why he didn't tell the attendant to be quiet. :angry:

The carryby is the attendant's failure. It is his responsability to be at that door and to make sure that all passengers who were supposed to detrain, did so before he gives the ok to the conductor.


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## scott (Aug 29, 2003)

the old woman who'd been accosted should have sued the Amtrak employee and Amtrak for emotional harassment. How incredible! My condolences to Amtrak Watcher. I wouldn't stop riding the trains (except for the Texas Eagle) though.

These examples show why it's imperative that Amtrak unload those unhappy, negative employees. It's absolutely bizarre to me that ANY company in the United States cannot fire employees who fail to do their jobs. You always hear, 'you can't fire em'.

The hell you can't! The pink slips need to go out to quite a number of sour employees. To the majority, the fine, selfless, positive employees, more kudos and another raise!

Scott


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## Amfleet Fan (Aug 29, 2003)

These inept Amtrak employees who can't do their job should be required to retrain aboard the Three Rivers with the staff of that train as their drill instructors.

I can't say enough good things about the onboard staff on the Three Rivers. This crew is adequate to staff the American Orient Express, that's how good they are.


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## Amtrak Watcher (Aug 29, 2003)

I suppose it looks like I’m picking on the Texas Eagle, but the illusion comes from the fact that I rode to Texas Eagle more than all other trains combined: I live in Dallas. Though only anecdotal, my relatively limited experience with other trains suggests there has been an increase in nastiness there too. My baseline experience of 3 years ago is similar to what AMTRAK-P42 suggests, about 1 bad trip in 25. My recent experience suggests this has increased to about one bad trip in 15 or 20 with the new appearance of these occasional almost criminal incidents. Further, I agree with Amfleet’s observation about the Sunset Limited, the Texas Eagle, and other “troubled” routes, and note that things seem slightly worse on the them than on Amtrak in general. Finally, Bill Haithcoat’s remarks on the criminal character of some of the incidents has forced me to rethink my stand. I am composing a letter to Mr. Gunn, with all the names and details, today. I shall keep this forum informed. I am including, in my letter, my own experience with the Three Rivers, which is just as Amfleet Fan says, a welcome oasis in a desert of compromise. I'll suggest Mr. Gunn looks there as a start.


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## Steve4031 (Aug 29, 2003)

I sent my letter to Gunn today detailing my experience in Chicago Union Station.

I will let you know what happened.


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## Bill Haithcoat (Aug 29, 2003)

Amtrak Watcher, glad to read your last post. Glad you are writing to Mr. Gunn after all. Have a good weekend!!!! I will be anxious to hear what happens. I will not be around next week, but keep us informed of Mr. Gunn's response, etc.


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## Amtrak Watcher (Aug 30, 2003)

Unregistered “scott” brings up an interesting point surrounding the “you can’t fire ‘em” syndrome. Along with the slight increase in nastiness among Amtrak employees (punctuated by the new quasi-criminal incidents), I’ve also noted an increase in nastiness among passengers as well. It seems the whole hospitality industry is plagued by unreasonable and nasty and customers and stressed-out employees these days. As someone who spends lots of time in hotels, I’m annoyed by the recent increase in shocking and stupid behavior in the lobbies and restaurants. It’s in the car rental offices, the airports, and the bus terminals too. Anyway, I am including a few episodes of particularly awful passenger behavior in my letter to Mr. Gunn, and suggesting that the crews take a more intolerant stand on unruly and obnoxious passengers while he cleans up the out-of-control behavior among certain Amtrak employees. Passengers and Amtrak employees spend a tremendous amount of time together on the long distance trains, and mutually civil behavior, which seems to be in short supply all over American society these days, needs to be actively promoted. The mere fact that things go so consistently well on the Three Rivers suggests Amtrak has a simple management problem, which can be solved with traditional management techniques. But the passengers need to calm down too.


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## frank (Aug 31, 2003)

Don't hold out too much hope that Amtrak is ready to launch an investigation into any of the aforementioned events. I wrote them last year about my inability to get my sleeping room porter to lower my bed on the EB one night. I couldn't even find him that evening. I explained that in doing it myself, I was stunned to find that the matress I was to sleep in was completely urine stained and odorous beyond belief.

I was paying four star prices to sleep in a dumpster.

There was never a reply to my letter. Employee tenure issues and management complacency appears to be the norm with Federal bureaucracies such as this.

Good luck,

Frank


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## Amtrak Watcher (Aug 31, 2003)

I posted my carefully crafted letter of less than one page to Mr. Gunn last night. I included a few words on the dumpster-like conditions of the trains -especially the sleepers- in my concluding remarks, and as "frank" suggests, I'm not expecting much of a material reply for the same reasons.


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## RandyJay (Aug 31, 2003)

Amtrak Watcher, I really can't add anything to what's already been said here about these inexcusable incidents that you and your associates, not to mention countless other passengers, have experienced. I am deeply troubled that this has, and apparently is continuing to happen, on some of our trains. I can't blame you in the least for never wanting to go near an Amtrak train again. I know I would feel the same way - there are some things you can shrug off and others that you just can't. I sincerely wish that you do get some form of restitution, but as the others have already mentioned, I have my doubts as well. Please keep us informed if you should receive a reply to your letter, and please consider continuing to participate in the forum here as you have in the past. I for one do not look forward to the absence of your informative and insightful postings to this group. And as a San Antonio residient, I was hoping to meet you on the Eagle one of these days! Now I don't know how much I'll be riding it myself.

Now I am going to diverge just a bit on the topic of this thread. My experience with Amtrak is very limited and confined to only three trains. However in light of recent happenings with the Texas Eagle (losing a sleeper and locomotive, cutback in dining car service, etc.) not to mention what I am now hearing about the crew, I wonder if in some way this is Amtrak's "black sheep" train. Is it possible that Amtrak for some strange reason _wants_ the Eagle to fail? Is it possible that the Eagle is where troublesome employees from other routes are banished to when they can't be fired? This of course is just an idea that I pose for discussion, but what better way to generate a decrease in ridership on a given train than to cut back on the "hardware" and then staff it with the kind of crew we are hearing about. Then it's easy to justify eliminating the route. Or maybe there is no real motivation to kill the train, but in Amtrak's eyes the Eagle is a low revenue, low visibility train that they don't really care about, while they _will_ continue to apply full support to routes like the Starlight and Three Rivers? Don't know, and maybe I am way off base for thinking that. If I were running Amtrak I would not want to put any one route above the other in that respect, no matter how low the visibility or revenue. But if true, things are worse than I thought. Any thoughts?


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## The Chief (Aug 31, 2003)

> I wonder if in some way this is Amtrak's "black sheep" train. Is it possible that Amtrak for some strange reason wants the *Eagle* to fail?


*R*andy Jay, that's an interesting theory, and I ride the *TRE* train every day by the Texas School Book Depository in downtown Dallas.

Seriously, *S*en. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) is one of Amtrak's top Congressional supporters. Amtrak _must_ must want success for the *Eagle* in order to appease a powerful voice on the Hill. *A*mtrak Watcher, have you thought about cc: the Hon. Kay Bailey on your *Eagle* travails? I'll bet she has *D*ave Gunn's private phone number.

Such super-shoddy customer service is unconscionable and inexcusable.


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## Amfleet (Aug 31, 2003)

I think the Eagle is a case where Texas would like to have the train and so would Amtrak, but for the amount of riders the train recieves it just isn't worth it for Amtrak. The Texas Eagle has been on the same plate for years, should it be thrown out the window or should it stay. This certainly will put stress on the employees, but not to the point where they treat passengers like crap.


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## Morris&Essex (Aug 31, 2003)

Does anyone know if Amtrak uses "plant" (ie. fake customers) passengers the way retail chains evaluate service? When I worked retail, I would occasionally get "evaluated" by a plant who would come to my cash register needing help or disputing prices/tearing off pricetags, trying to buy items individually that are supposed to be sold as a set, etc. to see how I handled the situation, continued to smile and tried to be helpful. A report would go to my supervisor and into my file.

I was wondering about this because I recently received a form in the mail from some clearinghouse Amtrak uses asking me to evaluate a recent Amtrak trip. Although I was really glad to provide input, I felt a little cheated in that it was only check boxes for excellent/satisfactory/OK/poor. No real way for me to comment. Given the widespread incidents reported in this thread on the Eagle, I believe Amtrak should use planted customers. Perhaps the unbelievable behavior exhibited by the crews would stop if there is the possibility that the passenger with special needs really is there to do a report on them.


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## Anthony (Aug 31, 2003)

ELNewBranch said:


> Does anyone know if Amtrak uses "plant" (ie. fake customers) passengers the way retail chains evaluate service? When I worked retail, I would occasionally get "evaluated" by a plant who would come to my cash register needing help or disputing prices/tearing off pricetags, trying to buy items individually that are supposed to be sold as a set, etc. to see how I handled the situation, continued to smile and tried to be helpful. A report would go to my supervisor and into my file.
> I was wondering about this because I recently received a form in the mail from some clearinghouse Amtrak uses asking me to evaluate a recent Amtrak trip. Although I was really glad to provide input, I felt a little cheated in that it was only check boxes for excellent/satisfactory/OK/poor. No real way for me to comment. Given the widespread incidents reported in this thread on the Eagle, I believe Amtrak should use planted customers. Perhaps the unbelievable behavior exhibited by the crews would stop if there is the possibility that the passenger with special needs really is there to do a report on them.


There is the Amtrak Customer Advisory Committee, but I have no idea how widespread they are.

http://www.amtrak.com/about/acac.html


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## Morris&Essex (Aug 31, 2003)

Thanks, Anthony. That's good to know. I should have jotted down the names of the crew immediately after that trip and written a letter, because the service was excellent on my trip. I didn't think the "excellent" check box did it justice, particularly in the case of my conductor.


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## battalion51 (Sep 1, 2003)

> Does anyone know if Amtrak uses "plant" (ie. fake customers) passengers the way retail chains evaluate service?


To answer your question, yes Amtrak does use spotters on various trains. Employees generally do not know who is a spotter, but they might figure it out after the spotter has ridden a couple of times. The spotter can bust employees on anything from bad customer service, to rule violations and anywhere in between.


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## Amtrak Watcher (Sep 2, 2003)

I thought about sending a copy of my letter to Mr. Gunn to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, but especially since there are some really good trains in the system (Amtrak clearly knows how to run railroads), quickly decided against it; the problem appears to be an internal management issue. The “black sheep” suggestion from “RandyJay” is intriguing since it resembles what seemed to be official policy in some railroads just before Amtrak came on the scene. A little bit of thought tells me a “black sheep” train policy is probably not real, since some of the crews I’ve recently seen on the Texas Eagle have been superb. It doesn’t make sense to try to kill a train with only occasional bad crews intertwined with really good ones. What’s lacking is consistency.

I explained in my letter that there appears to be more consistency in some routes, notably the Three Rivers. I also noted the apparent decrease in civil behavior among passengers, and wondered if this might be caused by nasty crew behavior, or if nasty crews come from rude and obnoxious passengers. I don’t know. I concluded by suggesting that giving all the mattresses in the sleepers a good turn through a washing machine and scrubbing the coach seats might raise the general level of civility. I went on to explain that before I decided to abandon Amtrak, I was careful to “dress up” on my frequent trips with Amtrak. Things like dressing up (instead of some of the awful and disgusting examples of dressing down I’ve seen among some passengers), and keeping things clean have amazing and beneficial effects on behavior.


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