Hi, y'all. I'm just so disappointed by this news that I finally took the time to write and send the following letter to Anderson, Gardner, and Coscia yesterday. I don't think it will make any difference, but at least I can feel like I'm doing something.
Dear Mr. Anderson, Mr. Gardner, Mr. Coscia and Amtrak Board of Directors
My name is Coby Potischman. I am a 17-year-old avid rail fan from New York City and a longtime advocate for Amtrak, as well as a member of the Rail Passenger Association. I am incredibly concerned and disheartened by all of the recent cuts to service and amenities, and particularly the decision to switch to “contemporary” boxed meals on all routes east of the Mississippi after October 1. As a longtime customer and passenger, I ask that you please read this through.
My family and I have spent thousands and thousands of dollars on Amtrak travel over the past several years, simply because it has been an incredibly enjoyable and unique way to travel. However, in recent years, the cuts and degradations to service have made our decision to take Amtrak, instead of the airlines, more and more difficult to justify.
Inter-city rail in the U.S. will never be able to compete with a plane in regard to speed. The only way for it to compete is for the overall experience and amenities to be superior.
We used to able to check baggage to and from the vast majority of stations. Now, not only are the majority of stations unstaffed, but such routes as the City of New Orleans, Texas Eagle, and Boston section of the Lake Shore Limited, have lost their baggage cars.
Until only a few years ago, on virtually all routes, we could get freshly cooked meals (the Cardinal being the only exception), served on actual glassware and China, with unique selections for each region and direction. Now, the handful of routes that do retain full-service dining cars all serve the exact same menu–quite tedious over the course of a long trip–while the ones without offer an extremely limited selection of low-quality meals, if anything at all.
I won’t even get into the cuts to Amtrak Guest Rewards, retirement of the Pacific Parlour Cars, increase in ticket prices, loss of flowers and snacks in the sleepers, discontinuation of the AAA and Veterans’ discount, reduction and increased restrictions of the Senior discount, and the tightening of the change and cancellation policy. These are smaller things, but they really do add up.
At a certain point, any person who has alternatives such as taking a plane, a car, or a bus, will no longer take Amtrak. Meanwhile, the people who either live in places served exclusively by the train, or who are physically unable to take other forms of transport, will be stuck not traveling at all, or suffering through an increasingly expensive, long and uncomfortable ride on the rails.
For Amtrak to do well, I believe it has to focus on what can make it best. I know that Food & Beverage service is mandated to turn a profit. However, that mandate was not written with the intent that the service itself has to make money; rather, those services are required to result in Amtrak as a whole being more profitable. Dining cars have always been loss leaders. The operation itself loses some amount of money, however, if it gets enough people to ride the train, it ends up paying for itself. Additionally, if need be, more money could simply be allocated from the sleepers to the diners, since the former is not required to turn a profit.
Every year, my family and I take a trip to South Florida to stay with my grandparents. We first took the train (in a Roomette) in 2011, and absolutely loved it. Since then, we have taken the Silver Service in at least one direction, almost every year, even after the Silver Star lost its dining car in 2015. The continued availability of the dining car on the Meteor is what has made it possible for us to continue taking the train for those trips.
Between these rides to Florida, multiple cross country trips, and countless other shorter day and overnight rides, we have spent more than 600 hours in sleepers, and many thousands of dollars on the tickets. And even after experiencing countless rude employees, numerous train cancellations, and even a derailment in Georgia last year, we have continued to ride and advocate for Amtrak.
But as prices increase, the meal service is degraded, checked baggage service becomes less and less available, and so on, justifying these trips has become incredibly difficult. We have tried the boxed meal service on the Lake Shore Limited multiple times, and I can say that if it is implemented on the Silver Meteor, we will no longer be able to take Amtrak to visit my grandparents. I have many friends who previously would take multiple massive cross country trips each year. But without full meal service on any route between Chicago and the East Coast, such trips are no longer feasible for them.
There aren’t just issues for angry railfans who want to keep the status quo at all costs.
These are issues for all the people with dietary restrictions, since limited menus and food prepared ahead of time offer little to no choice of ingredients, and are often extremely high in sugar.
These are issues for people who care about the environment; that don’t want to throw away cardboard boxes, plastic wrappers and bags, and disposable silverware at every meal.
These are issues for the people who can no longer afford their tickets, or who have to travel in coach, where they no longer have access to a dining car at all.
These are issues for people who live in remote towns without any other form of transit, who would see their rail service cut and/or replaced by buses, as you proposed this February.
These are issues for the people who take Amtrak to move, but can no longer bring nearly as many of their belongings due to the loss of checked baggage.
These are issues for the thousands of station employees and OBS staff that work hard to make passengers’ trips much more enjoyable, yet are losing their jobs.
Amtrak was not created with the goal of turning a profit. It was created when the private railroads of the time could NOT turn a profit, and the government saw the need to fund and retain adequate passenger rail service. In fact, Amtrak has explicitly stated in the “National Fact Sheets” of 2016, 2017, and 2018, that “No country in the world operates a passenger rail system without some form of public support for capital costs and/or operating expenses.”
I had been really hoping to take a very long round-trip coast to coast train trip before I head off to college next year. This would be a multi-thousand dollar trip with connections in six different cities (Chicago, Portland, Oregon, Emeryville/San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, and Portland, Maine), involving eight nights onboard, and sleeping accommodations the whole way. This would be the ultimate way for me to really see the country and enjoy the National Network while I still have the time to do so, before this new chapter of my life.
Yet as a vegetarian, if more of these routes lose their dining service, it would legitimately be impossible to spend that much time onboard with that sort of meal selection. And as I said earlier, I know many people who are in a similar position. It’s not just about comfort or overall luxury; this sort of service simply isn’t doable for many people and serves to make train travel completely obsolete.
I hope you consider these points in your work to improve Amtrak.
Thank you so much for reading.
- Coby Potischman
