Is it a mistake to solve your own Amtrak problems?

[TiBike]

I was on the westbound CZ yesterday, scheduled to arrive in Emeryville at 4:10 p.m., and connect to a Capitol Corridor train at 5:15 p.m., so I could catch the last bus to Monterey (independently via Monterey Salinas Transit, not booked as part of the Amtrak ticket) at 7:25 p.m. The train was consistently 2 to 3 hours late the whole way, and by the time we were coming down the hill from Reno it was clear I would miss the connection. We had a great assistant conductor from Grand Junction to Reno who kept us apprised of what was going on. At Reno, she said the new crew would do the same.


They didn't, and were nowhere to be found on the train. I finally tracked down the (assistant?) conductor after Roseville, who gave me an ETA of 5:45 into Emeryville, which turned out to be pretty close, and said they'd put me on the 7:20pm train to San Jose. When I pointed out that I'd miss the last bus, he said I'd need to go inside the station at Emeryville and talk to a ticket agent.

Waiting in line at Emeryville to talk to an agent who, as far as I know, couldn't give me a better option seemed like a waste of time and would only make things worse. So I got off the train at Richmond, took BART to SFO and got on the airport shuttle to Monterey.

This morning I called Amtrak customer relations to see about a refund on the $19 ticket to San Jose, and the agent said he'd send me a $45 travel voucher, which more or less left me even with the extra cost of the shuttle. Fair enough.

But he also told me I made a mistake and I shouldn't have gotten off the train in Richmond and should have let the people in Emeryville sort it out for me. I asked him what they might have done. He said he didn't know but they deal with late trains all the time.

Is there anything Amtrak could or would have done except put me on the 7:20 train to San Jose? I suppose they might have offered to put me on the next thruway to Salinas, but it would have arrived at 1:15 am, three hours after the last bus to Monterey. Other than that, I can't imagine them taking responsibility for anything other than getting me to San Jose.

I was home at 9:30. As far as I can tell, I avoided wasting a pointless hour or two in Emeryville. How might it have been a mistake?

 

[neroden]

You did the right thing. Amtrak would never have gotten back to you, based on my experience.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

He also told me I made a mistake and I shouldn't have gotten off the train in Richmond and should have let the people in Emeryville sort it out for me. I asked him what they might have done. He said he didn't know but they deal with late trains all the time. I was home at 9:30. As far as I can tell, I avoided wasting a pointless hour or two in Emeryville. How might it have been a mistake?

The fact that he couldn't even begin to articulate how Amtrak's solution would have surpassed your own resolution is proof enough that you did the right thing.

 

[caravanman]

Certainly if you can see a good option that works for you, I would always say "go for it". Maybe Amtrak would have given you a private helicopter or a luxury limo to get home... but chances are that you did what was best for you. It is about thinking for yourself, not waiting to be told... Well done.

Ed

 

[MikefromCrete]

Amtrak's only responsibility was to get you to San Jose. Other than staying over night in San Jose or renting a car, there wasn't anything else you could have done to get to Monterey.

 

[TiBike]

That's what I figured, then and now. The agent seemed to think, though, that I should have waited for the Emeryville station staff to tell me that, rather than figuring it out for myself. I shouldn't complain, I guess, since the dollars evened out. Just weird that he thought it was a problem.

 

[railiner]

The agent is just telling you, what he has been trained to tell you....you absolutely did right by using your own initiative to solve your problem. No one has more incentive than yourself to do that....

 

[C855B]

When it comes to destination arrivals on the LD trains, I always have a Plan B, sometimes booked well in advance. 'Cause face it, the longer a trip the higher the likelihood the train will be hours late. The agent(s) doubtless will be genuinely helpful, but having your own alternatives already lined up gives you a comfortable cushion and frees-up the Amtrak staff to worry about the lesser-prepared.

...scheduled to arrive in Emeryville at 4:10 p.m., and connect to a Capitol Corridor train at 5:15 p.m., ...

Did Amtrak let you book this connection, or did you do it on your own? Under two hours is way too tight for LD trains near their endpoints. Admittedly, the CZ has slop built-in to the schedule between RNO and SAC, but it'll make up 30 minutes at best provided UP doesn't have too much going on.

 

[TiBike]

Yep, Amtrak let me book it as a through ticket: ALB - CHI - EMY - SJ. The last segment is on the Capitol Corridor, and there's a later train and a thruway after that, so I'm guessing they rate the risk as low. When I booked it, I knew the connection to the local bus to Monterey was at risk, so I had a plan B and C.

The takeaway for me on all this is do what you need to do and not what Amtrak tells you to do.

 

[C855B]

Yeah, that's smart. The last two cross-country trips we took, I had to cajole the AGR agent to make connections ("...let me ask a supervisor...") the main reservation system allowed in pieces but not in aggregate. They weren't disallowed, just not straightforward... and not weird routings, either. Their software's good, but not that good, evidently.

 

[lstone19]

Working for an airline and doing most of my travel standby on planes (but CZ and CS next weekend!), I always have a Plan B and Plans C, D, E, and all the way to little plan Z. Even if our Customer Service people could help me (rarely do they have time from handling revenue customers to provide more than minimal assistance), I know what best meets my needs. I might be indifferent between a couple of different cities since my real destination is likely to be different than my airline destination (using ground transportation or a rental car for the last mile).

This difference between the ticketed destination and the real destination is something that some in transportation providers still don't get and don't understand why passengers just disappear when flights divert to a nearby airport. Twice, I have been on flights scheduled to go to Orange County, CA but went to LAX instead due to the curfew. In one case, with Anaheim being the real destination, using ground transportation from LAX was a better option than taking the provided airline bus to Orange County where it would be so late only taxis would be available. In the other, knowing it would be after curfew and with LAX where we wanted to be, we hopped on and were probably the only passengers on the flight glad it was going to LAX (and in a higher level of flexibility, we were on our way to Hawaii with a west coast overnight connection so were indifferent between LAX and SFO as the destination for the night - at one point even looking to get on a flight to Sacramento after which we would have gone Amtrak to Richmond and BART to SFO just like the OP).

That said, we do work with people who have an acceptable alternate and during irregular operations, will send them there even if it would have been more expensive (e.g. my flight to Syracuse is delayed four hours, can you put me on the on-time flight to Rochester and my family will meet me there). But as I said, only you know what best meets your needs and when that means bailing out early (like the OP), that's what you need to do. A lot of this is time critical and waiting to do it "by the book" means not having the time to do it at all.

(and yes, given the CZ's problems this week, I do have a plan B for next weekend some of which involves using my airline benefits so definitely not in Amtrak's recovery playbook nor something Amtrak would help me with).

 

[railiner]

Istone19, welcome to AU....

I do the same as you, using my airline retiree benefit to get to and from certain Amtrak train rides (especially across the country ).

And since I am currently employed in the intercity bus business, I also can use that benefit as an additional backup in certain situations....