Passenger Trains > Facebook post regarding LA-San Antonio trip

=0.9375remI saw this today on Facebook:  
My first and definitely LAST Amtrak experience. I traveled 33 hours from LA to Austin with my sister and 82 year old mother and it was the WORST experience. We were looking forward to a relaxing trip but our Car #15 was HOT with no air circulation the entire time. We spoke to at least 6 different conductors/train personnel who informed us they needed to OVERRIDE the air conditioning system repeatedly. One of the staff, Landon, even kept all the other train car doors open for us to allow some air to circulate into our car. Nothing was resolved until we arrived in San Antonio station 31 hours into iur trip. My mother was dizzy and had difficulty breathing from the heat. My sister and I slept fully-seated and uncomfortably in the Observation room due to the heat and smell in our car (people were sweating and started to smell like body odor). It was very traumatic for all of us, and other passengers as well. We were informed that we should reach out to inform corporate offices of this occurrence. Completely unsafe and unacceptable.=0.9375remAnother issue to add to this very disappointing experience is the bathrooms were filthy and smelled horribly. Are they nit supposed to be cleaned or maintained throughout a 33 hour ride? Please feel free to have someone from your corporate offices contact me for more detailed information. My mother and sister are scheduled to travel back on Monday July 13 and both are very much concerned after this experience!! 

I quit Amtrak after its routine disinterest in the taxpayers who pay for it. The new policy to replace the double-deck Superliners with low level cars is just one more nail in its coffin. I personally think that e down grading Superliner service is, in the end, another way for it's attempt to serve only the NEC. 

Amtrak claimed  super liners increased patronage 25% i just read on wiki.

It also said they wanted to call them vistaliners, but that name was taken.

I have always heard that word of mouth advertising is the best !

Hot cars have been a problem since as long as I can remember. I honestly think and certainly hope this too was an exception and that the travelers could find relief in other cars.  Riding an intercity or intrastate train does have its risks.  But I would think this passenger and the 82 year old mom do deserve a refund or some sort of reimbursement for the degree of malfunctioning equipment they encountered and the consequences of it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/07/26 20:23 by Hou74-76.

I remember taking the Chief from Albuquerque to Los Angeles in the 1960s and the air conditioning had failed in half the coaches.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/07/26 20:57 by Eggenberger.

At least the smell in their car was only from body odor and not the sewage smell from the outhouse. They should count their blessings.

This summer I am certain there are many "never agains" out there.  Trains that are half a day late, failing equipment, terminal meltdowns and equipment shortages, etc. do not encourage repeart patronage.

This all comes down to leadership, and Amtrak has not had a good leader in well over a decade.  Boardman was the last guy who really understood Amtrak.  Without new leadership and some vision, this is Amtrak.  It will not change.

Honestly, I am tired of it.  My luck getting to/from Savannah has been solid, and yet even the Meteor has fallen victim to major delays lately.  I am done hoping it will get better.  It will not.  We can tolerate it or not, but given the current trajectory, I have little faith that anyone at Amtrak--at least in upper management--gives one single crap.

Eggenberger Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I remember taking the Chief from Albuquerque to
> Los Angeles in the 1960s and the air conditioning
> had failed in half the coaches.

Wait what? Impossible! According to some frequent posters here, the pre-Amtrak passenger trains were perfect and the absolute best.

In this particular case, if Amtrak were ever pro-active all of these Sunset victims could have received an email or text message saying 'We are sorry, we are giving you a credit today of $xxx'. I have been on screwed up United flights and have gotten this message before landing.

Of course Amtrak does nothing even when technology allows it. Because they do not care. Because they do not have to. Plenty more money available from mama government
Down the road.

Pathetic but not surprising.
Posted from Android

ssarcadia Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In this particular case, if Amtrak were ever
> pro-active all of these Sunset victims could have
> received an email or text message saying 'We are
> sorry, we are giving you a credit today of $xxx'.
> I have been on screwed up United flights and have
> gotten this message before landing.
>
> Of course Amtrak does nothing even when technology
> allows it. Because they do not care. Because they
> do not have to. Plenty more money available from
> mama government
> Down the road.
>
> Pathetic but not surprising.
> Posted from Android

When I was on a very late #3 recently, I received a credit before arriving at my destination.

if this happened, good,  This is not the norm and impacted pax normally have to write Amtrak and hope to get a reply.  I know a woman whose written complaint went half a year without a reply.  Amtrak Customer Relations has no phone number, you can only write.  And hope for a reply.  A broken system as one would expect,

ssarcadia Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> if this happened, good,  This is not the norm and
> impacted pax normally have to write Amtrak and
> hope to get a reply.  I know a woman whose
> written complaint went half a year without a
> reply.  Amtrak Customer Relations has no phone
> number, you can only write.  And hope for a
> reply.  A broken system as one would expect,

I always thought you called Amtrak and asked for Customer Relations.   I have done this in the past.   Is this no longer the case?

I wonder if customer service reps that reply to complaint letters keep the "best of" letters in a separate file?  I certainly would love to see them compiled into a book.

It would have been more prudent and certainly safer for the traveler with her elderly mom to take a direct Delta flight out of Los Angeles with a flight time under 3 hours for about $250. They will help you with a wheel chair at the airport and with the older lady they would have received priority boarding and got her settled into her seat without the hustle and bustle.  Sure beats the devil's coach ride across the desert. 

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

Naturally, their customer relations department is lacking.  The elderly friend of mine that wrote them, after 12 emails finally got a reply six months later where they flat out said they have no direct phone number nor way for any customers to talk with them. So they make it worse by not being pro-active and contacting people during the fun trip but making them chase Amtrak for any kind of a resolution.  Never ever will they do anything that puts the customer first, with little hassle.  This unhelpful approach is baked in their DNA and will never change.

some OBS supervisors  will give pax  a connection  avenue to get refunds or credits, others reported here, probably the same channels already mentioned here?  with restuctuings perhaps some avenues mentioned may no longer exist.

webmaster Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I wonder if customer service reps that reply to
> complaint letters keep the "best of" letters in a
> separate file?  I certainly would love to see
> them compiled into a book.
>
> It would have been more prudent and certainly
> safer for the traveler with her elderly mom to
> take a direct Delta flight out of Los Angeles with
> a flight time under 3 hours for about $250. They
> will help you with a wheel chair at the airport
> and with the older lady they would have received
> priority boarding and got her settled into her
> seat without the hustle and bustle.  Sure beats
> the devil's coach ride across the desert. 

When trains were running half full it was a lot easier to accomidate passengers and give them "better service", but that level of service wasn't sustainable.. For all the references to "my tax dollars", guess what, this sort of high ridership and cost cutting has made those tax dollars far less necessary. With Amtrak's ridership setting records and the younger generations more interested in trains, transit and urbanism it might just be a fact of life that Amtrak doesn't need or especially desire to service former base of nostalgic octogenarians that it so heavily relied upon between the 1970's and 2000's. More than before younger riders value the experiance of travel over the destination and this papers over a lot of delays and service issues.

For years the basic unit of airline delay has been to push people onto later flights or the next day's flights. This means that someone on a 12 hour late Amtrak LD train will often come out ahead, especially if they have a device and a bunch of food and beverages they brought from home. While a senior citizen is likely to vot to "never take Amtrak again", a younger person just got more time to decompress and recharge their social battery. 

mbrotzman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> webmaster Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I wonder if customer service reps that reply to
> > complaint letters keep the "best of" letters in
> a
> > separate file?  I certainly would love to see
> > them compiled into a book.
> >
> > It would have been more prudent and certainly
> > safer for the traveler with her elderly mom to
> > take a direct Delta flight out of Los Angeles
> with
> > a flight time under 3 hours for about $250.
> They
> > will help you with a wheel chair at the airport
> > and with the older lady they would have
> received
> > priority boarding and got her settled into her
> > seat without the hustle and bustle.  Sure
> beats
> > the devil's coach ride across the desert. 
>
> When trains were running half full it was a lot
> easier to accomidate passengers and give them
> "better service", but that level of service wasn't
> sustainable.. For all the references to "my tax
> dollars", guess what, this sort of high ridership
> and cost cutting has made those tax dollars far
> less necessary. With Amtrak's ridership setting
> records and the younger generations more
> interested in trains, transit and urbanism it
> might just be a fact of life that Amtrak doesn't
> need or especially desire to service former base
> of nostalgic octogenarians that it so heavily
> relied upon between the 1970's and 2000's. More
> than before younger riders value the experiance of
> travel over the destination and this papers over a
> lot of delays and service issues.
>
> For years the basic unit of airline delay has been
> to push people onto later flights or the next
> day's flights. This means that someone on a 12
> hour late Amtrak LD train will often come out
> ahead, especially if they have a device and a
> bunch of food and beverages they brought from
> home. While a senior citizen is likely to vot to
> "never take Amtrak again", a younger person just
> got more time to decompress and recharge their
> social battery. 

Very well said!  Those of us who took our first train trips in the 1950s are not the future, and we can be nostalgic but that will not make the trains great again.   Those days are gone.    Service issues are rampant everywhere.

Eggenberger Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I remember taking the Chief from Albuquerque to
> Los Angeles in the 1960s and the air conditioning
> had failed in half the coaches.

You can be certain that those cars were quickly repaired.

As a traveler who prefers train travel...I've ridden most of amtraks long distance and local services around the entire country...and a retired airline employee that has traveled much of the world, I was faced recently with the need to fulfill a travel itinerary that would have normally been by train, rental cars and air.  But when faced with indifferent customer service for planning, Ill-matching schedules, and outrageous costs, it was decided to make it a car trip.  So, St Louis to Albuquerque, then to Corpus Christi, Hamilton, Missouri, Independence, Missouri and finally back to St Louis.  There was not one minute on that trip that either me or my wife regretted making that decision.  There was not one delay, not one ridiculous complication nor any hoards of people going to the same place we were.  Our accommodations were excellent, comfortable and certainly within our price range.  The whole thing makes me sad because that trip ought to have been made with train, air and rental cars but putting that against driving just did not stand up to logic.