# PDX-MTP-CHI-SAS-LAX-PDX



## pdxjim (Dec 23, 2012)

I boarded the CS #11 on December 7, car 1131 an un-refurbished Superliner II in pitiful condition. The carpets were ripped and dirty. The reading lights were out in my roomette and I had no heating control at all.

My SCA, Robin, was awesome and tracked me down to provide sparkling cider.

I was able to get lunch as I left Portland. It's fabulous crossing the Willamette River and being able to see out both windows.

The LSA was Sandy and she did a great job scheduling and keeping the diner running smoothly. My server was James, a very professional and competent guy.

The Parlour car was bad ordered and a Cross County Cafe was substituted. Flavio did a great job of hosting the wine tasting and a trivia contest.

I decided to arrive in Martinez because I got breakfast just after leaving Sacramento and the Martinez station is more comfortable and has wifi. I also had a shorter layover to catch the CZ to Iowa.

I boarded CZ #6 on December 8, car 632 which is at the rear end of the train. This car was another un-refurbished car called the Wisconsin. These old cars are Amtrak's worst way of showing first class passengers on any route that train travel is the way to go.

My SCA was Susan and she was very good and didn't mind chatting with her customers. She mentioned to me that SCA's were not allowed to change even simple light bulbs, because the electrical union was tasked with that job. She has written up issues before, but it appears the Chicago maintenance base ignores them and sends the car back out.

My roomette's door kept sliding open and I also had no heat in the room. I asked for and received another blanket.

The upper level of the car had a sewage odor at times and the bathrooms all had leaky faucets.

The California State Rail Museum provided commentary from Sacramento to Reno. I think instead of train wide, these announcements should be optional and restricted to the SSL. The content is great, but after hearing it a couple of times, it's boring.

In the diner, there was LSA Stacey, her trainee Fred, and Adrian, my server. All were competent, friendly and outgoing and really made the trip wonderful.

I met a lady in the adjoining sleeper with two "emotional support" cats in her accessible room. They were headed to Alabama via the City of New Orleans. The cats even had jackets labeling them as support animals. I'm confused why Amtrak allowed animals when their website clearly says only service animals are allowed. Some of the crew mentioned that management seems to be afraid to confront this situation because of ADA and the fear of a lawsuit if they refuse to transport an animal.

My SCA Susan and Michelle, the SCA from the adjoining car both slept in room A. Aren't they supposed to stay in room #1?

I arrived in MTP (Mount Pleasant, IA) about an hour late. A car dealer here will meet the train and rents me a car for $20/day and 18 cents/mile.

I visited family in the Cedar Rapids area and then continued to Chicago where I was to begin an AGR trip. I decided to use a two zone award and take three days to LAX on the TE and then home to PDX on the CS.

On Dec. 13, while I was waiting for #6 to Chicago, I was forced to stand in a line to get an E ticket receipt. The MTP station agent said the Zephyr conductor didn't like to scan other phones. That was pretty irritating. Due to track work, we had to board the train on the opposite side of the station. We were led out early and waited in windy, freezing weather about 17 minutes before the train arrived. I ended up in coach 611 with attendant Terrence. The car was freezing so I had to leave my jacket on.

The coach restrooms were completely filthy and one of them was inoperative because it was filled with paper and feces. How about locking the darn thing?

About an hour before we arrived in Chicago, Terrence sprayed a deodorizing spray up and down the aisles three times. It was unbelievable and gave me an instant headache.

Upon arrival in Chicago I headed for my hotel, a short walk away from Union Station. Since I didn't have lunch on the train, I walked to Giordano's and had wonderful deep dish pizza with enough left over for a snack.

On Friday Dec. 14, I walked to Union Station and found my way into the Metropolitan Lounge. After showing my Iphone ticket, the attendant told me she needed to print me another receipt because the conductor of the TE didn't like to scan other phones. Yikes, what is it with these guys hating technology?

As I boarded the TE #421 car 2130, I noticed the ice was sitting on top of the garbage can in the service area without a lid on it. I found my room #10 (the last one available when I booked this AGR trip) and found one of the seats had velcro ripped off so the seat slid easily. The curtains were also 2" shy of covering the window, so privacy wasn't easy to obtain. The floors were dirty and sticky in my room. The closet door latch wouldn't stay shut, so the door rattled. The table was sticky and had orange seeds hidden at the back.

A frantic lady with her hands full of an infant, two large bags, and a trailing toddler was outside my room and said she couldn't locate her room C. I took her bags and calmed her down and walked her to the other end of the car to her bedroom. I opened room C and surprise, there was another passenger already there. I apologized profusely and just then, the husband shows up and says "honey, we're in room E." Whew, got them settled and she grumbled that no one helped her at all.

I guess our SCA Alfredo had vanished for a few minutes. Otherwise he was very attentive and helpful until we reached San Antonio where we got a new attendant.

The upstairs bathroom had not been serviced in Chicago. It was filthy with no clean towels or paper and the garbage can was overflowing. There was water all over the floor. I mentioned this to Alfredo and to his credit, he cleaned it up.

Our LSA was Melody in a CCC and the server was Dan. I suspected Dan was smoking on board because he reeked of smoke all the time.

I took a fresh air break in Marshall TX and got to meet our cute blonde engineer as she was leaving.

After the service stop, we had a new conductor named Celeste. The crew said she ran the train "by the book", but didn't like her personality.

I ran afoul of her, when I tried to talk with her in the hall of my sleeper. She snarled, I'm busy and walked away. I said, "well, please find me in room 10 then".

She came by ten minutes later and I let her know that the PA was not functioning correctly and I had missed four announcements. She was rude and abrupt and didn't acknowledge anything as she walked away. I learned later that my SCA had also informed her the PA was inoperable and the probable source was the system in the transdorm was broken.

We arrived in San Antonio and a few of us decided to walk to the Riverwalk. Lillian, from Melbourne, Alex from Longview, WA and John from Toronto and I had a great walk between 10pm and midnight. We decided to find The Alamo and were amazed at the crowds out walking.

We returned to our sleeper, knowing that it would be moved around to prepare it for the connection to the SL. I had asked the conductor where it might be and he let me know where and what track we would find the sleeper.

We found the door locked, but luckily an Amtrak mechanic was walking by and he opened the door for us.

The next morning our new SCA Lisa lectured us for two minutes about keeping the bathrooms clean. After cleaning all the bathrooms, Lisa stored linen in one of the downstairs bathrooms and locked it for the remainder of the trip. The sleeper was completely full!

It was interesting being transported from the TE to the SL. Our sleeper was now backward, the SCA had moved the towels out of the shower, and the ice scoop had disappeared in San Antonio. I wish Amtrak would be consistent!

SCA Lisa did decorate our sleeper and the SSL with Christmas decorations. She also had a trivia contest for the entire train in the SSL with wine offered to sleeper winners and a dinner for two for coach winners. She was really a great SCA besides the previous bathroom announcements.

Corey took meal reservations and the LSA was Alan and my server was Brian. All were friendly and did their jobs well. I remembered Brian from a previous CZ trip. I had crab cakes for dinner which were fine, but the vegetables were cold. That seems to be consistent in most diners...

This was my first trip on the SL and seeing El Paso was interesting. Looking across into Mexico and my phone warning me I was on international roaming was different! The ride in the last car was nice and I didn't find it that bumpy or swaying back and forth.

We arrived into LAX early at 4:37am and were told we needed to leave the train by 6:30am or end up in the yard! I found the Starbucks and found a chair in the comfortable waiting room. The Traxx Lounge opened about 9:40am and I had some great coffee. I was checked in by a fabulous lady, Alex Long, who was welcoming, professional, and provided superb customer service. My Iphone display was enough to get me checked in for once.

I chose to walk up to track 10A rather than riding the golf carts with the red caps. I ran into my SCA Lisa from the SL who had been shanghai'd into working as a coach attendant on todays CS. She gave me a big hug. I hope they pay her lots of overtime.

I boarded car 1431 and found room 2. My room was dirty and had a SWC schedule in it. A seat back was badly stained and the floor was very dirty. The heat in my room was inoperative.

My SCA Vivian was amazing. She is absolutely the best SCA I have ever run across. Her former employer was Disney. Hmmm, maybe Amtrak should hire Disney to teach OBS what customer service is all about. Vivian kept the car spotless and when she made beds she cleaned the garbage out. Her turn down service included a mint on the pillow and she provided another blanket for me. Temperatures were low... 25 in Dunsmuir and 12 in Klamath Falls the next morning!

Vivian even provided hot lemon towel service to all her sleeper passengers.

I did some exploring and found no Parlour car again! The substitute was the original CCC car, the 37000. At least the three seated tiny tables have been replaced with booths, but I haven't found any Amtrak employees or customers who really like these cars. This one was freezing for the entire trip. Parlour meals were still being served in this car and the wine tasting was held as well.

The LSA was Valerian and my server was Zoila. They were friendly and efficient and served great food.

My server for lunch the next day was Wilma, another great Amtrak employee. I had lunch with Kevin, an extra board from the EB and his girlfriend Queenie. It was fun to share Amtrak stories with him.

We were stopped for about 20 minutes off the runway at Vandenburg AFB. I had a birds eye view and watched and filmed a C5A Galaxy doing touch and goes.

I woke up the next morning and we were about 1.5 hours down so we got to see Mt. Shasta in daylight. Arrived in Klamath Falls to find snow on the ground and 12 degrees. Continuing north, Klamath Lake was frozen over and the trip through the Cascades to Eugene was wonderful since about two feet of new snow had fallen.

I arrived about an hour late into Portland and walked to the MAX stop (light rail) in Old Town. It was cold and raining so I boarded the first train and then realized it wasn't going all the way to Hillsboro. A nice fare inspector suggested that I just wait in the Zoo underground station for the next train to Hillsboro. I took that advice and was out of the rain... only waited a few minutes and to my home station in about 45 minutes.

I consistently find dirty rooms, dirty bathrooms and poor maintenance. All of the SCA's told me they write up mechanical issues, but the shops just keep sending the cars back out.

I still had a great time... you meet the most amazing people on the train.


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## JayPea (Dec 23, 2012)

Great report! I'm glad you didn't let the mechanical and cleanliness issues spoil your trip.


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## Bob Dylan (Dec 23, 2012)

Sounds like the New Boss in CHI hasnt been doing any MBWA (Management by Walking Around)and the Infamous CHI Yard Crews

are still Not doing their Jobs Properly! The Superliner Sleepers that havent been Rehabbed are getting pretty Ratty as you said! Youd think that the Premium Routes like the CS and CZ wouldnt get these Dogs! 

Sounds like the PPCs are being Bad Ordered More and More  , these Jewels won't be around too much longer @ this Rate! Ashamed amtrak can't buy or Lease some more of the Old Santa Fe cars and make more PPCs, there are Several available, some in STL IINM! :unsure:

At least you had Good OBS most of the way, met Good People and had Interesting Scenery! I'd suggest you call Customer Relations with your concerns, nothing gets done @ Amtrak without Customer Complaints!


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## NETrainfan (Dec 24, 2012)

Interesting trip report. Heating issues and bathroom problems can sure put a damper on a trip-but looks like you made the best of it.


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## OlympianHiawatha (Dec 24, 2012)

The Chicago make-ready crews are notorious for poorly under-servicing equipment as you discovered on your _*Texas Eagle/Sunset Limited*_ Sleeper. On my last trip on the through Sleeper I discovered they don't bother to look under the seats as when we were pulling into LAX I got down on all fours to check if I had lost anything down there and discovered a very nice gift bag from Chicago with 2 Industrial Size Hershey Bars inside! In that case I couldn't complain


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## greatcats (Dec 24, 2012)

Gosh, I have had better luck with decent equipment and cleanliness than your trip on my recent journeys. Amtrak may be stretched, but the excuses for some of what you describe run pretty thin. I would give them an earful of complaints, with multiple copies sent. You may get a voucher out of it, justifiably so.


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## ScottRu (Dec 27, 2012)

Thanks for the report, pdxjim. I'm _really_ impressed with your attitude in the face of miserable accomodations. Three cheers!


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## Blackwolf (Dec 30, 2012)

Indeed, the cars are consistently going back on the road without being properly serviced or repaired. With the aide of a veteran SCA who knows first-hand how badly maintained the cars are, we used the crash kit crow bars from both the 0631 and 0632 sleepers to repair the broken tray table in my roomette just this month. You would be absolutely revolted to see what the wall looks like behind the table assembly... Just GROSS!

Now, just think of this when traveling aboard Viewliner's with the toilet en-suite with you? If normal roomettes are that disgusting, there are no bounds to ones with a head installed beside the seat! :excl:

(Sorry, that's my university micro-biology class kicking in. Carry on!)


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## AlanB (Dec 30, 2012)

Big difference for cleaning between a wall hidden behind a table that requires tools to remove and the exposed surfaces around the toilet.


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