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I think I'm done with the dining car. I had heard that breakfast was better than the other two meals; I am sorry to say it isn't so. For sixteen dollars I was served a flat, tasteless "omelet" with no filling other than a small slice of cheese (which costs extra). It was supposed to be cheddar...

Rather than hollering over the PA at every bicyclist who tries to board the Surfliner on the wrong car, why not put a sign on the platform directing them to the cab car? The crew is clearly exasperated; a few dollars spent on a sign would increase both crew and passenger morale and reduce dwell...

Two things: (1) On my recent trips on the EB and CS, each train had a coach-baggage car with six bike racks. The baggage area remained empty throughout the trip, and I still had to box my bike. I wish Amtrak would let us use the racks, as boxing a bike is a pain. (2) In SEA, I found a dumpster...

Here I am at 1am in Spokane on the EB. I got off the train to get some air, and I saw a guy plugging green hoses from a spigot labeled "non potable" into doors on the cars labeled "potable water fill". What gives? Do I need to quit drinking out of the onboard water dispenser?

I'll be taking the CS out of Los Angeles next week. I know I can check one boxed bike in lieu of a piece of baggage. Can I check two boxed bikes in lieu of two pieces of baggage? How early can I check luggage? It would sure be nice to get the bikes boxed and checked the afternoon before I...

I know that nobody from Amtrak reads this forum, but it's not like they'd take my suggestion even if I sent it to them... Most of the San Joaquin consists have four bilevel revenue cars. It seems reasonable to assume that at least 25% of pax would like to have a little peace and quiet on their...

I was given to understand that under the new system, points would be valued at 2.9 cents towards the regular bucket fare across the board. This seems to be the case on several trips I have checked. But LAX->PTC tomorrow (26 January) via bus-SJ-bus costs $65 or 2400 points, which is 2.7 cents...

There's already a topic about what sweeping, expensive, grandiose changes we want to make to Amtrak. I want to talk about small improvements, that only cost a little bit of money (compared to, say, adding more trains), that might be achievable in a relatively short time frame. So what little...

I seem to be having a hard time formulating this question in a way that makes sense, so please bear with me. On a typical Amtrak train, what percentage of HEP is consumed by each type of device? What percentage is used by climate control, lighting, galley, shower, wall outlets, etc? Obviously...

With many of Amtrak's diesels reaching their end of life within the next 5 years, and pretty much all of them in the next 10 years, what are Amtrak's plans for replacing them? I know that Siemens is gearing up to make plenty of Chargers, and it looks like it would be a good replacement for the...

The subject line pretty much says it all. I know UP is pretty sticky about letting Amtrak use the tracks over the Tehachapi pass. But hundreds of people daily are willing to stuff themselves into buses for a 2-3 hour drive to BFD in order to get on the San Joaquin; that number would skyrocket...

I've been on a few late trains where we spent a significant amount of time (10 minutes?) stopped at a station. (Passengers were allowed outside to smoke, etc.) The disembodied voice said that we would be leaving as soon as they completed "station work". Obviously this includes loading pax and...

Warning: if you don't want to read my rant, now is the time to move to the next thread. I've been trying to plan my summer travel using Amtrak.com, and all the "you can't get there from here" notices are sure frustrating. How much of this braindamage is an artifact of Amtrak's "Heritage" route...

I understand that the main reason why Amtrak runs single-level cars is because of low tunnels around New York and Baltimore. Clearly, embiggening these tunnels would be expensive. But I read (skimmed) the Amtrak long-term plan and was surprised to find no discussion at all of plans to enlarge...

I've had some rail-related questions knocking around in my head for a while now. I haven't been able to google up the answers, so... In Europe, I rode "second class" in a compartment with 3-3 bench seats facing each other. At night, the seats converted into six bunk beds. The space taken by...

There's a good possibility I will get to take the CS (coach) next week from Los Angeles to Seattle, then a connecting bus to Vancouver. I'm kind of excited. The train is scheduled in Seattle at 8:37pm, with the bus leaving at 9:15 and arriving in Vancouver at (ugh) 12:20am. What are the odds...