Senate amendment to eliminate food/beverage on Amtrak (LD too)

[RRUserious]

Based on my experience in Union Station in Chicago, they really need to shape up their management. They badly mishandled it when my EB came in 6 hours late.

My experience was just the opposite when we missed a connection recently. They seemed very well organized. Not that they shouldn't be with all the experience handling mis-connects off the EB.

That was my thought that night. It being a typical night, everything should have been in place. Of course, I think the normal late EB doesn't miss everything like it did that night. But they had dozens and dozens of people, it was midnight, and they had one person trying to hand out paper work. In the end, when it finally got moving there were four Amtrakers. But it took 3 hours after the EB arrived to get people in the various directions they were to go. 3 hours. And people who boarded east of Minot ate cold sandwiches because all the food on the train was fed to those already on the train. Even the compartment passengers didn't get the meal they paid for. That's why I say maybe Amtrak needs to figure out how to manage what it has.

 

[PaulM]

Based on my experience in Union Station in Chicago, they really need to shape up their management. They badly mishandled it when my EB came in 6 hours late.

My experience was just the opposite when we missed a connection recently. They seemed very well organized. Not that they shouldn't be with all the experience handling mis-connects off the EB.

That was my thought that night. It being a typical night, everything should have been in place. Of course, I think the normal late EB doesn't miss everything like it did that night. But they had dozens and dozens of people, it was midnight, and they had one person trying to hand out paper work. In the end, when it finally got moving there were four Amtrakers. But it took 3 hours after the EB arrived to get people in the various directions they were to go. 3 hours. And people who boarded east of Minot ate cold sandwiches because all the food on the train was fed to those already on the train. Even the compartment passengers didn't get the meal they paid for. That's why I say maybe Amtrak needs to figure out how to manage what it has.

More on EB mis-connects. Yeh, ours was only 3 hours late and only the Midwest corridor trains were affected. When I said organized I, meant the van was ready to go immediately and we were told right away where to find it.

Just curious. When you say 3 hours to get people in the various directions, I presume you are referring to getting to a hotel since it missed all the connections. A few years ago when I arrived at 1:00AM, I already had space rebooked for the next night and cash vouchers in hand because Amtrak had put two agents on board at Wisc. Dells. When we arrived, everyone was told to get in line at the presumably lightly staffed ticket counter to pick up the new tickets and exchange the vouchers for cash. Knowing I had all the next day to take care of that, I immediately walked to the hotel, saving a lot of time.

That brings up another question. This time I asked the conductor if they would be putting an agent on to handle the mis-connects and he said not unless the train were much later (like yours?). He later announced each missed train and said we would be "bussed". So, was a rep put on board?

 

[RRUserious]

Based on my experience in Union Station in Chicago, they really need to shape up their management. They badly mishandled it when my EB came in 6 hours late.

My experience was just the opposite when we missed a connection recently. They seemed very well organized. Not that they shouldn't be with all the experience handling mis-connects off the EB.

That was my thought that night. It being a typical night, everything should have been in place. Of course, I think the normal late EB doesn't miss everything like it did that night. But they had dozens and dozens of people, it was midnight, and they had one person trying to hand out paper work. In the end, when it finally got moving there were four Amtrakers. But it took 3 hours after the EB arrived to get people in the various directions they were to go. 3 hours. And people who boarded east of Minot ate cold sandwiches because all the food on the train was fed to those already on the train. Even the compartment passengers didn't get the meal they paid for. That's why I say maybe Amtrak needs to figure out how to manage what it has.

More on EB mis-connects. Yeh, ours was only 3 hours late and only the Midwest corridor trains were affected. When I said organized I, meant the van was ready to go immediately and we were told right away where to find it.

Just curious. When you say 3 hours to get people in the various directions, I presume you are referring to getting to a hotel since it missed all the connections. A few years ago when I arrived at 1:00AM, I already had space rebooked for the next night and cash vouchers in hand because Amtrak had put two agents on board at Wisc. Dells. When we arrived, everyone was told to get in line at the presumably lightly staffed ticket counter to pick up the new tickets and exchange the vouchers for cash. Knowing I had all the next day to take care of that, I immediately walked to the hotel, saving a lot of time.

That brings up another question. This time I asked the conductor if they would be putting an agent on to handle the mis-connects and he said not unless the train were much later (like yours?). He later announced each missed train and said we would be "bussed". So, was a rep put on board?

Wish my experience had been like that. The "different directions" were taking different trains to connect at another place, getting on buses, or collecting vouchers to stay 24 hours till the next train for the next leg of the trip would leave the following evening. We came in at 11, and it was at least 2am when the handling was completed. I guess people could have taken long naps in the compartments, but who expects to stand in a line 3 hours? I was alone, but some travelers were families with very small children. Can't imagine what attitude the Amtrak people had making these families wait that long to know where they were bound next. I suppose a well-managed operation would have prioritized the processing to get those out first for whom some conveyance was waiting. That would have put me in my hotel in wee hours, but at least you'd go away with the impression of some human intelligence at work! If anyone from Congress is unfortunate enough to take this mode of travel, I'd suspect they'd say "no additional money as long as they can't get the little things right". You don't want to pour money down a hole where the layers of management seem out of their depth. That has nothing to do with preferring planes over trains. It is bad enough that the Pentagon places its head routinely up the wrong orifice, it has to do with the concept that most subsidies are a mistake we can't get out of. We should, but for 50 years I've watched every attempt to rein in subsidies that are full of waste. I'm not a partisan about which subsidies. Pretty much all pork is government failure.