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Something similar happened to me. When I was boarding, my room was in car 10, but I boarded through car 11. He came screaming at me and threatened me, and the next morning, he refused to let me off the train at my stop and yelled again. The next trip, when he saw me board, he came to my room...

Well, from BNSF’s perspective: it owns the name Northern Pacific and someone wants to make money from the name Northern Pacific; shouldn’t BNSF get its share? I guess if I ever make money using my screen name, Norfolk Southern may come calling…

If I’m understanding correctly, Amtrak doesn’t have a supervisor of customer-facing staff on its trains. There isn’t a boss onboard to watch over those employees. It seems basic that if an employee isn’t supervised, s/he will not do the best job possible. In your office, when the boss is...

Bonuses and pay increases would come out of “profits”. Since tax dollars would pay for infrastructure and equipment and part of operations, “profits” would be counted as the increase in operating revenues above a baseline. Any self-starter would like that.

Amtrak’s funding should be changed so that Amtrak, and all of its staff, are incentivized to improve. Pay for performance. Maybe have tax dollars fund infrastructure and equipment and 10% of operating losses and leave Amtrak to cover the rest, and let Amtrak employees be paid more based on...

Amtrak really needs to adopt a standby policy, allowing people to take other trains on the same day and same route for which they have a ticket. On American Airlines, if I’m going from NY to Boston, I can get a confirmed seat (or go standby if no seats are definitely available) on any other...

Thanks. No wonder they went out of business.

Was private railroads’ sleeping car staffing structured similar to how Amtrak staffs trains: * one attendant per sleeping car * no general supervisor of onboard services onboard a train It seems like Amtrak is very labor-intensive onboard its trains. I haven’t ridden a European night train in...

How so? It was a pretty unpleasant situation, and it’s a sincere question.

This is correct re: the Crescent. On my last trip, in between being yelled at by a sleeping car attendant at the start and end of my trip, I walked to the cafe car once. All of the tables were taken up by on-board staff. Why do passengers have to stay in their rooms and can’t stay in the cafe...

How much authority do individual Amtrak employees such as sleeping car attendants and cafe car attendants have to kick passengers off trains and have them arrested, or otherwise have over passengers? On a plane, I believe that if you disobey a flight attendant, you can be arrested. But on...

No, I am not going to report it. I said repeatedly that I was fine and didn’t need anything, but the attendant did come to my room-twice-to tell me that I wasn’t correct and to explain why. The staff member seemed irritated and wanted to win the discussion but I refused to engage. I think...

The Acela issue wasn’t worth reporting. Everyone needs to be given some slack in case the person is just having a bad day or something. The most recent one, where the same sleeping car attendant yelled when I was boarding and yelled and wouldn’t have let me off when I was departing, will get...

Agreed. A big portion of train expenses is from locomotive fuel and maintenance, and running 2 locomotives on a short train adds to the cost. 2 locomotives on a Piedmont or 7-car Crescent is a lot. I understand why it’s done, but it’s inefficient.

I was walking in between the business class car and the first class car and let the staff member know that I had a first class ticket. Also, to respond to another post about employees needing to know that the right people are getting off: one time I was in a sleeping car and had a work...

A scene of everyone boarding in a different car isn’t happening, so pretending it is isn’t a valid argument. On every train, there may be a few people who board a different car. That’s the issue to address. I don’t know if same-car-only boarding is Amtrak policy or not, but I’ve done it a few...

Thanks, everyone. Thanks to your feedback, now I can see why Amtrak would want people to board and get off from the car where they are assigned. If this is a policy (is it?), then Amtrak ought to consider putting a note on tickets: “Please board the train at car 1234”. If people board the...

Update I was getting off my sleeping car this morning. I saw a passenger in the vestibule, so I stood at the entrance to the vestibule, a few moments before arriving (at a station with low-level platforms). The car attendant saw me and started yelling, “Your attendant is in the other car! Get...

Thanks. The attendant at the other car was a different attendant, but on the Crescent, every time, including this trip, the conductor (another person) has knocked on my door and scanned my ticket. And tickets are scanned again (by the conductor knocking on your door and asking for your ticket)...

It sounds like you weren’t upset and I wouldn’t be upset either. On the Crescent, the menu has been wrong for at least a month (I’ve taken several trips) and when I ordered an entree and was given something else, I didn’t make an issue; I just asked if I had been given the right meal and said...