I looked pretty hard for that with no success. I imagine no guide exists b/c such a small percentage of the public uses sleeping cars today.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
I'm with Sam on this one. Making assumptions about someone's character based on whether or not they make voluntary contributions to someone in the service industry is out of line. If service fees were required, they would be collected and the rates would be displayed in the room.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Phoebe Vet If service fees were required, they would be collected and the rates would be displayed in the room.
Perhaps you have the best idea, Phoebe Vet. A standard gratuity could be added to each fare to be appropriately distributed. Amtrak Service Attendants would no longer have to depend on the kindness of strangers.
I learned it that "tip" stands for "To Insure Promptness". (Not interpreted as license to stiff people, but to use judgment).
Here's an interesting editorial that brings out "the other side of the coin".
http://freeport.nassauguardian.net/editorial/315724330437373.php
Wow! I didn't think I'd start a flame war over a simple question! Our trip out Monday was great(except for the bumpy track in Kansas) . We tipped out helpful attendant appropriately. We return tomorrow from Galesburg and will tip if the service warrants it.
jclass I learned it that "tip" stands for "To Insure Promptness". (Not interpreted as license to stiff people, but to use judgment). Here's an interesting editorial that brings out "the other side of the coin". http://freeport.nassauguardian.net/editorial/315724330437373.php
Note: The paper is from the Bahamas, not the US. But it does say: "Americans are known to be very high tippers averaging 19 percent, according to Zagat's 2012 America's Top Restaurant survey. " I guess that should read, "some Americans."
Sam1 On a recent trip from Jacksonville to Miami, I was the only person getting off of the car that I was in who gave a tip. I was the first off the car, and I watched the others get off to see if any money parted hands. Of course, I did not see what those who got off between Jacksonville and Miami did, but my impression is that most of today's riders, who don't remember the so-called good old days, don't tip.
On a recent trip from Jacksonville to Miami, I was the only person getting off of the car that I was in who gave a tip. I was the first off the car, and I watched the others get off to see if any money parted hands. Of course, I did not see what those who got off between Jacksonville and Miami did, but my impression is that most of today's riders, who don't remember the so-called good old days, don't tip.
Two points on your observation and a third towards the general discussion:
1. As I stated before you can't really use that as a benchmark as some folks tip in their compartment before they get off the train. But I would tend to agree with you somewhat but does that make it right for you being "in the know" not to set the example?
2. Some folks will see you tip and then reach for money themselves and tip or ask the question.
3. This discussion does not surprise me in the least. Railfans are not known to be generous in their tipping or their support or historical railway preservation. I'll bet you if you polled this posting community on what they contributed for historical railway artifact preservation......you'd be lucky to hit $100.maybe $500 at the most. Everyone knows it is true, even the editors of TRAINS.
Honestly, I think it is a personal choice and like I also said before if Amtrak thought these folks should NOT be tipped it would have a no tipping policy. I notice as well on my long distance train trips that some sleeping car passengers do not tip the wait staff in the diner either because they feel it is included in their sleeping car fare. It is what it is. Personally, I think the sleeping car attendant should share their tips with the dining car weit staff..........I seriously doubt that happens though. In most hotels if you work as server in a bar / restaurant combo the tips are shared because the server depends on the bartender to provide timely drinks as well. I don't think Amtrak has worked this out between the sleeping car attendants and the dining car staff though.
Phoebe Vet I'm with Sam on this one. Making assumptions about someone's character based on whether or not they make voluntary contributions to someone in the service industry is out of line. If service fees were required, they would be collected and the rates would be displayed in the room.
It's not a cruise ship where the labor is sourced from a third world country where a 5-10% tip is considered generous, these are generally American citizens we are talking about here and they are also responsible for your safety as well as security while your on board.
"We need to encourage a culture where hard work is not only recognized but rewarded. Employees must be motivated to work beyond expectations and to strive for excellence."
from the Editorial in the Freeport News.
Does the Editor receive tips for his editorials? If he doesn't he suggests he has no motivation to work beyond expectations or to strive for excellence. Perhaps he is looking for tips.
Sam1 Paul Milenkovic Is the State of Wisconsin "cheap." You betcha! (as we say north of U.S. 10). Generally, we have to travel the cheapest way possible, which means advanced purchase, Saturday stays away from family. Business class? Make me laugh! Amtrak? Who is going to cover your classroom sections? Saying the State of Wisconsin cheap is one thing; calling a forum participant cheap is another. Our policy states, for example, that employees should fly coach class within the United States and may use business class for overseas flights lasting more than four hours.
Paul Milenkovic Is the State of Wisconsin "cheap." You betcha! (as we say north of U.S. 10). Generally, we have to travel the cheapest way possible, which means advanced purchase, Saturday stays away from family. Business class? Make me laugh! Amtrak? Who is going to cover your classroom sections?
Saying the State of Wisconsin cheap is one thing; calling a forum participant cheap is another. Our policy states, for example, that employees should fly coach class within the United States and may use business class for overseas flights lasting more than four hours.
Sam1: Did I contribute to calling a forum participant "cheap"? Maybe my style of dry humor and indirect references is an acquired taste, but my general point of view is that criticizing a fellow Amtrak rider for not tipping enough does not advance the cause of advocating for passenger trains.
With respect to the policies of Northwestern University and the University of Wisconsin, last I checked, Northwestern was a "private non-profit" institution, although one benefiting from substantial indirect government aid through student loan programs and research grants. Wisconsin, a peer Big 10 university (Or is it Big 12? Somewhat Largish 6?), is famously a public institution under the aegis of the State of Wisconsin.
As Amtrak is a kind of Public Authority, and incidently, our Governor in cooperation with the then UW Chancelor wanted to turn UW-Madison from a Public University into an Amtrak-like like arrangement where we got support from the State but we would no longer be State employees and would no longer be subject to the salary and benefit limitations on State employees, but the support even on the UW-Madison campus kind of dried in the political whirlwind taking place in our state. So, the rules for use of a quasi-governmental service (Amtrak) by employees of another governmental service (UW-Madison) are a reasonable code of conduct for the rest-of-us?
As to the State of Wisconsin being "cheap", having worked in both private big business, private small business, and "the U", I don't know if there is an appreciation from the corporate side of things what takes place here. It is rare that any employee business travel takes place out of a Departmental of College budget. Usually, it takes place "out of a grant", or, if one is "between grants", by petitioning the Graduate School for an internal travel-expense grant subject to strict caps. Or one pays out one's own pocket, yes, for part or all of the expenses on work-related travel, expense that is rarely tax-deductible after the 1986 Federal Tax Reform.
Ever since the late 80's and certainly since the 90's and concerns about never-ending Federal deficits, all Federal grants are subject to the strictest of budget scrutiny and arbitrary "off the top" reductions. Most of what these grants pay for are tuition and stipends for graduate students conducting research in furtherance of advanced degrees, largely in STEM and other disciplines that are regarded as making meaningful and necessary contributions to national goals, stipends that provide a level of support midway between a hotel maid and an Amtrak on-board service person. And this level of compensation is for someone who may have incurred substantial student loan debt acquiring the required undergraduate college degree in a hard-science discipline to qualify for this.
So there is travel, much of it to scientific conference for the presentation of "papers", and a lot of it essential to achieve the peer-visibility of one's original scientific work required to advance a career (i.e. have any chance of acquiring grant funding to support students to further the education and research missions). That travel takes place using the lowest cost option possible. Coach, hah, make me laugh! You went by advanced-purchase stay-away-from-family-over-the-weekend "Super Saver." Now, the fares are a little bit more flexible, but generally, one plans ahead, there is no calling the corporate travel department and saying, "I need to meet with the General Manager in our New York office next week Tuesday, get me a ticket."
Business class? I remember being "bumped" into Business class on a rare trans-Pacific trip that I took on account of a flight cancellation. Boy was that a treat! On the way back, I was back in the Cattle Car section where I belonged with the rest of everybody.
If I have a 'tude about sleeping cars on long-distance Amtrak and persons offering opinions on how much to tip, I think you might realize where it is coming from. As to "a person should not regard an extra $10 a night as a financial burden when paying hundreds of dollars in sleeping car fares", where do I begin? The folks being generous with that tip are also being generous with hundreds of dollars in subsidy money required to fund that trip, subsidy money that is spent there instead on, say, Federal grants for engineering research that could be used for, dunno, finding a cure for cancer.
Cure for cancer, you say, get-outa-here-Milenkovic, you are not working on a cure for cancer! No, what I am working on right now has application to tilting passenger railroad trains (ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics, Vol 3, pp 014501-1:7). But my colleague who has a lab around the corner from my office is, however, working on using micro-electronic manufacturing tech to build a "medical lab-on-a-chip" -- he had an article in the prestigious journal Nature on this -- and that work just may lead to a cure for cancer. He has a small army of grad students (actually, somewhere between a squad and a platoon) working on this, people who already hold college degrees in Engineering, and people being compensated a lot less than Amtrak on-board crew. A lot of them are from other countries because it is difficult to hire U.S. citizens at less than Amtrak crew wages to do this work.
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
Most times, I tip the attendant before I detrain. As far as the diner is concerned, I check the prices in the menu, figure what the bill would have been had I been paying for the meal at that time, and then tip accordingly.
Mel Hazen; Jax, FL Ride Amtrak. It's the only way to fly!!!
Well, I have a bit of a different tale to tell. Born and raised in the US, I'm accustomed to tipping, altho in the last decade or so I've gotten dismayed at what people "expect" as a tip. The percentage expected has probably doubled since the 60's when I thought even that was high. In the end when I became an expat and retired overseas, I found that the exorbitant expecations just before leaving were ludicrous and never really followed suit. We lived in Vegas at that time and most of these guys made twice what I did so I never felt much pain over it.
Fast forward a bit. I've been in Italy for the last 7 years and it it is the custom NOT to tip at all because the people here are paid a decent wage, unlike the "rich" USA, so tipping became obsolete for us. Most people would truly be insulted at a tip, altho a buck or two for a pizza delivery is welcome, but a restaurant tip is definately not.
Last year I had the opportunity to travel first class Amtrak from Portland, ME thru Chicago and Seattle to Frisco and found everything to be impecable. However, after living in Italy I'm not used to carrying much cash at all, relying mostly on our POS debit card, so cash tipping on board became a problem for the car and diner attendants, I found myself arriving in Chicago with just four singles and some change, that was it. I did appologise but it was not needed and the four bucks was accepted graciously, I might add. I felt about an inch tall, but life is life and you've got to accept it. It hit the ATM right away.
I can sympathize with GN, having had a similar experience with being low on cash at the end of the sleeping car trip where the porter had been very helpful. Arriving at Croton Harmon and having to tell the taxi driver to wait outside my White Plains office until I borrowed cash from one of my two partners to pay him! (Riding into GCTor Penn and then using my monthly to White Plains would have meant missing an important meeting.)
I think tipping is in order for sleeping car attendents when decent service is provided, and the amount should be in proportion to the helpfulness and attitude of the attendent. If I could afford it I would err on the generous side, to assure a pleasant trip in the future as well as a reputation for one who tries to show appreciation. Hopefully, some day I will be back in the USA (if only for a visit) and be able to put this in practice and hopefully there will still be long distance trains to make it possible.
Too many other responsibilities at the present time, even if these resonsibilties have resulted from volunteering rather than demands.
LOL @ UW Comment. Yeah I went to school at the University of Wisconsin and earned a BBA there. Sorry you cannot make an argument to me that a research student at that same University is impoverished. Seem to remember the Business School students getting repeatedly financially raped with fees so that some of the career students could frolic carefree in the Liberal Arts schools. Interestly, most of the Business School students were also paying their own way vs the Liberal Arts students getting the Wet Nurse treatment from the Feds.
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