Coach Car Attendant

[KmH]

Now that pillows and such are not handed out on LD trains, what kind of services, if any, might one expect from a Coach Car Attendant?

If the train has 3 coach cars, is their just 1 Coach Car Attendant for all 3 Coach Cars, or are there 3 Attendants?

Do the Coach Car Attendant work set hours since converting sleeper berths are not required?

 

[amtkstn]

They stay on the train the whole trip. Most weeks they work three or four round trips and then get several days off. The attendents help passengers load passengers, assign seats and take care of other passenger needs. On the western trains with Superliners they work two coaches. The eastern trains with single level cars they work three coaches.

 

[KmH]

I was pretty sure they stayed on the train for the entire trip, and know they have a 'roomette' in the Transition Sleeper car.

Can I hope to get a wake up from the Coach Car Attendant? Particularly if I tip the attendant in advance of such a service?

 

[Acela150]

They stay on the train the whole trip. Most weeks they work three or four round trips and then get several days off. The attendents help passengers load passengers, assign seats and take care of other passenger needs. On the western trains with Superliners they work two coaches. The eastern trains with single level cars they work three coaches.

I doubt they are put through 3 or 4 round trips in a row.. That would be 6+ straight days.. The SCA's I've talked to say they do 4 days on 4 off. So pretty much they go from say MIA-NYP 2 days, over night in NYP, NYP-MIA 2 days, then get 4 off.

 

[KmH]

Round trip on the CZ is 6 days. Three round trips would be 20 days or so.

 

[Acela150]

I believe with those trains it's something to the effect of 6 on 3 or 4 off.

 

[SarahZ]

I was pretty sure they stayed on the train for the entire trip, and know they have a 'roomette' in the Transition Sleeper car.

Can I hope to get a wake up from the Coach Car Attendant? Particularly if I tip the attendant in advance of such a service?

The car attendant or conductor should wake you, but I would not rely on it, especially if it's a busy stop. It's best to set your phone alarm as a backup.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

The rule book may list a dozen or more tasks Coach Attendants can be called upon to assist with but as a practical matter they usually assign you a car (and sometimes a seat) and then keep to themselves before kicking you off at your destination. In general they will not assist with your bags or bring you anything or wake you up (unless it's time for you to leave). They have been known to prevent people from moving to other cars or seats and forcing them to move back when caught. Occasionally they may clean the restroom if someone complains about it. If you are disabled and your reservation reflects this condition Coach Attendants can provide addition service in the form of delivering meals and helping you reach the restroom and such. From what I've seen over the years it would appear that being a Coach Attendant is quite possibly the easiest job on the train.

 

[KmH]

The phone alarm would be nice, except I'm hearing impaired and no longer hear the high frequency sounds electronic alarms make.

Actually, for a wake up I was thinking more along the lines of a wake up for an early breakfast rather than to get off at a station.

Is SAC a busy #11 Coast Starlight stop?

On my way back from Oregon mid-May I'll need to get off the CS at SAC about 6:30 am (if it's on time) to catch the eastbound CZ hours later (2:13 pm).

Otherwise, a missed wake up would just skew my breakfast and sight seeing plans.

If I miss getting off the CS at SAC I guess I better have a 'Plan B' to get off no further down the line than EMY and hope the #11 is on time so I can catch the #6 CZ before it departs EMY.

I see Davis (DAV) and Martinez (MTZ) both have ticket offices open that time of day. Either would give me a bit more time cushion for catching the #6 CZ.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

You will almost certainly be woken up in time to depart the train, so no issue there. As for the breakfast and sightseeing alarm if you are hard of hearing maybe you can set the phone to vibrate and wake to that? Maybe trying sleeping in the sightseer lounge and let the noise of other customers wake you up as they head to the diner?

 

[KmH]

The rule book may have a dozen or more tasks Coach Attendants can be called upon to assist with but as a practical matter they usually assign you a car (and sometimes a seat) and then keep to themselves before kicking you off at your destination. In general they will not assist with your bags or bring you anything or wake you up (unless it's time for you to leave). They also do an outstanding job of preventing people from moving to other cars or seats and forcing them to move back when caught. Occasionally they may clean the restroom (or simply lock the door) if someone complains about it. From what I see it seems that being a Coach Attendant is possibly the easiest job on the train.

So you don't accord coach attendants (the invisible man/woman) much regard? Lol.

Is 'coach attendant' the lowest paid OBS, being the 'easiest job on the train'?

If I want to request a coach seat change would I ask the coach attendant?

Is the conductor the next step up in the chain-of-command from the coach attendant?

Because of my hearing impairment - I don't have a mobile phone.

But, I'll probably consider getting one for my trip.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

So you don't accord coach attendants (the invisible man/woman) much regard? Lol. Is 'coach attendant' the lowest paid OBS, being the 'easiest job on the train'? If I want to request a coach seat change would I ask the coach attendant? Is the conductor the next step up in the chain-of-command from the coach attendant? Because of my hearing impairment - I don't have a mobile phone.

Technically the position of coach car attendant and sleeper car attendant are handled by the same employee pool. It's just that the coach car attendant has fewer tasks compared to a sleeper car attendant and less incentive to complete those tasks in a friendly and timely fashion. I'm not sure why there is such a disconnect between how Amtrak employees treat coach and sleeper passengers but it's been that way for as long as I can remember. Unless you're mobility impaired you're unlikely to see much of the coach car attendant beyond the portion when you board and disembark. Hopefully they won't assign you a specific seat and will allow you to choose your own. If they do assign a specific seat you can either move your own seat check or ask to be moved but I'd come up with a good reason if you're going to ask.

 

[Guest]

Can I hope to get a wake up from the Coach Car Attendant? Particularly if I tip the attendant in advance of such a service?

I was in a BC coach a few years back, and there was a very nice blind lady (complete with a seeing eye dog), who requested to be told when we got to her stop. There is no PA (common on too many Amtrak trains), and of course, she could not see any platform signage. What I thought interesting is that she had three seat checks. One for her, one for the dog, and one special colored one denoting she needed assistance.

Well, her stop came and not one Amtrak person could be found. No conductor. No car attendant.

Good thing we were chatting for most of the trip, and I was able to tell her we were at her stop.

Take away: if they can't be bothered with a blind person, why would care about you?

 

[Alice]

I concur about many coach attendants not being attentive. I use a wheelchair and have had coach attendants say they'll be back to get my meal order, never to be seen again. Now I always pack food when riding coach by myself.

As to the alarm, the stretch of track north of Sacramento is really scenic if there is any daylight (or moonlight) at all, so I try to stay awake. If you do sleep, the attendants usually group people by where they are getting off, so you'll likely be surrounded by people with the same destination you have. Look at the tags above the seats and make some friends with other Sacramento travelers.

My understanding is carrying a passenger past where their ticket says causes trouble for the crew, at least on the long distance trains, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

[chakk]

Most coach attendants on lD trains also run a mechanical rug sweeper down the aisles every few hours. Many also help passengers with their luggage at station stops.

 

[StriderGDM]

My experience with coach attendants has ranged from indifferent to negative.

Now that they don't even have to hand out blankets or pillows, I'm not sure what their value is, other than to be rude to passengers.

I've never seen them run a rug-sweeper down the aisle.

I have seen them get flustered on a near empty train when a passenger temporarily moved to be by a window and assured her he'd move back at the next stop. She made a HUGE production about having to redo all her seat positions. Even when he started to move back (to save her the trouble) she continued to rant.

Honestly, while I've had great experiences with sleeping car attendants, if the coach attendant went away, I wouldn't miss it one bit.

On the other hand, if I received an experience at all close to what I received in a sleeper (even just a polite welcome and check on at least once or twice during my trip) I'd be ecstatic and far more willing to support them (and perhaps even tip them like a sleeping car attendant, they could make bank on that.)

Perhaps it's just the Crescent (since that's what I've ridden in coach overnight the most) but that's my experience.

 

[KmH]

. . . attendants usually group people by where they are getting off, so you'll likely be surrounded by people with the same destination you have. Look at the tags above the seats and make some friends with other Sacramento travelers.

My understanding is carrying a passenger past where their ticket says causes trouble for the crew, at least on the long distance trains, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Good point about attendants grouping pax by destination, and I'm not surprised it is considered poor form to have a pax stay on the train further than they are ticketed for.

The one time I have traveled on the CZ they were still providing the little pillows, and my coach car attendants on that trip were friendly. I spent a lot of time in the SSL though so I didn't see the attendants much.

 

[FormerOBS]

A "Carry-by" amounts to serious trouble for the Coach attendant and conductor who allow it to happen. I'm pretty surprised at a lot of these comments. It's true that a coach attendant who is assigned two or three or four cars full of passengers cannot give very much personalized service. But coach attendants do have specific responsibilities that involve safely boarding and detraining passengers, providing service to those with disabilities as needed, keeping restrooms and other areas clean, etc. During the night, while you are sleeping, at least one coach attendant is usually required to be up at all times. When I worked the Capitol Limited (18 years ago), we had two coach attendants. I'm not sure whether I remember this correctly, but I think one got his or her sleep time from about 10 PM till 2 AM, and the other slept from 2 AM till 6AM. Four hours was all you got. I worked a coach job briefly on the Boston section of the Lake Shore Limited, and the rest period was comparable. When several people in different cars need to be roused to detrain at a particular station, sometimes the attendant and conductor or A.C. will agree to split and share the duties.

Have the standards changed, or are you seeing coach attendants who aren't doing their jobs properly, or are you not seeing the attendants when they are doing their jobs in other parts of the train? I don't know. But I know I was always pretty tired at the end of a trip where I worked coaches.

Tom

 

[Bob Dylan]

As Tom said some Coach attendants do their job, just like the SCAs and Diner Crew! Others are invisible ( I especially hate filthy bathrooms and trashy coaches)or hang out in the Diner! Besides filthy bathrooms my pet peeve with Coach attendants are the control freaks that want you to sit only in your assigned seat even on a mostly empty Coach! (And then lie and say that all the seats will be filled when lo and behold they never are!)

I've seen a few Coach Attendants using the carpet sweeper, emptying trash and serving meals and snacks to passengers, but have Never seen one cleaning a Coach Bathroom, especially on the Texas Eagle which is my home train!

Now that there is usually only one Coach attendant for two Coaches, you don't see them sitting in the Reserved Crew seats like they used too, and course they don't issue/collect pillows as was said!

The best Coach attendant I ever had was on the Cap and the worst was on the Zephyr, but I try not to ride Overnight Coach anymore @ my age!

 

[StriderGDM]

Have the standards changed, or are you seeing coach attendants who aren't doing their jobs properly, or are you not seeing the attendants when they are doing their jobs in other parts of the train? I don't know. But I know I was always pretty tired at the end of a trip where I worked coaches.

Tom

In at least two cases I experienced, the coach attendant spent any time not boarding/deboarding passengers in the same car as myself. And based on what I saw, either they had no other real responsibilities or were carrying them out poorly.

I have seen perhaps 1 or 2 that I'd say were doing a decent job. That's out of I think 12+ trips on the Crescent.

 

[tonys96]

The rule book may list a dozen or more tasks Coach Attendants can be called upon to assist with but as a practical matter they usually assign you a car (and sometimes a seat) and then keep to themselves before kicking you off at your destination. In general they will not assist with your bags or bring you anything or wake you up (unless it's time for you to leave). They have been known to prevent people from moving to other cars or seats and forcing them to move back when caught. Occasionally they may clean the restroom if someone complains about it. If you are disabled and your reservation reflects this condition Coach Attendants can provide addition service in the form of delivering meals and helping you reach the restroom and such. From what I've seen over the years it would appear that being a Coach Attendant is quite possibly the easiest job on the train.

I agree on this wholeheartedly. I have even seen coach attendants who bring their kids along with them! Three times.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Good point Tony, there's an attendant on the Eagle that often brings their spouse with them! You mostly see them hanging out in the CCC and the Transdorm!

Nice work if you can get it!

 

[Paulus]

Might I suggest contacting Amtrak customer service the next time you see it so that a paperwork trail can be created for corrective action?

 

[tonys96]

Might I suggest contacting Amtrak customer service the next time you see it so that a paperwork trail can be created for corrective action?

No.

 

[StriderGDM]

Might I suggest contacting Amtrak customer service the next time you see it so that a paperwork trail can be created for corrective action?

No.

Why?

Is it easier to simply complain than to do anything about it?

I've contacted customer service about employees, both good and bad. I think management needs to hear about the bad so they can be better trained or worst case, terminated. And the good, definitely should get praise for when they do great jobs.

Complacency won't improve things.