Amfleet said:
That's always been my experience (from last year when I was there more frequently).
Amfleet,
You are correct, most typically Sou Sta is exactly like you say. However, last February my good friend Superliner Diner and I managed to board an Acela Express at South. The tensi-barrier was done and there was no one guarding the area.
It wasn't until after we had boarded the train, that a very rude Amtrak employee came to yell at us. I suspect that it was her job to have been guarding the gate, and she had failed to do so. Therefore in an effort to vindicate her-self, she felt it necessary to yell at us and basically scoff at our reason for being there.
As you know, I almost always travel in First Class, so I’m quite aware of the rules and the perks that are offered to those in the Club Acela and Metropolitan lounges. For those who may not know, one of the perks of the lounge is that you get to pre-board your train ahead of the crowds.
On this particular day since I was riding with Superliner Diner (SD) and his son, I held a business class ticket, as did SD and his son. However, using one of my approved methods for getting into a Club Acela lounge without a first class ticket, the three of us had enjoyed the lounge that evening. We did this in part, because as SD recently pointed out in another topic, sitting on those benches at Sou Sta in the winter is the pits.
Anyway, the lounge attendant came and told us that, and I quote exactly what he said, “Your train is now boarding on track 8”. So naturally we went down and walked right out onto track #8. When we reached the train only the FC car door was open. Knowing that we didn’t have FC tickets we went to stand next to the first BC car. A redcap came by and boarded a few BC passengers further up towards the head end.
About 5 minutes later all the doors on the train opened, so we boarded our car. A few minutes after that along came this wonderful employee. She demanded to know why we had entered the train, so I politely explained it to her. I told her the above story that we were in the lounge and he told us to come down and board the train. She rudely says “Well who told you that you could board?” I said, “Well if someone tells me that the train is ready and someone else opens the doors, I’m going to board the train.” I then told her “That I didn’t just decide that it was time to board, and I didn’t open the doors to the train.” “But when it’s freezing out there and I see an open door to a warm train, I’m going to get on.”
She then asks again “Who told you that the train was ready?” I explained that the Club Acela attendant told us. She then said “Well why aren’t you in first class?” So I went on to tell her the story of how we had been able to enter the lounge. She says in a huff “Well I never heard of that”, and storms off. Like just because she didn’t bother to read the memo, we had to be lying.
A minute later, I can hear her calling the station manager on my scanner wanting to know about this ridiculous idea that non-first class passengers can get into Club Acela. A few minutes later he replies that there is indeed a program that allows holders of certain types of Amex cards into the lounge. She radios back and tells the station manager to inform Jim, the lounge attendant; “that nobody boards HER train without HER permission”. Of course she had completely forgotten that SHE had given permission to the lounge to send down the FC passengers, and to the redcaps to board the train.
Now instead of coming back to apologize for her rudeness and mistake, she instead chooses to sic the conductor on us. He comes back and starts to lecture us about how we could have boarded the wrong train; we could have gotten hurt; and yada yada yada. We of course explain to him, that we are seasoned travelers who can tell one train from another. Plus we again try to repeat our story. He doesn’t want to hear any explanation and thinks that we should just listen to him lecture us. So he gets mad and storms off telling another conductor to deal with us.
The second conductor talked to us for a few more minutes, before he also left as I gave up trying to explain to him why we were right. We left Boston without any other incidents, although I noticed that the head conductor ignored us every time he walked by during our journey.
I sought out the head conductor as I was exiting the train at NYP, since I had now cooled off from what had for a brief time been a rather heated argument. I apologized for having lost my cool with him, and asked to just listen to my story for a minute. This time he did so without interrupting me and when I finished he was quite mad again, however this time he was now mad at the female employee in Boston. She had apparently never given him the full story, only telling him that we had snuck out with the redcap.
He then apologized to me for his conduct. Sadly, I should have sought him out sooner as he told me that upon hearing my story, he would have bumped the three of us up to the FC car. He never told me who the female employee was, but I assume that it was her job to watch the gate, since I know that she was neither the conductor nor the flag on our train that night. In fact I never heard her again that night on my scanner after her tirade into the radio.