Passenger Trains > SW Chief Trip Report

Just rode Southwest Chief from Albuquerque to Naperville this week returning from Lerros Grand Canyon charter. Overall a decent experience. Food quality was good with the NY strip back on the menu and cooked on board. Sleeper could use a good cleaning around the vents and walls. Arrival was OT although we were down over an hour at some points made up at LaJunta and Kansas City. (sad to see the counter diner in Union Station is now closed). On board crew was excellent with the exception of the lounge car attendant who ran the train like a prison. Three particular announcements had a number of passengers ticked off. We were all admonished to not use offensive language as apparently on passenger had. Why not just go to that passenger and address the situation. We were also told not to buy drinks for anyone else as there was an over served passenger. Again, address the situation with that passenger, not all the rest of us. And my personal favorite. Anyone sitting at one of the tables in the lounge was told (not asked) to double up with others to make more space available. Ok with the concept but good grief, if you come in the lounge, see one person at a table, just ask them if you can join them or if the are alone. We certainly didn't need to be told where we could sit. Where does Amtrak find these people in the first place???? Ride through New Mexico and over Raton was grand as ever. Hope it wasn't the last time. Train seemed well patronized at the stops along the way. The attached was taken at Winslow of #4 a few day prior.

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Always good to let Amtrak customer service know your thoughts. Get names. Compliment good crew members. They get well paid to do it correctly. i use that train a lot and you never know what to expect.

After the comments yesterday about how the SW Chief was the best Chicago-West Coast train because of how wonderful its Los Angeles crew base is, compared to Chicago and others, one has to hope this lounge car attendant is an aberration, and wonder as to how consistent Amtrak expects its on board staff to be. Too often they seem to make their own rules along the way, in a manner that would get them fired from an airline.

As for the dirt around the vents and in the walls, that is NOT a matter of "you never know what to expect."

Going west on No.5 May 12,the "lounge" car attendant must have been the same one we had.He acted like the gastopo (sp)

Uncle Joe-Seffner,Fl.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, every new hire for onboard service at Amtrak needs to be trained by Via Rail. I have traveled the trains of both countries for over sixty years and have never had a bad experience concerning a CN, CP or Via crew person. On Amtrak I dread the first few hours of a long distance trip until it becomes clear what the crew is going to be like. Pre Amtrak the crews on just about every Western US train were superb and practically every crew I encountered in the Northeastern US was a forerunner of things to come with Amtrak. Trains to Florida all had excellent crews like there western counterparts. Ridership on Amtrak would double in very short order if they trained there crews on Via Rail.

Amtrak prefers to train them in a barn; however once in a while you get a nice crew member - its just a crap game.

Hal

alaska Wrote:
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> Amtrak prefers to train them in a barn; however
> once in a while you get a nice crew member - its
> just a crap game.
>
> Hal

They don't do any training in that barn. They just lock them up in there for a couple of weeks with each other, then let them out and put them on the next available train. Chicago crews especially seem to have been born and raised in one.

After their release from the barn, they small like
'crap'..and that's the way they treat and handle the
clients that pay their wages...