Several years ago, I was on the north east corridor from Philadelphia . In New Haven, they had to switch from electric to diesel locomotives. Apparently, no one thought to confirm the diesel was in place when they uncoupled the electric unit. Turns out, the crew wasn’t even In the diesel locomotive. By the time they got a crew together and went to the locomotive, turns out the diesel wouldn’t start, so they had to find another diesel locomotive to tow the broken diesel out of the way to get the one in front of it to finally hooked up to our train.
Oh, did I mention it was about 95° out that day and we sat in a train with no air-conditioning for almost 45 minutes and despite being in a major train station they couldn’t be bothered to provide bottled water to the passengers? On the bright side, I just called to complain and got a whopping five dollar travel voucher.
As much as I love Amtrak And realize is useful for intercity transportation while in Northeast corridor in the long distance trains have some absolutely amazing views, it is another organization that needs to be reformed/rebuild top to bottom.
Let’s not forget Amtrak only became a thing with the various railroads said passenger trains were not economical anymore and the government took it over. Their business model has been updated for decades and they refused to acknowledge it.
If I were running Amtrak, one of the first things I would do is Tell the unions that we are no longer sustainable and changes have to be made. Secondly, I would attempt to modernize the services offered on board, particularly on the long distance trains. If you’re going to put people on the multi-day train, you can’t expect them to want to spend $20 every meal on food, you need to find some fresh but economical options as well.
Amtrak has been poorly run and marketed over the years.
it was never intended to make money, though.
The thing is they consume much less money than the airlines do. Like a tenth if that.
fun insider story: Guy I know works for a rail equipment leasing company. They bought some surplus Amtrak engines and cars. Amtrak then a few months later had a shortage of both. Somehow, three cars the company had redone were already out on Amtrak in use, and they had to pay back fees on them to the date they'd gone back on trains. The locomotives? For some reason Amtrak could not lease them and had to buy them back. At a higher price. And, the guy jokingly told the girl who called that for $1500 extra per engine he could deliver them in Amtrak paint. She fell for it. The engines had never been repainted from when they previously belonged to Amtrak.
They brought in the Delta CEO to become more like the airlines and killed its soul in trying to gain profitability.
It's just a hard model. If Amtrak owned all the rail then they could have control to make it a positive service for customers...but they have to play second fiddle to freight at much expense. No way you can have a sustainable business model for travelers like that.
We need true rail. Rail is awesome and totally the future. So are cars. Both can play nice. Most travel is around 200-300 miles between cities so high speed rail would be very disruptive against regional airlines. I really like Florida's model and borrow that across the country.
But we need brand new infrastructure to support it.
I agree, the Florida model really needs to be taken seriously by Amtrak, but I have no faith they will.
As to the long distance Chicago to the west coast routes, those serve a valuable purpose connecting lots of small communities and also offering magnificent scenery. However, Amtrak is stuck in the 90s with those. You can either pay a very high rate for a sleeper and get free food or take coach and get stuck with microwave meals or $20-$25 dining car meals for breakfast lunch and dinner.
They need to get in line with the 21st-century and begin offering Wi-Fi, live TV and similar amenities , and revamp the dining menu to some more affordable Items priced in the $10 range. Almost every chain restaurant offer some sort of two for 10 type deal along with the regular price entrées, I’m sure I Amtrak could figure out how to make that work.
I too have considered a long-distance Amtrak trip. I’ve always wanted to take one, but when I looked at the prices it’s simply was it worth it.
Sure, if I sat in a coach seat for 2 1/2 days on the train it would’ve been about $60-$70. However I don’t feel like sitting in a coach seat for 2 1/2 days, when I tried to book the cheapest sleeper it came out to over $1000. I don’t know how you can justify that cost for the smallest room and basically free food. Even taking into account the extra staff member on the sleeper car. If it really cost them almost $1000 a passenger on a sleeper, they need to seriously look at their expenses.
If you're going to have to sleep sitting up, you'd be better off taking a Greyhound, they go everywhere, while Amtrak routes are very limited and that's not likely to change. Amtrak is fuct
I swear Amtrak thinks either planes and cars don't exist OR people are willing to pay much more than a flight to be treated like a airline passenger.
As I said in another comment, if every airline can manage to get me WiFi, live TV, etc. on a plane at 30k feet, no reason you can't do the same, and you don't even need to jump thru FAA hoops to modify a 747. Basically slap a "in motion" RV satellite dish on the long distance trains, add some network gear and your done. They did it on the NEC and most the routes East of Chicago using cell towers now do the same on the Superliner equipment. It's 2021 people expect wifi when traveling and have for years now.
I know someone who works for Amtrak, so of course they love Joe Biden. They were so excited when he won because “he would give Amtrak more money”. I asked them what they think Amtrak would do with more money/what changes they will make to improve service. Eventually they admitted they would just keep doing the same thing that they feel at right now Because the leader ship of Amtrak are a bunch of idiots.
I said, so in that case you need a businessman like trump to come in and take a hard look at every aspect of the operation to figure out what is broken and needs to be fixed, Since you admitted to me that Amtrak wouldn’t change I will keep doing the same stupid things over and over. They were unable to refute my comment.
All this talk makes me think they are going to turn Joe into a martyr and use it to clamp down further. They have to get rid of him either way and put Kamala the total puppet in his place. Commies need martyrs, they feed off of it.
That is because the government runs Amtrak just like the post office.
Several years ago, I was on the north east corridor from Philadelphia . In New Haven, they had to switch from electric to diesel locomotives. Apparently, no one thought to confirm the diesel was in place when they uncoupled the electric unit. Turns out, the crew wasn’t even In the diesel locomotive. By the time they got a crew together and went to the locomotive, turns out the diesel wouldn’t start, so they had to find another diesel locomotive to tow the broken diesel out of the way to get the one in front of it to finally hooked up to our train.
Oh, did I mention it was about 95° out that day and we sat in a train with no air-conditioning for almost 45 minutes and despite being in a major train station they couldn’t be bothered to provide bottled water to the passengers? On the bright side, I just called to complain and got a whopping five dollar travel voucher.
They run it like everything the government runs
into the ground
As much as I love Amtrak And realize is useful for intercity transportation while in Northeast corridor in the long distance trains have some absolutely amazing views, it is another organization that needs to be reformed/rebuild top to bottom.
Let’s not forget Amtrak only became a thing with the various railroads said passenger trains were not economical anymore and the government took it over. Their business model has been updated for decades and they refused to acknowledge it.
If I were running Amtrak, one of the first things I would do is Tell the unions that we are no longer sustainable and changes have to be made. Secondly, I would attempt to modernize the services offered on board, particularly on the long distance trains. If you’re going to put people on the multi-day train, you can’t expect them to want to spend $20 every meal on food, you need to find some fresh but economical options as well.
Amtrak has been poorly run and marketed over the years.
it was never intended to make money, though.
The thing is they consume much less money than the airlines do. Like a tenth if that.
fun insider story: Guy I know works for a rail equipment leasing company. They bought some surplus Amtrak engines and cars. Amtrak then a few months later had a shortage of both. Somehow, three cars the company had redone were already out on Amtrak in use, and they had to pay back fees on them to the date they'd gone back on trains. The locomotives? For some reason Amtrak could not lease them and had to buy them back. At a higher price. And, the guy jokingly told the girl who called that for $1500 extra per engine he could deliver them in Amtrak paint. She fell for it. The engines had never been repainted from when they previously belonged to Amtrak.
Amtrak is just a sad state of affairs...
They brought in the Delta CEO to become more like the airlines and killed its soul in trying to gain profitability.
It's just a hard model. If Amtrak owned all the rail then they could have control to make it a positive service for customers...but they have to play second fiddle to freight at much expense. No way you can have a sustainable business model for travelers like that.
We need true rail. Rail is awesome and totally the future. So are cars. Both can play nice. Most travel is around 200-300 miles between cities so high speed rail would be very disruptive against regional airlines. I really like Florida's model and borrow that across the country.
But we need brand new infrastructure to support it.
I agree, the Florida model really needs to be taken seriously by Amtrak, but I have no faith they will.
As to the long distance Chicago to the west coast routes, those serve a valuable purpose connecting lots of small communities and also offering magnificent scenery. However, Amtrak is stuck in the 90s with those. You can either pay a very high rate for a sleeper and get free food or take coach and get stuck with microwave meals or $20-$25 dining car meals for breakfast lunch and dinner.
They need to get in line with the 21st-century and begin offering Wi-Fi, live TV and similar amenities , and revamp the dining menu to some more affordable Items priced in the $10 range. Almost every chain restaurant offer some sort of two for 10 type deal along with the regular price entrées, I’m sure I Amtrak could figure out how to make that work.
I've been on Euro sleepers and they're actually worse if you can imagine.
Trains themselves are newer but oh my God are they uncomfortable. Plus bunk beds with strangers!
Nice gimmick to sleep and wake up at your destination (more convenient than air) but my god I will never do that again. Got 0 sleep...
Amtrak I got 6-7 hours of sleep. So that's my baseline.
I looked into taking Amtrak for a vacation and it cost more than a cruise. This is why Amtrak is fail.
I too have considered a long-distance Amtrak trip. I’ve always wanted to take one, but when I looked at the prices it’s simply was it worth it.
Sure, if I sat in a coach seat for 2 1/2 days on the train it would’ve been about $60-$70. However I don’t feel like sitting in a coach seat for 2 1/2 days, when I tried to book the cheapest sleeper it came out to over $1000. I don’t know how you can justify that cost for the smallest room and basically free food. Even taking into account the extra staff member on the sleeper car. If it really cost them almost $1000 a passenger on a sleeper, they need to seriously look at their expenses.
If you're going to have to sleep sitting up, you'd be better off taking a Greyhound, they go everywhere, while Amtrak routes are very limited and that's not likely to change. Amtrak is fuct
I swear Amtrak thinks either planes and cars don't exist OR people are willing to pay much more than a flight to be treated like a airline passenger.
As I said in another comment, if every airline can manage to get me WiFi, live TV, etc. on a plane at 30k feet, no reason you can't do the same, and you don't even need to jump thru FAA hoops to modify a 747. Basically slap a "in motion" RV satellite dish on the long distance trains, add some network gear and your done. They did it on the NEC and most the routes East of Chicago using cell towers now do the same on the Superliner equipment. It's 2021 people expect wifi when traveling and have for years now.
Amtrak is like a cruise for long distance. Place to sleep, 3 meals a day, beautiful views...
It's just horrid as a mass transit vehicle outside the NE Corridor.
FFS. He should just resign and let the media picked Kamala be president already. So sick of this fake bullshit.
Fuck joe and his choo choo trains.
Only one train on this forum The Trump Train
I know someone who works for Amtrak, so of course they love Joe Biden. They were so excited when he won because “he would give Amtrak more money”. I asked them what they think Amtrak would do with more money/what changes they will make to improve service. Eventually they admitted they would just keep doing the same thing that they feel at right now Because the leader ship of Amtrak are a bunch of idiots.
I said, so in that case you need a businessman like trump to come in and take a hard look at every aspect of the operation to figure out what is broken and needs to be fixed, Since you admitted to me that Amtrak wouldn’t change I will keep doing the same stupid things over and over. They were unable to refute my comment.
Trump: "Melt it, sell it for scrap. That shit will never make a profit."
Trains, for those times when you want to pay double the price of flying and get there at 1/5th the speed.
The more people that ride, the more money we lose
Well, they're trying to destroy the airlines, and ban automobiles. So choo choo, mother (*U#$ers.
You don't send someone with dementia on the train.
All this talk makes me think they are going to turn Joe into a martyr and use it to clamp down further. They have to get rid of him either way and put Kamala the total puppet in his place. Commies need martyrs, they feed off of it.
"Get in the box car, patriot!"
The train thing is pretty much the only thing Ayn Rand messed up on.
Fuckers are nervous in the service
How loves amtrack because he gets more alone time with his nieces that way.
trains are quite literally 'the past'
Malarkey