NativeSon5859
Conductor
I decided to take a day trip down to BHM today.
First off, let me say that the Amtrak Atlanta station is smaller than I thought it would be...but at the same time, it was nice. It was packed to the gills this morning, though, as is usually the case I guess.
Train #19 arrived at about 9:15am...slightly late but not too bad. I counted approx. 60 passengers detrain here. I'd venture to say 70 to 80 boarded for the trip South. They were using three coaches (the last one was not is use) and all were about 85% full, with most of the people going to NOL...very good to see that! We departed one hour and eight minutes late.
Anyway the conductor on this train was excellent...he came into the coach and talked about the train and about the station stops....very nice man and he obviously takes pride in his job.
About an hour after we left I went to the lounge car for a snack and it looked like it was a newly remodeled lounge, with the wood paneling and the blue leather booths on both sides of the food area. The "Trails to Rails" folks were set up in there and they had a small crowd lisenting to their narration.
We stopped twice for freights and pretty much stayed an hour and ten minutes down the whole way to BHM, where we arrived at approx. 1:18pm local time.
My friend Crystal picked me up and the train station and we got some food and I got a quick tour of BHM before she dropped me off at the station at 2:15. Train #20 did arrive into BHM on time, and we departred at 3:00pm. Once again, this was a very full train leaving BHM, just about everyone had seatmates. It seemed at that point it would be another blissful ride on the 'Trak; however, that was not meant to be. I will leave you with the letter I sent to Amtrak Customer Relations regarding the really bad experience I had...probably the worst I EVER had on Amtrak. Indeed, today, it was a "Tale of two Crescents".
Dear Amtrak Guest Relations,
I have spent over $5,000 on Amtrak travel over the past couple of years. Just this year alone, I have traveled on the Sunset Limited, City of New Orleans, Southwest Chief, California Zephyr, Texas Eagle, and the Lake Shore Limited. So i'm what you can call an "Amtrak buff"; however, today I had a horrible experience while traveling on train #20, the Crescent, from Birmingham to Atlanta. I usually don't complain, but this warrants one, because I was really let down by Amtrak today.
To start off, the air condtioning system in the coach I was assigned to was not working. I was told I couldn't move because it was a full train. Then a little later one, while sweating in a hot train car, I noticed a really foul smell in the air. Something from the bathroom had overflowed into the car...not sure if it was the toilet or some other kind of liquid, but this was resolved by placing pieces of cardboard on the floor to soak it up I guess. I literally got sick from this smell....after that, I decided to just sit in the lounge car for the last 3 hours of my trip. Dozens of people were complaining but no one was listening...or even pretended to.
In the meantime, while I was in the lounge, they managed to move everyone out the foul smelling coach and completely fill up the other three cars. When the lounge car closed I made my way back and found an open seat. The guy I was sitting next to clearly had a marijuana cigarette which he was rolling and thinking nothing off...he also had a lot of tape around his ankles which let me to believe he had more drugs. He was talking crazy and frankly it made me uncomfortable. But, we only had like 20min. to go, so I figured I could tolerate it...but I did go track down the coach attendant to let her know about the drugs....I waited for 5 minutes, right in front of her, while she was talking on her personal cell phone...she didn't even notice me. Back to the seat I went, fairly annoyed at this point.
So I decided that I'll let the conductor know when we get to ATL. And when I detrained, I did. The conductor asked me "why didn't you tell the coach attendant?" I told her "I tried to, but she was on the phone." The train attendant then said "sir I wasn't on the phone the whole time!" Then the CONDUCTOR told me "you should have told her!" I just shook my head, gave her the description and location of the man, and left.
Frankly I felt that the conductor really didn't believe anything I was saying, and the coach attendant was very sarcastic to me and I heard her say some things under her breath as I walked away.
This was the first time that I ever experienced an operation like this. I never complain about delays because I know that happens, but today was a disaster and it left me with a very bad taste in my mouth.
I have a sleeping car ticket booked in two weeks from ATL to NOL and I am now questioning if I should have flown or not.
Yours very sincerely,
Stephen Oliveri
First off, let me say that the Amtrak Atlanta station is smaller than I thought it would be...but at the same time, it was nice. It was packed to the gills this morning, though, as is usually the case I guess.
Train #19 arrived at about 9:15am...slightly late but not too bad. I counted approx. 60 passengers detrain here. I'd venture to say 70 to 80 boarded for the trip South. They were using three coaches (the last one was not is use) and all were about 85% full, with most of the people going to NOL...very good to see that! We departed one hour and eight minutes late.
Anyway the conductor on this train was excellent...he came into the coach and talked about the train and about the station stops....very nice man and he obviously takes pride in his job.
About an hour after we left I went to the lounge car for a snack and it looked like it was a newly remodeled lounge, with the wood paneling and the blue leather booths on both sides of the food area. The "Trails to Rails" folks were set up in there and they had a small crowd lisenting to their narration.
We stopped twice for freights and pretty much stayed an hour and ten minutes down the whole way to BHM, where we arrived at approx. 1:18pm local time.
My friend Crystal picked me up and the train station and we got some food and I got a quick tour of BHM before she dropped me off at the station at 2:15. Train #20 did arrive into BHM on time, and we departred at 3:00pm. Once again, this was a very full train leaving BHM, just about everyone had seatmates. It seemed at that point it would be another blissful ride on the 'Trak; however, that was not meant to be. I will leave you with the letter I sent to Amtrak Customer Relations regarding the really bad experience I had...probably the worst I EVER had on Amtrak. Indeed, today, it was a "Tale of two Crescents".
Dear Amtrak Guest Relations,
I have spent over $5,000 on Amtrak travel over the past couple of years. Just this year alone, I have traveled on the Sunset Limited, City of New Orleans, Southwest Chief, California Zephyr, Texas Eagle, and the Lake Shore Limited. So i'm what you can call an "Amtrak buff"; however, today I had a horrible experience while traveling on train #20, the Crescent, from Birmingham to Atlanta. I usually don't complain, but this warrants one, because I was really let down by Amtrak today.
To start off, the air condtioning system in the coach I was assigned to was not working. I was told I couldn't move because it was a full train. Then a little later one, while sweating in a hot train car, I noticed a really foul smell in the air. Something from the bathroom had overflowed into the car...not sure if it was the toilet or some other kind of liquid, but this was resolved by placing pieces of cardboard on the floor to soak it up I guess. I literally got sick from this smell....after that, I decided to just sit in the lounge car for the last 3 hours of my trip. Dozens of people were complaining but no one was listening...or even pretended to.
In the meantime, while I was in the lounge, they managed to move everyone out the foul smelling coach and completely fill up the other three cars. When the lounge car closed I made my way back and found an open seat. The guy I was sitting next to clearly had a marijuana cigarette which he was rolling and thinking nothing off...he also had a lot of tape around his ankles which let me to believe he had more drugs. He was talking crazy and frankly it made me uncomfortable. But, we only had like 20min. to go, so I figured I could tolerate it...but I did go track down the coach attendant to let her know about the drugs....I waited for 5 minutes, right in front of her, while she was talking on her personal cell phone...she didn't even notice me. Back to the seat I went, fairly annoyed at this point.
So I decided that I'll let the conductor know when we get to ATL. And when I detrained, I did. The conductor asked me "why didn't you tell the coach attendant?" I told her "I tried to, but she was on the phone." The train attendant then said "sir I wasn't on the phone the whole time!" Then the CONDUCTOR told me "you should have told her!" I just shook my head, gave her the description and location of the man, and left.
Frankly I felt that the conductor really didn't believe anything I was saying, and the coach attendant was very sarcastic to me and I heard her say some things under her breath as I walked away.
This was the first time that I ever experienced an operation like this. I never complain about delays because I know that happens, but today was a disaster and it left me with a very bad taste in my mouth.
I have a sleeping car ticket booked in two weeks from ATL to NOL and I am now questioning if I should have flown or not.
Yours very sincerely,
Stephen Oliveri
