charlie hebdoIf the attendants cannot or will not keep things clean,
I think some of them think the duty is beneath them. I have been on the Texas Eagle where the attendant rarely climbed the stairs and stayed primarily on the upper level the whole time keeping the upstairs restroom clean (because it was next to the attendents room) but ignoring the restrooms on the lower level which of course due to kids in the family bedroom got nastier and nastier.
Yeah the Amtrak on board attendants a fairly sad with job performance. In most of the Westin and Marriott hotels I stay in the maid can clean the room and make the bed in about 12-15 min. Amtrak Superliner Attendent.........watch them, it's like a bad Monty Python skit. I timed one out of curiousity and she averaged 25 to 35 min per compartment. She was doing really stupid workflow moves like pull the sheets and walk them to another compartment to dump them, then pull the blankets and do the same exact walk a second time, she left the mattress pads alone but putting the chairs and beds up took another 10 min. She also kept pausing like it was draining her of energy. Just unreal. All that extra time she took was time she couldn't spend with customer service or attending to other passengers.
I've been on other cars where the attendent has a regime and insists they will only put up or put down beds during specific hours and after that it is your tough luck. Complete silliness and the private railroads you could wake the guy up if you needed something..........apparently not on Amtrak they need their 10 hours time off because well.....who knows why. Though to be fair if a sleeping car passenger is deboarding at 2 or 3 a.m. I have seen the attendents up and fully dressed as well.....as it should be.
If the attendants cannot or will not keep things clean, fire them and hire people who will. Amtrak is paying those attendants a decent wage. There are plenty of people who will do it. Recruit at McDonalds perhaps?
I was by no means denying the main point, just pointing out one problem we did not encounter. You misunderstood me, but possibly I should have begun by first agreeing with the main point.
daveklepperDid not have to be involved with retention toilets in the USA Army! Good indoor plumbing or dig a hole somewhere remote. ROTC Summer 1951, active duty 1954-1956.
OK wasn't talking about retention toilets. Communal toilets are actually a thing of the past now they were phasing them out when I was in service. Anyway, back to the topic. Not much effort is involved in keeping a communal toilet clean especially on a sleeping car with limited population.
Did not have to be involved with retention toilets in the USA Army!
Good indoor plumbing or dig a hole somewhere remote.
ROTC Summer 1951, active duty 1954-1956.
daveklepperDid you complain about that and get a response?
Well from past interactions with the LD Passenger Advocate my impression is there are two Amtraks when it comes to customer complaints. There is the public facing Amtrak that responds via form letters that sounds reasonable and accomodating kind of like a placebo for people that complain. Then there is the other face of Amtrak, the Amtrak Customer Service Managers whom seem to be jaded from what I have heard and unless they see an avalanche of letters on a topic, won't investigate or take a complaint seriously.
I'll write them again prior to this years trip and post basically what they tell me, I think this time I will insist on a phone call with someone. Because honestly, if the smell is there again, it's the last time I ride Amtrak Long Distance. Not going to pay that amount of money for a service that can't keep it's restrooms tidy. I know it is a larger problem because TRAINS MAGAZINE staff wrote it in one of their blogs "Amtrak needs to adapt a McDonald's restaurant standard when it comes to their Superliner restrooms and their cleanliness"..................something to that effect.
Dave, I am betting you had to keep communal restrooms and showers spotless when you were in the Army. I know I had to. Not a nice job but doable if you keep at it over a shift instead of letting it fall apart until the restroom looks like a bomb dropped inside. I know kids are worse then Soldiers with restrooms but geeze this is not rocket science. Basic customer service. The open sewer smell is caused by gassing by the septic tanks which is either an overfilled condition or worn gaskets.........also should be easily fixed via attention by maintence.
Did you complain about that and get a response?
charlie hebdo Why would anyone choose to take such a train?
Why would anyone choose to take such a train?
In 6 years of riding the Texas Eagle between Dallas and Chicago, I was only ever late once more than 10-15 min from posted time and it was due to extreme cold in Chicago and failing locomotives.
Though I only ride the train when UP is almost shutdown for the holidays ..........so not your typical rider and probably how I miss all these calamity situations..........UP doesn't have enough trains on the line to obstruct Amtrak's progress during the time periods I choose to ride. My only complaint so far on this train is the smelly restrooms.
My doubts about the wisdom of running LD trains in the 21st century have been shared many times. But the Failing Eagle's foibles show clearly that trying to run frequent, convenient, reliable and hopefully >110mph corridor services is foolish as long as they are running as the unwanted stepchild of some freight line.
charlie hebdoUnless someone loves sitting for hours on a train, why would anyone ride such a joke?
charlie hebdositting on a train for 20-40 hours, often sitting still for 30-60 minutes in the middle of nowhere is something only a small percentage of the public chooses to do more than once.
Especially when you're expected to pay something of a premium price for the 'experience' and then be told you received your 'transportation service' so won't be recompensed for all the actual or perceived inconvenience.
Thank you for clarifying my apparently unclear post. However, sitting on a train for 20-40 hours, often sitting still for 30-60 minutes in the middle of nowhere is something only a small percentage of the public chooses to do more than once.
daveklepper ... sitting on a train for several days, even, coast-to-coast, is not just sitting on a train.
What he's talking about is not so much 'sitting on a train', but being on a SITTING train for hours. The scenery rapidly becomes tiring in most places along the Texas Eagle route when it does not change for hours. Toilet smell, lack of food, missed connections and general strain will not add to the experience. One can 'perform most activities one does in daily life' locked in a low-budget high-school cafeteria after hours, but we don't see large numbers of students celebrating that option.
Assuming the train is reasonably close to schedule, sitting on a train for several days, even, coast-to-coast, is not just sitting on a train. On a train one can perform most activities one does in daily life, plus most of the time indulging in seeing some interersting and/or beatiful and/or dramatic scenery. One can love doing this. I did.
Unless someone loves sitting for hours on a train, why would anyone ride such a joke?
Gramp This lack of reliability is really a shame. We’re going to San Antonio in October for a family wedding, and could go by Texas Eagle. Because of the uncertainty, Amtrak is missing out on two round trip roomette fares, either from Milwaukee airport station (Hiawatha) or Bloomington depending on schedule offerings.
GrampThis lack of reliability is really a shame. We’re going to San Antonio in October for a family wedding, and could go by Texas Eagle. Because of the uncertainty, Amtrak is missing out on two round trip roomette fares, either from Milwaukee airport station (Hiawatha) or Bloomington depending on schedule offerings. I wonder if anyone at Amtrak or Union Pacific gives a hoot about serving people in this regard?
Amtrak, under Anderson, wants to provide the worst possible 'service' to drive traffic off the train - he is just following the the path that was pioneered by the carriers in the march to creating Amtrak. PPS!
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
This lack of reliability is really a shame. We’re going to San Antonio in October for a family wedding, and could go by Texas Eagle. Because of the uncertainty, Amtrak is missing out on two round trip roomette fares, either from Milwaukee airport station (Hiawatha) or Bloomington depending on schedule offerings. I wonder if anyone at Amtrak or Union Pacific gives a hoot about serving people in this regard?
The Broken Eagle is running approximately 8 hours late today, August 10th. It is estimated to arrive at Fort Worth at 9:35 pm. The estimate for San Antonio is 3:52 am.
Whether Amtrak runs the Broken Eagle through to San Antonio or tosses the through passengers onto buses at Fort Worth is yet to be seen.
The Eagle's OTP is laughable, except perhaps for the folks that are stuck on it. And the folks in San Antonio that thought they would be picking up a family member or friend at 9:55 pm are not likely to be in a good mood.
When it seems things could only get worse, they do. Amtrak says the status - July 16th - of Nos 21 and 22 is not reportable due to a service disruption. They have had lots of practice putting this announcement up on the board.
This train is giving Texas a bad name. Amtrak should change the name of it to Broken Eagle.
A small miracle is in the making. Nos. 21 and 22 are reported to arrive in Fort Worth on time today, June 26th. Whether they do so is another matter.
Update: Miracles are over. No. 21 was nearly 1 hour, 30 minutes late into Fort Worth today, June 28th. It is estimated to be 1 hour, 25 minutes late at Taylor; 1 hour, 18 minutes late at Austin, but it is estimated to be on-time into San Antonio.
Put enough padding into the schedule and the train probably could be on-time even if the crew and passengers had to push it the last 10 miles. Well, maybe not the passengers. I sense from some of the monthly operating reports that people are deserting the Texas Eagle in droves.
GeoffS Dallas 4:04 PM, 4 and a half down. San Marcos 9:45, 2 and a half hours late. Ugh! Might as well start walking 'cause I don't know if I would trust their schedule!!
No. 21 is now marked up for Dallas at 4:47 pm, 5 hours, 17 minutes late. Stay tuned. If history is any indication, it will lose even more time before it gets to Big "D" and Cowtown.
If No. 21 gets to Fort Worth late enough, Amtrak may terminate it there and toss anyone booked south of Fort Worth onto a bus. Those going to Austin, San Marcos, or San Antonio can look forward to arriving in the wee hours of the morning. And it they are really lucky, they will be in time to see the sun come up.
How anyone can argue that this train, or any of the long-distance trains, is a serious public transport option escapes me.
Update: No. 21 is now expected to arrive in San Antonio at 2:45 am. A couple more hours of delay, and the passengers will be able to see the sun come up.
Update 2: Well, they almost made sunrise. No. 21 arrived in San Antonio at 4:05 am, June 22nd.
Next stop for the Eagle is Marlvern, AR. Just 6 and a half hours late.
Dallas 4:04 PM, 4 and a half down. San Marcos 9:45, 2 and a half
hours late. Ugh! Might as well start walking 'cause I don't know if
I would trust their schedule!!
GS
Traveller518 What are my odds of actually making it to San Marcos (where someone wil be picking me up) on time?
Today, #21 is 37 min late out of Muneola and currently showing to be expected to be ON TIME at Ft Worth and San Marcos. But as you know (and the stock brokers all say) Past preformance does not indicate what will happen in the future.
https://asm.transitdocs.com/train/2019/6/19/21
Check tomorrow morning and change the 19 in the above URL to 20 to see how #21 is doing.
I'll be travelling on Amtrak for the first time friday, taking the Texas Eagle from FTW to San Marcos. Reading this forum is realyl frightening, as it seems the train is ALWAYS hours or a half-a-day late. I oped for Amtrack this time because my last few experiences with taking Greyhound from Dallas to San Antonio have been absolutely miserable. What are my odds of actually making it to San Marcos (where someone wil be picking me up) on time?
Last week the truncated Texas Eagle ran between Chicago and St. Louis, as well as Fort Worth and San Antonio, pretty much on-time. Oh, there was one day when the Fort Worth to San Antonio train had to be cancelled because of a freight train derailment in Taylor, but being on-time was a refreshing change from being hours late on many days.
However, the train that departed Chicago yesterday, June 8th, is back to the Eagle's old tricks. It was due in Dallas at 11:30 am; it is now estimated to arrive at 4:32 p.m. or 5 hours, 2 minutes late.
Amtrak's announcement regarding the cancellation of the St. Louis to Fort Worth said in part, "we determined that it would be best to not create trainloads of ‘never again’ customers delayed hours on a congested railroad.”
Looks like they fixed the problem not!
PS: The Eagle arrived in San Antonio a little after 4 am. Again, the June 10th train is expected to be more than 4 hours late into Dallas.
Although the "Flambeau 400" and the "Peninsula 400" ran on different routes between Milwaukee and Green Bay depending on train direction, the lines were not directional running overall. Trains ran on both lines in both directions.
BaltACDWhen your product is being 'damaged' by a third party and you don't raise holy ungodly HELL against the thrid party for their actions in damaging your product - you are complicit in the causing the damage. I am not hearing anything where Anderson is complaining about the delays Amtrak are encountering on the freight carriers property. Some of us have already seen this kind of neglect of 'product' as was done by Class 1 carriers in the period of time leading up to the formation of Amtrak!
I will say this as an annual Texas Eagle rider. UPRR does an excellent job running the Amtrak train on a priority schedule during times of non-peak Frieght usage and it typically arrives 2-3 hours early Northbound in St. Louis due to schedule padding and another 45 min early in Chicago Northbound. I rode it on December 23-24th last year and this was the performance. Southbound was less impressive riding the train on the 28th of December but even so we arrived in Dallas I believe it was 40 min early.
So if it is being delayed this much on these other dates it is the fault of UPRR and dispatching. Though I might say that UPRR repeatedly warned Amtrak about it's switch to directional running on Mopac and whatever other line they have that parallels most of it. Since Amtrak only runs on one of the two lines it is running against the flow of traffic. Perhaps a short term solution could be found by borrowing a tactic of the C&NW run the train North on one line and South on the other? I thought C&NW did this on one of it's Milwaukee to Green Bay trains. Up to Green Bay on the Lakefront line and down back to Milwaukee on the Fox River Line. Not sure of the train name though.....was it the Flambeau 400?
Anyways Amtrak would never consider such a move so according to UP that is why it suffers on this specific route from what I heard. I think the train schedule is so heavily padded that it is a milk run and I won't ride the train during peak freight carriage times.
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