trainboy325
Service Attendant
I though a humorous and eye-opening topic worth posting as many on this forum ask "what's your plan to save Amtrak?."
I was eating in a Chinese resturant in the town of Winnfield, Louisiana. When I paid my bill, I handed the clerk my Amtrak Guest Rewards Mastercard to pay. She asks if I'm an avid train rider, and I told her I'm an employee of Amtrak and avid train rider. She begins to tell me about her one experience on the train, the Coast Starlight, in 2002. She tells of her trip with friends and relatives and waking up the next morning in Dunsmuir. She and the entire train spend the entire day in DUN waiting on busses to arrive as a freight derailment had made passage northward impossible from that point.
She said she was "Chico'ed." I asked her to clarify, and she referred to the old telephone story of getting a strange long distance call billed to someone to Chico, CA. Since she remembers passing through Chico, she perceived her experience on Amtrak's Coast Starlight as being Chico'ed with her life: stuck on a train to nowhere and not having someone care of the problem.
I think this a noteworthy topic as it one person's first time experience with Amtrak. Although we can blame the freight railroads, weather or whatever, the point is that this story is why Amtrak is viewed so negatively by average Americans across the nation who have ridden Amtrak. When the only "national marketing" for Amtrak is the word of mouth of those who have a negative opinions, how is Amtrak suppost to build a positive relationship with the people who fund it: the American taxpayer. With so many people who have positive experiences riding again, but they don't tell as many people about it as those who didn't have a good one. I was a perfect stranger, and she made her feelings known. It's important to say good things about rail travel as possible as too many are already saying bad things and they don't have any reasons to do so for their own benefit.
I was eating in a Chinese resturant in the town of Winnfield, Louisiana. When I paid my bill, I handed the clerk my Amtrak Guest Rewards Mastercard to pay. She asks if I'm an avid train rider, and I told her I'm an employee of Amtrak and avid train rider. She begins to tell me about her one experience on the train, the Coast Starlight, in 2002. She tells of her trip with friends and relatives and waking up the next morning in Dunsmuir. She and the entire train spend the entire day in DUN waiting on busses to arrive as a freight derailment had made passage northward impossible from that point.
She said she was "Chico'ed." I asked her to clarify, and she referred to the old telephone story of getting a strange long distance call billed to someone to Chico, CA. Since she remembers passing through Chico, she perceived her experience on Amtrak's Coast Starlight as being Chico'ed with her life: stuck on a train to nowhere and not having someone care of the problem.
I think this a noteworthy topic as it one person's first time experience with Amtrak. Although we can blame the freight railroads, weather or whatever, the point is that this story is why Amtrak is viewed so negatively by average Americans across the nation who have ridden Amtrak. When the only "national marketing" for Amtrak is the word of mouth of those who have a negative opinions, how is Amtrak suppost to build a positive relationship with the people who fund it: the American taxpayer. With so many people who have positive experiences riding again, but they don't tell as many people about it as those who didn't have a good one. I was a perfect stranger, and she made her feelings known. It's important to say good things about rail travel as possible as too many are already saying bad things and they don't have any reasons to do so for their own benefit.
