ok why?

[Michael061282]

Ok I just finshed a week long trip from Richmond up to DC over to Chicago then LA and San Francisco...

Overall it was a fantabulous trip, but, as usual I have a couple of questions and comments.

#1 last Monday (the 12th) my friend and I left DC on the Capitol Limited headed for Chicago. We had a room in the TransDorm. Amtrak however was hosting a private employee party and had added an extra sightseer lounge and sleeper to the consist. However, instead of taking them on to the rear, they added the sleeper and lounge in behind the transdorm and in front of the 2 other sleepers.. as a result.. at 11:00 we had to do downstairs in the transdorm.. WAKE UP the snoozing conductor.. no I'm not joking.. and ask him to radio one of the SCA to come pull down our beds. We weren't the only passengers in our car, there were 4 other rooms taken up. It seems the SCA who was supposed to be looking afetr our car, didn't know we were there. This was also a problem when it came time for dinner and noone had bothered to get our reservations.. We went to the diner and were told "We've already been through the sleepers you'll have to take 8:30". In the morning... no one came to help us make up our beds, so we left them. What else were we supposed to do. On the UPside of the situation however, we were allowed to sit in the private lounge for the ride, which was very nice and relaxing with only 8 people tops.

Now.. for thing #2. So we get to chicago, spend the day there then board #3 on Tuesday afternoon. When it came time for dinner the LSA gave us one of the most idiotic commands I've ever heard. "You are to fill out your name and room number and sign your dinner sheet, in black ink. if its in Blue ink it won't be accepted" SAY WHAT? What does the color of ink on a signature and a room number have to do with the price of tea in china??? I've ridden over 75,000 miles and I've never once heard this. The guy was just a control freak, although my travel partner called him "efficient"... I have a another word for him, but I can't use that in a public forum. My opinion could change, if I knew a valid reason for such a thing. Also I need to add, on the #3 I had what is, without a doubt the BEST sleeper attendant I've ever had. I didn't get her last name, but he first name is Cynthia and she got a $30 tip for her efforts. Marvelous attendant. The brightest personality I have encountered on Amtrak in a long long time. Thank you Cynthia.

 

[Chris J.]

Now.. for thing #2. So we get to chicago, spend the day there then board #3 on Tuesday afternoon. When it came time for dinner the LSA gave us one of the most idiotic commands I've ever heard. "You are to fill out your name and room number and sign your dinner sheet, in black ink. if its in Blue ink it won't be accepted" SAY WHAT? What does the color of ink on a signature and a room number have to do with the price of tea in china???

I don't know, but maybe they scan the forms in (maybe they need to keep this data for some reason) and black may be the only color that reliably enough for the process.

 

[pennyk]

I always use my own pen when signing my "receipt" in the dining car. I have to reassure the LSA that it is black ink, which is required. I do not know why, but I assume the documents are read by some machine that only reads black ink.

 

[DesertRat]

Not all blue pens are equal. Some have black mixed in some don't. I guess Amtrak is still using machines that will not read pure blue ink. Thought that was a bygone thing.

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

When you sign an legal document you must use and black or black/blue pen. When I worked in an hospital all notes written in the chart had to be written in black or black/blue pen or it did not happen. When I signed my mortage it had to be in an black ink. I am only allowed to use black pens on my log sheets. Not sure why it this way, but your going to have ask an lawer why.

No clue why an dinner LSA would need it that way. But if he/she giving out the pens....

Of course the nurse in me would never use someone pen. Never know were that pen was last.

 

[guest]

Ok I just finshed a week long trip from Richmond up to DC over to Chicago then LA and San Francisco...

Overall it was a fantabulous trip, but, as usual I have a couple of questions and comments.

#1 last Monday (the 12th) my friend and I left DC on the Capitol Limited headed for Chicago. We had a room in the TransDorm. Amtrak however was hosting a private employee party and had added an extra sightseer lounge and sleeper to the consist. However, instead of taking them on to the rear, they added the sleeper and lounge in behind the transdorm and in front of the 2 other sleepers.. as a result.. at 11:00 we had to do downstairs in the transdorm.. WAKE UP the snoozing conductor.. no I'm not joking.. and ask him to radio one of the SCA to come pull down our beds. We weren't the only passengers in our car, there were 4 other rooms taken up. It seems the SCA who was supposed to be looking afetr our car, didn't know we were there. This was also a problem when it came time for dinner and noone had bothered to get our reservations.. We went to the diner and were told "We've already been through the sleepers you'll have to take 8:30". In the morning... no one came to help us make up our beds, so we left them. What else were we supposed to do. On the UPside of the situation however, we were allowed to sit in the private lounge for the ride, which was very nice and relaxing with only 8 people tops.

Now.. for thing #2. So we get to chicago, spend the day there then board #3 on Tuesday afternoon. When it came time for dinner the LSA gave us one of the most idiotic commands I've ever heard. "You are to fill out your name and room number and sign your dinner sheet, in black ink. if its in Blue ink it won't be accepted" SAY WHAT? What does the color of ink on a signature and a room number have to do with the price of tea in china??? I've ridden over 75,000 miles and I've never once heard this. The guy was just a control freak, although my travel partner called him "efficient"... I have a another word for him, but I can't use that in a public forum. My opinion could change, if I knew a valid reason for such a thing. Also I need to add, on the #3 I had what is, without a doubt the BEST sleeper attendant I've ever had. I didn't get her last name, but he first name is Cynthia and she got a $30 tip for her efforts. Marvelous attendant. The brightest personality I have encountered on Amtrak in a long long time. Thank you Cynthia.

If I had only a blue pen to sign with, and was refused, the LSA would have been left black and blue! :angry2:

But I'm more concerned by the CL experience, because it shows how Amtrak's tradition of inconsistent service continues to plague the system.

How can the conductor be sleeping when HE doesn't have to work the entire train but has an eight-hour shift? How can communication of the simplest information be so deficient that the poor SCA doesn't know he has passengers in the transdorm!!! And still screws up even after learning about the passengers!

Too bad you didn't know if the private party was for Amtrak bigwigs or for a company. If it had been for the Amtrak poobahs, I would have locked each one of them in one of the tiny bathrooms and not have let them out until they had promised--in BLACK ink!--to begin rectifying the stupidity that hurts the image of the many, many good people in Amtrak (like Cynthia on #3) and makes many potential passengers leery of trying the service!!

 

[Ryan]

Of course the nurse in me would never use someone pen. Never know were that pen was last.

That reminds me of a joke... A nurse at a hospital goes to sign a chart - reaches into her pocket and comes out with a rectal thermometer, looks at it and exclaims "Some @$$hole has my pen!!!". :-D

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Sorry to hear that your experience was not so great. In fact it sounds really annoying. The only thing left is to call Amtrak and demand a large voucher for future travel as you basically had to do everything yourselves. I'd make a pretty big deal about it, honestly. There is really no excuse for this and the only way we can get Amtrak to change is to make it prohibitively expensive to keep answering our calls and compensating us for all their employee's screw-ups.

 

[alanh]

Definitely report it. If the conductor was on duty, sleeping was a serious violation. The conductor is in charge of the train.

 

[Tennessee Traveler]

I have one question regarding the "black ink". Did the LSA provide a black ink pen? I will not have a black or blue ink pen on me when I eat in the diner on my trips on Nos. 4 and 421 during the next two weeks? The diner wait staff have always provided the pen in the past. If so, why are we "complaining"?

 

[MrFSS]

I have one question regarding the "black ink". Did the LSA provide a black ink pen? I will not have a black or blue ink pen on me when I eat in the diner on my trips on Nos. 4 and 421 during the next two weeks? The diner wait staff have always provided the pen in the past. If so, why are we "complaining"?

I agree - I have always been furnished a pen by the wait staff and have never heard them say use a specific color ink.

 

[Guest]

Please do report this unexcuseable fiasco to Amtrak Customer Relations! (1-800-USA-RAIL), :help: when Julie answers ask for "agent", then when a real person comes on ask for a CR Agent and report the Conductor and the Invisible SCA! Im taking my first trip in a TransDorm soon but have many trips on many routes so will make sure the SCA/LSA and Conductor knows there are passengers in the Trans Dorm. When revenue passengers are in the TransDorm usually the SCA in the next car is assigned this car but Ive heard even coach attendants help out when it's a full train!

Question: Were you allowed to get coffe/juice/water etc. from the next sleeper and did your toliets work during the mountain part of the trip! Hope you get a nice voucher, thanks for sharing,hope the next trip is better and remember to give Amtrak a big shout out about your great SCA on the Chief, she deserves it!

 

[TVRM610]

I'm not trying to say you don't know what your talking about... cause you may know more than me but are you positive that you woke up the Conductor? Amtrak Conductors are not permitted to sleep while on duty, period and if in fact caught sleeping that is serious cause for dismisal. I highly doubt the Conductor was actually sleeping. The Conductor is not just riding the train for fun, he has to keep up with signals, track warrants, speed limits, etc. In addition to ticketing duties. My guess is you woke up someone other than the Conductor. Since everyone has the same uniform, everyone kinda looks like the Conductor sometimes. Ha.

 

[Ryan]

I'm not trying to say you don't know what your talking about... cause you may know more than me but are you positive that you woke up the Conductor? Amtrak Conductors are not permitted to sleep while on duty, period and if in fact caught sleeping that is serious cause for dismisal. I highly doubt the Conductor was actually sleeping. The Conductor is not just riding the train for fun, he has to keep up with signals, track warrants, speed limits, etc. In addition to ticketing duties. My guess is you woke up someone other than the Conductor. Since everyone has the same uniform, everyone kinda looks like the Conductor sometimes. Ha.

I was thinking the same thing - Car attendants don't carry radios, so that part of the story didn't ring right in my head either.

 

[guest]

I'm not trying to say you don't know what your talking about... cause you may know more than me but are you positive that you woke up the Conductor? Amtrak Conductors are not permitted to sleep while on duty, period and if in fact caught sleeping that is serious cause for dismisal. I highly doubt the Conductor was actually sleeping. The Conductor is not just riding the train for fun, he has to keep up with signals, track warrants, speed limits, etc. In addition to ticketing duties. My guess is you woke up someone other than the Conductor. Since everyone has the same uniform, everyone kinda looks like the Conductor sometimes. Ha.

I was thinking the same thing - Car attendants don't carry radios, so that part of the story didn't ring right in my head either.

So who was the person he woke up who was carrying a radio? You have to admit, no matter what, this is a pretty rotten scenario to deal with late at night when you're tired and the bed isn't made and you've paid a premium for the sleeper service.

Stop trying to blame the victim, for crying out loud, and offer some constructive ideas for making sure such situations don't happen in the future.

 

[FrankStar]

Lighter colors of blue ink or pencil will not photograph or photocopy in monochrome. That's why slang for edit is "blue pencil".

I used to be a copy editor at a daily newspaper, and by then we used light blue felt-tip pens for our on-page edit markings before hey went to the camera.

 

[Michael061282]

The person I woke up was the conductor. He had the radio and yellow stripes on his uniform. He might not have been flat our cold asleep, but we had to call say "excuse me" 3 times before his head came up and he acknowledged us.He was an older guy and we'd commented way before this incident that he looked wheezy and out of shape, so maybe he just wasn't feeling well. At first he said "well we get to Connellsville in about 20 minutes and I'll walk down to Gemiel (the SCA) when he boards some passengers there and have him come up". Then about 15 minutes later we hear "Gemiel to the IC please" 10 minutes after that, our beds are made.

Overall it wasn't a bad trip, I've been in the transdorm 4 or 5 times now on different trains and while I've never had GREAT service while in the dorm, this was by far the worse, although it was pretty amusing now that I look back on it. Other then the very long walk to the dining car for dinner and for breakfast, it wasn't a bad ride on the Capitol. And whoever the conductor was into Chicago made the Amtrak crew wait until all the passengers in the dorm had de trained before she's let them off.. they were getting pushy for some reason. So I have no real complaints, other then why didn't they just tack the extra sleeper and lounge on to the rear of the train instead of in between 2 revenue cars like they did.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Lighter colors of blue ink or pencil]will not photograph or photocopy in monochrome. That's why slang for edit is "blue pencil". I used to be a copy editor at a daily newspaper, and by then we used light blue felt-tip pens for our on-page edit markings before hey went to the camera.

Dark blue ink, the kind that any normal person would use for a legal signature, photocopies just fine. Blue pencils and light blue felt tip pens would probably not work, but I don't see any of that mentioned by the post in question.

 

[Michael061282]

also.. the toilets in my car (0331) on the chief didn't work from around Lamy into Albuquerque, but after that, they were fine. I gave Cynthia a big tip and also wrote a letter to Amtrak about her when we got to LA. I'm all for calling out BAD Amtrak employees (Saheed on the Empire Builder), but I also give props to the good ones (Angela on the Coast Starlight and Cynthia on the SWC), so I hope it all evens out in the end. Something else that odd on the chief was that they ran out of most of their food by the late servings at dinner on the second night and at breakfast the next morning (they got funny looks from people when they said, we have scrambled eggs but we're out of omelettes, yes I do know the reason why), and they also ran out of meal checks. They had to use mini photo copied ones at dinner the 2nd night, and didnt even bother, or didnt have any at breakfast into LA, but the dining car was SLAMMED at every single meal every day, so that's understandable. The LSA only took reservations from the sleepers, the coach passengers, except for the 4 boyscout troops, had to take what they could get. I think the last call for dinner the first night was something like 8:45 they were so busy.

 

[lthanlon]

Lighter colors of blue ink or pencil will not photograph or photocopy in monochrome. That's why slang for edit is "blue pencil".

I used to be a copy editor at a daily newspaper, and by then we used light blue felt-tip pens for our on-page edit markings before hey went to the camera.

I once worked at a paper where they had us mark page flats with light-magenta felt-tip pens. Not sure what that was all about; maybe a different photographic process. In any event, you couldn't use those dopey pens for anything else, so I wound up with dozens in my glovebox.

 

[Cho Cho Charlie]

If I had only a blue pen to sign with, and was refused, the LSA would have been left black and blue! :angry2:

Why would you insist on using your own personal blue pen, when you were handed a nice black pen to sign with?

Simply sign the slip with the pen provided, and don't try to escalate the situation into a problem. :help:

 

[Shanghai]

Of course the nurse in me would never use someone pen. Never know were that pen was last.

That reminds me of a joke... A nurse at a hospital goes to sign a chart - reaches into her pocket and comes out with a rectal thermometer, looks at it and exclaims "Some @$$hole has my pen!!!". :-D

Good one, Ryan!!

 

[buck1108]

Sorry to hear that your experience was not so great. In fact it sounds really annoying. The only thing left is to call Amtrak and demand a large voucher for future travel as you basically had to do everything yourselves. I'd make a pretty big deal about it, honestly. There is really no excuse for this and the only way we can get Amtrak to change is to make it prohibitively expensive to keep answering our calls and compensating us for all their employee's screw-ups.

That's just awful that you got treated that way. I had a similar experience on the SW Chief a few yrs ago, when my room attendant was practically non-existent.

 

[the_traveler]

Perhaps the person the OP woke up was an ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR, not the actual conductor!

Most times late at night, the conductor is in the Dining Car! On every LD train I've been on, the conductor makes an announcement that "if you need me during the night, I'll be in the Dining Car"!

 

[guest]

Perhaps the person the OP woke up was an ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR, not the actual conductor!

Most times late at night, the conductor is in the Dining Car! On every LD train I've been on, the conductor makes an announcement that "if you need me during the night, I'll be in the Dining Car"!

Oh, so it's OK for the assistant conductor to sleep. Is that what he's being paid to do per his job title??