This was also mentioned in my report in the trip report section, but I thought I'd bring it here.
On 13 January, while in New Orleans, I discovered that the Zephyr would be cancelled west of Denver, so I had to call Amtrak to rebook via the Starlight and Empire Builder. On the Starlight, I was assigned to room 03/1430. I picked up the tickets the next day, before boarding the Sunset Limited.
On the Sunset Limited ride to Los Angeles, a couple boarded in Tucson. They were having the "trip from hell." On the way down, they were bussed from SLO to LAX due to the mudslides. This time, they spent 10 hours in the Tucson station waiting for our train to show up. They were ticketed to connect to train 14(16) in LAX. Of course, this wasn't possible for two reasons. First, 14 wasn't running out of LAX, and second, we were so late, there was no way to possibly catch up with that train.
They were put up in a Los Angeles hotel overnight, and took a bus to Bakersfield to connect to the San Joaquin to Emeryville the next day.
Meanwhile, I maintained my previously planned itinerary as far as riding the San Joaquin on the morning of the 17th, but went to Emeryville instead of Stockton (where I was supposed to get off to transfer to the bus to Sacramento to connect with the California Zephyr, but anyway...).
I spent the day in the Bay Area, and got back to the Emeryville Station that night. Meanwhile, I had downloaded some e-mail messages, one of which was dated 15 January (two days earlier), and said that the Starlight was being reduced to one sleeper and two coaches.
The train pulled in at 9:30, and I went up to the lone sleeper to board. I put my bag down in room 3, then went back outside for a minute. When I returned, there was the "trip from hell" couple standing in the vestibule, trying to figure out how I was in "their" room.
You see, quite simply, in all the reaccommodating and rebooking that had gone on, many, many Amtrak employees had seen their ticket. However, not a single one of them had ever thought to issue a new ticket. They were still ticketed for 14(16), and we were on 14(17).
In the mean time, several confused passengers wondered where the 1431 car is. Amtrak, in its infinite wisdom, decided it was in its best interest to throw away a thousand dollars (plus) in sleeper revenue by blanking the 31 car. This was *NOT* due to a car shortage. There was plenty of equipment in Oakland, since the Starlight only needed three sets (instead of four) to protect its new, truncated route, not to mention the one or two Zephyr trainsets trapped on the west coast.
I asked the sleeper attendant and the conductor why the bumped passengers couldn't be put up in the transition sleeper instead. The response I got was "Because it's the crew car." I pointed out the successful integration of revenue passengers and crew on the Texas Eagle and City of New Orleans, and was told "Well, that's not on this train." What a pathetic, disgusting excuse for service on the "Superior (sic) Service Coast Starlight."
The "trip from hell" couple was upset at yet another Amtrak screw-up in a long-line of problems throughout their trip, and faced a night in coach (as did several 1431 passengers). I wanted them to salvage something from their trip, and seeing ABSOLUTELY NO help from the Mediocre Service Coast Starlight crew, I decided to downgrade myself and give up the room.
The night in coach wasn't that bad. I've done it before, and will probably do it again. But still, it was such a disappointment that Amtrak could drop the ball like that. Then again, Amtrak is a strange company that can't figure out why anyone would actually want to ride it, and then does everything it can think of to discourage anyone from doing so.
The two coaches were at least 100% full for some segments. I saw a couple of examples of three passengers (usually small children) being assigned to a seat pair.
I don't know exactly where the decision to reduce the consist came from, but I suspect Wilmington, DE (CNOC). As far as I'm concerned, whoever made that decision really shouldn't enjoy continued employment at Amtrak.
Key things to consider:
*Amtrak had AT LEAST two days (remember, I got the e-mail on the 15th from a friend, and neither of us even work for Amtrak) to figure out what to do with the extra passengers. Yet, when the train pulled up, the crew acted totally surprised that there were passengers for 1431.
*Amtrak should have considered the upward effect on ridership the cancellation of the Zephyr would have on the Starlight. Additionally, they should have known that the normal Starlight ridership, plus reroutes off the Zephyr, plus misconnects from the previous day's Sunset, plus downgrades from sleeper, would have put the coaches at close to 100% capacity, if not more.
*What pathetic, disgusting, outrageous, ****-poor excuse for customer service the crew showed by not wanting to have revenue passengers encroach upon their palace by actually sleeping in a room for which they had paid many dollars. The transition sleeper has 16 rooms upstairs (plus an attendant's room on the upper level, and a handicap room on the lower level). Do you know how many OBS crewmembers there were (excluding the sleeper attendant, who sleeps in his own car)? SIX. That's right. SIX crewmembers took up an entire car with SIXTEEN rooms, while Amtrak was throwing away THOUSANDS of dollars in revenue by downgrading passengers to the already overcrowded coaches. That really ought to be a fireable offense for the conductor or sleeper attendant to refuse to open that car to revenue passengers, some of whom had sleeper reservations MONTHS in advance.
Well, that's the end of my rant for now. Most of the above has been included in a letter to David Gunn, because otherwise there's no way he'd find out how incompetent his decision makers are.
On 13 January, while in New Orleans, I discovered that the Zephyr would be cancelled west of Denver, so I had to call Amtrak to rebook via the Starlight and Empire Builder. On the Starlight, I was assigned to room 03/1430. I picked up the tickets the next day, before boarding the Sunset Limited.
On the Sunset Limited ride to Los Angeles, a couple boarded in Tucson. They were having the "trip from hell." On the way down, they were bussed from SLO to LAX due to the mudslides. This time, they spent 10 hours in the Tucson station waiting for our train to show up. They were ticketed to connect to train 14(16) in LAX. Of course, this wasn't possible for two reasons. First, 14 wasn't running out of LAX, and second, we were so late, there was no way to possibly catch up with that train.
They were put up in a Los Angeles hotel overnight, and took a bus to Bakersfield to connect to the San Joaquin to Emeryville the next day.
Meanwhile, I maintained my previously planned itinerary as far as riding the San Joaquin on the morning of the 17th, but went to Emeryville instead of Stockton (where I was supposed to get off to transfer to the bus to Sacramento to connect with the California Zephyr, but anyway...).
I spent the day in the Bay Area, and got back to the Emeryville Station that night. Meanwhile, I had downloaded some e-mail messages, one of which was dated 15 January (two days earlier), and said that the Starlight was being reduced to one sleeper and two coaches.
The train pulled in at 9:30, and I went up to the lone sleeper to board. I put my bag down in room 3, then went back outside for a minute. When I returned, there was the "trip from hell" couple standing in the vestibule, trying to figure out how I was in "their" room.
You see, quite simply, in all the reaccommodating and rebooking that had gone on, many, many Amtrak employees had seen their ticket. However, not a single one of them had ever thought to issue a new ticket. They were still ticketed for 14(16), and we were on 14(17).
In the mean time, several confused passengers wondered where the 1431 car is. Amtrak, in its infinite wisdom, decided it was in its best interest to throw away a thousand dollars (plus) in sleeper revenue by blanking the 31 car. This was *NOT* due to a car shortage. There was plenty of equipment in Oakland, since the Starlight only needed three sets (instead of four) to protect its new, truncated route, not to mention the one or two Zephyr trainsets trapped on the west coast.
I asked the sleeper attendant and the conductor why the bumped passengers couldn't be put up in the transition sleeper instead. The response I got was "Because it's the crew car." I pointed out the successful integration of revenue passengers and crew on the Texas Eagle and City of New Orleans, and was told "Well, that's not on this train." What a pathetic, disgusting excuse for service on the "Superior (sic) Service Coast Starlight."
The "trip from hell" couple was upset at yet another Amtrak screw-up in a long-line of problems throughout their trip, and faced a night in coach (as did several 1431 passengers). I wanted them to salvage something from their trip, and seeing ABSOLUTELY NO help from the Mediocre Service Coast Starlight crew, I decided to downgrade myself and give up the room.
The night in coach wasn't that bad. I've done it before, and will probably do it again. But still, it was such a disappointment that Amtrak could drop the ball like that. Then again, Amtrak is a strange company that can't figure out why anyone would actually want to ride it, and then does everything it can think of to discourage anyone from doing so.
The two coaches were at least 100% full for some segments. I saw a couple of examples of three passengers (usually small children) being assigned to a seat pair.
I don't know exactly where the decision to reduce the consist came from, but I suspect Wilmington, DE (CNOC). As far as I'm concerned, whoever made that decision really shouldn't enjoy continued employment at Amtrak.
Key things to consider:
*Amtrak had AT LEAST two days (remember, I got the e-mail on the 15th from a friend, and neither of us even work for Amtrak) to figure out what to do with the extra passengers. Yet, when the train pulled up, the crew acted totally surprised that there were passengers for 1431.
*Amtrak should have considered the upward effect on ridership the cancellation of the Zephyr would have on the Starlight. Additionally, they should have known that the normal Starlight ridership, plus reroutes off the Zephyr, plus misconnects from the previous day's Sunset, plus downgrades from sleeper, would have put the coaches at close to 100% capacity, if not more.
*What pathetic, disgusting, outrageous, ****-poor excuse for customer service the crew showed by not wanting to have revenue passengers encroach upon their palace by actually sleeping in a room for which they had paid many dollars. The transition sleeper has 16 rooms upstairs (plus an attendant's room on the upper level, and a handicap room on the lower level). Do you know how many OBS crewmembers there were (excluding the sleeper attendant, who sleeps in his own car)? SIX. That's right. SIX crewmembers took up an entire car with SIXTEEN rooms, while Amtrak was throwing away THOUSANDS of dollars in revenue by downgrading passengers to the already overcrowded coaches. That really ought to be a fireable offense for the conductor or sleeper attendant to refuse to open that car to revenue passengers, some of whom had sleeper reservations MONTHS in advance.
Well, that's the end of my rant for now. Most of the above has been included in a letter to David Gunn, because otherwise there's no way he'd find out how incompetent his decision makers are.
that was incredibly nice of you. 
