give the trains some character?

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scott

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what do you all think about Amtrak giving each train something a bit personal? Right now, if you take the Empire Builder, it's the same as riding on the City ofNew Orleans (except for the view, of course). I would think a way to make it more appealing would be to re-instate local cuisine, but also decorate accordingly. Maybe a "down south" feel on the CONO, a "desert" feel (murals? Paint jobs? pictures on the walls?) for the Southwest Chief.
 
Some trains have a distinct character: the Cascades is completely different, and the Coast Starlight has its parlor car. Until early this year, some had their own menus in the dinner. The recent effort to get the system functioning on its most basic level has forced out differentiation, which I'm sure was extra cost for Amtrak. I wish the menu would change monthly as it does on most European systems. I'm on a long distance train twice a month and the menu gets old after a while.
 
It would be difficult to regionalize equipment when Amtrak's original intent was t to standardize to allow cars to be moved around the system. Each train already has somewhat of a character that is created by the onboard service crew. Asides from the eqiupment, there is usually a difference between crews on the east coast and those on the west coast.
 
Scott, I "feel" your sentiments, but Steve4031's point about being able to move equipment all around the country as needed is hard to argue with. This is sort of the difference between railroading nowadays and in the pre-Amtrak past.....there was lots of variety back then, but it took a lot of red tape to shuffle cars around ,if needed, between one railroad company and another. Whenever we can get back to regional menus, that would help a lot.
 
Scott,

It would actually be impossible to customize or decorate a train for it's particular route. As Steve4031 sort of alluded to, the cars are designed not only to mover around the system, they are constantly moved around.

As an example let's pretend that you going from New Orleans to Seattle. You would board the City of New Orleans today, in New Orleans arriving in Chicago tomorrow morning. You would of course get of the train to await the departure of the Empire Builder later that day.

Once you were called for boarding on the Empire you would find, assuming that you had paid attention to the car numbers, that you were about to board the same exact train that you had just arrived on that morning. The City of NOL has become the Empire. The reverse is also true, an arriving Empire becomes the southbound City.

Another example of this is today's Capital Limited, becomes tomorrow's Southwest Chief.

So decorating and/or customizing a train for its route would not work, since you'd have to rip those customizations down every day.
 
oh well,

I guess I didn't realize they moved equipment around. Back to one possibility: varied menus. Hopefully that'll come back.
 
While it'd be great to see dedicated consists for each route, Amtrak doesn't have the money or equipment to do that. Personally, I'd really like to see the specialized dining car menus return, even if there were only one or two changes from the national menu.

Another idea I had was a very simple decoration: magnetic stickers with the train's logo on it. As a consist would be set up for a route, the maintainance crew would slap these stickers next to each door. When the consist needs to be used on another route, the stickers would be removed and the new route's stickers would be applied. Again, it comes down to money, but it would be nice to see some kind of route personalization like that.
 
The Coast Starlight, nice if you're in a sleeper, a TOILET in the coaches.

The "kiddie room" that replaced the smoker's longue is a joke. The northbound crew at least left it open all night, and at least one person used it to stretch out and sleep in.

But the little witch who looks like Dr. Evil's henchwoman locked it at night on the southbound trip.

I will not ride that stinkin' train again if I can avoid it.

I'll take the CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR and it's first class crews ANYDAY.
 
The only two trains that could be/and are customized are the Auto Train and the Coast Starlight. The Auto Train has a specialy designed Lounge and the Diners do carry a seperate menu, but it is a bit simplistic. As previously said the Coast Starlight has the Parlor Car (which always seems to be out of service) and the Kiddie Car (ya, its a joke, how bout an arcade or pool table). I fine with the standard menus since it is not crap as long as it gets rotated often.
 
The parlor car was great, with the wine tasting; free wine, cheese, and crackers.

But it is only available to the SLEEPER passengers. The sleeper was a very good experience, after the LYING conductor got off and we were finally able to actually book one of the empty rooms.

(If you haven't read my other post on the subject, the conductor from Sacramento thru Klamath Falls NEVER BOTHERD TO EVEN ASK the sleeper attendant if rooms were available, even though they were, and we asked him 3 times!!! He just said they weren't. IF I were the Amtrak President, I would have FIRED HIM ON THE SPOT!)

The coaches, on the other hand, are absolute hell. They're crowded and you are given an assigned seat BY THE CAR ATTENDANT, many of whom are not the brightest or friendliest of human beings.

The train was nearly an hour or more late to begin with, and taking up even MORE TIME, the car attendant waited until the line was out of the station, and then announced for couples and people traveling together to come to the front of the line!!!

This, in my humble yet correct opinion, was quite unfair to those of us who had arrived ON TIME and been waiting in line since nearly 30 minutes before the scheduled departure.

There were people who were being ushered to the front who wouldn't have even MADE THE TRAIN if it had departed on time!!!

Of course, thinking and acting fairly quickly, I grabbed the nearest other single passenger and we told her that we were together! :rolleyes:

The attendant also never turned the lights out in the car, a complaint I have heard numerous times from other passengers in other cars and on a few other trains.

So, I'd try to avoid coach on the Coast StarBlight like the plague. It's one of the most uncomfortable and unfriendley rides I've ridden in the west!

They'd do MUCH BETTER putting the "Parlor Car" on a class run like the California Zephyr.

Pool Table? On a train??? LOL!!!

A few arcade games in a smoking lounge would be a good idea, and a way for Amtrak to get a few bucks from bored passengers!
 
WoodenMike said:
The coaches, on the other hand, are absolute hell. They're crowded and you are given an assigned seat BY THE CAR ATTENDANT, many of whom are not the brightest or friendliest of human beings.
The train was nearly an hour or more late to begin with, and taking up even MORE TIME, the car attendant waited until the line was out of the station, and then announced for couples and people traveling together to come to the front of the line!!!

This, in my humble yet correct opinion, was quite unfair to those of us who had arrived ON TIME and been waiting in line since nearly 30 minutes before the scheduled departure.

There were people who were being ushered to the front who wouldn't have even MADE THE TRAIN if it had departed on time!!!

Of course, thinking and acting fairly quickly, I grabbed the nearest other single passenger and we told her that we were together! :rolleyes:
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This is my experience with car attendance too. Single passengers pay too, and should not be subjected to this kind of maltreatment.
 
Yes, the PP car was out of service on the Coast Starlight when I rode it. And I agree fully with being fed up with train attendants who lie about what's available, just because they don't want to haul their lazy butts somewhere to find out. I'd fire 2 or 3 out of 10 of the various employees I dealt with on my five Amtrak trips last summer. To hell with unions. Sorry. For a business to succeed, there must be customer service! Anyone in business knows that. Too bad it doesn't apply to government.
 
I could imagine the Mexican and Canadian cars attached to the passenger trains. That would be not just very natural but also instantly give some character to the SouthWest and/or NorthWest(East) routes.

If I can ride a Polnish sleeper in Kazakhstan and a Turkish coach in Austria, I do not know why I can't ride a Mexican car between Las Vegas and Salt Lake or a Canadian car between Sacramento and Klamath Falls.

The co-operation between VIA and Amtrak is VERY weak despite of longest border between any of two countries in the world. The co-operation between Amtrak and Mexican rail system is non-existent. What a shame!

------------------------------

Ah, yes. I got real mad today. I bought a R/T (the rail sale) from EMY to DEN. But since I am living near San Jose, I also did buy the Santa Clara <--> EMY "local" fare. As hard as I tried, I could not "force" the Amrak ticketing system on www.amtrak.com to issue me the "short" local ticket for the station pick-up - the only(!) option was to mail me the ticket.

So I went today to the station in San Jose and picked up the EMY <--> DEN tickets. I ask the agent to provide me with the Santa Clara <--> EMY ticket but she refused. She also refused to call Amtrak to change the delivery option... So I got the EMY <--> DEN and the Santa Clara <--> EMY will arrive one day (hopefully before I tavel) by mail.

An other source of permanent frustration is the way the reserved coaches (and also the sleepers) are handled. It is simply not the way a railroad should run...

I wish some executives would travel to Europe and Asia and would learn, what the @#$%^ the words like "Plazkarta", "Mistenka", "Platzkarte" (and so on) do mean and how the #$%^ these small pieces of paper are generated by a reservation computer - even in countries with GDP of one tenth what is in the U.S. So, say, in Serbia (Turkey, Iran, Germany and so on) at the time the conductor does see the passenger, he(she) is already EXACTLY at the seat he(she) got assigned at the time of ticket purchase.

I do see always more personal on the traons in the U.S. than on the continent. On the Coast Starlight I did notice that an entire car(!) was attached to the tran for the personal exclusively. On the continent the personal has usually one(!) 6-seat compartment reserved for the coach section. Each sleeper has usually two attendants who have a small room at the end of the sleeper.

Sorry for getting in a little bit different topic at the end.

George
 
OK time for my two cents. To some degree Amtrak has tried to give some of the cars flavor. For example, refurbished Amfleet II lounges are decorated with pictures of an east coast city. To a lesser degree Superliner II and Viewliner Sleepers have been given names to help diversify them from the rest of the fleet. One thing I wish they would have done though is place pictures of the theme inside the sleeper to make you feel as if you are in that place. As for the "lying" Conductor you must take circumstances in to account. For example, I obtained a copy of the manifest for 97 that the FLO-JAX Conductor left behind. When I went up to the diner the 10 car attendant was gloating as he had no passengers for the remaining four hours of the trip. When I looked at the manifest for the 10 car it showed two people for MIA in room 11. I asked the attendant about the occupants of that room and he said they were no shows. So when the sleepers run full a busy Conductor has to rely on his manifest, rather than running from one end of the train to the other. As for First Class Lounges, when we get the money, I'd love to see them. Until then, no way Jose.
 
yea the sunset limited could have a cute curtain set with gators on them, serve a westerny-cowboy menu since it goes thru texas... :p

it wont happen...the cars need to me interchangeable :(
 
No prob Viewliner. I've got a busy weekend planned. On Saturday I'm going to take 98 up to KIS, back on 91 to mIA, take pics of some Tri-Rail/NS GP-49's then back up to Fort Lickadale on Tri-Rail. On Sunday I hope to take 92 up to JAX with an engineer friend, go to Folkston and come back on 89 that morning. So I'll bring the dig cam and send you the photos.
 
Even as far as little temporary things....for example, the Empire Builder Magazine....I found it hard to find the time during my prep time to replace the magazines in all the seat pockets...or to take out the stuff that the City of New Orleans crews left on....just a hard thing to do, to personalize consists.
 
tubaallen said:
Even as far as little temporary things....for example, the Empire Builder Magazine....I found it hard to find the time during my prep time to replace the magazines in all the seat pockets...or to take out the stuff that the City of New Orleans crews left on....just a hard thing to do, to personalize consists.
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Well especially with only a 5 hour window, and that's assuming that the City is on time. Then stick in time to clean the train and restock all of the supplies, detrain the City's passengers, entrain the Builder's passengers, and it doesn't leave you too much time to do anything.
 
battalion51 said:
No prob Viewliner. I've got a busy weekend planned. On Saturday I'm going to take 98 up to KIS, back on 91 to mIA, take pics of some Tri-Rail/NS GP-49's then back up to Fort Lickadale on Tri-Rail. On Sunday I hope to take 92 up to JAX with an engineer friend, go to Folkston and come back on 89 that morning. So I'll bring the dig cam and send you the photos.
Click to expand...
Thanks, Could you email them to me so I could use them on My Website?
 
Yeah...I think most of the summer it seemed that the City was on time for the most part...however, I do remember once showing up for duty on the Builder at Union Station, and the damn train wasn't even there yet....there was nothing for me to do! Then, when I DID get on it finally, I only had about an hour to get ready, and then we started loading. That SUCKED!
 
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