Horror Stories

[denmarks]

This happened to me about 8 years ago. I decided to take the following trip. Chico, CA / Seattle / Chicago / New York / Philadelphia / Washington / Chicago / Sacramento / Chico, CA. I had 1 day stops in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington.

There were no problems until my return trip from Washington to Chicago. The train kept stopping for some reason during the night and by the time it arrived in Chicago I had missed the train from Chicago to Sacramento. Amtrak decided to fly me to Omaha where I would catch the train. So after cashing a voucher I got a taxi to the airport, flew to Omaha, and took a taxi to the deserted station in Omaha. Seems like it is closed until just before train arrival.

When the station personal finally arrived they anounced that the train was late and would check on the matter. It turned out that the train could not cross the Mississippi River due to flooding and had returned to Chicago.

After a few hours they took us to a motel and said they would let us know in the morning what would happen. What they finally did was to stop the eastbound train and reverse it in Omaha. About 24 hours later than scheduled we were finally headed west.

I swore I would never ride a train again. I am going from Chico / Sacramento / Chicago / New Orleans and return June 2004. Wish me luck.

 

[Amfleet]

Glad to hear you are going to give Amtrak another shot. Seems like the trouble you experienced before though was from good ol' Mother Nature. Anyway I wish you the best of luck.

 

[AMTRAK-P42]

Let us know how your trip goes when you do eventually take it. We'd all love to hear how your second try turns out.

 

[WICT106]

Glad to read that you've chosen to give Amtrak another chance. Sorry to read about your experience, but most of th trouble seemed to stem from the host railroad giving precedence to theior own trains, and to Mom Nature. I've had two Amtrak Misadventures, myself. The first event occurred in 1988, on the SW Cheif where, first, someone tried to beat the train to a crossing in CO ( the car lost). While waiting for the cleanup crew, the enginneer was no longer able to work, and a relief engine driver had to be transported out to the site. We ended up being almost 7 hours late into Raton. The second episode has been posted at Railforum.com. Things that occurred as a result of these events were not met with understanding by the passengers, even though the first event wasn't even the fault of Amtrak.

 

I've had enough passable to good expereinces to cancel out the negativeones, and I've always enjoyed Amtrak. Just returned from the older brother's wedding, and I was able to take the Builder for the trip. The only downside that I had was that Amtrak doesn't serve Madison, WI, and I was forced into paying a cab fare that was more than the Amtrak ticket. Other than that, my trip was fine.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

Denmarks, glad you are going to give the train another chance. the events you describe were really quite unusual. Think of the travel plans gone awry just recently for people by ALL modes of transport during the hurricane, for example. That just happens.

I, too, have had my trips screwed up with 8 or 9 hour delays three or four times during the years, but I have survived and keep coming back for more. My own personal log of schedule performance indicates about 65-70 % on time rating in my travels. .

 

[pismobum]

here ya go - try and top this. Read it and weep (or cry)

http://trainweb.org/web_lurker/swiss2

 

[gswager]

Wow! That's a trip of hell! I'm glad that you came out of it with a lot of patience!

 

[Steve4031]

here ya go - try and top this. Read it and weep (or cry)
http://trainweb.org/web_lurker/swiss2

Damn!!!! That was a rough one.

 

[WICT106]

Damn, Pismobum. I thought some of my trips were bad. Compared to your trip, my trips have been next to exemplary. I think you deserve some kind of public recognition for that trip. I mean, that one takes the cake! Losing one's reservation, screwing up the replacement reservation, getting double charged, dealing with uninformed employees, surly employees, bad or otherwise not fully functional equipment, in addition to the all time Amtrak complaint . . . tardy trains. Wow.

 

[pismobum]

did any of you bother to take the link at the end of that 'horror story' to my NEXT trip? It wasn't as bad, but it was no picnic either!

http://trainweb.org/web_lurker/swiss3

 

[WICT106]

I did. Apparently, the system that Amtrak has used at times can't handle multi-city, multi-stop, "loop" style trips. When I took my last long trip, in March of this year, I was able to get what I wanted, and i think the web page may be set up so that it can deal with those style trips ( where one going to and from the same destination and origin points) a lot better than these loop trips that some other railfans seem to do. Having said that, You certainly are the current King of the Trips From Hell, pismobum. My condolences.

OTOH, when folks discuss their vacations, you can out-do them all when they start complaining about not geting this or that service.

 

[jccollins]

Wow, truly a reservations NIGHTMARE! Thank God for amtrak.com, I have never had to deal with a situation like this or with idiots making reservations over the phone.