Failure of toilets and other facilities onboard

[rms492]

I remember a long time ago, there would be problems with the toilets freezing during cold winter months. Does this still happen, or how often do toilets fail (the whole car), regardless of weather?
That is one thing I would not want to happen on my trip....finding out your entire car has non-functioning toilets.

 

[Maglev]

I have heard of Superliner shower drains freezing (the drain is just a hole to the tracks), but not of entire toilet systems freezing. More common is failure of the entire toilet system in one car for mechanical issues. I have experienced a brief period of toilet malfunction on the Coast Starlight, but it was rectified in Oakland. Availability of maintenance staff to correct problems at intermediate points is very limited on Amtrak. As my first wife used to say, "You pays your money and takes your chances!"

 

[jis]

In the recent past I have traveled from Orlando to New York on a Viewliner II Sleeper on the Silver Meteor when none of the toilets in the car ever worked during the entire journey. Fortunately there was another Viewliner II in the consist for everyone to use.

 

[GAT]

I have heard of Superliner shower drains freezing (the drain is just a hole to the tracks),

I remember when the toilets themselves were like that on Canadian trains in the 1940’s-50’s. You’d pull a lever or push a button (I can't remember which), the flapper would swing down, and you could see the ties whizzing by.

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

I was wondering that too - my parents quit using Amtrak after a LSL trip to Albany in a sleeper with no toilets due to frozen piping of some kind (this was probably 25 or more years ago).

 

[WWW]

I remember when the toilets themselves were like that on Canadian trains in the 1940’s-50’s. You’d pull a lever or push a button (I can't remember which), the flapper would swing down, and you could see the ties whizzing by.

Ewe that is why you did NOT use the biff while the train is in/at the station -
The plop plop is not a user friendly result as well as the splish splash -
At least with modern railcars and EPA concerns the effluent is retained in a holding tank for sanitary disposal -
Shower and sink water is not in the same category - but there is no reason for that to not be a holding reservoir also.

With the airlines operating at 30k + feet temperature well below 40 F or 40 C a mix of glycol (anti-freeze) is added to the blue degerm fluid -
since it is colorless and virtually odorless it makes the blue degerm suitable for use in the blue room.
Subsequent use results in the blue turning to green and an obvious sour odor meaning a change of fluid is needed.
Faulty valves or seals can create that ugly pin stripe stream on the side of the fuselage or falling blue ice chunks -

Fortunately at ground level in a railcar this is not a concern if that railcar is heated or not left idle (cold).

 

[Railspike]

A few years back we were on the platform in Albuquerque (SWC) when we heard a loud bang by our sleeper car. About 20-30 minutes out, our attendant informed us that the bang we heard was the main valve that controlled the toilets and they would be inoperable until LAX. He didn't have to tell us as we could smell something was amiss. Would have been nice if he had told us right after it happened. Had to go to an adjacent sleeper to use the toilet the rest of the way. Wife wasn't happy.

 

[BCL]

Don't they use some sort of antifreeze in the toilet water holding tanks? It's pretty common in RVs and aircraft.

https://www.seacole.com/seacole_products/688w-chemical-toilet-winter-2/​

688W is a ready-to-use liquid odor control agent containing antifreeze for winter use in chemical toilets on airplane, train, RV, bus, and portable toilet applications.​

 

[neroden]

Yes, they occasionally freeze in the Viewliner Is in extreme cold. Usually not in all the cars of the train at once though.

 

[DCAKen]

I was on the Cardinal in a bedroom a few years ago departing a very cold Chicago. While the toilets worked, both my shower and the shared shower didn't.

 

[Eric in East County]

In a different thread, someone complained because they missed a meal due their train arriving late. The general consensus was that the person paid to be moved from Point A to Point B, not for the meals themselves (although these were undoubtedly figured into the ticket price.)

Recently, we read an account from someone who had booked a bedroom in order to have their own private shower and toilet. For most of the trip, the toilets in their car weren’t working and they had to use the communal toilets in the next car. If this should happen to us, what compensation, if any, can we expect for not having a bedroom that was fully functional?

 

[zephyr17]

In a different thread, someone complained because they missed a meal due their train arriving late. The general consensus was that the person paid to be moved from Point A to Point B, not for the meals themselves (although these were undoubtedly figured into the ticket price.)

Recently, we read an account from someone who had booked a bedroom in order to have their own private shower and toilet. For most of the trip, the toilets in their car weren’t working and they had to use the communal toilets in the next car. If this should happen to us, what compensation, if any, can we expect for not having a bedroom that was fully functional?

That should be quite a bit. A very healthy percentage (50%?) of your fare in at least a voucher.

Having the bathrooms go out on a cross country trip up to 3 days is really unpleasant. Calling Customer Relations should get you pretty healthy compensation. It is a lot more serious and impactful than missing lunch.

You'll probably need to call Customer Relations yourself to kick it off. I doubt they'd proactively contact you.

 

[fillyjonk]

In a different thread, someone complained because they missed a meal due their train arriving late. The general consensus was that the person paid to be moved from Point A to Point B, not for the meals themselves (although these were undoubtedly figured into the ticket price.)

Recently, we read an account from someone who had booked a bedroom in order to have their own private shower and toilet. For most of the trip, the toilets in their car weren’t working and they had to use the communal toilets in the next car. If this should happen to us, what compensation, if any, can we expect for not having a bedroom that was fully functional?

I'd be a lot more annoyed on a long trip about the inconvenience of not having access to the private bathroom I paid a premium for than I would over missing a meal. (And that's not just because my usual train is the eastern half of the Texas Eagle, where the meals are nothing to write home about at the moment!)

I was on a train years ago where a "derailment" led to them pulling off one of the sleepers (the one I was in) and I got stuck in coach for the rest of my trip. They refunded me part of the sleeping room cost (I guess the part from St. Louis to Mineola, which was the time I was in coach). It paid for the hotel room I had to take in Mineola because we arrived in at 9 pm and even if I felt alert enough to drive the 2 1/2 hours home I wouldn't have wanted to do it on fairly rural roads after dark.

 

[skylar]

A few years ago, we were on Empire Builder in the winter with -30F temperatures in North Dakota. A few bathrooms froze in the lower levels, but we had a long delay in Minot due to our new crew being delayed on the train coming the other way, so some Amtrak folks walked around the outside of the train with blow torches to thaw things out. Not something I expected to see but it worked!

 

[PVD]

The Viewliner 1 when first introduced were prone to freeze up and were regularly cycled to go south. If I recall, over the years either better insulation or heat trace was added (not sure which) and that made a big difference.

 

[Willbridge]

A few years ago, we were on Empire Builder in the winter with -30F temperatures in North Dakota. A few bathrooms froze in the lower levels, but we had a long delay in Minot due to our new crew being delayed on the train coming the other way, so some Amtrak folks walked around the outside of the train with blow torches to thaw things out. Not something I expected to see but it worked!

When American railroaders were sent to Siberia to help get things moving on the Trans-Siberian, their leaders and majority of the men were from the Great Northern. Now you know why!