Amsteak?
Personal temperature controls?
Coffee in sleeper cars?
Personal temperature controls?
Coffee in sleeper cars?
If Amtrak were to remove 1 onboard amenity from LD trains, which one?
- Thread starter Adrouault
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What amenities?? Sleeper passengers "pay through the nose" for what is provided. Coffee and meal costs are built into the cost of the ticket. As far as I am concerned there are no amenities. Amtrak under Joe Boardman removed what little there was two years ago as part of his plan to "make the dining cars profitable". .
Placebo for sure.
Last time I can remember the controls actually doing something was in February 2012. Both our Viewliner and Superliner bedrooms on the LSL and EB worked perfectly. The controls on the CS that same trip left us shivering.
Strangely, this was also the same trip that we arrived early into every single station; almost an hour early into Chicago; almost 1.5 hours early into Portland and an hour early into Sacramento. One cannot ask for a better Amtrak trip.
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Turn-down service.
jb
jb
George K
Conductor
"Personal temperature controls?"
I don't think I've ever had one that worked.
I don't think I've ever had one that worked.
Shortline
Conductor
The SCA.
Cho Cho Charlie
Engineer
Morning paper...
... Oh wait!
... Oh wait!
George K
Conductor
I'm not a total newbie with overnight travel, but I've ridden enough to have problems lowering the top bunk on occasion. It's probably unreasonable to expect pax to do that on their own, along with making their own beds for the night and stowing all their stuff for the next day.
I rarely use the juice and coffee in the sleeper. I suspect many do though. I do drink the bottled water.
Overall I most want a consistent experience. Clean equipment with working heat and air-conditioning. And employees that do their job well without attitudes and frivolous made up rules.
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Overall I most want a consistent experience. Clean equipment with working heat and air-conditioning. And employees that do their job well without attitudes and frivolous made up rules.
Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum
The bars of soap in the shower. Never use them and ever since they got rid of the full amenity packs it just feels cheap to still have the bars of soap from some off brand that I don't recognize. Even Super 8 uses Matrix soap and shampoo in their rooms.
There are no amenities except the very necessary coffee.
I do wish the PA speaker would either be removed or have a working volume control. The repetitive and often strident announcements are beyond annoying.
I do wish the PA speaker would either be removed or have a working volume control. The repetitive and often strident announcements are beyond annoying.
This!
charge for checked baggage. Yes, it's a key differentiator from the airlines. But it's an amenity that I rarely use, and unless you are bringing the kitchen sink isn't even remotely useful to me on a Superliner. Viewliner, that may be a different story. But Amtrak keeps eating away at this amenity anyways by the incremental un-staffing of stations resulting in the incremental un-checking of baggage at those stations.
I, too, would eliminate the position of Sleeping Car Attendant. I get no benefit thereof. I'll bet other passengers would be agreeable if you lowered the price $100+/night to compensate. If you need help with luggage Red Caps are usually available for $5 or so, otherwise you just have to cope, or not. I think repositioning the lower seat cushions would be more challenging than the top bunk but a little maintenance and WD40 would go a long way to easing that problem. Most of us know we can get by without the SCA because WE HAVE DONE IT.
I also would ditch the free coffee, agreeably, if there were no SCA to prepare it.
.
If you ever had to travel in the H room you would not want to eliminate the SCA ! You may not need the help,but some others do .
Mystic River Dragon
Engineer
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I don't think we should give Amtrak encouragement to eliminate anything--they're doing an excellent job of getting rid of amenities on their own!
However, if one thing had to go, I think I would choose the juice in the sleepers, because you can get it at breakfast, and it turns warm when it's kept out by the coffee.
The two most important things to me are the SCA and the coffee--they are truly the last nice touches left of any past elegant travel, but more than that, they are necessary for some of us. It would be difficult for me to pull the two chairs together and make up the bed, especially when the train is moving, so it must be even more so for someone older or more frail. And for those of us who need coffee first thing to avoid a caffeine headache, the coffee station is crucial. Even having it start at 6:00 a.m. is too late for me--5:00 a.m. would be perfect.
However, if one thing had to go, I think I would choose the juice in the sleepers, because you can get it at breakfast, and it turns warm when it's kept out by the coffee.
The two most important things to me are the SCA and the coffee--they are truly the last nice touches left of any past elegant travel, but more than that, they are necessary for some of us. It would be difficult for me to pull the two chairs together and make up the bed, especially when the train is moving, so it must be even more so for someone older or more frail. And for those of us who need coffee first thing to avoid a caffeine headache, the coffee station is crucial. Even having it start at 6:00 a.m. is too late for me--5:00 a.m. would be perfect.
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I would suggest that this thread be removed. Let’s not give the Amtrak planners and Congress any ideas.
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I concur
There was a serious proposal in the single-level PIP to look at a program of two SCAs for three sleepers (splitting one in the middle), and you could probably extrapolate that to three SCAs for four sleepers plus coverage for any pax put into a bag-dorm (since there might occasionally be one or two spaces and if the rooms are simply "standard" roomette modules then there's no reason not to sell space in car "9819" or whatever designation gets applied to it).
No.
Most of us know how to make the beds and put them back, but I can't imagine putting this on the average, every day passengers. You'd also have to trust people to put the bedding away properly and clean their room before departing so those boarding can use the room. And who is going to clean the bathrooms and shower room?
Even with an SCA, other passengers often ask me to help them with various things in their room. On my last trip, the lady across the hall constantly knocked on my door or opened my curtain to ask me to help her with things, answer questions, etc. When I told her the SCA could assist her, she complained that the SCA wasn't answering the call button quickly enough.
At one point, she honest to god asked me for a wake up call. (Hahahahahaha, no.)
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Pretty slim pickings in the amenities dept. to begin with. Get rid of. SCA,no,the worst is 10x better than none at all. Coffee, hell no! Clean rest rooms, don't think so.
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Green Maned Lion
Engineer
Is a clean restroom an amenity?
Really can't say I'd want to see a clean restroom removed, if it is.
Seriously though, if anything we need to be advocating for not fewer but greater and improved amenities aboard Amtrak, which can support increased patronage, (appropriately) higher fares, and thus greater revenue.
This.
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