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I was a passenger on train 5 out of Reno, Friday, February 2, 2008. The story media tells is a bit skewed, as usual. The picture that has been painted is that Amtrak had everything under control and passengers were well tended to. Exactly the opposite is true.Amtrak spokesperson, Romero, was quoted in almost every paper saying, "She said both trains have heating and lights and passengers were being fed." Heating? Sounds good, but just not true. I was in the lower compartment of the 511 car with a group of elderly people, one was a hospice patient. Our compartment was so cold that I had to go up and through 3 cars and down into the lounge car to find the lounge car attendant to advise them that our car was freezing and we had elderly people in there. After my second trip over, they finally sent a conductor and attendant with some blankets. Lights? The whole 5 train was without power, including lights for over an hour while they unhooked the engine to prepare for the return to Reno. Food? Are you kidding? Well, if you consider a very tiny bowl of beef stew "providing food"...sure, why not. Get real.Ok, now let me take you on our trip: Train 5 was to depart Reno at 10:34am, it didn't arrive at the station til around noon. At about 2pm we arrived at Donner Summit, adjacent to and upslope from Donner Lake where we stopped. We were told that the tracks were snow bound and we were waiting for the arrival of a plow to clear the tracks. We sat there for over 3 hours when they finally told us that they were going to roll us back to the Truckee station so we could be in civilization. When we arrived at the Truckee station, we were told that we would be there two hours, then the track would be cleared and we would be on our way. The "All Aboard" finally came and we moved back on the train like a heard of cattle. After sitting on the train for aprox. another 30 minutes, they rolled us back even further into the train yard just before Truckee station on the Reno side, where they disconnected the engine and we lost all power and lights. Eventually, they got the engine hooked back up and power to the train. We were amazed when we began to actually move forward...under way at last and on our way home; or so we thought until we rolled back into the Truckee station and stopped again(mind you, to this point there had been no overhead announcements since we reboarded the train in Truckee).The train finally lurched again and we were underway, but in the wrong direction at full speed in the direction of Reno. My compartment of seniors were growing quite agitated with no information. I made my way to the upper level again, over three cars and back down into the lounge car to see if the attendant there knew what was going on. "Yeah, he said, we're heading back to Reno and everyone is already booked at Harrahs Casino/Hotel for the night. I wasn't too eager to return to my compartment of seniors to give them the news. Several of them thought I was teasing with them. I finally put on the most serious face I could and said, "no, I am not kidding, I'm very serious, we're on our way back to Reno. After arriving back in Reno, schlepping our luggage back upstairs and standing in a huge line, we each received a voucher to go across the street and book a room at Harrahs. Imagine our surprise when we checked in and when asked what Amtrak was providing for food, we were told that Amtrak was very specific that they were paying for the room only. We had to fend for ourselves. We were told to return to the station before 8am to catch the 7:55 am bus to Sacramento. So, we got up bright and early, hauled all our luggage over to the station all to find out that the 7:55am bus was full upon our arrival. Now get this, this was not a special bus they brought over just to take care of this, this was the regular train with internet and phone booking taking place. So, since they took a tally of the folks that would need transport that morning, wouldn't you think they would make sure those folks had seats on that bus... well, that would be the mark of an institution who had even semi-decent logistics skills. We finally were able to board a bus at 11:55am and we arrived back in Sacramento around 3:30pm Saturday. Home at last.In my compartment was a special older gentleman by the name of Tom. Tom was a hospice patient and brought that to the attention of the attendant and conductor after we got them there for the heat issue. After the train had been stuck for over 3 hours on Donner, after disclosing his situation to the conductor, he requested that he be able to go back and lay down in a sleeper car. The conductor said he would get back to him; he never did and Tom did all he could to be comfortable. He was never accommodated. There is much more, but suffice it to say, Amtrak totally disappointed me with their logistics and lack of customer service.  The incident that took place was definantly not Amtrak's issue, the Union Pacific runs the tracks...however, Amtrak handled the whole situation VERY poorly.
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