oltmannd wrote: I rode train 20 from Gainesville GA to Philly last Friday night.The ugly: The coach attendent had all the personality and appeal of dryer lint. He performed almost adequately. For some reason, they assign you your seat on the Crescent - unlike any other Amtrak LD train I've ridden (most in the distant past). They do manage to keep groups together, but that's about the best I can say for their method. They segregate riders by destination partly to minimize disruptions in the middle of the night but, I think, mostly for their own convenience. Rather than giving the better seats to those with the longest journey, the just fill the car up from one end to the other so that those on the longest get stuck out over the trucks. The attendant also assigned a 400 lb man to a seat next to another fairly big guy rather than finding the big guy his own seat pair in another coach. What a terrible "service" for both men! I'm sure they'll both be back on Amtrak real soon.There is a station attendant a Gainseville who mans the station at train time. No uniform or visible ID of any kind. Stuck her railroad radio in the top of her dress in a rather unattractive manner. Won't let you wait on the platform - have to stay in the dingy waiting room. All in all, a rather depressing and unprofessional experience.
I rode train 20 from Gainesville GA to Philly last Friday night.
The ugly: The coach attendent had all the personality and appeal of dryer lint. He performed almost adequately. For some reason, they assign you your seat on the Crescent - unlike any other Amtrak LD train I've ridden (most in the distant past). They do manage to keep groups together, but that's about the best I can say for their method. They segregate riders by destination partly to minimize disruptions in the middle of the night but, I think, mostly for their own convenience. Rather than giving the better seats to those with the longest journey, the just fill the car up from one end to the other so that those on the longest get stuck out over the trucks. The attendant also assigned a 400 lb man to a seat next to another fairly big guy rather than finding the big guy his own seat pair in another coach. What a terrible "service" for both men! I'm sure they'll both be back on Amtrak real soon.
There is a station attendant a Gainseville who mans the station at train time. No uniform or visible ID of any kind. Stuck her railroad radio in the top of her dress in a rather unattractive manner. Won't let you wait on the platform - have to stay in the dingy waiting room. All in all, a rather depressing and unprofessional experience.
The "minimize disruptions in the middle of the night" probably has a lot more to do with the seating arrangement than "attendant convenience." Are you coherent enough at 2 AM to tell the attendant that just woke you that this isn't your stop?
Finding a "fairly big guy" another seat due to his size sounds like it would be impossible, especially since you said the train was full above Charlotte. Plus, in the old days, if you took up two seats (due to your size or baggage), you paid for two seats. I know I sure wouldn't volunteer to change seats to sit next to one of them, on an aircraft, "been there, done that, not doing it again." Did you volunteer to change seats so you'd be next to the "400 pound guy?"
Can't comment on the personal appearance of the station attendant. The "won't let you wait on the platform" is a safety consideration. The Amtrak trains are probably not the only ones going through the station. Except for most of the NEC, Amtrak is a tennant on the tracks, and may be working with mandates from the host railroad regarding where passengers go and when.
You really need to look at both sides of the story.
Greetings!
Read your report 'n must agree with your appraisal - there are no bad train rides, but there surely are times when the service 'n material condition of the equipment could 'n should be better.
Don't kow if you're interested, but I hang out over on Classic Trains (General Discussion) at "Our" Place . . . I recently Posted my "trip report" of an AMTRAK roundtrip between St. Louis 'n Kansas City . . . been riding that route for nearly 20 years, and it isn't getting better.
Most of my passenger rail travels are aboard VIA Rail in Canada, and there's evidence of deterioration there as well. Not looking good . . .
Hang in there!
It does look like Amtrak has problems!
Amfleet Cars, based on the Budd Metroliners, were designed for high speed, short haul service in the Northeast Corridor. Many have been displaced by the 20 Acela Bullet Trains in the corridor.
In other uses, lots of stops on a long haul train will tend to flatten the wheels, also, few use bathrooms when on short haul trains. While the aging Amfleets might be on the end of a train for local passengers, AMTRAK NEEDS NEW LONG HAUL CARS! At least you got a seat, unlike the airlines, Amtrak does not "over book".
I sure the enemies of our country will want to know of the complete lack of Security at Gainesville. Wake up Amtrak!
Don U. TCA 73-5735
The good: The scenery in VA was very nice. Ate breakfast in the diner. Food was decent. Service was good - but a bit slow and inconsistent. Plastic dishes were nicely done and more than acceptable. The coach seating and HVAC systems were all in good working order. The train was sold out north of Charlotteville and the sleepers north of Charlotte. The train was 1:10 late at Gainseville but only 35 min late at Philly. And, of course, there are no bad train rides.....
The bad: Apparent worn wheels on my coach got the truck hunting started at anything approaching 80 mph. Made it hard to sleep, particularly considering I was over the offending truck. It was REALLY bad at the 100 and 110 mph running on the NEC. The station stops were rather long. Always longer than the 3 minutes allotted. Some of this was due to their method of seating people in the coaches - see below.
The icky: the Amfleet I bathrooms. There were in working order, but hardly kept clean and supplied by the coach attendent. I had to hunt up a new pack of paper towels in the one bathroom. On the design side, they are totally inadequate for overnight travel. No real place to change, should you care to, without dropping you stuff all over the floor. No cups that have a bottom to them, should you care to brush your teeth. Bad design, bad supplies, bad cleaning. Ick!
A lot of this stuff is easily and cheaply fixed. But, mgt has to pay attention and care to set the tone.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
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