What's your worst train experience?

[Miami Joe]

Come on folks!!

We always hear our fellow forum members praising Amtrak, but I know you had to have at least one bad day.

Was it the food, the attendant or no power? Whatever!!!

Embellishment is encouraged and if you can't think of something, go ahead and make something up!! We'll never know!!!

B)

 

[Amfleet]

All right you got me started, so here it goes.

1. March 1996 - Auto Train, first overnight train trip. In coach, a drunk man would not leave us alone and was smoking in the coach. We asked to be moved to a different car that was empty, but was "being reserved" for passengers baording in Lorton.

2. January 2000 - Auto Train was 6 hours late leaving Sanford, 12 hours late arriving in Lorton. Dining Car was out of almost everything, crew was tired and did not fell like doing a thing.

3. April 2002 - Silver Meteor, car attendent was one of those old timers who yelled, you had to do everything his way, rude, and needs to find a different job.

4. July 2002 - Lake Shore Limited, my sleeping car was annuled do to "problems". No one in Chicago was willing to help resolve the situation so we just left and flew home.

We'll see what the future has to bring.

 

[Miami Joe]

I asked for "a" story, not your itinerary of woes!!! :lol:

This is an airplane story, but I got to tell it!!

My mother and I were flying back to Miami from Philly in 1970 and I was 11 or 12.

Anyway, we're minding our business and this guy is coming back from going to the restroom and he's drunk. He leaned over from the back of the seat and tried to kiss my mom!! :blink: Poor thing, she thought he was trying to hijack the plane and punched him in the nose!!

He fell to the floor with a bloody nose and apologised for being rude!! :lol:

I wonder if he had to explain the black eyes to a wife!!

B)

 

[AmtrakerBx]

Back in the 70's riding the Montrealer from NYC to St Albans...No Heat & No Lights the whole trip up....we all froze!!~! We had to bus it to Montreal

as CN was on strike...we came back on the Adorondak from Rouses Point on the D&H (Dome Car /Diner) to Albany then on to GCT..was a site from the dome watching those 2 D&H RS3's smoking it up!!! All in a weekend.

 

[Miami Joe]

Good thing you didn't stick your tongue on the glass!!! :blink:

B)

 

[Amfleet]

I asked for "a" story, not your itinerary of woes!!!

The sad part is that those 4 woes were out of the 8 Amtrak train rides I've been on in the past 6 years.

 

[Miami Joe]

Gee Jon, your response reminds me of that Hee Haw song "Doom, Despair and Agony on Me!"

"If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all!!!" :lol:

B)

PS. For some reason, When I read your thread I hear tiny little violins in thebackground!!! :blink:

Had to edit!! I rember what the violins are playing !!!

" My heart weeps for you!!"

B)

 

[Coach34135]

Well not really bad but interesting experience.

date: Aug 3

Train 2 Sunset Limited

Evening

location lounge car somewhere in Texas, the east side

Me and my 7 yr old son Chris was one our way to mom's and it was a nice eve...watching movies in the lounge, hanging out with people. i notice we're slowing down.

i go downstairs to get us munchies and then i realise we're stopping..i get my goodies, pay and stop for a sec to chat with the rails & trails lady, we're like right by the entrance to the snacks. some guy is getting stuff and he goes to pay; by now we've stopped at a crossing and there's a cop car there.

me & the R&T lady are wondering whats up.

next thing we know, we're watching in silence..the door opens, 3 cops come in, go to that guy paying for his chow tell him to come with them. WHOAH...

hehe

He was put in the cop car, they got his bag and we left.

turns out he was busted for doing drugs and tryingto bust in the dorms...stupid guy!

 

[tp49]

Miami Joe,

You had to start this thread today didn't you

If you just ate go directly to the second story...This is your disclaimer, warning, etc.

Two weeks ago on train 746, after settling at my table in the head car we were approaching Hayward, CA when I hear the unmistakable sound of the emergency brakes being applied followed by an announcement "Ladies and gentlemen we are going to be delayed for awhile someone was lying on the tracks." Yes, you guessed it someone decided it was time to go and used the train as the vehicle to do so.

We spent the next two hours at a location just north of Hesperian Blvd., the crew left the doors on one coach open. The police were working the scene until they splt all at once to go to a gang related shooting a few blocks away leaving us there alone to await the coroner. But wait it gets better...

The coroner finally shows up and begins to pick up the remains, and there were a lot of them. At one point a member of the Alameda County Coroner's crew stands and talks to us. I was drawn to the bag in his right hand, a clear plastic bag containing some of the remains of the deceased. Could someone give these guys black bags already. You'd think this was all but it gets even better...

Amtrak has a bus sent to us which we board after spending two and a half hours on the train. The driver is arguing on his cell phone with the dispatcher about where to take us and they decide we are going to get back on the train. We get back to the train, get off the bus and walk toward the train which immediately starts going, leaving us there. Seems noone told the crew we were coming back. We then tel the bus driver who would have been happy to leave us in this gang infested neighborhood that we are getting on the bus and he is taking us to Oakland or else.

The original plan was to bus anyone going north of Emeryville to Emeryville to get on the Coast Starlight which was being held for our arrival. This obviously never happened.

We arrive in Oakland to see the same train and crew there. We get back on the train and head north. We stop in Martinez for what seems to be an inordinately long period of time we inquire why the delay to find out that because the conductor is at his work limit we are waiting for a replacement. After an hour the replacement showed up. We were supposed to arrive in Sacramento at 10:55 PM, we actually arrived at 2:50 AM. The next week the train arrived 15 minutes early, and while punching my ticket the conductor tells me how this was the seventh suicide he's had since Memorial Day. He also told me that when he was walking back to inspect the scene after we stopped, he almost tripped over the dead guy's head.

My biggest problem with this was the way the administrative folks handled the bussing and the crew replacement. Amtrak's administrators should have known the conductor was near his limit and knowing we were going to be tied up for over two hours at the accident site should have had the replacement crew at Oakland. A snafu in the full military sense of the word.

Story 2 is in a separate post.

 

[tp49]

Story 2 slightly more mundane.

Since it's early Monday morning where I am...Last night I arrived at the Fremont station at 7:55P for my 8:08 departure, yep good old 746. The train is usually late, but tonight I waited until 10:05 for the train. At 9 I called my girlfriend to get the train status using the origin San Jose and the station between where I was and San Jose, Santa Clara Great America. She told me the train was 1 hour 5 minutes late leaving San Jose. I then figure the train will arrive at 9:15.

At 9:30 I call Amtrak to tray and get the status of the train. After going through the automatic status with "Julie the Amtrak robot" (whom I would love to short circuit if I ever met her) I talk to an agent who essentially tells me the train should arrive at 9:15, I say "Oh, you mean 15 minutes ago." I find out the train is having equipment problems.

I call again at 10PM to find out whether I should begin the 7 mile trek to my girlfriends house as she has no car and the busses magically stopped running. I tell the agent that if they had sent us a bus we could have connected with 14 at Oakland or Emeryville as this is the last train to Sacramento for the evening. I get the same response from the agent who read the advisory they had on the train which stated the train would make the stops.

At this point I see the train, lucky me right? Not yet. The train is coming in on the opposite track and no crew mwmbwr is looking at the other platform where me and one other lady are standing. I run around the back of the train after it clears the grade crossing and get the conductors attention as he is looking the other way out a partially open door as the train does the "slow crawl" through the station. The train stopped and we got on. The best thing to come out of this trip is the conductors (the usual crew on my usual Sunday night train) did not punch my 10 trip. I got home at 1:15 AM.

A month ago the train broke down somewhere between San Jose and Fremont and we were bussed to Oakland where a replacement train was waiting. I think this crew is bad luck and I might have to look into taking the earlier train now

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

Much of my experience is pre-AMtrak...also I am not easily agitated so hardly anything really fazes me...but here are some examples,

I have been eight hours late on the Sunset Ltd(who hasn't?) and in my lifetime have been about 9 hours late twice. Once on the CZ, track washout...we had to put on busses into SF.The other due to a freight derailment.

Some rudeness, I remember being yelled at by a coach attendant Silver Star for "being in the wrong car."Various other rudenesses.

Drunks play a big part of my memories. One of my grossest memories...this is a dcslaimer...On a train from Nashville to Chattanooga I ws in the restroom(back thn rerooms had lounges attqched to them) and a friendly drunk was sitting there in the lounge part of threstroom. He offerd me some of his fried chicken...the problem is...his chicken was...get ready for this...in his pants pocket!! Yes, he pulled out a greasy piece of fried chicken from either his pants pocket or his coat pocket and offered it to me. For some reason I declined. However, he also had anup-to-date timetable and I did take that, fried chicken smears and all.

I remember being on a train one night from Chicago to Cincinnati a drunk back in the lounge part of the rest room. Everytime somebody came in his asked them "Where do I catch the bus to Cincinnati?"

ALsoave a memor frm childhood....back then it was ok to board when they were stoppd at stations and roam. I played a little game with porters and conductorsWhen a train came into my station(Chattanooga,TN) I would say "Ive never been ona train before, may I go in look?THey woudl usuallysay yes...Ok, one time I walked through the lounge car of the Royal Palm(Sothern RR train Detroit to Miami) and a very drunk man and womanin there..the place was completely deserted excethem. and Iknow. why. He had her over his lap,examining uh , well,her slipthink you get the picture. I was barely old enough to understand.

I have almost been left by trains twicce,ce on the CZ at Grand Junction, Colorado, and once n a steam excursion train.

 

[Viewliner]

I've had a bad diner crew here and there and maybe one bad attendant in the sleepers, but overall, I'd have to say my last trip on the Silver Meteor.

The date April 18, 2002 The train was late in leaving Sunnyside, which is typical. While we wait, my grandmother calls and tells us about the Auto Train Derailment . Our train then arrives in Newark late. We were in 9711, which the attendant didn't open, so we go to 9712 and that attendant tells us to go to 9710 where our attendant and the other attendant were. We have a dining car crew that has a pretty strict and rude head, and even one of the other attendants isn't that friendly. The Sleeper attendants were nice. My dad complained throughout the trip about the A/C which wasn't working that well. Also, the power would usually go off pulling either in or out of stations briefly, which occured with the diesels. We soon learn that b/c of the Auto Train derailment the train has to be rerouted via Tampa meaning we have to take a bus from Jacksonville to Orlando. Instead we got a rental car.

 

[Amfleet]

My Silver Meteor trip was 4 days after that derailment so the bad crew I had might have been because of past days with diversions and no layover breaks. I think the Silver Meteor though is known for the worst crews on the Amtrak system. I've heard it's a wise idea to take the Silver Star.

 

[Viewliner]

My Silver Meteor trip was 4 days after that derailment so the bad crew I had might have been because of past days with diversions and no layover breaks. I think the Silver Meteor though is known for the worst crews on the Amtrak system. I've heard it's a wise idea to take the Silver Star.

Yes, going home from that trip was on the Silver Star, and the crew was outstanding, and that temoinsa rebuilt diner, it must've been heaven. B)

 

[Amfleet]

Viewliner, I think you better change your user name to Temoinsa Rebuilt Heritage Diner since you always mention it more than a Viewliner. :lol: Kidding, it is a very nice car and next to a Capstone 2001 refurbished Amfleet coach it is my favorite car.

 

[Viewliner]

Viewliner, I think you better change your user name to Temoinsa Rebuilt Heritage Diner since you always mention it more than a Viewliner. :lol: Kidding, it is a very nice car and next to a Capstone 2001 refurbished Amfleet coach it is my favorite car.

This is my favorite car (that I've photographed)

 

[Amtrak Watcher]

If we put aside the over flowing toilet incidents I've endured on Amtrak (the toilets seem to do that a lot - but at least they have been controllable situations), my worst experience was on a recent Royal Thai night train from Udorn to Bangkok; a trip of about 13 hours with only 5 stops. The train passed through a cloud of grasshoppers at about 10:00 PM. Since all the windows were open (no air conditioning in coach class) the train filled up with live grasshoppers flying around and crawling all over everyone. They stayed with us until the train's arrival in Bangkok the following morning. Most were squashed from the foot traffic by then. The coach class snack bar (something like the café on Amtrak, but with "chef-made surprises" (usually some kind of spicy soup) on each trip, was completely infested with the insects and had to close. A few of my fellow passengers (the younger ones anyway) plucked the bugs from their cloths and made tasty snacks of them.

Note: I would have listed my over flowing toilet and missed connection experinces, but these seem normal and are, therefore, boring. Once you have experince with them, they are easy to adjust to. Aside from these, my Amtrak experiences have been good.

 

[gswager]

I'm wondering if you dip a grasshopper into chocolate and eat it? I've seen it on TV. :lol:

 

[Superliner Diner]

One of the most interesting experiences for me took place when I was travelling to Florida with my parents & brother when I was younger. We took the Silver Star, I believe, on that trip. The incident happened in the dining car. For some reason, the waiter was trying to handle too many orders at once, and he botched them up royally.

We got our dinner served out of order --- I believe we had our entree before the appetizers, and the dessert was not served last. It was the only totally upside-down meal we ever had!

 

[Viewliner]

One of the most interesting experiences for me took place when I was travelling to Florida with my parents & brother when I was younger. We took the Silver Star, I believe, on that trip. The incident happened in the dining car. For some reason, the waiter was trying to handle too many orders at once, and he botched them up royally.
We got our dinner served out of order --- I believe we had our entree before the appetizers, and the dessert was not served last. It was the only totally upside-down meal we ever had!

Once I got a prime rib that was mostly fat. That same meal we lost power several times.

 

[Amfleet]

I forgot to mention that my Mom found a hair in her salad once.

 

[Viewliner]

One of the bad sleeper attendants I had was a diner attendant a couple of years later.

 

[Bozo]

Well, Miami Joe, one of my bad experiences is headed your way this very morning. I came in from NYP last night on 97 and sleeper car 62016 has an electrical problem. They looked at it in Jax, but a few miles later it had returned. The overhead lights, outlets, (and toilets) would go down and the car attendant had to reset something. Finally, it would not reset.

When this began (about 2:00 AM Tuesday) it started with an alert that I had not heard before. It sounded like a sick alarm clock. I was in the "H' room, next to the panel, so got to hear all the commotion. I use a electrical CPAP machine when I sleep to prevent sleep apnea. Every time the power went out, (dozens of times) my machine shut down, and I would wake up gasping.

The water tank had a lot of air, not just when it was first used, but all the time, so turning on the water created a pressure cleaner on front of your trousers. High pressure there, but the shower trickled verrry slowly instead of running.

I know it is a train, with all the limitations, but would any of us stay in a 30-year hotel that was falling apart with so many recurring problems? We would go somewhere else.

Fix 'em up today Joe.

By the way, the new dining car menu makes up for the room inconveniences. They have some new great tasting items now, so it was a good trip. (burp!- excuse me)

 

[Viewliner]

Well, Miami Joe, one of my bad experiences is headed your way this very morning. I came in from NYP last night on 97 and sleeper car 62016 has an electrical problem. They looked at it in Jax, but a few miles later it had returned. The overhead lights, outlets, (and toilets) would go down and the car attendant had to reset something. Finally, it would not reset.
When this began (about 2:00 AM Tuesday) it started with an alert that I had not heard before. It sounded like a sick alarm clock. I was in the "H' room, next to the panel, so got to hear all the commotion. I use a electrical CPAP machine when I sleep to prevent sleep apnea. Every time the power went out, (dozens of times) my machine shut down, and I would wake up gasping.

The water tank had a lot of air, not just when it was first used, but all the time, so turning on the water created a pressure cleaner on front of your trousers. High pressure there, but the shower trickled verrry slowly instead of running.

I know it is a train, with all the limitations, but would any of us stay in a 30-year hotel that was falling apart with so many recurring problems? We would go somewhere else.

Fix 'em up today Joe.

By the way, the new dining car menu makes up for the room inconveniences. They have some new great tasting items now, so it was a good trip. (burp!- excuse me)

Gee and to think these cars are only 6-7 Years Old.

 

[Amfleet]

Gee and to think these cars are only 6-7 Years Old.

Aren't the Viewliners run entirely off computers. Why can't we build simple rail cars like Budd and Pullman did over 60 years ago. If we just take the origional plans and modify them with new materials and fabrics we could have some pretty nice and long lasting rail cars. No computers, no TV's, no entertainment, just a room and a window. B)