Cleaning windows

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Mystic River Dragon said:
The irony of paying hundreds of dollars for a roomette and then having to clean your own windows (a least-favorite housework chore of many of us) just struck me.
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At least they don;t try to put a wrap on it to earn some money as they tried to do on Acelas a while back ;) They just let nature do its thing without making any money off of it. Just saving a few bucks by not bothering to clean them.
 
Upon leaving Chicago on the CZ the window in our bedroom was filthy. I later contacted Amtrak to ask why the train can't be run through the washer prior to departure as part of the servicing. I was told they always run the consist through the washer prior to servicing and returning to the station for boarding. ?????
 
Railspike said:
Upon leaving Chicago on the CZ the window in our bedroom was filthy. I later contacted Amtrak to ask why the train can't be run through the washer prior to departure as part of the servicing. I was told they always run the consist through the washer prior to servicing and returning to the station for boarding. ?????
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First off, the phone agents are legendarily ignorant of conditions in the field, especially on long distance trains. You cannot trust anything they say beyond fares and tickets.

Second, apparently several car washers are down. The one in LA apparently still works, the one at Sunnyside definitely does not. Not sure about the others.

Yes, traditionally trains were always run through the wash rack at turnaround. Like many things at Amtrak, like a lot of cars, the wash racks apparently caught COVID, too, and died of it somehow.

As of last November, they were still hand washing windows on the SW Chief at Albuquerque. That is the only train I know of where you can pretty much count on clean windows for at least part of the trip.
 
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Railspike said:
Upon leaving Chicago on the CZ the window in our bedroom was filthy. I later contacted Amtrak to ask why the train can't be run through the washer prior to departure as part of the servicing. I was told they always run the consist through the washer prior to servicing and returning to the station for boarding.
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Ask the call center staff an operational question to which you already know the answer and you'll soon realize they often have no idea what they're talking about. Sometimes the responses have been so convoluted I struggled to comprehend what they thought they were selling us. What I find especially disappointing about this explanation is that they did not bother to choose a plausible explanation. If the trains are always cleaned before returning to the station how did your window get dirty?
 
Devil's Advocate said:
Ask the call center staff an operational question to which you already know the answer and you'll soon realize they often have no idea what they're talking about. Sometimes the responses have been so convoluted I struggled to comprehend what they thought they were selling us. What I find especially disappointing about this explanation is that they did not bother to choose a plausible explanation. If the trains are always cleaned before returning to the station how did your window get dirty?
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If I was on a charitable mood, which I often am these days, I’d probably ask if they said that the washer was always running when they ran it through them and then chuckle and drop the matter. 😬 As you said, they are unlikely to do anything beyond the scripts given to them anyway.
 
Railspike said:
Upon leaving Chicago on the CZ the window in our bedroom was filthy. I later contacted Amtrak to ask why the train can't be run through the washer prior to departure as part of the servicing. I was told they always run the consist through the washer prior to servicing and returning to the station for boarding. ?????
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Amtrak bean counters probably said, let's bank on a heavy thunderstorm! /s
 
Devil's Advocate said:
Ask the call center staff an operational question to which you already know the answer and you'll soon realize they often have no idea what they're talking about. Sometimes the responses have been so convoluted I struggled to comprehend what they thought they were selling us. What I find especially disappointing about this explanation is that they did not bother to choose a plausible explanation. If the trains are always cleaned before returning to the station how did your window get dirty?
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The customer service staff have no idea about operations and we probably should not be surprised by this. When our sleeper was cancelled on the CZ this past September I immediately called and was told that our sleeper had electrical issues. When I questioned how they could know 2 or 3 weeks in advance that "my" sleeper would have electrical issues she said "I have no idea, it's what I was told to say".
 
From today's RPA Newsletter:

Better Days Ahead For Clean Trains

by Jim Mathews / President & CEO

Passengers disappointed with dirty train exteriors – dirty enough to take away the out-the-window views that make train travel so attractive for so many – are about to get some relief, with new wash racks coming into service this Summer and Fall.

Through a series of failures, Amtrak wound up this winter with all but one wash rack for trains broken and out of service. There was no commonality to why they are broken, so the problem was not solvable by just expediting deliveries of a particular set of spare parts, for example, or designing a single repair.

A capital program to replace all the wash racks was deemed too expensive, so the Mechanical forces had to fall back on a Plan B built around a mix of replacement wash racks and targeted repairs for other wash racks, plus a temporary work around of having workers manually squeegee cars at certain stations.

We learned this week that the first new wash rack will go online in New Orleans this month, followed by Boston next month, and Chicago and Seattle this Fall.

It’s part of a larger cleanliness initiative underway in response to clear disappointment with cleanliness across the board. The temporary measure of cleaning car exteriors by hand at certain stations is only the most visible. In addition to the new and improved facilities for cleaning trains, Amtrak leadership is reorganizing some of its forces so that there is more and better onboard cleaning at the terminals, as well as some of the stations along a route if there’s enough dwell time to make it work.

Edit: Included entire text.
 
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Steve's Wanderlust said:
Were they ever able to utilize Metra's wash rack south of CUS?
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I don't see why Amtrak would bother to try to use another railroad's facility considering washing the train doesn't actually effect much but passenger satisfaction, and we all know how much Amtrak really cares about passenger satisfaction. Besides, Metra is a pretty busy railroad so it might be hard to try to get Amtrak's sets in there too, and it might be annoying having to get the train there and back just for a washing.

TL;DR I just think it's plausible that they said why bother and leave it at that.
 
zetharion said:
People were resorting to bringing their own equipment because Amtrak was so inept at this. Glad they are actually doing something about it.
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I'm one of them. The collapsible pole and brush are still in my AMTRAK bag. Hope they actually follow though.
 
PaTrainFan said:
From today's RPA Newsletter:

Better Days Ahead For Clean Trains

by Jim Mathews / President & CEO

Passengers disappointed with dirty train exteriors – dirty enough to take away the out-the-window views that make train travel so attractive for so many – are about to get some relief, with new wash racks coming into service this Summer and Fall.

Through a series of failures, Amtrak wound up this winter with all but one wash rack for trains broken and out of service. There was no commonality to why they are broken, so the problem was not solvable by just expediting deliveries of a particular set of spare parts, for example, or designing a single repair.

A capital program to replace all the wash racks was deemed too expensive, so the Mechanical forces had to fall back on a Plan B built around a mix of replacement wash racks and targeted repairs for other wash racks, plus a temporary work around of having workers manually squeegee cars at certain stations.

We learned this week that the first new wash rack will go online in New Orleans this month, followed by Boston next month, and Chicago and Seattle this Fall.

It’s part of a larger cleanliness initiative underway in response to clear disappointment with cleanliness across the board. The temporary measure of cleaning car exteriors by hand at certain stations is only the most visible. In addition to the new and improved facilities for cleaning trains, Amtrak leadership is reorganizing some of its forces so that there is more and better onboard cleaning at the terminals, as well as some of the stations along a route if there’s enough dwell time to make it work.

Edit: Included entire text.
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Now if hey would only do something about the other detritus - FLEX "Dining". Boy is that an insult to food.
 

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