Unfortunately, with Amtrak you kind of have to know your own benefits (like Dining Car access).
They have a lot of great employees, but management’s record on employee training is not great and a small minority of employees will conveniently “forget” duties or customer benefits if it makes their life easier.
Truer words have never been said. I remember some years ago when the normally excellent dining car service (on a Northbound Crescent) set out paper plates and plasticware including cups, saying that "AMTRAK" had changed from the other "for SAFETY reasons". This lasted a couple of trips. I asked the AMTRAK folks in Phila, and they said "not only no, but HELL no!". Took the info about my trip and the pictures I had taken. I returned three days later and things were back to normal. One DCA attendant said "there were repercussions". It was one particular crew that didn't want to deal with dirty dishes.
Last edited: