# Return Trip on the CZ #6



## RailFanLNK (Jul 21, 2007)

When I arrived with my "party" into GSC I always take time to look at there small but really cool railroad musuem. The musuem was staffed by the volunteer "Greg" and I found a book that was in an unpacked box titled: "Taking The Morning Train" by George Scheer. It had a chapter about the CZ that I was really wanting to read, unfortunately they don't let non-members check out or borrow the books. Greg looked at my dispointment and said, "look, if you promise to bring it back Sunday or Monday...please feel free to take it and read the chapter on the CZ." It was so nice of him so I did. I returned it on Monday to find Amtrak employee "Susan" (a gem of an employee) tell me, "Greg called and there not opening the musuem today, he says to keep it all week and return it when you depart GSC on Thursday." That was so nice so I got to read the whole book. It was a good read, I have read better books but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Our return trip went good but not great. The #6 was about 1hr 45min late. It was "on time" for most of the trip until about 12:30pm (we were departing around 1:30pm) so we were "packed and ready to go". We stayed our final night at the Hotel Denver right across from the GSC train station. Very old and rustic hotel overlooking the Colorado River and the train station. The hotel let us store our bags after check-out and let us sit in there lobby til 2pm or so. Their lobby is air-conditioned and the GSC station is not. We whiled away the time dozing, train watching etc. A neat compliment I heard from my girlfriends daughters was this: I said, "you know, I'm probably the only one looking forward to the trip back home since we are taking the train." And both girls blurted out, "no your not, we are looking forward to that part too!" So that made me feel good. Usually, the end of vacation either flying or driving just sucks so bad since its the "end" of vacation. :angry:

We had a nice surprise at the GSC train station. The #5 and #6 come in real close together so we had moved out of the Hotel Denver to the station to watch the #5 come in. Walking up to us was the one and only "Mike" the station manager of LNK's Amtrak station. He had boarded the CZ with his kids and was going to GSC for a couple of days. Mike has helped us so much on this trip and he was hard to recognize wearing "street clothes"....he's just a real good guy. The conductor on the #6 was the one and only "Lester" who was the very first person I ever experienced Amtrak with other than the CSR on the telephone. So finding out Lester was our Conductor to DEN made for a real good trip. He remembered me after I introduced myself as "Al from LNK" and proceeded to make our trip go well on the way back. We were seated in the lower level "handicapped" section which I thought was "odd". But it was the only place on the sold out train that had 4 seats together. I ended up really liking be down below. Yes, the sightseeing wasn't as good, but I have taken this trip quite a bit now. The bathrooms were close, we didn't lug our bags upstairs, it was easy to de-train and real easy to sleep with hardly no one moving through the area.

Our coach attendent was "Brian", a middle aged man who was courteous and helpful, allthough we didn't see him much since we were downstairs. The lounge car attendent was Rafael, really nice and helpful. We enjoyed the "solitude" of the lower level and when we went upstairs the train was packed. A tour group was onboard and I saw a guy wearing and "IH-Case" hat. (farm equipment) I asked him if he "used" "IH-Case" and he said "yes". I asked him where he was from and he stated: "Grand Island NE", I then asked if he knew my now deceased dad and he said, "Les sold me farm equipment". He knew my dad well since my dad worked at the implement dealership that was printed on his hat. It made me feel good with the compliments he paid my dad.

I was looking forward to dinner in the dining car when the LSA announced that she was going to be going through the train and accepting reservations. About 1 hour later no one had come down to the lower level coach seating area and I was getting a little nervous knowing how full the train was. I walked upstairs and found her. I asked if she had taken reservations from the lower level coach seating area and she was downright RUDE! I apologized and said, "no one has come down to that area and I just don't want to be left out. " She said she was going to be down in one minute. In about 15 minutes she arrived and asked, "how many?" And I replied "four", she then asked, "what time would you like to make a dinner reservation?" So I said "5pm" She said, "we don't have any space left." I said, "5:30pm", she replied again, with "no space", I then said, "6:30pm" Same reply, so...I said, "what time do you have left?" And she was rude and said, "7:30pm is the only time I have left!" I said, "7:30pm it is, see you then!" :unsure: Ok......why was I asked what time I wanted to eat in the Dining Car when there was only one time left to go eat?!? :angry: So this started a succession of "bad vibes" for the next 4 hours or so. The Dining Car was understaffed and the 7:30pm reservation slots got moved back to 8pm. We arrived at 8pm after hearing our name called. We were then seated by the rude employee and then was asked 3 more times if I was the "Simpson party of 4" and I would reply "no, Al party of 4". We were never given menu's but given our salads. When the waiter (rude employee #2) came to "take our order" we didn't know what we could order since we were never given menu's. That seemed to make him mad. Give us menu's and we will be able to "order off the menu". Pretty simple! :angry: I was then informed that the special "Country Fried Steak" was sold out. So I was kinda bummed but ordered the Roasted Chicken instead. During this time, other patrons were being seated and the "rude employees" were having a heyday being....well....RUDE! People were wandering around grabbing/sharing butter, ranch dressing, creams for coffee since there tables either didn't have any, or the waiter was deciding he didn't have time to bring them. Our food was luke warm, my girlfriends daughter order pizza, asked the waiter, "what kind?" and he replied, "pepperoni" and she was served a "supreme" pizza much to her dislike. Our waiter never smiled, joked, asked if we needed anything, made one bit of conversation. NOTHING! Then, it took like 20 minutes to get our deserts, then about 10 minutes to pay for the substandard meal with my Amtrak CC. We were the very last people in the Diner and THEY seemed mad at us for "taking up space" while they tried to prepare the car for breakfast. We wouldn't STILL be sitting there if we hadn't been pushed back 30 minutes on our reservation, been given no menu's to order from, waited an additional 30 minutes for desert and our check. Then...get this...it gets real good here: We are downstairs in our lower level coach seats, its about 10:15pm and the rude waiter comes down to use the restroom, opens up the door in the lower level coach seating and waves to us and speaks to us, "you all have a good night, thanks alot!" :unsure: :unsure: :huh: My "party" of four just looked at each other and when he walked up the steps we started laughing!!!!! :lol: Did he just take some "happy drugs" or what!?! In our waiter's defense, the dining car was understaffed and he was running his butt off, the LSA I really don't know what her job was but she did absolutely nothing other than take reservations and screw them up.

On our small service stop in DEN most of the train departed and then the train filled right back up to the gills in DEN. So that was a good sign. Also, when the conductor who was taking over in DEN came downstairs to see where we were getting off at, there was a hall light that was so bright that shined into the handicapped seating. We asked him if we could either turn it off or something. He told us very kindly that the light can't be turned off but that he would try to help us out. About 20 minutes later he taped some paper over the annoying light and that was just a real nice gesture. 

When we were about to arrive LNK about 2 1/2 hours late, Brian our coach attendent came down and made for sure we were all awake. He was very nice and he said something I will never forget. He tried to apologize a little for the late arrival but said something that really made sense to me: "you know, if you don't have anything going right at this moment, its so much better de-training at 7:30am then 5am." And thats so true. I got more sleep this way and hadn't looked at it in this light before. So no, the #6 wasn't bad, just the Dining Crew. It was just a tad bit of a bummer because my party of "4" was really diggin' Amtrak and thought it was great. I had warned them about timeliness and abrasive employees but we had none of that on the #5. Lester the Conductor on the #6 came down an joked around with us as we were pulling out of GSC, the Coach Attendent was good and so was the Lounge Car attendent. The Dining Crew was turdville but unfortunately you seem to remember the bad and forget the good. So when my group has brought this up in the last 24 hours, I tell them to remember the "Reggie Howard's, Aleshia (LSA on the #5) Ryan (asst. conductor #5) The Lester's, Brians and Rafaels, not the LSA and waiter of the #6.


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## AmtrakCrescent20 (Jul 21, 2007)

Glad the trip on #5 went well. Hopefully, despite the bad dining car crew, the three others are now also "Amtrak fans"!


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## RailFanLNK (Jul 21, 2007)

You know Crescent....I really think they are. One of the daughters watched a DVD on the original CZ with me last night. It had so much extensive history about the CZ and its demise in the late '60's. She watched it very intently. I have drilled into them how good everything else was. Also, we had poor service at a restaurant in GSC that I really "raved" about. So it happens everywhere, but and this is a big BUT, if the Dining Crew hadn't been so surly on the #6, it would have been just a plain fantastic trip both ways.


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## TVRM610 (Jul 21, 2007)

Sounds just like the dining car crew I had on my last north-bound trip on the crescent. Maybe they got transfered out to the zephyr? (Wishful thinking on my part, there is only one bad dining car crew in all of amtrak right?). It really is amazing how you can go from one extreme to the other. Great food and Great Service going South, and Bad food and Bad Service Going North. Oh well... I guess some things never change.


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## Railroad Bill (Aug 9, 2007)

TVRM610 said:


> Sounds just like the dining car crew I had on my last north-bound trip on the crescent. Maybe they got transfered out to the zephyr? (Wishful thinking on my part, there is only one bad dining car crew in all of amtrak right?). It really is amazing how you can go from one extreme to the other. Great food and Great Service going South, and Bad food and Bad Service Going North. Oh well... I guess some things never change.


We just returned from a two week trip aboard the EB westbound and CZ eastbound. Talk about night and day in the diner. The EB staff was excellent, friendly, efficient and made the trip, despite the mechanical problems on our train, a most enjoyable experience.

On the other hand, we must have had the same dining car crew you mentioned on the CZ coming home. They made us feel like we shouldnt eat in the diner (we were sleeper passengers!!). Actually yelled at my wife when she asked about our reservations. (Reservations were to be for 7:15PM and it was 9 PM) Some of our fellow passengers didnt eat until 10PM or gave up and had some crackers from the lounge car. Food was generally pretty good but the staff let it be known they wanted to be somewhere else. The LSA was never around and the dining car stewart told us all she was applying for a new job. (We can only hope)

The scenery on the CZ is remarkable and was well worth the unpleasant experience with the dining car crew. But Amtrak needs to address these problems or some less patient than us will be riding for the last time. We are going back on the CZ westbound this winter and only hope we get a different group in the diner..

Railroad Bill


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## AmtrakWPK (Aug 9, 2007)

If you haven't already done so, please send a detailed report, with dates, reserviaton numbers, names of staff, etc., to Amtrak, and let us know the response. If they don't get complaints about it they can't fix it. Be the squeaky wheel!!


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## AlanB (Aug 19, 2007)

Railroad Bill said:


> The LSA was never around and the dining car stewart told us all she was applying for a new job. (We can only hope)


The dining car steward is the old name for the LSA position. That is the person in charge of the dining car and the onboard service crew.


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## AmtrakCrescent20 (Aug 19, 2007)

AlanB said:


> Railroad Bill said:
> 
> 
> > The LSA was never around and the dining car stewart told us all she was applying for a new job. (We can only hope)
> ...


Actually, when I was on the Texas Eagle last Christmas, the dining car LSA referred to himself as the "steward in the dining car" numerous times during announcements. Also, isn't the "lounge car attendant" an LSA too?


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## AlanB (Aug 19, 2007)

AmtrakCrescent20 said:


> AlanB said:
> 
> 
> > Railroad Bill said:
> ...


Well again, Steward used to be the title many years ago and I guess that some prefer that title over LSA. Maybe even to distiguish them from the lounge car attendant. I too have heard many of them refer to themselves the Steward. But Amtrak considers them to be the Lead Service Attendant and nothing more.

And yes, the lounge car attendant is also considered an LSA position. Any employee who handles money and saleable inventory on the train, outside of a conductor, must be a LSA. That's one reason that the PPC's don't have attendants anymore, because that post was staffed by an LSA which demmands a higher pay level.


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## Guest (Aug 21, 2007)

rail rookie said:


> When I arrived with my "party" into GSC I always take time to look at there small but really cool railroad musuem. The musuem was staffed by the volunteer "Greg" and I found a book that was in an unpacked box titled: "Taking The Morning Train" by George Scheer. It had a chapter about the CZ that I was really wanting to read, unfortunately they don't let non-members check out or borrow the books. Greg looked at my dispointment and said, "look, if you promise to bring it back Sunday or Monday...please feel free to take it and read the chapter on the CZ." It was so nice of him so I did. I returned it on Monday to find Amtrak employee "Susan" (a gem of an employee) tell me, "Greg called and there not opening the musuem today, he says to keep it all week and return it when you depart GSC on Thursday." That was so nice so I got to read the whole book. It was a good read, I have read better books but I thoroughly enjoyed it.Our return trip went good but not great. The #6 was about 1hr 45min late. It was "on time" for most of the trip until about 12:30pm (we were departing around 1:30pm) so we were "packed and ready to go". We stayed our final night at the Hotel Denver right across from the GSC train station. Very old and rustic hotel overlooking the Colorado River and the train station. The hotel let us store our bags after check-out and let us sit in there lobby til 2pm or so. Their lobby is air-conditioned and the GSC station is not. We whiled away the time dozing, train watching etc. A neat compliment I heard from my girlfriends daughters was this: I said, "you know, I'm probably the only one looking forward to the trip back home since we are taking the train." And both girls blurted out, "no your not, we are looking forward to that part too!" So that made me feel good. Usually, the end of vacation either flying or driving just sucks so bad since its the "end" of vacation. :angry:
> 
> We had a nice surprise at the GSC train station. The #5 and #6 come in real close together so we had moved out of the Hotel Denver to the station to watch the #5 come in. Walking up to us was the one and only "Mike" the station manager of LNK's Amtrak station. He had boarded the CZ with his kids and was going to GSC for a couple of days. Mike has helped us so much on this trip and he was hard to recognize wearing "street clothes"....he's just a real good guy. The conductor on the #6 was the one and only "Lester" who was the very first person I ever experienced Amtrak with other than the CSR on the telephone. So finding out Lester was our Conductor to DEN made for a real good trip. He remembered me after I introduced myself as "Al from LNK" and proceeded to make our trip go well on the way back. We were seated in the lower level "handicapped" section which I thought was "odd". But it was the only place on the sold out train that had 4 seats together. I ended up really liking be down below. Yes, the sightseeing wasn't as good, but I have taken this trip quite a bit now. The bathrooms were close, we didn't lug our bags upstairs, it was easy to de-train and real easy to sleep with hardly no one moving through the area.
> 
> ...


Rail Rookie:

Please give me your departure date on your trip. I assume you left from LNK on #5 and traveled to

GSC & returned on #6 to LNK.


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## Guest (Aug 21, 2007)

Sorry for the bad experience. My family and I had a wonderful trip westbound to GSC from Chicago. Great sleeping car attendant, good food, everyone courteous. Train was a couple of hours late into GSC, but that was OK. My first long-distance trip on Amtrak, not my last.


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## RailFanLNK (Aug 21, 2007)

My departure date from LNK was 7/14 and my departure date from GSC was 7/19. It was the crew on the #6 that sucked. (dining crew)

Al


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