Bad Amtrak customer service and maintenance- Disastrous Calif. Zephyr

[JoeBas]

On the 'good' side of customer service... on some NEC regional trains.

Color me shocked.

 

[PVD]

Last few NERs I've been on have had the enroute cleaner and the new seat covers and carpet. It makes a big difference in the overall experience.

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

I agree--it was a nice surprise when I first saw this a while back, and I'm glad they have kept it up.

 

[PVD]

Because it is a multi level function, people use or see the phrase customer service in many ways. Sometimes, staff can try their hardest in a bad situation, but the result is still a negative experience for the customer. If you go to the diner, the most polite and prompt service staff may not put a damper on the food vendor not delivering the one entree you like (or can eat) on the menu. On one level, good service but still a bad experience.

 

[jis]

Now let us see if the ejection of the corrupt DCMO from Chicago has any material effect on quality of maintenance and ability to field trains out of Chicago that are actually functional.

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

I am not good with acronyms (except the ones I see at work all the time)--what is DCMO?

 

[jis]

I believe it is Deputy Chief Mechanical Officer, the guy in charge, so to speak.

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

Thanks, jis!

 

[cpotisch]

I find it surprising that it's only being deployed on the Regionals. I would have expected that for such a short ride, en route cleaning wouldn't be worth it or necessary.

 

[cpotisch]

Because it is a multi level function, people use or see the phrase customer service in many ways. Sometimes, staff can try their hardest in a bad situation, but the result is still a negative experience for the customer. If you go to the diner, the most polite and prompt service staff may not put a damper on the food vendor not delivering the one entree you like (or can eat) on the menu. On one level, good service but still a bad experience.

Exactly. Even with the crew trying their hardest, there can still be circumstances completely beyond their control. Just because something sucky happened doesn't mean that Amtrak was negligent or the staff did something wrong.

 

[jis]

I find it surprising that it's only being deployed on the Regionals. I would have expected that for such a short ride, en route cleaning wouldn't be worth it or necessary.

Clearly you do not ride on the Regionals too often either

A Virginia to Boston Regional is a pretty long run as such things go.

 

[bmjhagen9426]

I had a broken AC in my roomette compartment a year and a half ago on the Chief out of Chicago headed to LA. It was taped off. Despite the broken AC, it was fine as it was during the dead of winter for the three day trip.

 

[cpotisch]

I find it surprising that it's only being deployed on the Regionals. I would have expected that for such a short ride, en route cleaning wouldn't be worth it or necessary.

Clearly you do not ride on the Regionals too often either

A Virginia to Boston Regional is a pretty long run as such things go.

Yep. Around 14 hours for 65/66/67. That's still significantly shorter than any LD train, which are notorious for getting filthy well into the trip.

 

[jis]

I find it surprising that it's only being deployed on the Regionals. I would have expected that for such a short ride, en route cleaning wouldn't be worth it or necessary.

Clearly you do not ride on the Regionals too often either

A Virginia to Boston Regional is a pretty long run as such things go.

Yep. Around 14 hours for 65/66/67. That's still significantly shorter than any LD train, which are notorious for getting filthy well into the trip.

That is a different business unit with much more perilous finances per Amtrak's strange accounting system. But it is what it is. Amtrak NEC is a very distinct company from Amtrak National. I thought you of all people would know that by now? At least enough to be not surprised by this sorts of actions?

 

[PVD]

The NER trains can be very busy at times, with quite a bit of turnover enroute. Also, they run with a very limited staff, Conductor, A/C, LSA for cafe. No coach attendant(s). On LD trains the coach attendants are responsible for the cleanliness of the restrooms, not fulfilling their responsibilities is part of the ongoing issue with enroute services having very little oversight, but having a cleaner on a really busy train makes a big difference.

 

[user 1215]

Now let us see if the ejection of the corrupt DCMO from Chicago has any material effect on quality of maintenance and ability to field trains out of Chicago that are actually functional.

Maybe too soon? VP DCMO, Morrell Savoy still shows active on Linked In. Been at Amtrak for 27 years! BUT - He only took that job in December 2017. He was director of operations before that.
If I were to extort money, embezzle, or take gifts, I'd make sure that my underlings were getting their job done. Easier to hide extra money when the job is getting done, than it is to get too much money with nothing to show for it.

 

[Trogdor]

Now let us see if the ejection of the corrupt DCMO from Chicago has any material effect on quality of maintenance and ability to field trains out of Chicago that are actually functional.

It won't, because the guy who was in that position was only there for a few months, and used to be on the transportation/ops side (and actually did a pretty good job, was instrumental in getting things like Thanksgiving extras to Michigan and additional capacity during peak periods on regional trains out of Chicago*). The Chicago mechanical problems date back decades. I doubt he even had any impact on mechanical in the short time he was there.

*Side note: Back in 2010/2011 (don't remember the year) when AU had a gathering in St. Louis with a side-trip to Kansas City, a number of members discovered that the River Runner was sold out on the day we were going, thanks to a festival going on somewhere in the middle of the route. This particular person wound up adding four coaches to the train to enable not only AU, but also many other festival goers to ride the train. Most folks in Chicago management back then wouldn't have even noticed the ridership spike and let the two-coach train run sold out.

 

[Larry H.]

A few years ago we took the Zephyr and the toilets refused to work in the sleeper for most of the day. The attendent would go down and do something that made them work for a bit but then they kept quitting. He said it had been that way in high altitudes ever since they supposedly redid the plumbing vacuum pump system. But instead of replacing the two existing they decided they could get along with one, and that causes them to fail on a regular basis. We had the same thing on the return by the Southwest Chief. Amtrak did refund us a pretty good amount which we used for another trip to NY latter the next season. On one of the trains the toilets eventually quit working in several of the sleepers! That was something they knew was wrong but took no positive actions to fix it properly. I nearly forgot that the air in my moms bedroom didn't work right either and it was very hot on her end and on the end with the roomettes it was almost cold!