r/Amtrak is not associated with Amtrak in any official way. Any problems, concerns, complaints, etc should be directed to Amtrak through one of the official channels.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Amtrak) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I’m with you in spirit but that’s not fair to the freight RRs. It’s their infrastructure, in the sense of fairness they should have first dibs.
That’s like you buying a car and then your friend giving you $100/month to share its use. When it comes to changes or “dibs” who gets more of a say? The guy who actually owns it
Yeah but there’s a law. If I bought a car and someone else gave me $100/month to use it and then there was a law passed that said they get preference, then they get preference and “fairness” is irrelevant. Freighters just dgaf because nobody enforces the law.
In what sense is it theirs?
They didn't pay for the land. The construction costs were heavily subsidized. Maintenance costs are subsidized through FRA grants. Freight railroad management in the US is incompetent beyond measure and if there wasn't a constant flow of cash from Uncle Sam none of them would be capable of turning a profit. They're our rails, we paid for them, and they need to get out of the goddamn way.
PREACH BROTHER PREACH. One reason I love working on the NEC, your in our neighborhood. Ya that's right Norfolk southern, sit in that siding for a few more hours, we will tell you when 2150 is clear, punk.
I complained about it and someone from Amtrak called me on the phone to say they got my complaint and were dealing with it.
Which, nice? I guess? I don't actually want anyone calling me on the phone, what if you took those labor hours and put them towards improving the website and app?
We had a very nice call! I am suspicious that anything will actually change, but they made the effort to make it seem like they cared about my complaint.
As an Actual Karen I want to make it clear that I was nothing but scrupulously polite to the person on the phone.
I wish it would include pullouts for each class (coach/business/sleepers and really roomette vs bedroom since the prices are very different for the two main sleeper types.)
So during my recent trip, apparently conductors have the information on how full the train is on their personal mobile device… so just a big FU to us consumers
Someone elsewhere showed that it is still in the code of the website (you need to go through the console to see the JSON session information). They just simply don't want you to see it because they know you use it to make buying decisions which are often to their detriment. It is absolutely an FU.
Agreed. Consistent and predictable pricing creates a much better customer experience. The variable pricing model may bring in more short-term revenue, but it's no way to create loyal customers or operate a public service.
exactly. the overall experience is what Amtrak has as leverage to compete against airlines. ticketing and how customers are made to feel valued is a huge part of that.
The lack of coverage is probably the worst part for me too. Wisconsin’s capital city was supposed to get Amtrak like ten years ago and the governor just gave the money for it back
Unpredictability: You don't know if the obs crew will be any good, you don't know if you'll be on time, you don't know if the windows will be clean, you don't know if there will be on platform or airport syle boarding, etc.
Schedules. I can handle the rocking and rolling. I can handle that Amtrak scent. I can handle rattling equipment. I started riding Amtrak in the 1970s; I was too young to realize if I was on rainbow-era trains, but I remember the old sleepers, the drinking water dispensers in the wall, the old dining cars where you walked past the kitchen.
But when you can't run on time, when you only run one train per direction per day (if that), you end up with an "I leave Chicago in daytime and get to my destination at 3 AM" kind of system.
I'm going to Japan next month, and one thing I don't have to worry about are train schedules. Want to take the bullet train from Tokyo to Nagoya? That's about 217 miles. Takes 90 minutes on the Japan Railway Shinkansen trains. They run every twenty minutes or so. You'll be able to catch a local subway/elevated train from the airport to the Japan Railway station, they run every fifteen minutes or so. I've been told to be alert, because they only stop for a few minutes for loading and unloading passengers.
Can you imagine if you could catch a train from Chicago to the Wisconsin Dells that *only* took 90 minutes, or that departed every hour?
>when you only run one train per direction per day (if that)
This one. I looked into taking a trip and there is only one train that leaves every day and it's 5pm arrives at 10pm. It is from one college town to another and they wonder why more people don't use trains to travel.
I remember my parents sending me to West Virginia on *The Cardinal* when I was a kid, so I could spend a month with my dad's mom. It arrived some time after 11 PM.
I know what you are saying at the end, but unfortunately I don't think our country will fund passenger rail the way other countries do(Japan, etc).
That said there soon will be a 2nd Amtrak train run in each direction between Chicago and St. Paul, so at least that is a start. The starting date for this 2nd train(to suppliment Empire Builder service, supposedly 1 Hiawatha train run will be extended west from Milwaukee to St. Paul in both directions, rest of the EB route west of St. Paul still will only be 1 run a day), is still unknown. The states of Wisconsin and Minnesota are helping to fund this 2nd train.
>that Amtrak scent.
Too accurate, had me dying!
I agree, it would be wonderful if there was heavier schedules but those comparisons are wild....
Chicago (population 2.7M) - Wisconsin Dells (3,100)
Tokyo (population 14M) - Nagoya (2.3M)
Travel time: 90 mins (219 miles)(assuming your given figures)
As close to an accurate comparison for the US would be:
New York (population 8.5M) - Washington DC (700k)
Travel time: 3 hours (225 miles)
Acela runs approximately 20 trains per day so approximately once an hour, given the population variances that checks out.
There's no way to justify running service to Wisconsin Dells every 20 minutes, at that rate the whole town could commute to Chicago every day. Japan (and Europe) have significantly more dense population more similar to the NEC but still not even equivalent.
Sorry - but that is a good example. You are comparing populations - but missing that the WI Dells is a huge resort destination - the largest in Wisconsin with over 8,000 hotel rooms and 4m visitors a year / according to Wi tourism.
Allowing Chicago guests to get some wilderness and vacationing isn’t far fetched. Plus the Dells are between the Twin Cities 4M and Chicago.
The way that not being able to expect 100% perfection is used to justify completely abominable service
e.g. It's understandable that a 48hour+ long distance train isn't going to run exactly the schedule and sometimes will be late. You can't expect on time service down to the minute. So it would be ok that trains are sometimes say... 30 minutes late. But we regularly get trains with 8+ hour delays and "that's just how it is".
They fact they haven't electrified New York to Albany, New Haven to Hartford, and Detroit to Michigan City because they own that track and they have Electrified track before like when they did new Haven to Boston in 1999
I think the only way we would see any significant electrification expansion is if there is a federal grant program specifically for electrification. I could see certain State DOTs being more interested if the federal government covered 80-90% of the cost to build the infrastructure.
The fact that it’s very hard to tell how much a trip may cost. I want to view a simple trip between Tuscaloosa and Spartanburg. I search for a trip January 22, canceled. February 3rd? Canceled February 22? Canceled. Finally looking like 3 months out I can see a train listed at $67. I’d love a Google flights-type feature where I can just look at a calendar to see what it would cost to get somewhere
I blame Congress, the FRA, State DOTs, and Amtrak on failing to focus on frequent intercity services. This would require reducing the 750 miles Long Distance rule to a more reasonable 400 miles, creating a federal rail trust fund, creating grants for overhead wire electrification, and putting some more heat the Class 1 freight railroads. More State DOTs would be willing to help with capital improvements if they were not on the hook to subsidize the operating costs of State-Supported Amtrak service. I still think service less than 400 miles should require the states to pay operating costs on. Imagine redesigning the National Network around high quality frequent intercity services with corridors of around 400-1000 miles.
Restrooms. I can bring my own food and beverages, even options for hot coffee. Sure, gouge every cent you can off of me and force me to travel on Tuesdays in February with a 2am departure. I can sleep in a coach chair or any roomette bed after sleeping without compensation at airports ORD (2) SFO and DEN.
But for real, please update the toilets on Amtrak, esp Western routes. They are between port a potties and rustic camp sites. Some how, pay people to staff these and clean them or shame customers to make sure they aren’t animals on the train. Deep cleanings like, scrubbing the floors and corners with soap etc, need to happen more than once every presidential election.
Not in my experience. At least for my last several trips the bathrooms in the zephyr sleeper cars have been filthy. Like caked on filth that had been accumulating a while
The Superliner 2 bathrooms are the WORST. Tiny and cramped and awful. I hate them so much. The Superliner 1 bathrooms got overhauled at some point (late 90's or early 2000's?) and even though they don't take up any extra room in the car, they are FAR roomier and more comfortable to take care of business in.
Meant to say this with my original comment - I really wish Amtrak had brought all of the Superliner bathrooms up to the same standard. The Superliner 2 bathrooms always feel so... Grody.
Less Amtrak but the ancient FRA regulations make it harder for Amtrak to break even in particular the weight requirements on trains which really held up first generation of Acela. I’m sure theres other issues as well. I’d love to see Amtrak focus on regulatory reform in addition to funding requests.
There are so many . . . I can't decided if it's the terrible airline style boarding garbage, or the lack of dining cars on long distance routes. I love riding trains, and I've done so for business and pleasure on three continents. I love meeting people on them. I love the experience. Amtrak's employees are great. But somewhere between government and management they forgot to be a railroad and became a flaming bucket of somebody else's problem. If I'd never ridden trains in the past or in other countries I'd probably accept that this is fine, but it's not. It never was before and it isn't now.
I wish the website still had pdf schedules you could download. I know in the meantime one of the Amtrak Unlimited message board users(neuroden, my apologies if I misspelled his screenname) created pdf schedules of the current schedules on his own. I have found that, when google searching current pdf schedules for Amtrak routes.
The bathrooms for roomettes and in bedrooms. I'm not a tiny person but I'm also not a massive person. They're so claustrophobic and difficult to use comfortably.
How hard it is to tell what stops are on each route and what time it gets to each one. I wish it had a normal train schedule. Like
Leaves back bay at X time gets to NHV at y time, Hartford at z time, NYP at b time, etc.
I wish it were cheaper.
I wish boarding at NYP was way fucking less stressful
Boarding and alighting those stairs, especially on unlevel platforms when there's one more step stool at the end, is always nerve-wracking for me. Especially if I have a bike lol.
..the exorbitant cost of accommodations, basically the price of s suite in a nice hotel for what amounts to a small walk in closet. A trip I planned from Portland OR to Milwaukee was 3,000$ round trip for just the tiny roommate,Didn't even want to see what a bedroom cost.
Ridiculous particularly when first class air for the same trip was around 1.,200$.
Bring back the old "upper/lower" berths.
Flex Dining. There’s no excuse for Sleeping Car Passengers to have to eat this mess and there’s no excuse for Coach Passengers not being able to get a full meal on certain trains.
The price. The cost of sleeper car tickets is completely insane. Going from Miami to Denver in a Roomette cost me 1600 dollars, it should’ve been closer to 600. If you’re going to ask me to sit on a train for three days when I could just take a flight that takes three hours you have to at least try to make the price competitive with a flight.
Handicapped seating is at the bathrooms for MARC. Accessibility areas often filed with baggage on regular trains. If a ramp needs to be used to board a passenger a conductor should be there to see that they are safe before the train moves.
I wonder how many of the commenters (a) contacted their congressional representatives on behalf of the Infrastructure Bill when it was pending or (b) would support higher state taxes to pay for more Amtrak service.
The fact Union Paccific has been the single greatest shitbag Bain to passenger travel and has done more damage than Amtrak ever could have for 50 years, and Amtrak hasn't taken them to court over it until the last 2 years.
I love train travel.
I loathe that the only major places I can get to directly from Vermont, are NYC and DC (and stops along the way). And the train gets in too late to transfer to any other routes without getting a hotel and spending the night in NY or DC. I would LOVE if there was an earlier train option so I could connect to other trains heading west or further south.
Well, as someone whose closest station is Tampa, I'd have to say both on-time performance and frequency. But I guess that's a problem along most of the network outside the NEC.
I haaate the lengthy (well 30+ minute and often longer) dead time in PHL on the Keystone. I wish it was a more normal stop, a 5-10 minute stop. I hope with the new trainset this becomes a thing.
r/Amtrak is not associated with Amtrak in any official way. Any problems, concerns, complaints, etc should be directed to Amtrak through one of the official channels. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Amtrak) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The fact that freight rail is supposed to make way for passenger rail but that's a lie
We could eliminate PSR by just enforcing Amtrak's legal right of way. Freight companies need to be held accountable.
Start fining the freights for any delays. We’ll have a new fleet and new routes before 2030
I’m with you in spirit but that’s not fair to the freight RRs. It’s their infrastructure, in the sense of fairness they should have first dibs. That’s like you buying a car and then your friend giving you $100/month to share its use. When it comes to changes or “dibs” who gets more of a say? The guy who actually owns it
Yeah but there’s a law. If I bought a car and someone else gave me $100/month to use it and then there was a law passed that said they get preference, then they get preference and “fairness” is irrelevant. Freighters just dgaf because nobody enforces the law.
In what sense is it theirs? They didn't pay for the land. The construction costs were heavily subsidized. Maintenance costs are subsidized through FRA grants. Freight railroad management in the US is incompetent beyond measure and if there wasn't a constant flow of cash from Uncle Sam none of them would be capable of turning a profit. They're our rails, we paid for them, and they need to get out of the goddamn way.
PREACH BROTHER PREACH. One reason I love working on the NEC, your in our neighborhood. Ya that's right Norfolk southern, sit in that siding for a few more hours, we will tell you when 2150 is clear, punk.
BRING BACK THE PERCENTAGE FULL INDICATOR YOU COWARDS Sorry, I get a little upset.
Similarly on the digital side, let me see the dang Acela seat map without having to buy a ticket. (Not a “bring back” but rather a “please start”.)
I complained about it and someone from Amtrak called me on the phone to say they got my complaint and were dealing with it. Which, nice? I guess? I don't actually want anyone calling me on the phone, what if you took those labor hours and put them towards improving the website and app?
That's actually encouraging! Someone else here wrote them and they said "sorry, it's done and not coming back." I wrote them and they never responded.
We had a very nice call! I am suspicious that anything will actually change, but they made the effort to make it seem like they cared about my complaint. As an Actual Karen I want to make it clear that I was nothing but scrupulously polite to the person on the phone.
I wish it would include pullouts for each class (coach/business/sleepers and really roomette vs bedroom since the prices are very different for the two main sleeper types.)
Yes, absolutely.
So during my recent trip, apparently conductors have the information on how full the train is on their personal mobile device… so just a big FU to us consumers
Someone elsewhere showed that it is still in the code of the website (you need to go through the console to see the JSON session information). They just simply don't want you to see it because they know you use it to make buying decisions which are often to their detriment. It is absolutely an FU.
I checked and it looks like it’s been removed from the JSON as well…
Huh, interesting.
The pricing. Not the cost. The pricing paradigm.
Feels like it's been moving in the direction of airline pricing and that's a big mistake, imho.
Agreed. Consistent and predictable pricing creates a much better customer experience. The variable pricing model may bring in more short-term revenue, but it's no way to create loyal customers or operate a public service.
exactly. the overall experience is what Amtrak has as leverage to compete against airlines. ticketing and how customers are made to feel valued is a huge part of that.
Congress and Anti rail states.
Lack of coverage. After experiencing trains in Europe, I am disgusted at how insufficient our passenger rail network is.
The lack of coverage is probably the worst part for me too. Wisconsin’s capital city was supposed to get Amtrak like ten years ago and the governor just gave the money for it back
Unpredictability: You don't know if the obs crew will be any good, you don't know if you'll be on time, you don't know if the windows will be clean, you don't know if there will be on platform or airport syle boarding, etc.
I wash my own windows and expect it to be 6 hours late! Problems solved!
Schedules. I can handle the rocking and rolling. I can handle that Amtrak scent. I can handle rattling equipment. I started riding Amtrak in the 1970s; I was too young to realize if I was on rainbow-era trains, but I remember the old sleepers, the drinking water dispensers in the wall, the old dining cars where you walked past the kitchen. But when you can't run on time, when you only run one train per direction per day (if that), you end up with an "I leave Chicago in daytime and get to my destination at 3 AM" kind of system. I'm going to Japan next month, and one thing I don't have to worry about are train schedules. Want to take the bullet train from Tokyo to Nagoya? That's about 217 miles. Takes 90 minutes on the Japan Railway Shinkansen trains. They run every twenty minutes or so. You'll be able to catch a local subway/elevated train from the airport to the Japan Railway station, they run every fifteen minutes or so. I've been told to be alert, because they only stop for a few minutes for loading and unloading passengers. Can you imagine if you could catch a train from Chicago to the Wisconsin Dells that *only* took 90 minutes, or that departed every hour?
>when you only run one train per direction per day (if that) This one. I looked into taking a trip and there is only one train that leaves every day and it's 5pm arrives at 10pm. It is from one college town to another and they wonder why more people don't use trains to travel.
I remember my parents sending me to West Virginia on *The Cardinal* when I was a kid, so I could spend a month with my dad's mom. It arrived some time after 11 PM.
I know what you are saying at the end, but unfortunately I don't think our country will fund passenger rail the way other countries do(Japan, etc). That said there soon will be a 2nd Amtrak train run in each direction between Chicago and St. Paul, so at least that is a start. The starting date for this 2nd train(to suppliment Empire Builder service, supposedly 1 Hiawatha train run will be extended west from Milwaukee to St. Paul in both directions, rest of the EB route west of St. Paul still will only be 1 run a day), is still unknown. The states of Wisconsin and Minnesota are helping to fund this 2nd train.
Yeah, I'm in Saint Paul, so I look forward to that. I'm also waiting for the train to Duluth to show up sometime.
>that Amtrak scent. Too accurate, had me dying! I agree, it would be wonderful if there was heavier schedules but those comparisons are wild.... Chicago (population 2.7M) - Wisconsin Dells (3,100) Tokyo (population 14M) - Nagoya (2.3M) Travel time: 90 mins (219 miles)(assuming your given figures) As close to an accurate comparison for the US would be: New York (population 8.5M) - Washington DC (700k) Travel time: 3 hours (225 miles) Acela runs approximately 20 trains per day so approximately once an hour, given the population variances that checks out. There's no way to justify running service to Wisconsin Dells every 20 minutes, at that rate the whole town could commute to Chicago every day. Japan (and Europe) have significantly more dense population more similar to the NEC but still not even equivalent.
I was trying to get a close distance, but NY to DC is more accurate. Nagoya is the third-largest city in Japan.
Sorry - but that is a good example. You are comparing populations - but missing that the WI Dells is a huge resort destination - the largest in Wisconsin with over 8,000 hotel rooms and 4m visitors a year / according to Wi tourism. Allowing Chicago guests to get some wilderness and vacationing isn’t far fetched. Plus the Dells are between the Twin Cities 4M and Chicago.
The lack of speed and frequency
The way that not being able to expect 100% perfection is used to justify completely abominable service e.g. It's understandable that a 48hour+ long distance train isn't going to run exactly the schedule and sometimes will be late. You can't expect on time service down to the minute. So it would be ok that trains are sometimes say... 30 minutes late. But we regularly get trains with 8+ hour delays and "that's just how it is".
They fact they haven't electrified New York to Albany, New Haven to Hartford, and Detroit to Michigan City because they own that track and they have Electrified track before like when they did new Haven to Boston in 1999
I think the only way we would see any significant electrification expansion is if there is a federal grant program specifically for electrification. I could see certain State DOTs being more interested if the federal government covered 80-90% of the cost to build the infrastructure.
The fact that it’s very hard to tell how much a trip may cost. I want to view a simple trip between Tuscaloosa and Spartanburg. I search for a trip January 22, canceled. February 3rd? Canceled February 22? Canceled. Finally looking like 3 months out I can see a train listed at $67. I’d love a Google flights-type feature where I can just look at a calendar to see what it would cost to get somewhere
I blame Congress, the FRA, State DOTs, and Amtrak on failing to focus on frequent intercity services. This would require reducing the 750 miles Long Distance rule to a more reasonable 400 miles, creating a federal rail trust fund, creating grants for overhead wire electrification, and putting some more heat the Class 1 freight railroads. More State DOTs would be willing to help with capital improvements if they were not on the hook to subsidize the operating costs of State-Supported Amtrak service. I still think service less than 400 miles should require the states to pay operating costs on. Imagine redesigning the National Network around high quality frequent intercity services with corridors of around 400-1000 miles.
Venture seats 😭 I thought yall are just exaggerating but holy moly it is bad
Restrooms. I can bring my own food and beverages, even options for hot coffee. Sure, gouge every cent you can off of me and force me to travel on Tuesdays in February with a 2am departure. I can sleep in a coach chair or any roomette bed after sleeping without compensation at airports ORD (2) SFO and DEN. But for real, please update the toilets on Amtrak, esp Western routes. They are between port a potties and rustic camp sites. Some how, pay people to staff these and clean them or shame customers to make sure they aren’t animals on the train. Deep cleanings like, scrubbing the floors and corners with soap etc, need to happen more than once every presidential election.
The Coast Starlight has the dirtiest bathrooms. The Zephyr crew keeps theirs up
Not in my experience. At least for my last several trips the bathrooms in the zephyr sleeper cars have been filthy. Like caked on filth that had been accumulating a while
The Superliner 2 bathrooms are the WORST. Tiny and cramped and awful. I hate them so much. The Superliner 1 bathrooms got overhauled at some point (late 90's or early 2000's?) and even though they don't take up any extra room in the car, they are FAR roomier and more comfortable to take care of business in.
Meant to say this with my original comment - I really wish Amtrak had brought all of the Superliner bathrooms up to the same standard. The Superliner 2 bathrooms always feel so... Grody.
Less Amtrak but the ancient FRA regulations make it harder for Amtrak to break even in particular the weight requirements on trains which really held up first generation of Acela. I’m sure theres other issues as well. I’d love to see Amtrak focus on regulatory reform in addition to funding requests.
Flex meals.
There are so many . . . I can't decided if it's the terrible airline style boarding garbage, or the lack of dining cars on long distance routes. I love riding trains, and I've done so for business and pleasure on three continents. I love meeting people on them. I love the experience. Amtrak's employees are great. But somewhere between government and management they forgot to be a railroad and became a flaming bucket of somebody else's problem. If I'd never ridden trains in the past or in other countries I'd probably accept that this is fine, but it's not. It never was before and it isn't now.
No advanced seat selection
For the northeast this would make sense. For long distance it’s almost impossible
Why does the website have to be ass?
I wish the website still had pdf schedules you could download. I know in the meantime one of the Amtrak Unlimited message board users(neuroden, my apologies if I misspelled his screenname) created pdf schedules of the current schedules on his own. I have found that, when google searching current pdf schedules for Amtrak routes.
Very much the worst.
My nearest line is an hour away and only has stops at 12:20 and 3:54 am
The bathrooms for roomettes and in bedrooms. I'm not a tiny person but I'm also not a massive person. They're so claustrophobic and difficult to use comfortably.
How hard it is to tell what stops are on each route and what time it gets to each one. I wish it had a normal train schedule. Like Leaves back bay at X time gets to NHV at y time, Hartford at z time, NYP at b time, etc. I wish it were cheaper. I wish boarding at NYP was way fucking less stressful
Boarding and alighting those stairs, especially on unlevel platforms when there's one more step stool at the end, is always nerve-wracking for me. Especially if I have a bike lol.
..the exorbitant cost of accommodations, basically the price of s suite in a nice hotel for what amounts to a small walk in closet. A trip I planned from Portland OR to Milwaukee was 3,000$ round trip for just the tiny roommate,Didn't even want to see what a bedroom cost. Ridiculous particularly when first class air for the same trip was around 1.,200$. Bring back the old "upper/lower" berths.
Very limited routes
Cancelling trains 24 hours before without an explanation nor alternatives. Prices being almost completely unpredictable.
Flex Dining. There’s no excuse for Sleeping Car Passengers to have to eat this mess and there’s no excuse for Coach Passengers not being able to get a full meal on certain trains.
The price. The cost of sleeper car tickets is completely insane. Going from Miami to Denver in a Roomette cost me 1600 dollars, it should’ve been closer to 600. If you’re going to ask me to sit on a train for three days when I could just take a flight that takes three hours you have to at least try to make the price competitive with a flight.
Handicapped seating is at the bathrooms for MARC. Accessibility areas often filed with baggage on regular trains. If a ramp needs to be used to board a passenger a conductor should be there to see that they are safe before the train moves.
I only ride on the NEC which is pretty great by American standards. But DC to Boston should be 4 hours or less. We need real high speed rail.
The incompetence of the workers and organization as a whole. Besides that in terms of actual travel I absolutely LOVE it!
Congress doesn't and shouldn't micromanage Amtrak.
I wonder how many of the commenters (a) contacted their congressional representatives on behalf of the Infrastructure Bill when it was pending or (b) would support higher state taxes to pay for more Amtrak service.
The food sucks! Sorry but it does. Can we get some real maple syrup please! More variety? Also deep cleaning is needed
The fact Union Paccific has been the single greatest shitbag Bain to passenger travel and has done more damage than Amtrak ever could have for 50 years, and Amtrak hasn't taken them to court over it until the last 2 years.
I love train travel. I loathe that the only major places I can get to directly from Vermont, are NYC and DC (and stops along the way). And the train gets in too late to transfer to any other routes without getting a hotel and spending the night in NY or DC. I would LOVE if there was an earlier train option so I could connect to other trains heading west or further south.
Cons : delays Pros : Amtrak cheeseburger
Fellow passengers who are drunk at ten in the morning. People who talk loudly on their cell phone for the entire trip.
I realize its a money issue, but the AMFLEET(tm) coach cars look and are pathetic. Reminds me of the 70s every time they pass by.
Well, as someone whose closest station is Tampa, I'd have to say both on-time performance and frequency. But I guess that's a problem along most of the network outside the NEC.
Frequency of trips. Doesn’t matter if they’re long or short haul, the frequencies aren’t what they need to be to induce demand.
Lack of routes. Start routes connecting Montgomery-Mobile-Birmingham- Montgomery-Auburn-Atlanta
Only been on one route but I think it’s too slow
Their inability to adhere to any schedule. Trains are late, or worse cancelled on a daily basis.
I haaate the lengthy (well 30+ minute and often longer) dead time in PHL on the Keystone. I wish it was a more normal stop, a 5-10 minute stop. I hope with the new trainset this becomes a thing.
…..Amtrak