Onboard Bathrooms

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Got off Coast Starlight train 11 yesterday. Was in the roomette and I can tell you the bathrooms were only cleaned and stocked before arrival into LAUS. On previous trains, I've seen big tubs of disinfectant wipes in the sleeper bathrooms. Not sure if they were there for the customers to use or for the crew. On previous trains, I've definitely noticed the shower downstairs was cleaned from the smell of chemicals but on train 11, I don't think it was cleaned for a while.

We were in the sleeper attached to the PPC so the upper level bathroom in our car became the bathroom for everyone visiting the PPC from the other sleepers so it turned into a dump quickly and never cleaned, stocked or trash can emptied until couple of hours out of LAUS.
 
As with standards of service elsewhere, you may have a good sleeping car attendant, or you may not, same with coach attendants. My suggestion would be that everyone who is unhappy with the standard of cleanliness should report that to the conductor. It may not be their job, but if several dozen people complain, maybe they might ask staff to do their duty properly.

Yes, passengers can help, I always wipe the sink area after use, but any public rest room needs a proper regular clean. It should be a priority for attendants, rather than an afterthought.

Ed.
 
In most cases it only takes one or two to really foul up a bathroom. I've only ran into it once in a sleeper where the attendant had to shut it down until she had time. She was really a fun person to travel with and stopped by our roomette in what appeared to be full combat gear to say " I'm going in". The majority of the time the restroom's are kept clean throughout a trip in a sleeper.
 
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On long distance trips I travel in a roomette, and occasionally in a bedroom when I feel like shelling out the big bucks. I have found that in the sleeper cars, the attendant keeps the restrooms relatively clean. However, when riding in coach, I've never experienced a clean restroom several hours into the trip. I'm sure this is because 4 times the number of passengers are using them.
This. There is a huge difference between coach and sleeper restrooms in long distance trains. Fortunately, lately most of my coach trips have been only about 3 hours and the restrooms remain fairly clean. But LD trains are a completely different experience for coach travelers than they are for sleeper pax. For those who believe otherwise, they need to try going from Chi to Was in coach. Or Sea to Chi. Or any trip that involves over 10 hours.
 
I've ridden coach on the Cardinal (WIL-CHI) and the LSL (NYP-CHI - annulled @ TOL due to the NS meltdown that year). I don't remember that bathrooms being bad. Sure, they probably weren't Spic & Span clean, but they were useable. Like everything else, everyone's expectations and tolerances are different.
 
The problem is that on LD trains; in coach you could have 100 or more coach passengers using the public bathroom . Not every passenger takes the train from end to end so those bathrooms are heavily used. If they don't get constant attention, conditions go down hill very quickly.

Happy New Year everyone.
 
And of those 100 passengers, it only takes 1 to mess it up. And then if you are the next to use it, you see the deplorable conditions of the bathrooms!
 
A few weeks ago I was on the NER leaving NFK. As it was an originating train, the bathroom was clean when I went to use it before departing. There were less than a dozen people in my car leaving NFK, by the time we got to RVR the bathroom was disgusting.
 
Given that the new Viewliner sleepers won't have bathrooms in the individual rooms, how might that affect bathroom cleanliness in those cars?

Granted, I haven't ridden in a sleeper car before, but I definitely know what coach restrooms can be like...........
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Given that the new Viewliner sleepers won't have bathrooms in the individual rooms, how might that affect bathroom cleanliness in those cars?

Granted, I haven't ridden in a sleeper car before, but I definitely know what coach restrooms can be like...........
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There are many mixed opinions on the toilets in the Viewliner roomettes. Some like them while others do not . There are no roomette toilets in Superliner sleepers but from what we have seen the bathrooms in the Superliner sleepers are usually OK. They are not as heavily used as those in coach and the SCA's may be cleaning them on the fly. .
 
2 toilets for 12 rooms (including attendant) on the VL2 seems pretty reasonable... The bedrooms will still have their own... I've never had a bathroom problem linger on a Superliner. Sometimes the upstairs single would be a bit shabby early in the morning, (I guess people don't want to do stairs overnight) SCA have always straightened it out before too long.
 
Here, let me help.

2 toilets for 12 rooms (including attendant) on the VL2 seems pretty reasonable... The bedrooms will still have their own... I've never had a bathroom problem linger on a Superliner. Sometimes the upstairs single would be a bit shabby early in the morning, (I guess people don't want to do stairs overnight) SCA have always straightened it out before too long.
 
I was watching some wonderful trains from other nations. The Japanese trains showed the rest rooms and you probably could have ate off the floor or sinks it was so spotless, no missed corners, no dirty chrome, no stained sinks. There are some videos on youtube from railroads showing how the get trains ready for the trip from the 40's and 50's. No shortcuts, and no problems. The buck stops with the railroad and Amtrak often forgets it is a passenger carrier. Things that keep people from riding are among other things crummy bathrooms, poor food service, broken banging doors, ect. Someone on the chain is not fixing obvious problems. When I worked I often was in charge of the cleaning personal in a large department store chain. I always stressed looking at areas with an eye for what is not cleaned well, many people will gloss over things an others will go out of their way to clean something spotless. But persons in charge have to hold the employees responsible for maintaining the facility. We had a store manager, a very friendly and kind boss, but he wore white gloves to work and would run them over counters or bases of racks and if he found dust would point it out. Everyone knew what was expected and they in turn did what was expected of them. Its rather obvious that Amtrak doesn't have such a policy.
 
There is substantial amount of blame to be given toward both bad design and the equipment being beyond its planned lifespan.

The staff topic is still a large player in this whole mess, and I am very interested in seeing how the labor issues that plague Amtrak from OBS to heavy maintenance is dealt with. Richard Anderson has a great deal of experience with stubborn labor organizations and inefficient operations in his previous endeavors, and making them change to fit his new mold. I see change being imposed sooner rather than later, whether staff likes it or not. Could be bumpy times ahead.
One of the reason this occurs is because that department never recovered from the staff cuts that Gunn instituted. So, as mentioned, it will be interesting to see if Mr. Anderson gives people the "tools" to do the their job...and by that, I mean the proper staffing and the biggest thing...time...to get things up to snuff before they hit the road.

I was watching some wonderful trains from other nations. The Japanese trains showed the rest rooms and you probably could have ate off the floor or sinks it was so spotless, no missed corners, no dirty chrome, no stained sinks. There are some videos on youtube from railroads showing how the get trains ready for the trip from the 40's and 50's. No shortcuts, and no problems. The buck stops with the railroad and Amtrak often forgets it is a passenger carrier. Things that keep people from riding are among other things crummy bathrooms, poor food service, broken banging doors, ect. Someone on the chain is not fixing obvious problems. When I worked I often was in charge of the cleaning personal in a large department store chain. I always stressed looking at areas with an eye for what is not cleaned well, many people will gloss over things an others will go out of their way to clean something spotless. But persons in charge have to hold the employees responsible for maintaining the facility. We had a store manager, a very friendly and kind boss, but he wore white gloves to work and would run them over counters or bases of racks and if he found dust would point it out. Everyone knew what was expected and they in turn did what was expected of them. Its rather obvious that Amtrak doesn't have such a policy.
I loved that video of a bunch of employees turning a train. They had more employees on one car than I can count in three crew bases. As for your comparison to fixed department store versus a moving object, that is on a schedule, it doesn't really hold water. This is particularly true of regional train that may travel 100's of miles and may not get serviced.

Now, there have been some measures added since Mr. Moorman took over. They've expanded en route cleaners to additional lines. They've added cleaners to certain dwell points. However, as Tbike mentioned, if the train is late and the 20-30 dwell doesn't materialize, that will impact the ability of the cleaner(s). I watched a cleaner get to clean, trash and mop a grand total of one bathroom before she was booted off in favor of make up time.

In the future, there is talk of adding hand dryers to the bathrooms to reduce the towel waste that overflows since no one wants to put their hands in that dangerous, Venus Flytrap, hand smashing garbage lid. That will help.

Of course, there are certain things that can not be easily rectified en route. There are certain things that can not be easily rectified at a turn around point.

RIght Blue?
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In the future, there is talk of adding hand dryers to the bathrooms to reduce the towel waste that overflows since no one wants to put their hands in that dangerous, Venus Flytrap, hand smashing garbage lid. That will help.
There were hand dryers in one of the refreshed Amfleet I cars I traveled in on the NEC this past fall. They were so much better than the paper towels.
 
I was watching some wonderful trains from other nations. The Japanese trains showed the rest rooms and you probably could have ate off the floor or sinks it was so spotless, no missed corners, no dirty chrome, no stained sinks. There are some videos on youtube from railroads showing how the get trains ready for the trip from the 40's and 50's. No shortcuts, and no problems. The buck stops with the railroad and Amtrak often forgets it is a passenger carrier. Things that keep people from riding are among other things crummy bathrooms, poor food service, broken banging doors, ect. Someone on the chain is not fixing obvious problems. When I worked I often was in charge of the cleaning personal in a large department store chain. I always stressed looking at areas with an eye for what is not cleaned well, many people will gloss over things an others will go out of their way to clean something spotless. But persons in charge have to hold the employees responsible for maintaining the facility. We had a store manager, a very friendly and kind boss, but he wore white gloves to work and would run them over counters or bases of racks and if he found dust would point it out. Everyone knew what was expected and they in turn did what was expected of them. Its rather obvious that Amtrak doesn't have such a policy.
If memory serves me right, the Amtrak Standards Manual stated in Revision 8 and before that the attendants should clean them every 30 minutes. Someone please correct me on this.

It's not a Policy problem. It is an enforcement problem. Staff doesn't want to clean up after patrons (unlike the low paid staff in fast food chains and chain gas stations who have no choice). With all the toilets on a train, one would hope that when the Viewliner bag dorms arrive or now on the Superliners, that Amtrak could hire one more person per train to just clean bathrooms during the day.

Some comments were made about roomettes. If I were in one and the toilets down the hall or downstairs were not cleaned when I requested it (assuming they needed cleaning) there would be no tip for the attendant but there would be a complaint to the conductor. The only problem I ever had was once upon boarding the train in a bedroom only to immediately find the toilet had been used but had left remains in it. We asked the SCA to clean it. She was not happy about it but did clean it. Could have been that somebody from another room used it or she just forgot to check it after the last person departed. Based on this and subsequent issues, she got a tip at the bottom of my tipping scale.
 
Speaking of messy transportation bathrooms.

www.thestar.com/news/world/2018/01/05/united-airlines-flight-diverted-to-alaska-after-passenger-smear-feces-everywhere.html

TR7, wonder if this is the same guy you were telling me about.
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I was watching some wonderful trains from other nations. The Japanese trains showed the rest rooms and you probably could have ate off the floor or sinks it was so spotless, no missed corners, no dirty chrome, no stained sinks. There are some videos on youtube from railroads showing how the get trains ready for the trip from the 40's and 50's. No shortcuts, and no problems. The buck stops with the railroad and Amtrak often forgets it is a passenger carrier. Things that keep people from riding are among other things crummy bathrooms, poor food service, broken banging doors, ect. Someone on the chain is not fixing obvious problems. When I worked I often was in charge of the cleaning personal in a large department store chain. I always stressed looking at areas with an eye for what is not cleaned well, many people will gloss over things an others will go out of their way to clean something spotless. But persons in charge have to hold the employees responsible for maintaining the facility. We had a store manager, a very friendly and kind boss, but he wore white gloves to work and would run them over counters or bases of racks and if he found dust would point it out. Everyone knew what was expected and they in turn did what was expected of them. Its rather obvious that Amtrak doesn't have such a policy.
If memory serves me right, the Amtrak Standards Manual stated in Revision 8 and before that the attendants should clean them every 30 minutes. Someone please correct me on this.

It's not a Policy problem. It is an enforcement problem. Staff doesn't want to clean up after patrons (unlike the low paid staff in fast food chains and chain gas stations who have no choice). With all the toilets on a train, one would hope that when the Viewliner bag dorms arrive or now on the Superliners, that Amtrak could hire one more person per train to just clean bathrooms during the day.

Some comments were made about roomettes. If I were in one and the toilets down the hall or downstairs were not cleaned when I requested it (assuming they needed cleaning) there would be no tip for the attendant but there would be a complaint to the conductor. The only problem I ever had was once upon boarding the train in a bedroom only to immediately find the toilet had been used but had left remains in it. We asked the SCA to clean it. She was not happy about it but did clean it. Could have been that somebody from another room used it or she just forgot to check it after the last person departed. Based on this and subsequent issues, she got a tip at the bottom of my tipping scale.
So Amtrak should hire one more person to NOT do their job on the train?
 
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