Amtrak Consumer Reviews - Page 4

I paid for a trip for my parents to come visit me in California. Although, the actual trip was good, it was not the trip that they had problems with. When I went to the LA Station to see them off, I immediately went to the Concierge to find out about getting my parents wheel chairs and they said they did not have any but for them to sit in the assisted waiting area. We were the first ones there, we sat down and waited. As we waited I had spoken to several Red Caps trying to find out when their train was going to be there considering it was so loud we could barely hear the announcer.

Everyone that I spoke to said not to worry we will come get your parents when it is time for them to board. Every time I saw them come over on the Tram I stopped them and asked them if it were time for them to board. Every time I asked they replied not yet but we will come and get them when it was time. When the time finally came no one came to get them I just kept asking until the redcap told me it was their train. Everyone started loading on the trams people that were not ever in assisted waiting were loading on. These trams were for people whom could not walk all the way down on their own.

I watched many people get on that were not even waiting they just walked up and got on. When I finally started walking up to the tram to help my parents get on they shooed us back in a line. At that point I was really upset. My parents' carry-on luggage was in the line where they were standing my mom stepped back away from her briefcase and one of the assisted helpers bent over picked up the bag and tossed it approx 5 ft to the tram. It had a (brand new laptop in it that I gave them for Christmas in it) I placed a claim against the gentleman that threw it on the tram and that was 01/04/09 it is now 06/26/09 and I am still battling with the Customer Relations.

(**) she has been adamant about me sending my original claim and repair estimate to her. The original was sent to the LA Station as I was instructed. I keep telling her I do not have the original. Then they told they needed me to have the laptop repaired and send them the receipt.

Once again I did this and yet they are still telling the documents are not sufficient for the claim. I can't believe that I am having so much trouble over $350.00 dollars. That was the total amount to have the laptop repaired. Not only that they are trying to tell me that it was our fault because this should have not been carry on. I'm curious why they advertise they have internet connection if you can't bring your laptop on the train. Please give me any suggestions of whom I can contact at Amtrak. **.

19 June 2007. I am currently a graduate student at U.C. Berkeley and regularly use your Capitol Corridor service from Davis to Richmond. I generally depart on the 6:35 a.m. Train and return on the 5:57 p.m. Or 7:17 p.m. Trains. The trains have always been clean and comfortable.

While I am aware that my commuting circumstances are extreme in terms of time and distance, I am appalled by the lack of punctuality of your train service. After 12 months of monthly $282.00 passes, I have found it a very rare circumstance for trains to arrive or depart at their scheduled times, especially in the evening. And, even after the train is en route, substantial delays are likely. In my opinion, this is dishonest business practice and an important safety issue.

I understand that the track is shared and hence prone to some delay but little attempt is made to keep trains on schedule. In fact, the only thing that is timely on the Capitol Corridor is the collection of tickets and the obnoxious advertisements from the car. No earnest attempt is made to compensate customers for the significant delays (my combined delay today was 1:45 minutes, and no, vouchers for the car won't do) nor are there any announced plans to improve the service.

Among the goals of Amtrak should be to make public transportation a viable option for commuters in an effort to reduce the environmental and social impacts of daily driving yet, how can one choose a service that has such a poor reputation for reliability? Even with my very flexible work schedule, the Capitol Corridor has become an untenable option. It is easy to criticize without making suggestions, so here are three that I was able to think of during my wait on the 6:35 train this morning (1:15 delay) and at Richmond Station this evening (:30 delay).

1) Airlines make publicly available their on-time statistics. You should make these available monthly and annually to riders so they can make an informed purchase. I seriously doubt this will improve your ridership, but it will at least be honest.

2) Safety should be a primary goal, and in urban areas with high crime rates (Richmond, for example) punctuality is a safety issue and not a courtesy. If the train is going to be significantly delayed, security should be provided. During one of my more memorable delays, several passengers were left in Richmond at night for more than 2 hours while we were harassed by beggars and potential criminals. One individual told me to "be cool and not get shot."

3) Compensate passengers for their time. This could work on a sliding scale where refunds are provided depending on the duration of the delay, and after a specified amount of time the ride should be free. For monthly passes, a reduction in the following month's fare should be provided.

My most memorable delay occurred a few years ago when after a 5 hour delay well past midnight, the train blew through Davis station without stopping. When I finally reached the conductor, he was busy tucking his shirt in as if waking from a nap. Customers then had to wait more than 30 minutes for cab rides back to Davis. When I complained about the service at Davis station, I was offered a $5 voucher for the car, as if a cold soda and a bag of chips would make everything better.

I presume that this is not the first letter to cross your desk regarding the tardiness issue, and it certainly will not be the last. I feel it is my duty, however, to try to make suggestions and raise awareness to ease the life of several of my fellow commuters whom I see stressed by this issue daily. You should consider that every minute of delay caused by the poor train service is time that these individuals could be spending at home with their families. You should, at the very least, make a concerted effort to help them get home safely and on time.

14 November 2007. I have attached a copy of my previous letter for your review as I have not yet received a response. After 5 months of commuting via alternative methods, today I decided to give your train service another try in the hopes that it had improved. The morning commute (6:35a) went well, and your train was only a few minutes late. The evening train (5:57) surprised me as it left perfectly on time! In fact, I was a few minutes late and had to watch the train roll off back towards Davis and wait until 7:17.

In my previous letter, I mentioned that I felt that Richmond station was unsafe, and I have to report that it has not improved. Some improvements to the BART area have been made, however, and I hope to see this trend continue. As I was awaiting the 7:17 pm train, a Bakersfield bound train made a brief stop.

In the past, I have used this train in order to get to Martinez station as a waypoint in order to use its indoor space to get ahead on work. This has never been a problem with your staff in the past, and indeed when I asked if I could use the train to get to Martinez on my route home, the ticket checker gave me his approval. However, he then punched my 10-ride ticket and informed me that another punch would be deducted once en route to Davis. When I responded in disbelief, the checker told me that I was wrong and this is the normal procedure. He then told me that other trains had been giving me "free rides" and that I was a non-paying rider.

To be clear, I have always paid for your services, usually with a monthly ride pass or a 10-ride ticket. He then demanded an alternative form of payment for the ride to Martinez. When I responded "no," the disagreement escalated to an argument and I then asked to see the boss or conductor. I must honestly confess that I was frustrated and angry at this point and was not as cordial as I should have been. The ticket checker then told me that I would not see the boss, and I would just have to accept the situation. At this point I decided to let the argument go, and, if necessary, contact customer service.

But... The ticket checker soon returned and proceeded to tell me that he had talked to his conductor and the situation was decided; I was clearly wrong, and never had a chance to win the argument anyway. Essentially, he wanted to let me know that I had lost, and he had won. I told him fine, and that I would handle the problem through normal service channels. I thought that the situation was surely resolved.

But… Instead of letting it go, he continued to argue telling me repeatedly that I was "in the wrong, didn't understand," and he needed to point that out for me. He continued to make snide remarks, spelling out his name for my "little letter" (I was working on my laptop at the time, but not on this letter) and made several disrespectful smirks until finally walking away. His parting comment was "it's tough to get a little dose of reality, isn't it?"

Even if the standard practice is to punch the fare card twice in these situations, I hope that you will agree that I should have never been treated so disrespectfully. I was accused of being a freeloader and then harassed by a person who just needed to feel good about winning a petty argument with a paying customer. He intentionally sought to escalate the argument to achieve some sense of personal satisfaction. I am amazed by this person's attitude towards me, and shocked by his confrontational demeanor.

I wonder if he feels that the argument was worth $10.80? He says that "it's tough to get a little dose of reality," well, how about never getting the business of an honest, reliable customer again? And, as you can probably tell from my letter, I will not remain quiet about my experiences on Amtrak. Most importantly, I am disappointed that Amtrak still cannot fulfill my needs as a Bay Area commuter. I will be returning my 10- ride pass for a refund this evening.

FREMONT, MICHIGAN -- I am compelled to write and relate the horrible experience we received at the hands of the Amtrak Company. In the last five years, my family and I have been frequent and preferred travelers on Amtrak. We have traveled on Amtrak on our last three cross country vacations as first class passengers. We even use the Amtrak Visa as our most used credit card. I would also like to add here that as a teacher, I was one of the biggest advocates of train travel and your company until our most recent experience.

You can review the file # ** for details on our train reservations and tickets, but our trip went seriously awry almost at the very beginning of our journey. We planned to park in the long term parking in Holland Michigan and meet the Southwest Chief in Chicago. Upon pulling into the parking lot, we were immediately accosted by two women who refused to identify themselves. They were telling everyone that they could not park in the Amtrak designated lot but must move to a lot over a half mile away. The women claimed that the alternate lot was clearly identified with Amtrak signs and flags, but it was not.

Afraid that we would miss the train, my husband parked the car in a completely random parking lot nearly one mile away from the Amtrak lot. Throughout our entire stay in California, we never knew if our car would be in the lot when we returned or not. The one Amtrak employee at the station would not comment about these two unidentified women who were claiming to everyone that the parking lot would be "ripped up" for remodeling in a day or two even though the parking lot looked like it was in fine condition.

The train to Chicago was canceled and busses were sent to take us to Chicago. The Amtrak employee on our bus was very nice, but he did not know where the train stations were. We were lost a few times, and the employee had to go into gas stations (in full Amtrak uniform) and ask where the train stations were. Fortunately, we arrived in time to still catch the Southwest Chief train #3 on July 6.

As I stated before, my family and I are seasoned Amtrak travelers. Our car Hostess was excellent on this trip out to California. Our kids were really disappointed that Amtrak no longer employed a Native American guide for narration in the Western states or provided a movie in the lounge car. Our car Hostess, however, did point out many places of interest to us. Also very disappointing on our trip to California was the major decline in the food and service of the dining car.

We tried to understand paper table cloths and plastic plates as the ravages of budget cuts, but the "special" was the same "country fried steak" on both nights of the trip, and the passengers who were in the private, pulled cars treated the diner like a bar. They were given very preferential treatment to the Amtrak first class customers who only wanted to feed. We found the dining staff to be exceptionally rude to paying Amtrak customers and exceptionally accommodating to the people in the cars that were being pulled behind us.

All of the minor inconveniences pale, however, to what we experienced when our Train # 5 Southwest Chief arrived in Chicago at 9:00 p.m. - over five hours late. Once again, as seasoned Amtrak passengers, we did not worry about the delay and believed all the assurances we were given on the train that buses would be waiting to take us to our destinations or appropriate hotel accommodations would be made. Now, the nightmare begins.

When we arrived in Chicago, the customer service staff acted completely surprised and irritated by our presence. We were herded back and forth between a foyer, the ticket line, and waiting room G. Our family was sent and waited in line in three different places. The promised busses never came. Finally near midnight, we made it to a customer service employee who informed us that we were all going to be sent to a hotel in Homewood - a far south suburb which was over 40 miles away. I have enclosed a review on this hotel. I grew up near this hotel and it had hourly rates when I was a child.

There was no way I was going to this hotel 40 miles away from the station, after midnight, when I knew what a filthy and dangerous place it was. Because the employees would not send a bus back to this hotel until noon, anyone with a possible morning connection was basically told to like it or lump it. Especially rude throughout this entire experience was an employee with the last name **. She was seriously angry when about 15 of us opted to spend the night in the station and catch morning connections rather than go to this "fleabag" motel over 40 miles away.

Amtrak claimed that all Chicago hotels were filled. This was not true. Ms. ** said they usually put people up in Hyatt, Swiss hotel and Westin. I called all three hotels that night, and they all had rooms. Those of us who were spending the night were not given pillows or meals or even allowed in a first class lounge. We were ushered into a filthy coach lounge with individual metal chairs that were bolted together - not conducive to sleeping.

Ms. ** backed by an equally nasty security guard who insisted on treating us like prison inmates informed us that we had "refused" their offer of a hotel and we had better get something to eat (with our own money) in the next half hour because we were going to be confined to this room by the security guard. Making the best of it, we found some mats that were velcroed to the wall, and we made up beds.

In this group of fifteen was a crying teenage girl who we had to give money for food, other children, and a man who was traveling to his brother's funeral and needed to be there by the next afternoon. My husband had to phone work and tell them he would miss another day - not an easy call to make when you have been on vacation for two weeks. When we got all settled, in comes the nasty security guard and this Ms. ** again. In a loud voice with guard behind her, she demanded to know who had taken the mats off the walls.

We explained to her that we all had, and that it was our only means of passing the night without food, pillows, blankets, and now locked bathrooms. Again she angrily insisted that we were offered a hotel that we did not take and we were lucky they were letting us stay in this lounge. I then informed her that all of us wanted MORNING connections and would not be transported 40 miles away from the station without transportation back until noon could not go to this hotel. She then said she was going to get a manager and that we would not be permitted to use the mats.

After she strode away, the security guard told us that we were lucky we were not going to be thrown on the streets. He told us he should take us out and turn us out on the streets of Chicago and it was only by the grace of Amtrak that we were getting this lounge. My kids started crying and then he left. A few minutes later, the manager strode into the lounge, took one look at our pathetic selves that you must remember had been a train for three days before this experience. Then he strode out again without a word.

Thankfully, we never saw Ms. ** again, but at 5 am, the security guard yelled in prison tone and fashion, "OK, ladies and gentlemen, this lounge is opening in 5 minutes. You need to get up, put the cushions back and get out. McDonalds will be opening in 5 minutes!!!" Let me tell you, at that moment, I did not feel like someone who had paid thousands of dollars to be a first class passenger on Amtrak, my husband was missing work, my exhausted kids were sicker than dogs, I felt dirty inside and out. We cashed in our train tickets, and headed to Greyhound by cab. We slept on the floor of the Greyhound station until our bus came to take us to Michigan.

I am not writing this letter because I want anything from Amtrak, but you need to be aware of the way first class passengers were treated at the hands of your corporation. Our experience was nothing short of a nightmare but then I think what if I were elderly, or a mother traveling alone or someone like that poor terrified teenage girl with no money who spent the night in the lounge with us? What about these people? C'mon Amtrak, you can do better and you know you can. Time to clean house and start being a service for people again.

I am only a teacher, but I could have never treated anyone the way Ms. ** and the rest of that staff treated us. I could have never went home to my comfy bed knowing there were people in that stuffy, nasty lounge all night. Shame on them. Shame on them. And if you ignore this letter and do nothing about this: Shame on you. When we arrived back in Holland, MI and hiked the mile to our car absolutely no changes had been made to where we were originally going to park in the Amtrak lot.

Staff on the train are incredibly rude, train is filthy and was late both times.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS -- Third time riding Amtrak, third time significantly late. It would have been faster and cheaper to drive our 6-cylinder minivan round trip. Their schedules are works of fiction. And taxpayers subsidize these mopes.

ATLANTA, GEORGIA -- Experienced black prejudiced people toward white people. Staff was great. Atlanta passengers not. Scary. Won't ever ride again!!!

On May 29, 2010 I boarded an Amtrak train leaving from Detroit @ 6:48 am. After boarding this train appox 3 hours into our train ride the conductor indicates to the passengers, "There is a trespasser". After sitting there scared because of the word used, the conductor returns appox 30 minutes later to state "Did you hear what happened?"

We stared waiting for him to continue. So, he states "there has been a suicide, someone jumped in front of the train right outside of Battle Creek MI". After waiting for several hours, the train runs out of cold water. And this was horrible because the air conditioning was not working either and to top this off the train smelled like urine. About 4 hours after this "suicide" we start moving, then appox within the hour the engine stops because the train ran out of gas; which delayed the train appox another hour.

After all this we finally made it to Chicago, entering in on the 351 Wolverine train @ 5 pm when we were supposed to be there @ 11:30 am. Customer Service changes our tickets to leave the next day @ the same time. No compensation for our time or accommodations. We left upset and angry.

On, May 30, 2010 we returned to try to speak to someone again about this huge interruption. It was very hard as a (Manager in Chicago Union train station @ 5 pm on May 30, 2010) told us it was not Amtrak's fault someone committed suicide and delayed the train. Well, with this information I was really upset as ** is wrong. Amtrak should be and will be taking responsibility for this unexpected event which changed the lives of there over 300 passengers. But, I guess the uneducated manager, Amtrak decided to hire does not understanding, business 101. This event altered me and over 300 other passengers' lives and Amtrak should be held responsible.

Amtrak is a company who relies on people to making their business a success. I have learned the old philosophy, meaning successful businesses still count on customer's word of mouth to bring in business. Well, with this being my first experience with Amtrak, I will say this will be my last. I will continue to use the old philosophy at all cost to indicate to people and Amtrak's future customers to "not" use this company for their transportation needs. I believe with this being said Amtrak should have reimbursed at the least half of our train ticket and/or paid for our hotel. Amtrak did nothing; because Ms. ** stated it's not Amtrak's fault for altering our whole trip.

With this being said, most people will stop here at commenting on review pages, contacting customer service, telling friends and family or even continuing to write letters. Well, not me I am an advocate of customer service and every customer should be treated with respect. The way ** spoke to me and my family was downgrading and disrespectful and I guess because Amtrak is not to blame, myself and my family should take the blame for not only our travel plans being altered but the disrespectfulness of ** as well.

I would hope to think, Amtrak takes this very seriously as I am going to continue to use my voice and contact channel 2 in Michigan; reporting this incident. I also, would hope Amtrak does not take lightly to their "Managers" being disrespectful to c.

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON -- Amtrak, what a terrible rail service. Very rude cabin crew, they had no manners. Couldn't care less about my wife and I, in business class we were seated in a terrible space equivalent to cattle class, I would not recommend Amtrak to anyone.

ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA -- I will not ever take the Amtrak again from Alexandria to Newport News VA. Arrival train was 20 minutes delayed and the Richmond stop was halted for 30 mins. I will arrive late to my destination and also be late for planned activities. This sucks. Diane **

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS -- Arrived at terminal at 5am for a 6am departure. Agent advised train was delayed for at least 5 hours. Cancelled the trip. Started getting alerts from Amtrak at 9am advising of the delay. We were almost back home then. No more trips will be anticipated with this mode of conveyance. Other posts I've read commented on rude personnel and filthy toilets, so there are other issues.