Nightmare trip on Amtrak

[Heather Stanger]

Recently went from Chicago to Toronto on Amtrak overnight - my husband thought it would be romantic! The train tracks are so bumpy that it resulted in us only getting about 2 or 3 hours sleep and the connecting train at Buffalo was 2 hours late meaning our arrival at Toronto was just over 2 hours late - the ticket lady did announce that as we where late we could claim 50% off our next journey - I have yet to e-mail VIA rail (as end of journey was in Canada) about that as was only taking one trip before coming back to the Uk. Had a Viewliner Roomette - do not book one of these as they are so small. Cannot fault the member of staff who helped us on with our baggage and gave us a wake up call and the $20 we received back as no food on the train 0 the microwaved pizza's were quite nice. Breakfast was prepacked and not very nice - went without which is not like me! Next time - make sure you fly!

 

[guest_jeffw]

I'm sorry to hear about that. Most tracks are owned by freight and Amtrak has no control over it. It would be nice if our states has the same system that they have over in England, where the states control the trackage and possibly anyone can run over them. Make them smoother possibly. As much as our federal government talks about arrangements such as this, when they are given the chance they turn it down. As evidenced by Florida(see Florida High Speed Rail and Global Rail Consortums $400million dollar free money offer). Actually Virgin wanted in on the deal too but was turned down(Reasoning was Richard Branson supposedly doesn't know what he's doing). How about that?

But if you want NO food, and less room than a roomette, then next time fly! It maybe small, but the airliners seem to be able to cram 6 people in the same amount of space!

 

[IceColdMintJulep]

Please don't judge Amtrak by one train ride. Nearly every airline trip has turbulence and you get a bumpy ride. Sometimes it's bad, I've been bounced off the ceiling before over Iceland. That was a nice wakeup. Yes some track is not as smooth as it could be, but Amtrak can't really do anything about it. I'd rather have a bumpy train than no train. Sorry it wasn't as romantic as you wished. If you really want romantic take the American Orient Express and have a first class American rail experience.

 

[caravanman]

It is a shame that this trip was such a let down for you. Most people on this site are rail or Amtrak fans, so we try to look on the bright side. Having said that, it seems bonkers that so many people do feel let down after their Amtrak experiences, given the sums of money involved. We all know Amtrak can't help most things, so why not start a campaign to bring the real culprits for the failures into the public spotlight for once?

Ed B)