Not happy with servicelevel on Amtrak as European

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longdistance

Train Attendant
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We finished a transcontinental Amtrak-trip a few days ago from NY (train 49 LSL and 5 CZ) and compare it with a number of trips nearly 20 years ago. Normally we feel the US as a very service-orientated country. Despite the fact that we enjoyed the trip ( in a Roomette) scenerywise we found the level of communication of the attendants in the sleepers and the waiters in the diningcar not kind or real service-orientated. They did what they have to do and that's it. Specially my wife said several times: "they have not invented friendliness". That is a contrast with the fact for us as Europeans American people in general are kind and helpful. Many helped us with our luggage on the stairs of NY-subwaystations. We really like riding trains and are not happy with this conclusion!!
 
I'd just say that dining car service can be inconsistent. Some attendants may be surly. Others may be friendly. It's not unlike airline employees.
 
My impression of "service" in USA is that it is often "over the top", and rather insincere. In the real world, I don't expect low paid store workers, hotel employees, cleaners, etc, to be very happy with their jobs, but they are often expected to exude happiness to keep their jobs.

I agree that a pleasant train crew makes all the difference, but maybe the satisfaction and happiness levels of society in general have dropped in the last 20 years too?

I still find that most Amtrak staff and passengers are rather more friendly than British Rail or SNCF train staff !

Ed. :cool:
 
We know Amtrak is a mixed bag in terms of quality of service. There are many excellent employees out there- too bad you did not seem to encounter them.

I do not have any Amtrak trips upcoming. I will be on United Airlines to Europe next month. A few months ago my experience with United to and from Hawaii was very

good. Hope there will be positives next month.
 
I have free access to Economy Plus on United due to llifetime Gold status (though due to my regular travels I have made Platinum for the last five years, and expect to do so this year too). To be honest, I have not been in a non-Plus United seat in many years.
 
We know Amtrak is a mixed bag in terms of quality of service. There are many excellent employees out there- too bad you did not seem to encounter them.

I do not have any Amtrak trips upcoming. I will be on United Airlines to Europe next month. A few months ago my experience with United to and from Hawaii was very

good. Hope there will be positives next month.
I'm doing another EB loop next Saturday...CBS-PDX-SEA-CBS Will report back with my experiences. As far as airlines, I've been a Delta Skymiles member for years, and just recently flew from Gulf Shores, Atlanta, and Madison in regular coach. My last time for sure. I could hardly walk after I deplaned. Anyway, I'm giving "Delta Comfort" a shot next trip in May. About the same seat size I think, but maybe 3-4" more legroom? I've got two knee replacements and every inch helps. Plus, you get cocktails. The "snacks" are a total joke. I actually counted out my dime size pretzels...got 11!
 
Please take the opportunity to express your disappointment to Amtrak if you have not already done so. Amtrak itself is the only one that matters and this website has no formal connection to Amtrak. All we here can do is agree with you, disagree with you or generally slobber all over ourselves with comments that, in the grand scheme of things, make absolutely no difference to anybody but ourselves. And we do indeed love to slobber all over ourselves.

Just my US2¢ worth.
 
I'd just say that dining car service can be inconsistent. Some attendants may be surly. Others may be friendly. It's not unlike airline employees.
I've actually encountered friendly airline staff in premium cabins and even in coach on some non-US airlines. On the other hand in my experience the CZ has some of the most abrasive and obnoxious staff found anywhere along the entire Amtrak network. I'm not well acquainted with the LSL so I cannot comment intelligently on that portion.

In the real world, I don't expect low paid store workers, hotel employees, cleaners, etc, to be very happy with their jobs, but they are often expected to exude happiness to keep their jobs.
For those who may be unaware, Amtrak staff are extremely well compensated and receive excellent benefits compared to nearly every other US based service job. Where I live the "friendly shop clerk" concept seems to have become a distant memory. Now you're lucky to receive a deadpan mumbled greeting or salutation of any sort. I still receive friendly service at middle and upper tier restaurants and hotels, but other than that US customer service is basically a dying art in my view.

Maybe the satisfaction and happiness levels of society in general have dropped in the last 20 years too?
Considering that half of America is currently flirting with overt fascism I think we have a pretty good reason to be unhappy at this point.

Please take the opportunity to express your disappointment to Amtrak if you have not already done so.
Although I agree with this premise it annoys me that there is no practical method for lodging actionable complaints to a supervisor while you're still on the train. It's silly that Amtrak has no sanctioned method for resolving disputes while you're traveling. Instead you have to wait until the damage is done and you've arrived home. At which point they simply hand over some low cost credit toward the next trip.
 
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Maybe the satisfaction and happiness levels of society in general have dropped in the last 20 years too?
Considering that half of America is currently flirting with overt fascism I think we have a pretty good reason to be unhappy at this point.
And bluntly, the other half (the more sensible half) is thinking that a communist revolution might be an improvement.

Yeah, Americans are not happy. The arrogant, clueless aristocratic classes running the country (into the ground) are incredibly disconnected from reality, and are making spectacularly awful bungles on things which it would have been really easy to get right -- Flint, Michigan is a good example.
 
I was on the Coast Starlight in February visiting from Denmark and had pretty much the same experience.

It started bad already at the bus terminal in San Francisco, where the guy in front of me got scolded for asking if the bus leaving was his bus. Maybe not the most intelligent question (it was rather well signed and announced), but he was nervous about missing his connection, and did not deserve a correction you would give a 5 year old. It wasn't even because the office was busy, with only me waiting in line.

Then boarding at Oakland I asked for a window seat. Here I got told - in a friendly manner though this time - that that is what everybody is asking for, and was assigned an aisle seat - in an almost completely empty car. I don't think at any point of the trip there was more than 5 people in the car and the other coaches were equally lightly travelled. I'm not really into that sort of "I have the power and you should know your place"-games. Instead I turned into a lounge lizzard...

Lunch in the diner was fine with busy but efficient and nice service and the food was fine too. I have no use for waiters running around disturbing my meal with pepper grinders and repeated "is everything fine", so that was good with me.

But again: I had asked for the latest available lunch slot, but only got 12.15, I think, and I headed for lunch well before I was really hungry. Still after I had had my lunch they kept announcing free slots on the last seatings, if anyone was interested. Again, what's the meaning of that? Probably seeing if they could cancel the last seatings on this lightly travelled train, but still annoying and poor service.

And it's not just the employees. After a short look at the cafe, management could really use to put themselves in the passengers position. It's not only the menu, but the cafe itself is murky and uninviting and does nothing to make anything on offer look the least bit tempting. The attendant seemed as tired as the interior but was friendly enough. I ended up just buying a beer (an exellent San Diego IPA) and eating when I got to LA instead.

Did this make it a bad trip? Not really, more like a meh trip. It could just have been much nicer and with measures that cost nothing or very little.
 
This has always been my biggest gripe about Amtrak, the inconsistent and poor service. I've had some AMAZING service on Amtrak, but for the most part it's been average at best and downright abysmal at worst, including the car attendant who was rude and indifferent to our complaints of 80F+ temps in the car (when we changed crews the new conductor was MORE than gracious and took care of it at the next station stop) and the conductor who shoved a co-worker into a seat (resulting among other things in his pager getting clipped on the edge of the seat and broken). The conductor is lucky my co-worker refused to press charges. I had had another encounter with the same conductor and he was quite rude at that time also. I suspect based on his age and seniority he was unfortunately at the point of just putting his time in.

This is one area I'd really love to see Amtrak do a better job on.
 
Maybe the satisfaction and happiness levels of society in general have dropped in the last 20 years too?
Considering that half of America is currently flirting with overt fascism I think we have a pretty good reason to be unhappy at this point.
And bluntly, the other half (the more sensible half) is thinking that a communist revolution might be an improvement.

Yeah, Americans are not happy. The arrogant, clueless aristocratic classes running the country (into the ground) are incredibly disconnected from reality, and are making spectacularly awful bungles on things which it would have been really easy to get right -- Flint, Michigan is a good example.
Be careful what you ask for. We visited Communist East Germany back in the 1980s. We were treated to the surliest service people we have ever met while traveling, and we've done quite a lot.
 
I would not in any way say the OP is wrong in his assessment, which after all is based on personal experience. I would only point out that his conclusion was reached after exactly 2 rides on our nationwide system--trains 49 and 5.

After 15 years of riding I can say (a) service can vary but (b) it mostly falls within American standards of service, and sometimes is very fine. That's based on my experiences, always in a roomette, always eating in the dining car.

One thing I have noted is that you can sometimes elicit good service. We all know what a smile or kind word from us, as travelers, can do to motivate staff. Sure we shouldn't HAVE to work hard for good service, but that's the way things are sometimes.

I once was extremely delayed and needed some extraordinary help from Amtrak personnel at an intermediate station--and I got it. I was flabbergasted. The staff person said, "After a delayed train arrives some folks storm in here and say you must do x, y and z for us to make up some time. They get no special help. But you came in and said, "I don't think you can do this for me but if you can, it would be swell." And we helped you." That's the way it is, folks.
 
Good post Manny. If the staff are not in a good frame of mind, I try to humor them. It may not always work, but I much prefer making compliments over complaints.
 
We finished a transcontinental Amtrak-trip a few days ago from NY (train 49 LSL and 5 CZ) and compare it with a number of trips nearly 20 years ago. Normally we feel the US as a very service-orientated country. Despite the fact that we enjoyed the trip ( in a Roomette) scenerywise we found the level of communication of the attendants in the sleepers and the waiters in the diningcar not kind or real service-orientated. They did what they have to do and that's it. Specially my wife said several times: "they have not invented friendliness". That is a contrast with the fact for us as Europeans American people in general are kind and helpful. Many helped us with our luggage on the stairs of NY-subwaystations. We really like riding trains and are not happy with this conclusion!!
Most "Americans" are kind and helpful, sure.

I enjoy the joke, that europeople somehow expect better K*A service on Amtrak than whatever they get at home.

it is to laugh "they have not invented friendliness" -- hehe - I've done Eurotrains, they work, they do not kiss ass.

"they do what they have to do and that's it" -- that's what all trains do. If you think USA trains should have more subservient staff? What continent you coming from?

Really?
 
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Good post Manny. If the staff are not in a good frame of mind, I try to humor them. It may not always work, but I much prefer making compliments over complaints.
That's my philosophy as well. I've been riding Amtrak LD for over 30 years and have never had a bad experience. Sure some employees are just doing their time, but overall I have found the majority to be great. I worked in the service industry for awhile and maybe this just makes me more tolerant.
 
I absolutely agree that you generally get back what you project out. Not every time, but darned sure nearly every time. If I go into a trip with the frame of mind that I am going to enjoy the trip, I nearly always do, it would take an exceptionally horris OBS person to make it otherwise. I think that kindness begets kindness.

I have only seen one attendant (coach, on the TE) who was simply disagreeable, several who were just OK, and some who were outstanding. Now....I do not ask for much, so that could be part of it, and is one reason I like the transdorm....attendant does not bother me unless it it time to eat or change the room. That is usually all I need, and towels and soap in the shower ready to go.
 
...

I enjoy the joke, that europeople somehow expect better K*A service on Amtrak than whatever they get at home.

it is to laugh "they have not invented friendliness" -- hehe - I've done Eurotrains, they work, they do not kiss ass.

"they do what they have to do and that's it" -- that's what all trains do. If you think USA trains should have more subservient staff? What continent you coming from?

Really?
On most European trains the staff is basically not there at all. The amenities have been cut back to a minimum (no diner, sometimes no food service at all, and often one conductor for the whole train). Passengers know and expect that. Some might complain, but at least it's official and consistent.

So Amtrak's trains - at least the LD's - have a lot more staff and probably also needs it as more than a few routines for things like seating seem quite inefficient. But what's the use of more staff if encounters with them regularly leave the passenger not with an experience of service but "why the f... did he/she do/say that?"

And no - it's not a question of subservience. Efficient, reasonably polite or at least not rude, consistent and within reasonable limits trying to accomodate the wishes of the passenger does it for me.
 
Did you try☺☺or, were you on this unpleasant trip.
Well if you read my first post about it, you will know that I enjoyed the trip. It wasn't unpleasant and if there's a next time I have to go from SF to LA, I'd probably do it again.

That doesn't stop me from wondering why I have to feel that I or other passengers get neglected and herded around at least three times on the same trip. It was minor annoyances, but annoying none the less.

So Amtrak staffs its trains really well compared to European train companies, but the result is annoyances and less service. Why?
 
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