# My Amtrak trip to Oregon and back



## cheapfurcoat (Oct 27, 2004)

My Amtrak trip to Oregon and back

or

(Now I know why duct tape is silver)

We arrived at Cleveland Amtrak Station about 3:45 AM for the expected arrival of train 29 the Capitol Limited. The train was running late as usual and as such, we got to witness a rare event in Cleveland. Two passenger trains at the station at the same time. The Lakeshore Limited had come in first followed by 29. Both late. The LSL by a bunch.

We boarded and found seats in Coach. The coach car was the first car on the train and was directly behind the locomotives. It reeked of diesel fumes and only got worse as we increased in speed. I eventually got curious and walked up to the door to see the locos and discovered that the seal on the end door was so bad that someone had attempted to duct tape it shut. Hence the diesel fumes. Our eyes were pretty red by the time we got to Chicago.

We did have a good breakfast in the dining car and arrived in Union Station 55 minutes late at about 10:30AM CT.

We killed some time in Chicago before the expected departure of our train 27 the westbound Empire Builder to Portland, Oregon.

At boarding time 2:10 PM CT, it was announced that there was a problem with our dining car and there would be a 45 minute delay in boarding. This delay eventually turned into a 4 hour delay. It would have been OK, except that they kept stringing us along with 30 minute and 45 minute updates. Had they told us we would be 4 hours late we could have walked around Chicago for a while.

At 6:30PM CT we were finally on the rails and moving. We had found our Family Bedroom ourselves as there seemed to be no car attendant for our car. The Family Bedroom is in the lower level of the Superliner Sleeper. It is as wide as the car and has windows on both sides accordingly. It has four beds. Two for adults that run across the car and two shorter beds for kids. Each is a upper and lower bunk configuration that all fold into day seating completely across the entire room.

About an hour later, our car attendant (Jarmell) introduced himself to us. Told us to ring him if we needed anything.

We dined in the Dining Car that evening. Met a woman from Vancouver, WA that we dined with for the entire trip to Portland. She really took a shine to my son and vice-versa.

At about 9:00PM we retired to our bedroom fully expecting the beds to have been folded out for us. Wrong...

Had to ring for Jarmell. Waited 30 minuted, rang again. Waited 15 more minutes and then went looking for him. Found him in the Lounge Car on his "break".

Half an hour later he showed up to make our beds up for us. Alas we were tired and immediately went to bed.

About 11:30 PM I woke up in my upper bunk. It had to be 95 degrees in our room.

I checked the floor heaters, they were off. The heat was coming from the air conditioning vents in the ceiling.

I rang for Jarmell again, and again we waited and again I had to get dressed and go look for him.

I found an Amtrak crew member who found Jarmell, who finally showed up to fix the problem. He explained to me that this particular car's air system had a problem with over compensating when the outside temperature falls.

The next morning we awoke to a still very warm room. We had breakfast and spent some time in the Lounge Car. While looking up through the roof windows, I noticed that many of the trim panels in the Lounge Car were loose and had been taped back up with duct tape with varying degrees of success.

We had lunch and dinner in the diner while enjoying the scenery. At Stanley, North Dakata, the train left a woman behind at the station who had gotten off the train to make a phone call. We actually saw her running after the train on the curve. The Conductor told us that she will have to "Catch tomorrow's westbound train at her own expense."

Our second evening found us in the Marias Pass area. The scenery is beautiful in this area.

At least I'm told it is. Too bad our train was 5 hours behind schedule and it was now too dark to see any of it.

We did see a movie in the Lounge Car and then went back to our room which was incidently, the last car on the train. Again our beds hadn't been touched so I just did them myself. Planned to watch as much of the Marias pass area from our dark room as possible. It was snowing when I settled down for bed.

This time it was about 1:00AM that we awoke to the stifeling heat. I Rang for Jarmell, waited...

Got dressed to go looking for him and stepped out the door only to find several other passengers poking their heads out of their rooms or with their compartment doors open for air. Which even out in the hall was only slightly cooler. Two other passengers and myself trodded through the whole train looking for somebody to help us. I finally found the Conductor in the- (you guessed it) Lounge Car. By this time I was pretty steamed both literally and figuratively.

I told him that if he didn't get somebody to fix the problem I was going to start popping out emergency windows for some air. By the time we got back to our Sleeper Car the Conductor had radioed another crew member to deal with the problem. This crew member was a young woman and told us that again, there was a problem with over-compensation.

I told her to just turn it off and pass out extra blankets to passengers that were cold.

The next morning found us in the scienic Columbia River Gorge. By the end of breakfast, the whole train had heard about our plight back in the sleeper. I went into the bathroom to get cleaned up for our arrival. The bathrooms in our sleeper were absoloutely filthy and obviously had never been touched by the attendant for the entire trip. The towels and paper towels were gone along with ice and bottled water.

We arrived in Portland, Oregon 5 hours and 5 minutes late at 2:15 PM PT. We got our bags and walked 1 1/4 miles to the Budget Car Rental downtown only to find that they had closed at 2PM.

After a $30.00 Cab ride to Portland Airport to rent a car, we were on our way to Klamath Falls, Oregon. My place of birth.

Rented a Ford Taurus which drove very nicely. Too bad the airport Budget office didn't have the 4 wheel drive Ford Escape we origionally reserved at the downtown office. We would need it before the night was over.

The drive south was pretty. As we cut across the Cascade Mountains the snow started at about 3500 feet. By 4500 feet it was 3 inches deep on the roads. When we got down below snow level again we stopped for gas. The station had full service at no additional cost to the gas. We joked about when the last time was that someone pumped our gas for us.

We got to our Motel, a Motel 6 in Klamath Falls about 11:00 PM PT. Our room was clean and nice and before I went to sleep I turned the air conditioning on full blast. It was 40 degrees outside but we didn't care.

The next morning, we went for breakfast and then found a Wal-Mart to buy our son a heavier coat than the one we packed. Then we headed for Crater Lake.

At 4500 feet the snow started falling. A sign said that the east and west crater rim roads were still open so we continued on. When we arrived at the rim (7100 feet) it was a whiteout. We could see nothing. The Park Service was in the process of closing the park for the season.

Got some really nice post cards of what Crater Lake looks like though...

The rest of the day we explored Klamath Falls and that night we did some laundry at a launramat. Klamath Falls was a disappointment and we decided to scrap plans for a ride to California the next day because the weather down there was bad. Decided to drive to Oregon's Pacific Coast. Came to the conclusion that the interior of Oregon was pretty much like West Virginia, only without the in-breeding and cousin marrying.

The next morning, we ate and headed west for the coast. In Eugene,I pulled into a gas station and got out of the car, swiped my credit card at the pump, opened the fuel door and grabbed the nozzel only to have some guy run up to me and franticly ask me what I was doing. He explained to me that it is against the law to pump your own fuel in the State of Oregon. I was incredulous. He told me that there was some ridiculous fine if you are caught. Never did get a good explanation the whole time we were there as to the reason for this law. We guessed it was to employ more folks in a state that does have a high un-employment rate.

The ride to the coast was very beautiful. When we got to the coast it was even better. The waves were whipped up by a storm offshore and to the south of us. We stopped at several scienic overlooks and some gift shops. Seemed sobering to see signs posted stating that we were entering tsunami zones.

Our room was in Lincoln City. A new prototype Motel 6 that was more like a hotel. The room was big and comfortable. We ate at an italian resturant and then slept. Wednesday morning, we ate breakfast and headed for Portland to catch our train back east.

Our train was to depart Portland at 4:45 PM PT. It did depart on time but imediately fell behind schedule. As soon as we crossed the bridge over the Columbia River into Washington State, we stopped at a red signal. We were sitting in the lounge car when the Conductor told us that the reason we were stopped was to let the Daylight steamer

#4449 pass. Sure enough about a half an hour later it did, and I managed to get it on film as it whizzed by.

Dinner that night came from the Lounge car. The Dining Car for our train originates from the Seattle portion of the train and does not get connected to our train until we get to Spokane late that night.

Our car attendant this time Pat, was a breath of fresh air. She was so different from the westbound attendant. There was always fresh coffee, ice, bottled water, soda and orange juice. The bathrooms were kept spotless.

One cannot ride in an Amtrak car for any great length of time without getting the feeling that just about everything around you is worn out and/or on the verge of breaking down.

Rattles, clunks, squeaks. Just about everything that comes in contact with human hands is either threadbare or paint worn. While standing next to our car at one of the longer stops

on our eastbound trip, I noticed that several outer equipment access doors were duct taped closed. It hides very well on the stainless steel skin and I almost didn't see it.

We slept in comfort that night. Even the track seemed smoother. Before we nodded off to sleep we talked about how good it will be to have a hot breakfast in the Dining Car the next morning.

Thursday morning we slept in a bit. It was 8:30AM MT when we got up. We were all very hungry for breakfast and I went upstairs to get some coffee and orange juice when I ran into our car attendant Pat. She had a rather sullen look on her face when she said, "You're going to hate me when I tell you that there is no Dining Car on this train".

It seems that our dining car caught fire before it left Seattle and was left there with no substitute. Instead, we had stopped in Stinkwater, Idaho and had cold Subway sandwiches delivered to the train for breakfast. Yum...

At lunch, the crew brought cold fried chicken which was soggy to the point of possible fungal growth. We passed on the chicken and decided that it would be better to be hungry than to be barfing all the way home. Instead I went to the Lounge Car cafe. The first trip forward that day. It was mobbed and they were sold out of most everything. To top it off it smelled like a cattle car. There were some folks that "camped out" in the Lounge the night before, that had been to a George W. Bush rally to protest it. I felt very frustrated because this was not our attendant's fault. The Conductor did not want to hear about it either. We had no choice but to either eat what they got for us or go hungry. So for dinner that night we dined on a sack lunch that they brought on consisting of a ham sandwich, bag of chips, an apple and cup of yogurt. At least it seemed fresh.

Again, yum...

Friday morning we awoke very hungry. Our breakfast which was really lunch by the time we got it was KFC. Now I really got excited about this as I like KFC until I opened the bag to see a box of chicken so eroded from the grease that the box itself was disintegrating. ...Pass!

As the train neared Chicago that afternoon, Pat cleaned our room for the next westbound trip. She really did an excellent job of keeping things stocked and clean. She appologized profusely for the lack of a dining car. We knew it was not her fault and told her so, complimented her on her service and tipped her well for the fine job she did. We not only gave her her tip but the one that we had held back for the westbound attendant.

We arrived in Chicago 55 minutes late but still plenty of time to catch the eastbound Capitol Limited home. At Union Station, I stopped in at the Passenger Services office.

I told the rather snide woman there that we were very hungry from 48 hours without a hot meal and asked her for some dining car vouchers for the Capitol limited. She told me that they don't give out vouchers which I know to be an out-and-out lie. She handed me a form with the numbers of Amtrak's complaint department and such.

We boarded the Capitol Limited with Coach tickets, fully expecting the cars to be mobbed on a Friday. Such was not the case as both the eastbound Zepher and Southwest Chief were late and had missed the Chicago connection. The train departed on time and was deserted. The up side was that we got early seating in the dining car! As a matter of fact, the diner had many empty tables after the dinner call. The help in the dining car was pleasant. They had it very easy compared to the way it should have been and talked about how tomorrow night's train will be a full house.

We arrived in Cleveland at 1:25 AM, 30 minutes late. Honestly I didn't even stop to watch the train leave. That's how tired and disgusted I was.

Will I ride Amtrak again?

Probably.

If for no other reason than because they are sending me a credit for at least the dining car portion of our eastbound trip. The rest of my complaint is going before a hearing board.

I feel that they should refund the sleeping car portion of our westboung leg simply because of the non existant service in the sleeper car and the heat incidents.

We'll see...

cheapfurcoat


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## PRR 60 (Oct 27, 2004)

Wow. What a trip! Only a rail fan could take a trip like that and leave open the possibility of doing it again. The line from Animal House comes to mind: “Thank you sir, may I have another.”

It amazes me that your request for compensation has to go before a “hearing board”, whatever that is. There isn’t someone at Amtrak HQ that could simply look at your claim and make you whole? It takes a “board”? What a sorry operation!

By the way, Oregon and New Jersey are the only two states that prohibit self-serve gas, and as you found out, pumping your own gas in either state is against the law. “Just too dangerous”, is the official spin. Heavy lobbying by a trade association of small gas station owners trying to prevent market intrusion by large chain owners is the reality (at least in NJ). I curse that law every time I sit and wait for an overworked attendant to serve me when I could have done it myself and departed.


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## Steve4031 (Oct 27, 2004)

You had an awful trip to say the least. I have ridden thousands of miles on Amtrak, two or three times per year for the past 15 years and only once have I had a train with no dining car. As far as the sleeping car attendant on the WB leg, that has happened more than once to me. However, I expect that if you take anohter trip, it will go better next time.

Sorry you had such a bad experience. I hope they give you the full refund on that wb sleeping car trip.


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## AlanB (Oct 27, 2004)

PRR 60 said:


> By the way, Oregon and New Jersey are the only two states that prohibit self-serve gas, and as you found out, pumping your own gas in either state is against the law. “Just too dangerous”, is the official spin. Heavy lobbying by a trade association of small gas station owners trying to prevent market intrusion by large chain owners is the reality (at least in NJ). I curse that law every time I sit and wait for an overworked attendant to serve me when I could have done it myself and departed.


On the other hand, despite full service, NJ still has some of the cheapest gas prices in the nation. Despite living in NYC, I buy almost all of my gas in NJ, since my business travels often take me through NJ. We're talking an average of 20 cents per gallon less.

One would think having to pay someone to pump the gas would make it more expensive than the self-serve in NY, but no. They've also tried to get self-serve in NJ with the argument that it would make the gas cheaper, however I watched years ago as state after state went self-serve and the price never got cheaper.

So I'm still in favor of NJ's full service law. Of course I can't vote for it anymore.


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## AlanB (Oct 27, 2004)

Furcoat,

Thanks for the trip report, sorry that things went badly. Unfortunately, like most other things in life, one individual can make or break your trip. At least you didn't have the bad attendant on the train with no dining car!

For future reference, on a Superliner sleeper, the attendant's room is the bedroom closest to the upstairs bathroom. Of course from the sound of it, your guy was probably hiding in the crew car.

Finally, finding two trains in Cleveland at the same time isn't as unusual as you might think. I've seen it happen twice, and I don't live in Cleveleand. Unfortunately Cleveland is only a one track station, so the other train has to wait out on the main line for the first to clear.


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## Bill Haithcoat (Oct 27, 2004)

Furcoat, I am sorry you had such lousy experiences, esp. with that first attendant. At least Pat, your second attendant, did the best she could under adverse situations......it could have been worse.......you could have had the poor attendant and lack of a diner on the SAME train.

Anyway, hang in there.........know it can be much much better than what you experienced and usually is. Give it a try at least once more.

A long distance sleeping car train ride CAN be the experience of a lifetime (in a good way, that is) even with just moderate service, not even excellent. The ambience of a train---- at least when things are otherwise going smoothly---- can be a delight, and often is.

I hope you get every possible apology and compensation.


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## gswager (Oct 27, 2004)

Wow! I'm glad that you survived the trip with lazy attendant & faulty A/C westbound and no diner EB. That made me think to bring some snacks along as a "survival" in case something gone wrong in time of lean budget which unable to fix or upgrade the cars. It'll be ideal for LD trains.

I'm sure that you'll get the refund on sleeper.


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## JESUSrocks (Oct 27, 2004)

Thanks for the report

in JESUS

gavin


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## PRR 60 (Oct 27, 2004)

AlanB said:


> On the other hand, despite full service, NJ still has some of the cheapest gas prices in the nation.  Despite living in NYC, I buy almost all of my gas in NJ, since my business travels often take me through NJ.  We're talking an average of 20 cents per gallon less.


The biggest reason NJ gas is cheaper than New York or Pennsylvania is tax. The New Jersey gasoline tax, at 14.5 cents per gallon, is the fourth lowest in the nation. Only Alaska (8 cents), Georgia (12.2 cents) and Wyoming (14 cents) have lower taxes. By comparison, the New York gasoline tax is 30.3 cents per gallon and, down by my end of Jersey, the Pennsylvania tax is 26.7 cents per gallon. So, nearly 16 cents per gallon of the difference between gas in New York and New Jersey is due to taxes alone.

My argument is not price. It is convenience. Why can’t multi-island stations devote half the islands to full service and half to self service and charge the same price for each? I would use self service over full service every time. I would even pay more for self service. Why should I be made, by law, to wait for an attendant to perform a service that I can perform as well or better myself? It makes no sense. Why not outlaw ATM’s or QuikTrak machines?

That’s how I feel: I could be wrong.


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## cheapfurcoat (Oct 27, 2004)

It was my turn to plan the vacation and I planned something I had wanted to do my whole life. You know, the worst part about it was having the wife say "I told you so".

After this though I wouldn't really want to risk subjecting my family to the same experience so if there is a next time, it will be a solo trip.


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## AmtrakWPK (Oct 28, 2004)

I think I would send one more communication to Amtrak reminding them of your complaint ,reminding them that they haven't responded as yet, and include the web address of this travelogue, inviting them to read it, and indicate that there is quite a large number of folks aware of what happened and who are awaiting Amtrak's response. And quite a number from this Board also cross-post to other boards. And many of us are usually vocal Amtrak supporters who find it much more difficult to be supportive in the face of very poor service and an unresponsive customer service department on Amtrak's part. You could even invite management to post a response here. If they are aware of the publicity they might be more interested in being responsive.


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## Steve4031 (Oct 31, 2004)

cheapfurcoat said:


> It was my turn to plan the vacation and I planned something I had wanted to do my whole life. You know, the worst part about it was having the wife say "I told you so".
> 
> After this though I wouldn't really want to risk subjecting my family to the same experience so if there is a next time, it will be a solo trip.


I have taken my girl friend on a few trips that ended up not going so well. After a few six hour late trains, and a steam excursion that was a complete catastrophe, we plan trips together that do not involve railroading, and then I go alone on my train rides. That way, I can continue to enjoy the trip even if the train is late.

To be honest with you, I would not have enjoyed that trip that you had coming back with no dining car. Amtrak really dropped the ball with failing to provide adequate food for passengers. I was once on a trip with a malfunctioning diner, and they did serve us friend chicken. It was adequate, and prevented hunger. I only had to deal with this for part of one day.


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## cheapfurcoat (Nov 3, 2004)

Recieved a voucher for $358.00 today from Amtrak. The entire sleeping car ticket for 2 adults and 1 child. Should I be happy? :unsure:


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## JESUSrocks (Nov 8, 2004)

I would be

in JESUS

gavin


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## AlanB (Nov 8, 2004)

Sounds like a good deal to me. They basically refunded the entire trip's cost to you. Yes you have to take another trip to get your money, but still you got a credit for the full amount of your trip.

One can't really expect more than one paid in the first place.


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## Phil Foreman (Dec 10, 2004)

Man amI ever gladI read this! Was preparing to plan a trip from Columbus, Ohio to Lewiston , Idaho this fall via rail. Did the trip last October by car and it was a bit much on me. The idea is a ten day camp out and big game hunting trip. Thought rail travel might be more timely, reliable, convenient, and even more economical. Can not seem to find a means of obtaining a schedule or ticket prices. Anyone that can help direct me please email me at [email protected] or through www.ohiocampcooks.org. Thanks

Paws


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## EmpireBuilderFan (Dec 10, 2004)

I don't know if you're still reading this, but I'll post it anyways. While it is possible to get from Columbus, OH to Lewiston, ID via Amtrak, you'll have to ride on two Amtrak Thruway busses each way. Neither Columbus nor Lewiston is served by trains, but Amtrak does have a bus that runs from Columbus to Cleveland, and another bus that runs from Spokane, WA to Lewiston. Another option might be to drive to another station in Ohio and rent a vehicle in either Spokane or Pasco, WA (they look to be similar distance to Lewiston).


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