Simon on Southwest Chief (Car attendant report)

[TaiwanTravels]

I took my second trip on the Southwest Chief recently (roomette) and was very disappointed with the service of this sleeper car attendant, Simon.

Perhaps I was spoiled on my first journey-- the sleeper on that ride was super outgoing, hard working, and anticipated my needs. For example, I remember when I came back from dinner, the sleeper compartment was already made up. Wonderful!

On this journey, Simon never introduced himself to me. He had this very odd, lazy way of making announcements, like he was doing them half asleep. But that's fine-- the real problem was that I couldn't find the guy when I needed him! When I came back from dinner, the bed was not made, so I pressed the call attendant button. 30 minutes went by. I pressed the button again. Waited another 15 minutes with no answer. I got up to look for him. I ran into another attendant in the hall. I explained my previous experience with Amtrak, and she said "well, you were lucky then... Simon has to make up 40 beds, and everyone wants them done at different times, and he might be on his break, or having dinner. Check the dining car." I asked her if attendants can see the "call attendant" button while in the dining car, and she said no-- but they can see it in their roomette. That explains why he never arrived. You see, "check the dining car" became the mantra for finding Simon during the trip. You could count on the fact that he was there, chatting it up and socializing with the crew. I absolutely did not leave Simon a tip, and I was debating whether I should confront him or simply write a letter to Amtrak complaining about the lazy service.

My return trip couldn't have been more different. Sleeper car attendant Freddie was all business at first, but once he saw we were on his car, he introduced himself, pointed out all the amenities on the train, and handed me a dinner reservation card. After the train started, he took out a little vacuum and started cleaning up the corridor. The bathroom next to his cabin had a small flower, a can of Febreze and an air freshener hanging from the coat hanger. He spent his time in his room, so when I pressed the call attendant button he immediately responded. To be fair, the bed was not made upon returning from dinner, so I see perhaps I did get lucky on that initial trip. But what a difference an attentive sleeper car attendant makes!

I feel like I should write to Amtrak, in order to give praises and criticism where they are due. What do you think? Have you had experiences with either Simon or Freddie? Please share them here.

 

[debmep]

Just stepped off the SWC late Sunday evening. Our SCA experiences were very similar. West bound we had a older female well known attendant who spent most of her trip inside her #1 roomette with the door shut. We had roomette #2 so we knew. She also loved to stay elsewhere as she also had problems hearing the call light. She kept about 25 of us waiting in Union Station for her to unlock the door to our car after we were all escorted out to the train. It was 10 minutes before she arrived, the second sleeper was all loaded before she came. It was a preview of things to come. We never got an introduction to her or the room. The first time we met her after boarded she was friendly and told us that she had been with Amtrak close to 30 years. Her priorities were the coffee pot & and resting. She told us that she was well known for her coffee, and it was good BUT it would have been nice if she was a bit more attentive to the needs of the sleeping car passengers. Her tip reflected her desires to hide out in the crew car & in her roomette. The east bound trip we had SCA's "Chris" and "Art" who was training. Both stopped to introduce themselves and tell us about the trip. The crew had to be switched out In CA due to a fatal accident. Both men were attentive and did a great job given the situation. We were delayed coming back into Chicago, so they were making beds and cleaning units before we got into Union Station. I had no problem handing out our trash & pillows during the last few miles.

 

[TaiwanTravels]

Just stepped off the SWC late Sunday evening. Our SCA experiences were very similar. West bound we had a older female well known attendant who spent most of her trip inside her #1 roomette with the door shut. We had roomette #2 so we knew. She also loved to stay elsewhere as she also had problems hearing the call light. She kept about 25 of us waiting in Union Station for her to unlock the door to our car after we were all escorted out to the train. It was 10 minutes before she arrived, the second sleeper was all loaded before she came. It was a preview of things to come. We never got an introduction to her or the room. The first time we met her after boarded she was friendly and told us that she had been with Amtrak close to 30 years. Her priorities were the coffee pot & and resting. She told us that she was well known for her coffee, and it was good BUT it would have been nice if she was a bit more attentive to the needs of the sleeping car passengers. Her tip reflected her desires to hide out in the crew car & in her roomette. The east bound trip we had SCA's "Chris" and "Art" who was training. Both stopped to introduce themselves and tell us about the trip. The crew had to be switched out In CA due to a fatal accident. Both men were attentive and did a great job given the situation. We were delayed coming back into Chicago, so they were making beds and cleaning units before we got into Union Station. I had no problem handing out our trash & pillows during the last few miles.

I don't have a problem with the sleeper car attendants spending time in their room because they are still on call and able to address the needs of passengers (since they can hear the "call attendant" button, even if their door is closed-- although "curtain only" would be a better alternative). There's only so much housekeeping one can do on a long distance journey, after all and I wouldn't expect the SCA to spend their time just standing next to the coffee machine for hours for no good reason. But spending active work hours in the dining car for hours, while oblivious to passenger calls? That's inexcusable.

 

[greatcats]

I believe I had Simon a few years ago on the Southwest Chief Williams to Chicago. He was OK then, but I don't recall as being great. This past week my friend and I made another trip to hear concerts and we made a roundtrip in the sleeper Flagstaff to Los Angeles. Westbound our SCA was Monica Garcia, who was a doll. She greeted us on the Flagstaff platform with " You two must be Eric and Eric! " ( Admitedly, our names are a bit unusual to have two of us together! ) She was a real pleasure. On our return trip, we had Anna Maria Vella, who I have encountered before and she was great. The only problem with the Flagstaff- Los Angeles roundtrip is the early breakfast into LA and the early arrival back in Flagstaff. Otherwise, it was fine, especially breakfast and dinner in the diner.

 

[Casinocim]

Came on to write a short trip report and guess what? We had Simon.

He did have a lazy way of talking. I found him nice but not so nice. When we got on in L.A. he sort of gave us heck over our luggage. Each of our pieces(1 each) were within the guidelines for baggage. He said we wouldn't be able to get away with our bags pretty soon. Well, what the heck does that mean? And why make that sort of statement? I just ignored it, my mom made excuses.

He did introduce himself, told us his room (we had roomette 8 to begin with), what time he makes the beds down, call him if we needed him sooner. In the meantime we upgraded to a bedroom (A) which I had talked with him about earlier at a stop, he was very nice then.

When we called him to make up the beds for bedtime, he came, but mentioned he was on his way to do something else and was dealing with a certain passenger downstairs. My mom made a comment on how small the bedroom was, Simon said he didn't like the A room it was smaller than the other bedrooms and he tried to tell me about it before we upgrades. I honestly do not recall him saying anything about the A room being smaller. The bedroom was fine, it just got my mom to thinking it was small.

Also one other thing I just remembered, I smoke and as we were approaching one station I couldn't remember if it was a smoking stop. I go down and ask if it was and he told me no and I knew better. What? I said no, he said again, you know better than that, I said no, I don't. Those statements did not sit well with me.

He certainly wasn't the worst attendant I have had but not the best either. I did have to call customer service about our bus home from Raton and I did mention my issues with Simon which they said they will pass on.

 

[TaiwanTravels]

Came on to write a short trip report and guess what? We had Simon.

He did have a lazy way of talking. I found him nice but not so nice. When we got on in L.A. he sort of gave us heck over our luggage. Each of our pieces(1 each) were within the guidelines for baggage. He said we wouldn't be able to get away with our bags pretty soon. Well, what the heck does that mean? And why make that sort of statement? I just ignored it, my mom made excuses.

He did introduce himself, told us his room (we had roomette 8 to begin with), what time he makes the beds down, call him if we needed him sooner. In the meantime we upgraded to a bedroom (A) which I had talked with him about earlier at a stop, he was very nice then.

When we called him to make up the beds for bedtime, he came, but mentioned he was on his way to do something else and was dealing with a certain passenger downstairs. My mom made a comment on how small the bedroom was, Simon said he didn't like the A room it was smaller than the other bedrooms and he tried to tell me about it before we upgrades. I honestly do not recall him saying anything about the A room being smaller. The bedroom was fine, it just got my mom to thinking it was small.

Also one other thing I just remembered, I smoke and as we were approaching one station I couldn't remember if it was a smoking stop. I go down and ask if it was and he told me no and I knew better. What? I said no, he said again, you know better than that, I said no, I don't. Those statements did not sit well with me.

He certainly wasn't the worst attendant I have had but not the best either. I did have to call customer service about our bus home from Raton and I did mention my issues with Simon which they said they will pass on.

Thanks for the trip report. Like you, I eventually decided to report Simon's odd behavior to Amtrak customer service. Also like you, I was told that they would communicate my comments to Simon's supervisor.

I don't think Simon's intentions are bad. He just has this very odd, lazy personality where he delivers jokes in a kind of deadpan way, but the things he says are really not very funny. As a result, his "jokes" wind up coming off as a strange commentary, and we thought we were supposed to take him seriously. If he softened his deadpan jokes with a self-effacing laugh or two, I would have felt more comfortable. But instead, he was fine with creating these awkward situations where he just watched his passengers writhe around uncomfortably as they tried to figure out where he was going with his odd comments.

But personality quirks aside, did you find that he spent all of his time in the dining car chatting with friends? If not, perhaps my call to customer service about his behavior was received, and changes were implemented.

 

[Casinocim]

I did see him in the dining car a couple of times but this was the last hour of our train ride. Before that, we didn't go through the dining car, we stayed secluded in our room.

 

[H3Adventureteam]

My wife and I have traveled many times on Amtrak and enjoying the sleeper cara and their service...Have always received great service from attendants even in some very trying situations regarding maintence issues with the car's plumbing. Have ridden with Simon several times and fine him to be a terrific attendant and always hope he will be on my car. I find that if you treat attrndants with respect and show you understand what their job entails, you may just make a lifelong freind. Ask yourself if you could do a better job under present and unknown circumstances before making final judgemant... and if you want to enjoy your ride then may we suggest do as we do, treat every trip as an adventureb amd see what you will see! Happy tracks

H3adventureteam

 

[Steve4031]

I disagree. Scolding passengers is not acceptable. Being funky and difficult to deal is not acceptable. Asking about smoke stops, asking to have beds put down, and commenting on the size of accommodations are not behaviors that I find warrant scolding. It is not the passengers job to conform to an attendant's quirks.

 

[zephyr17]

I disagree. Scolding passengers is not acceptable. Being funky and difficult to deal is not acceptable. Asking about smoke stops, asking to have beds put down, and commenting on the size of accommodations are not behaviors that I find warrant scolding. It is not the passengers job to conform to an attendant's quirks.

Try telling that to the attendants. The inconsistency in the attendants attitude and work ethic is one of Amtrak's greatest problems. My experience is they follow pretty much of a bell curve. 25% great, 50% okay but not great, 25% really awful.

 

[acelafan]

My wife and I have traveled many times on Amtrak and enjoying the sleeper cara and their service...Have always received great service from attendants even in some very trying situations regarding maintence issues with the car's plumbing. Have ridden with Simon several times and fine him to be a terrific attendant and always hope he will be on my car. I find that if you treat attrndants with respect and show you understand what their job entails, you may just make a lifelong freind. Ask yourself if you could do a better job under present and unknown circumstances before making final judgemant... and if you want to enjoy your ride then may we suggest do as we do, treat every trip as an adventureb amd see what you will see! Happy tracks

H3adventureteam

Maybe there are 2 Simon's on the SW Chief, but I am 99% certain I had Simon last fall on the SW Chief and I found him to be a lot of fun and quite talkative (sometimes too talkative). We would always joke around at the longer station stops (maybe I am lazy too!) LOL

Anyways it is not right for Amtrak customers to receive bad service in the sleepers especially since it's a premium price. The SCAs should also find another job if they don't like to work with the public and are consistently lazy or provide poor attention. Customers experiencing service like that should take the time and report it to Amtrak so it can be documented. But I know I enjoyed the service by a man named Simon last year. Again, maybe there are 2 Simon's or I caught him on a particularly good day. I know he was based out of LAX and I think a life-long resident of L.A.

On the other hand, I had Rene on the return trip from ABQ to Chicago and I found him to be minimally compliant. He was tough to find on the train and went to bed at 9PM. Again, he did his job but he received a lesser tip than Simon. He also made up the beds on HIS schedule; not the passengers.

 

[Steve4031]

I disagree. Scolding passengers is not acceptable. Being funky and difficult to deal is not acceptable. Asking about smoke stops, asking to have beds put down, and commenting on the size of accommodations are not behaviors that I find warrant scolding. It is not the passengers job to conform to an attendant's quirks.

Try telling that to the attendants. The inconsistency in the attendants attitude and work ethic is one of Amtrak's greatest problems. My experience is they follow pretty much of a bell curve. 25% great, 50% okay but not great, 25% really awful.

I'll politely advocate for myself. At a certain point a letter is going out to Amtrak. If enough of us do that, it will straighten the situation out.