Cleaning windows

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Mystic River Dragon said:
The irony of paying hundreds of dollars for a roomette and then having to clean your own windows (a least-favorite housework chore of many of us) just struck me.
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At least they don;t try to put a wrap on it to earn some money as they tried to do on Acelas a while back ;) They just let nature do its thing without making any money off of it. Just saving a few bucks by not bothering to clean them.
 
Upon leaving Chicago on the CZ the window in our bedroom was filthy. I later contacted Amtrak to ask why the train can't be run through the washer prior to departure as part of the servicing. I was told they always run the consist through the washer prior to servicing and returning to the station for boarding. ?????
 
Railspike said:
Upon leaving Chicago on the CZ the window in our bedroom was filthy. I later contacted Amtrak to ask why the train can't be run through the washer prior to departure as part of the servicing. I was told they always run the consist through the washer prior to servicing and returning to the station for boarding. ?????
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First off, the phone agents are legendarily ignorant of conditions in the field, especially on long distance trains. You cannot trust anything they say beyond fares and tickets.

Second, apparently several car washers are down. The one in LA apparently still works, the one at Sunnyside definitely does not. Not sure about the others.

Yes, traditionally trains were always run through the wash rack at turnaround. Like many things at Amtrak, like a lot of cars, the wash racks apparently caught COVID, too, and died of it somehow.

As of last November, they were still hand washing windows on the SW Chief at Albuquerque. That is the only train I know of where you can pretty much count on clean windows for at least part of the trip.
 
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Railspike said:
Upon leaving Chicago on the CZ the window in our bedroom was filthy. I later contacted Amtrak to ask why the train can't be run through the washer prior to departure as part of the servicing. I was told they always run the consist through the washer prior to servicing and returning to the station for boarding.
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Ask the call center staff an operational question to which you already know the answer and you'll soon realize they often have no idea what they're talking about. Sometimes the responses have been so convoluted I struggled to comprehend what they thought they were selling us. What I find especially disappointing about this explanation is that they did not bother to choose a plausible explanation. If the trains are always cleaned before returning to the station how did your window get dirty?
 
Devil's Advocate said:
Ask the call center staff an operational question to which you already know the answer and you'll soon realize they often have no idea what they're talking about. Sometimes the responses have been so convoluted I struggled to comprehend what they thought they were selling us. What I find especially disappointing about this explanation is that they did not bother to choose a plausible explanation. If the trains are always cleaned before returning to the station how did your window get dirty?
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If I was on a charitable mood, which I often am these days, I’d probably ask if they said that the washer was always running when they ran it through them and then chuckle and drop the matter. 😬 As you said, they are unlikely to do anything beyond the scripts given to them anyway.
 
Railspike said:
Upon leaving Chicago on the CZ the window in our bedroom was filthy. I later contacted Amtrak to ask why the train can't be run through the washer prior to departure as part of the servicing. I was told they always run the consist through the washer prior to servicing and returning to the station for boarding. ?????
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Amtrak bean counters probably said, let's bank on a heavy thunderstorm! /s
 
Devil's Advocate said:
Ask the call center staff an operational question to which you already know the answer and you'll soon realize they often have no idea what they're talking about. Sometimes the responses have been so convoluted I struggled to comprehend what they thought they were selling us. What I find especially disappointing about this explanation is that they did not bother to choose a plausible explanation. If the trains are always cleaned before returning to the station how did your window get dirty?
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The customer service staff have no idea about operations and we probably should not be surprised by this. When our sleeper was cancelled on the CZ this past September I immediately called and was told that our sleeper had electrical issues. When I questioned how they could know 2 or 3 weeks in advance that "my" sleeper would have electrical issues she said "I have no idea, it's what I was told to say".
 

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