CMStPnP Frank Kenny Hopefully everyone here has sent their comments to Amtrak in the hope that someone reads them vs just venting on here. Venting here won't inspire changes. Amtrak has what they call a "passenger advocate" that you can Email. She meets with some mid to high level Amtrak executives monthly to give input to them. Passenger Advocate is a voluntary position that is filled via ordinary Amtrak riders. To qualify you have to travel so many segments on a specific market line like Corridor or Long Distance measured on an annual basis.........I think that is how they prequalify you. Note though what the UP RR CEO stated about their Steam Program that it's value is more to railfans than potential clients of UP RR. Moral of that quip.... Senior Executives know where the comments are comming from just by reading some of them you can read between the lines and tell sometimes.
Frank Kenny Hopefully everyone here has sent their comments to Amtrak in the hope that someone reads them vs just venting on here. Venting here won't inspire changes.
Hopefully everyone here has sent their comments to Amtrak in the hope that someone reads them vs just venting on here. Venting here won't inspire changes.
Amtrak has what they call a "passenger advocate" that you can Email. She meets with some mid to high level Amtrak executives monthly to give input to them. Passenger Advocate is a voluntary position that is filled via ordinary Amtrak riders. To qualify you have to travel so many segments on a specific market line like Corridor or Long Distance measured on an annual basis.........I think that is how they prequalify you.
Note though what the UP RR CEO stated about their Steam Program that it's value is more to railfans than potential clients of UP RR. Moral of that quip.... Senior Executives know where the comments are comming from just by reading some of them you can read between the lines and tell sometimes.
Correct spelling and grammar may increase the probability of any letter being taken seriously.
CMStPnP Amtrak has what they call a "passenger advocate" that you can Email. She meets with some mid to high level Amtrak executives monthly to give input to them.
This link provides a more complete description of Amtrak's Customer Advisory Committee:
https://www.amtrak.com/about-amtrak/amtrak-culture-and-careers/amtrak-customer-advisory-committee.html
The committee consists of 20 to 30 volunteers that focus on Amtrak's service lines. "The group provides direct input to Amtrak about their perceptions of service and also makes service enhancing, revenue generating and cost saving recommendations.
It appears the committe gathers information from a variety of sources for their discussions with Amtrak.
It does not appear that any member of the committee acts as a point person for customer complaints. As noted in the last sentence of the linked Amtrak document, "Passengers with comments about Amtrak service, policies or other matters should email Amtrak directly or call 1-800 USA-RAIL (1-800-872-7245) and ask to speak with a Customer Relations representative."
Rio Grande Valley, CFI,CFII
charlie hebdoCorrect spelling and grammar may increase the probability of any letter being taken seriously.
I am sure it would. This is an informal opinion forum though. It's not a means to contact Amtrak nor is the material here to be submitted for publication.
PJS1It does not appear that any member of the committee acts as a point person for customer complaints. As noted in the last sentence of the linked Amtrak document
Have you used them before or are you just trolling me again? I have used them in the past.
CMStPnP PJS1 It does not appear that any member of the committee acts as a point person for customer complaints. As noted in the last sentence of the linked Amtrak document Have you used them before or are you just trolling me again? I have used them in the past.
The document, which is published by Amtrak and presumably contains accurate information, says Amtrak's customers should contact a customer relations representative regarding a service issue.
The instructions don't recommending contacting a Customer Advisory Committee member. The names of the committee members are not given on the webpage.
Just trying to get the correct information out!
Thought this might be of interest.
In November my wife and I took a trip from Denver east on the California Zephyr to Chicago, IL. The goal was to ride the Southwest Chief all the way from Chicago, IL to Los Angeles CA.. For the most part, no complaints other than the age of the equipment and sense of the boiling controversies underneath concerning the future of long distance trains under present management. We heard plenty of complaints from the passengers to which we engaged in conversation on the topic of meals that were served to first class passengers tha rode the Capital Limited and the Lakeshore Limited. We are not ones to ride Amtrak all the time, but, we have been on quite a few trains in the last 15 years. I know that the National Passenger Corporation was not expected to last more than a few years since its inception in 1971. That said, and knowing most people prefer to travel via airplane, I would still say the future is in rail travel. So why not make it more appealing and user friendly? Why not keep all options on the table as far as transportation in our vast country?
Then my wife and I took the Coast Starlight after arriving on the Southwest Chief from Los Angeles, CA. to Emoryville by coach. The car attendant seemed to be very attentive at first, but I observed her giving another attendent a back rub in the coach ahead of ours. A bit unprofessional we thought, but for the sake of comraderie amongst employees we were willing to overlook it. But upon our arrival at what we thought was our point of disembarkment, which was Emoryville and not the station(Oakland). The two stations are close together and only eight minutes apart, our attendant should have adivised us of this fact and let us get off in Oakland. Our destination is printed on our boarding passes above our seats. This led to series of misunderstandings and inconveninces for us. We thought Oakland and Emoryville were one and the same station, and because we were departing for Sacremento, CA. the next morning on the California Zephyr the next morning from Emoryvile. We did overcome all this and did not let it discourage our love of rail travel, but, to a lot of people its just one of many reasons not to travel by rail. My wife and I sincerely would like to keep rail as nice alternative to flying. We think it is more personable and more friendly. Just adding to the chorus from passengers on Amtrak. Hope all of our complaints reach managements eyes.
Robert, I am sorry that you had the misunderstanding about Emeryville.
I do not remember just when it was, but when Amtrak was in the business of carrying more than passengers, the cars for that traffic would blocked at least one street in Oakland as passengers boarded and detrained from the California Zephyr for entirely too much time, so Emeryville became the western terminus for that train. Your car attendant should have questioned you about your getting off in Oakland and not going the rest of the way to Emeryville. But, what's done is done.
Johnny
Anderson is not in place to improve Amtrak. He is in place to kill it.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Rio Grande Robert So why not make it more appealing and user friendly? Why not keep all options on the table .........our complaints reach managements eyes.
PJS1 Rio Grande Robert So why not make it more appealing and user friendly? Why not keep all options on the table .........our complaints reach managements eyes. Amtrak has a Customer Advisory Committee. It consists of 20 to 30 volunteers that focus on one of Amtrak’s service lines: NEC, state supported trains and long-distance trains. The members gather information from customers regarding various aspect of Amtrak’s service and feed the it to Amtrak’s management. If you have any specific comments that you would like to share with Amtrak, you should email Amtrak directly or call 1-800-USA-RAIL (1-800-872-7245) and ask to speak with a Customer Relations representative. Amtrak management is required to pay attention to another information stream. The company’s financials. And when management looks at the results of the long-distance trains, the picture is not pretty. In FY17 the long-distance trains lost $500 million on total revenues or $531 million on ticket revenues. Moreover, assuming that they wear 15 percent of Amtrak’s depreciation expense, on a fully allocated cost basis they lost $620 million. This is the primary reason why passengers on the Lake Shore Limited and Capitol Limited were given scaled down meals. Most of them won’t pay for the full service that they believe is important for the passenger rail travel experience in the United States.
And now airlines want passengers to pay for seat selection! So I guess Amtrak passengers will have that fee to look forward to in the future.
BaltACD And now airlines want passengers to pay for seat selection! So I guess Amtrak passengers will have that fee to look forward to in the future.
Anderson certainly has not said anything about imposing a seat charge for Amtrak's passengers. Doing so would be a challenge since it does not assign seats, but of course that could change.
BTW, Southwest Airlines, does not charge for seats and, as far as I know, does not have any plans to do so.
PJS1 BaltACD And now airlines want passengers to pay for seat selection! So I guess Amtrak passengers will have that fee to look forward to in the future. BTW, Southwest Airlines, does not charge for seats and, as far as I know, does not have any plans to do so.
Delta is one of the carriers that is doing it - I am certain Anderson is contemplating how to do it on Amtrak.
Any flying I do - Southwest is my first choice.
I've never had Delta charge me to select a seat. The only people they do are those that buy Basic Economy, which they just started last year in response to other airlines.
Precisely.
Along with his partner in crime, Checky.
BackshopI've never had Delta charge me to select a seat. The only people they do are those that buy Basic Economy, which they just started last year in response to other airlines.
Just because they haven't charged you yet, doesn't mean they won't set something up to charge you in the future! Airlines are becoming greedyier by the day.
BaltACD Backshop I've never had Delta charge me to select a seat. The only people they do are those that buy Basic Economy, which they just started last year in response to other airlines. Just because they haven't charged you yet, doesn't mean they won't set something up to charge you in the future! Airlines are becoming greedyier by the day.
Backshop I've never had Delta charge me to select a seat. The only people they do are those that buy Basic Economy, which they just started last year in response to other airlines.
BaltACDDelta is one of the carriers that is doing it - I am certain Anderson is contemplating how to do it on Amtrak.
I have the same suspicions, the shoe to raise more revenue is going to drop somewhere soon.
Noted they are actually weighing the passenger checked bags now. I wondered why that is all important but I suspect they have a weight limit in place now. Have not looked on the Amtrak website for it though. They are trying to limit the onboard carryons via sleeper passenger to just two max with one being a purse or laptop and the other being a carryon bag. This is not enforced strictly yet but I see that comming too many people attempting to live out of their large suitcases on the lower level luggage rack causing issues with boarding and folks attempting to use the restroom.
So recently on the Texas Eagle the onboard attendants were telling passengers the Dining Car was really for Sleeping Car passengers and that is why they are seated first during a reserved seating time. First time I heard that overt explanation by an Amtrak employee. A more correct explanation would be they paid for the meals in advance but I am not going to quibble.
The onboard service crew seems to be a high percentage of new employees on the Texas Eagle of late and they were all doing a really good job at customer service and being honest and prompt on train status and train delays. Though in both directions the Texas Eagle arrived at my destination at least 45 min prior to the scheduled arrival time. Attribute that to lack of UP RR freights during the holiday period on the lines the Texas Eagle uses.
It seems they might go back to the old redefinition of the Superliner accomodations as I heard our sleeping car attendent refer to the roomette as the "Economy bedroom" and the regular bedroom as the "Deluxe bedroom" could be an old timer and I am just drawing the wrong conclusion. A third class above the Bedroom would be beneficial to Amtrak's bottom line though and maybe that might be why Anderson is trying to shake the private cars?
As mentioned in an earlier thread the menu on the Dining Car has a $39 item now for Dinner. That is an a revenue improvement from the $25 Amtrak top steak or whatever that was max before. Dining car crew also attempted to upsell folks to buy or pair their dinners with wine.........never saw them do that before on the Texas Eagle. So my interpretation here is training has changed for the better with the onboard crews.
The dining car now has a cash register at one of the tables and if the Dining Car person takes cash they have to put it in the register now (lol). Interesting change there but that was not there last year, that I noticed.
Sleeping Car attendents have somehow come up with a new method of not scanning tickets by just checking compartments after a station stop and reporting if said party is occupying them or not direct to the conductor who then enters them manually into the scanner. This is a definite improvement. On the way back to Chicago they were back to the conductor scanning each ticket again. So again seems like methods and training are changing for the better and are not complete yet.
The Amtrak Cafe attendent also pushed booze on the way up to Chicago but did not mention it on the way back. So I wonder if that was a change or just the attendent. The sleeping car lounge in CUS serves hard liquor now. I did not notice that before if it was there.
Just to reiterate--Delta is not charging extra for selecting your seat or some other things. They came out with a new, lower fare called Basic Economy if you don't want, need or want to pay for those services.
He sounds like Carl Icahn who did take a wrecking ball to TWA and other companies he was associated with.
Sunnyland He sounds like Carl Icahn who did take a wrecking ball to TWA and other companies he was associated with.
Backshop Sunnyland He sounds like Carl Icahn who did take a wrecking ball to TWA and other companies he was associated with. If you're comparing Richard Anderson to Carl Icahn, you have no grasp of history. Icahn was a hostile takeover raider who bought companies to loot them. He basically ran TWA into the ground. Richard Anderson, on the other hand, made Delta the successful airline that it is today. For those who think that charging for seat selection is terribel, have you ever heard of Allegiant, Frontier or Spirit Airlines. They are all barebones carriers who are very profitable. They give people what they want--the cheapest fare they can find. Delta, United and American are just fighting back with their cheapest fares. It's what many people insist on.
If you're comparing Richard Anderson to Carl Icahn, you have no grasp of history. Icahn was a hostile takeover raider who bought companies to loot them. He basically ran TWA into the ground. Richard Anderson, on the other hand, made Delta the successful airline that it is today. For those who think that charging for seat selection is terribel, have you ever heard of Allegiant, Frontier or Spirit Airlines. They are all barebones carriers who are very profitable. They give people what they want--the cheapest fare they can find. Delta, United and American are just fighting back with their cheapest fares. It's what many people insist on.
Anderson may have made something out of his time at Delta, his marching orders at Amtrak are to make it so bad no one will use it.
Mangers that have the ability to make things work, also have the ability to make them fail.
Amtrak failed the day that it started. There's a reason the government had to take over the passenger trains. They are a failed business model.
BackshopAmtrak failed the day that it started.
Really? Your insight comes as something of a shock to those of us who have been Amtrak's customers/passengers for the past 48 years.
Here is a copy from Railway age analysis of Amtrak's Gardner reply to earlier Railway age article. Several points but the increase ( not decrease ) of deferred maintenance on the NEC increased by over $500M. Several causes also made the loss of $868M not as bad as it could have been except by deferred maintenance. ( Can be found in annual 2018 FY report ) and deferred delivery and ordering of equipment by $679M. AKA the V-2 bag dorms and sleepers as one example.
Another factor is ignoring that the revenue passenger miles for LD trains exceed the NEC. However not noted is revenue from the NEC is higher due to much higher NEC fares or state SD fares.
https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/urpa-responds-to-stephen-gardner/
A thought. Memory fails and no other around to fill in. Exactly when was the the first discovery of the major problems at NYP under Wick or the accidents that precipated those discoveries ? Had Anderson beeen announced as the co president yet ? The implications of why the board choose Anderson can implied by what time he was nominated,
Did board not like being told that deferred maintenance had passed a dangerous point is one question ?
NKP guy Backshop Amtrak failed the day that it started. Really? Your insight comes as something of a shock to those of us who have been Amtrak's customers/passengers for the past 48 years.
Backshop Amtrak failed the day that it started.
I was told by researchers studying Amtrak that 2 things have basically killed whatever chance Amtrak had to progress forward since its start. The first was the arrival of the discount airlines which totally changed both the airline and travel industries. The second was the unforseen power of the Amtrak labor unions (similar to the unanticipated power of the Fed employees unions at that time) which has been a major barrier to any attempts to modernize or change Amtrak for the better. Also, eliminating Amtrak service employees who aren't good with people but otherwise follow the rules is like trying to fire Federal employees or tenured teachers. Hence the wide varience in Amtrak emplyees' customer service.
alphasThe second was the unforseen power of the Amtrak labor unions (similar to the unanticipated power of the Fed employees unions at that time) which has been a major barrier to any attempts to modernize or change Amtrak for the better. Also, eliminating Amtrak service employees who aren't good with people but otherwise follow the rules is like trying to fire Federal employees or tenured teachers. Hence the wide varience in Amtrak emplyees' customer service.
When it comes to dealing with Unions, companies that can present factual cases for discipline can make progress and live with their Unions. Those that just try to bluster their way through Union relations are always at war with their Unions and make no progress for the betterment of the company.
Union agreements are just that agreements by both sides to uphold a standard of conduct in the workplace between the parties. Historically, company's don't want to live by the conditions they AGREED to, and the war starts.
You're Fired is not a factual discipline case.
Backshop NKP guy Really? Your insight comes as something of a shock to those of us who have been Amtrak's customers/passengers for the past 48 years. You're right. It's a thriving, expanding profitable operation. I must have forgotten...
You're right. It's a thriving, expanding profitable operation. I must have forgotten...
.......that Amtrak had accumulated losses of $34.7 billion as of the end of FY17. Or that it needed $2.2 billion in federal and state government monies in FY17 to stay viable.
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