Amtrak Watcher
Lead Service Attendant
When taking a small group of five people on a business retreat I arranged from Dallas to San Antonio on a recent Friday, all was going well until the Texas Eagle was halted for six hours in Temple, Texas by a UP derailment a few miles to the south. Rumors circulated about busing the hundred or so passengers to San Antonio who had to meet the Sunset Limited on its way California, but no news was forthcoming from the operating crew who seemed content to keep worried and confused passengers in the dark until 05:30 the next morning when the Texas Eagle finally arrived in San Antonio about six hours late. It turns out that the Sunset Limited was late getting out of Houston, so buses were not necessary. Neither the Sunset Limited passengers, nor those getting off in San Antonio were allowed to exit the train for another 50 minutes while both trains (the waiting Sunset Limited and the northbound Texas Eagle scheduled to depart to Chicago at 08:00 on Saturday) were bumped around and reconfigured with everyone aboard. None of the passengers or the service staff were happy about the additional 50-minute delay, but the operating crew snapped back with comments like the one I heard from the conductor, “If you people don’t like the way I run things here, then I suggest you find another method of transportation in the future.”
My clients were so upset with their first experience with Amtrak, that they opted to fly back to Dallas. Assuming people simply get tired and upset, I stayed with the train. My trip back to Dallas on the Texas Eagle the following Sunday found me in a coach car with about ten other passengers. I took the liberty of spreading me, my laptop computer, and sundry papers across two seats. About two hours into the journey, the attendant came by to ask me “what the hell” I was doing. I explained that I was “doing my work.” He angrily replied that I should confine “my junk” to the seat I was assigned, which I promptly did even though there were less than a dozen seats occupied in the entire car. Another hour passed when the attendant returned to tell me that my “constant working” was “distracting to vacationing passengers,” and that if I had “so damned much work to do, I should consider flying to Dallas instead of taking the train.” I was completely stunned by the remark, packed up everything, got off the train in McGregor, took a cab to Waco, and took the bus back to Dallas.
It seems that Amtrak staff has finally convinced even me to abandon the trains forever.
My clients were so upset with their first experience with Amtrak, that they opted to fly back to Dallas. Assuming people simply get tired and upset, I stayed with the train. My trip back to Dallas on the Texas Eagle the following Sunday found me in a coach car with about ten other passengers. I took the liberty of spreading me, my laptop computer, and sundry papers across two seats. About two hours into the journey, the attendant came by to ask me “what the hell” I was doing. I explained that I was “doing my work.” He angrily replied that I should confine “my junk” to the seat I was assigned, which I promptly did even though there were less than a dozen seats occupied in the entire car. Another hour passed when the attendant returned to tell me that my “constant working” was “distracting to vacationing passengers,” and that if I had “so damned much work to do, I should consider flying to Dallas instead of taking the train.” I was completely stunned by the remark, packed up everything, got off the train in McGregor, took a cab to Waco, and took the bus back to Dallas.
It seems that Amtrak staff has finally convinced even me to abandon the trains forever.