Passenger Trains > Amtrak stinks (literally)

Ocala woman travels 12 hours on Amtrak train with no air conditioning

OCALA, Fla. (WCJB) - A woman from Ocala took a breath of fresh air after she said she traveled 12 hours on an Amtrak train without air conditioning.

Rebecca Ward-Williams rode the 91 Silver Star train from Wilmington, Delaware on Wednesday and transferred on a train in Washington D.C. before ending her journey to Ocala on the bus. She said the air conditioning in her train car turned off after their stop in D.C.

“We continued on our way through to Jacksonville with no air in that car,” said Ward-Williams. “That was 12 hours of travel in a tin can in the south.”

She provided TV20 multiple screenshots throughout her journey, including the temperature inside the reaching 97 degrees. She said the crew in her train car tried to help, but other passengers reached out to Amtrak’s customer service line.
Temperatures reached up to 97 degrees inside the train car.(Rebecca Ward-Williams)

Ward-Williams said her call was eventually dropped and provided TV20 pictures of her conversation with a customer service agent who refused to continue helping when she mentioned she reached out to the station.

“They had notified corporate, their higher ups knew what had happened and word came down we can’t change it out until Miami,” said Ward-Williams.
The passenger contacted customer service, but the conversation ended after mentioning she contacted TV20.(Rebecca Ward-Williams)

She added their car had no wifi and some delays as crews tried to fix the air. Other Amtrak passengers at a bus station in Ocala dealt with delays as well.

“They notified me about the train going to be late but said nothing about the bus,” said Christina Espinoza. “I’ve been waiting here since about a quarter after eight.”

Ward-Williams counted between 35 to 60 people onboard and said the whole situation caused health issues for some passengers, such as heat exhaustion and asthma attacks.

She is hoping the company will refund passengers in the affected train car a portion of their ticket price.

TV20 reached out to Amtrak for a statement. They said they are working on getting more information on this case.

On the web with images here: https://www.wcjb.com/2023/07/13/ocala-woman-travels-12-hours-amtrak-train-with-no-air-conditioning/

 

Something for the Kool Aid drinkers...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0LAs7X5ybE

One of my Condr friends who works the Zephyr reported a (10) coach that has B/O air-conditioning and it’s still not fixed after 2 turns out of Chicago!

She’s an extremely good hearted person and tried to help her passengers squeeze into the 11 car, but the TA finally had to use the B/O car, with predictable results of heat exhaustion and other respiratory issues with the affected passengers.

Plain and simple, if NRPC cannot provide a car that is properly cooled in this intense heat, they shouldn’t run the service, or cut the passenger list and refund the tickets. Subjecting passengers to 97 degree temps inside a coach from Hell is unacceptable at best, and pure torture at worst. Only when a passenger finally dies from this kind of horror will this company finally understand that they cannot continue to run B/O equipment that threatens their passengers’ and crews’ health and safety.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/23 16:26 by IC_2024.

But why does that have to happen to wake the company up!

Posted from Android

GenePoon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> She provided TV20 multiple screenshots throughout
> her journey, including the temperature inside the
> reaching 97 degrees. 

That is innuendo BS. There is no such thing as a smart phone being able to directly read room temperature. It would have to be connected to an external device. 

There are some money hungry apps that will say they provide room temperature, but what they are really doing is using an algorithm to attempt to calculate what the room temperature is by using both the internal device sensor (which is going to high under normal use) and the GPS location data.

When I saw the title of the post, I immediately thought it was going to be a story of the all too prevalent outhouse smell in a Superliner whose retention tank system is full/malfunctioning. That really stinks.

One the engineer's who works west out of CHI is currently being fired. He repeatedly reported the loco retention tanks on outbound trains full and disgusting smells in the engine.. Trip after trip after trip...

With no correction by Amtrak, he dumped the loco toilet in the station... I guess he was fed up with Amtrak's $hit!! HA!

PC1974 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> One the engineer's who works west out of CHI is
> currently being fired. He repeatedly reported the
> loco retention tanks on outbound trains full and
> disgusting smells in the engine.. Trip after trip
> after trip...
>
> With no correction by Amtrak, he dumped the loco
> toilet in the station... I guess he was fed up
> with Amtrak's $hit!! HA!

Based on the description it would appear to be an OSHA violation.  OSHA seems pretty blunt in its description of clean, sanitary, facility. requirements and its application to "mobile crews"

https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1910/1910.141

I wonder if this sort of neglect of equipment happens on the NEC ? 

UP951West Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I wonder if this sort of neglect of equipment
> happens on the NEC ? 

This type of stuff probably doesn't happen on the NEC or the state funded trains like the Surfliner or San Joaquins/Capitol Coridors. If word got to the news this type of stuff was happening, the state would go into a frenzy.

>he dumped the loco toilet in the station

Well, we've all heard the saying "Passengers will please refrain...." 
I suppose it now applies to crew, too.
 

UP951West Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I wonder if this sort of neglect of equipment
> happens on the NEC ? 

OK, lets be fair here.... Yes, NEC Amfleets can also have their A/C crap out and it becomes a hot box in the tin can or passengers. Only difference, there are more places along the NEC where Amtrak "could" try to either rectify the problem with repair crew, or close that car and add another on the rear. Been there done that.

One of my first trips on the Vermonter - in the late 90s - was in business class and the A/C crapped out before stopping in NYC. It wasn't fixed till New Haven. It did get fixed though - and NOT at the stop in NYC after a valiant try. Not sure how the New Haven Amtrak maintenance crews got it working. Springfield line was pretty notorious at times for broken down cab cars or trailer Amfleets with A/C issues. Clocker coaches - Amfleets - often had failed A/C's (Amtrak threw anything they had on the Clockers to get capacity up). And more recently, NEC trains originating from the Virginia origins have had A/C's strained or failed in Amfleets. Even on a trip on the eastbound Pennsylvanian last year, the A/C was blasting in the Amfleets and finally just after Johnstown, the train was stopped and an "adjustment made" on the exterior of the cars to "change over the HVAC" since it was now snowing in western PA when one wouldn't really expect that. Not sure exactly how this "adjustment works" but all I know is the conductors had to get on the ground and almost "flip a switch" of some sort......

In this recent case of the Silver Star, knowing the heat just endured in getting to DC, and knowing the heat ahead etc. etc. - the train should not have been released from Washington DC if the outage was known to crew. Amtrak is not running extra capacity so everything is jammed packed. They could have added at least a business class Amfleet car at Washington DC from the Ivy City inventory (they are available), which is high density. Why create an issue where the problem is kicked down the road and its going to get even worse, endanger lives, cause a bad reaction, and bring in another PR nightmare. Constantly reactionary, and just not much proactiveness lately from Amtrak. Not a way to run a railroad. It's not acceptable. I sure hope Amtrak has a regular program of maintenance and overhauls going on with both the Amfleet I's and Amfleet II's. Amtrak has done maintenance and overhaul blitzes on these cars in the past in Delaware shops. Nothing new and not rocket science.  

I do hope the A/C issue is not becoming the norm now.  It always seems to be something...  

I had a trip from Chicago to Boston last month and the A/C in our sleeper died in the morning, probalby near Cleveland.  I was awake and noticed the change.  After a couple of hours of rising temps, we were told we could sit in the cafe.  Other pax had been asked to please vacate so we could sit there.  I did.  That said, I could have stayed in the sleeper.  The air was moving, it was just not cool.  My guess is that it was about 85 degrees in my room.  No fun, but not life threatening, either.  It was a warm, sunny day across Upstate NY.

Amtrak seems to be taking one step forward and two back on a regular basis.

When I rode the SW Chief to Flagstaff in March, the toilet system in our car stopped working in Nebraska and was never repaired. We had to use toilets in the other sleeping car. The train ended up being about 8 hours late, but luckily the system in the other car worked. The same thing happened on the Empire Builder the prior year to the Portland sleeper. The car attendant said this was a frequent occurrence. I had a roomette, but would have been even more upset if I had paid $2000 for a bedroom with toilet that could never be used. I really felt sorry for those in the lower level who had mobility issues. 

IC_2024 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> One of my Condr friends who works the Zephyr
> reported a (10) coach that has B/O
> air-conditioning and it’s still not fixed after
> 2 turns out of Chicago!

IMO these things would not happen if the CEO's bonus was based on customer satisfaction.

restricted_speed Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> IC_2024 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > One of my Condr friends who works the Zephyr
> > reported a (10) coach that has B/O
> > air-conditioning and it’s still not fixed
> after
> > 2 turns out of Chicago!
>
> IMO these things would not happen if the CEO's
> bonus was based on customer satisfaction.

Many CEO bonus formulas are based on several criteria. It's rare that one criterion makes up the whole package.  Grow revenue, manage (not necessarily cut) costs, improve customer satisfaction, manage employee retention, etc.

In my old company, the loss of a  trained employee was generally factored as a $50,000-$75,000 loss for the company. All the training, expertise, skill set, intellectual property about how we did stuff, etc walking out the door and we had to start over. Recruiting, selecting, training, etc

restricted_speed Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> IC_2024 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > One of my Condr friends who works the Zephyr
> > reported a (10) coach that has B/O
> > air-conditioning and it’s still not fixed
> after
> > 2 turns out of Chicago!
>
> IMO these things would not happen if the CEO's
> bonus was based on customer satisfaction.

Plus the fact that any service failures, suspensions, or cancellations that is railroad-west of Washington, Harrisburg, and Albany do not matter. The Amtrak Board and e-suite run only or the pleasure of the NEC Congressional delegation. 

longliveSP Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> GenePoon Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > She provided TV20 multiple screenshots
> throughout
> > her journey, including the temperature inside
> the
> > reaching 97 degrees. 
>
> That is innuendo BS. There is no such thing as a
> smart phone being able to directly read room
> temperature. It would have to be connected to an
> external device. 
>
> There are some money hungry apps that will say
> they provide room temperature, but what they are
> really doing is using an algorithm to attempt to
> calculate what the room temperature is by using
> both the internal device sensor (which is going to
> high under normal use) and the GPS location data.

Taking a photo of a thermometer?   There's a lot of ways to determine temperature.  And recording them with a phone is pretty simple.  

IC_2024 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> One of my Condr friends who works the Zephyr
> reported a (10) coach that has B/O
> air-conditioning and it’s still not fixed after
> 2 turns out of Chicago!
>
> She’s an extremely good hearted person and tried
> to help her passengers squeeze into the 11 car,
> but the TA finally had to use the B/O car, with
> predictable results of heat exhaustion and other
> respiratory issues with the affected passengers.
>
> Plain and simple, if NRPC cannot provide a car
> that is properly cooled in this intense heat, they
> shouldn’t run the service, or cut the passenger
> list and refund the tickets. Subjecting
> passengers to 97 degree temps inside a coach from
> Hell is unacceptable at best, and pure torture at
> worst. Only when a passenger finally dies from
> this kind of horror will this company finally
> understand that they cannot continue to run B/O
> equipment that threatens their passengers’ and
> crews’ health and safety.

Mark, they're just reliving the golden days of early '70s refurbished equipment when nothing worked, including the AC.  Pretty disgusting.

Has Amtrak senior management addressed this event publicly?  A mea culpa? A promise to do better?  Anything?