Train travel mistakes you've made

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dnsommer2013

dnsommer2013

Train Attendant
Joined
Jun 18, 2014
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95
I'm interested in hearing stories about train trip misadventures, but in particular ones that were caused by you, not Amtrak.

I will give two examples:

One time I had a slumbercoach room booked on the Lake Shore Limited from New York to Chicago. But I was late getting to Penn Station that afternoon, and somehow, despite my best efforts, I managed to miss the train!

So I hurriedly cabbed it out to Newark Airport and caught a flight to Syracuse. Then I took another cab from Syracuse Airport to the Syracuse Amtrak station, and reached there well ahead of the arrival of the train. Finally, after a very long wait, the Lake Shore showed up. I gotta say, the slumbercoach attendant sure was baffled to see me! I was just relieved that my room hadn't been sold to someone else!

Another time, I was traveling from New Orleans to New York in a roomette on the Crescent. The train normally made a fairly long stop at Washington, DC, so I decided to to use the time to hire a cab for a brief sightseeing tour around the Capitol. But the cabbie went a little further away from the station than I intended, and then it got bogged down in heavy traffic. By the time I made it back to Union Station, the Crescent had left! And all of my stuff was still in the roomette!

So, to solve my dilemma, I ran and caught the very next Metroliner north, and it reached New York about 15 minutes behind the Crescent. I ran over to the Crescent's platform and retrieved my belongings from the roomette. The attendant said I was lucky I got there when I did, because the Crescent's consist was about to be moved to Sunnyside Yard for overnight servicing and storage.

Do you have any similar stories? I guess what I am looking for are instances where your travel plans got fouled up because of your own doing, not Amtrak's!

Like maybe you forgot it was daylight savings time? Or you went to the wrong station? Stuff like that!

Thanks.
 
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Three years ago, while on the one hour drive to a TOH-HOM trip, about 75% of the way to the station, I discovered I'd left my tickets in my desk. There was no way to make the trip back to retrieve them. After going into a total panic my mind cleared, I contacted Amtrak and made them aware of my situation. I had to purchase another set of tickets. They gave me a new boarding number and reservation number. The conductor, when he took my credit card offered to print off the rest of my tickets at CBS and all was right with the world. When I returned, I was able to get a full refund on the tickets I left at home.
 
Not bringing a scanner and booking a connection of less than five hours.
 
My most embarrassing Amtrak moment:

Had a Rez to catch the Texas Eagle from AUS-CHI in a Roomette! This was before e-tickets when the Coach passengers lined up under the Canopy to have their tickets pulled by the Conductor while those in the Sleeper just went to their car and boarded! Normally the SCA would greet you, pull your ticket,help with the luggage and tell you where your room was!

On this particular day the SCA had run into the Station so I boarded, put my bag in the luggage rack and headed upstairs to my #5roomette ! I put my pack up, went to the Diner ( Austin is the last call for breakfast when the train is on time) and proceeded to order my usual omelette with grits and coffee and cranberry juice! The crew knew me (Miss Polly wasn't working this run!)

After my food arrived and I ate, I left the tip and headed back to my room as we approached Taylor! (First stop out of Austin headed North)The SCA was by my room, he was an old friend and said he was surprised to see me because I wasn't on the manifest, had I booked late?? I told him No, got out my paper ticket and handed it to him, he looked @ it and said " This is for tomorrow's Train!"

Boy was I mortified! We went to the CCC where I found the Conductor( now retired, a real legend), told him what had happened and he suggested that I either pay for a Coach ticket to Taylor ( my Bar-B-Q points run spot) or Temple, my other points run spot and then catch #21 back to Austin that evening!

I chose to go to Temple, the Conductor said hed do the paperwork for my ticket and I found the LSA to pay for my Breakfast! To my surprise he told me it was on him, not to worry!

I went to the Sleeper, got my pack and went back to the CCC, the LSA brought me some Cranberry Juice and coffee and after the Taylor stop the Conductor did the required paperwork ( I paid the extra fee but the Fare was only a few dollars Senior Rate then) I booked my return Coach Rez to AUS via cell and would get my ticket upon arrival into TPL!

Got to Temple, had a great Lunch @ my favorite mom and pop diner, toured the Santa Fe Rail Museum in the Temple Station. And then caught the Right on Time #21 back to Austin @ 445pm!

Moral of the story; Always Double Check the Dates on your tickets so you don't go to the Station a day early! ( A few Hours is another story!)
 
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I have shared this story in other posts, so will give you the Cliff's notes version

Ran the bar car dry coming out of Denver

Since it was Sunday, no reload in Salt Lake (at that time - mid 80's)

Knew there was LS in Grand Junction (45 min stop)

collected cash and went on a hooch run,,,,

got distracted, missed the train,,, luckily had my ticket on me

reboarded next day, even got a sleeper

when I got to Oakland,,

one of the guys who had given me cash was waiting on me

I gave him back twice what he gave me

and my stuff was in the station,,,

clean living !!!
 
My biggest mistake was booking coach from ABQ to LAX! But then I got a call offering me a sleeper for $100! Ahhh - wish they did that anymore.
 
I don't know whether it was the AGR agent or my fault but I was so embarrassed by this one. We were coming home on an agr award from WAS earlier this year. When boarding, the sca looked at us a little strangely, but didn't say anything. A few minutes later the conductor came to take our tickets(I was given paper tickets when I checked our bag and I never checked the tickets) and there was only 1 ticket for me, none for hubby. Sooooooooo, to make a long story short, had to call agr, and conductor picked up his ticket in Alexandria. Either I neglected to tell the original booking agent there were 2 of us, or s/he forgot to do it, I dunno, but as someone here once preached, ALWAYS check your tickets!
 
About 5 years ago I was taking a quick trip from New York to Philadelphia, and I had booked my trip in a bit of a hurry. I found out when I got on the train that I had booked a regional travelling from Philly to New York, not the other way around! I must've had a really nice crew, because after the conductor talked to a few of his fellows they just let me continue on my way and told me not to worry about it.
 
Leaving train-side when told not to! Empire Builder started moving without me, door to my car was locked!.....luckily conductor in end car saw me running and stopped the train.
 
Booking opera tickets for the same day that our long-distance train was arriving. At least the Palmer House hadn't given our room away when the Empire Builder arrived at 2 am, rather than 4 pm the afternoon before. We were able to call and turn back our tickets for the tax write-off, but I've still never seen Porgy and Bess.
 
I was on the TE and it was running late. (That never happens! :D ) We arrived at DAL (where there was a 20 minute stop), and I got off to say hello to another AU member on the platform. I was standing right next to the door I just got off, but the SCA closed the door on me! :eek:

When the Conductor gave the "All Aboard" call, all the doors closed. Luckily the CA in the last car saw me and reopened his door and put down the stepstool for me!

All this happened within 5 minutes of arrival in DAL.
 
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In 1986 I was in Montreal Central Station to take the Canadian to Vancouver, which was supposed to leave around 9:30 am. Now I have always prided myself on being up on train information, schedules, arrivals and departures, etc. I looked at the board and it said the Canadian at something like 11:10. Oh, I figure, it is delayed leaving here, so I will sit and wait. After a while I went up to a station employee and asked about it. He told me it was loading that very minute! Me, the expert, had read the arrivals board! Shame on me! As we know, the Canadian no longer operates from Montreal, to combine at Sudbury and run over the CP. That was a nice trip, except for the Skyline car that had a fire in Ontario!
 
This was not my issue, but another passenger. I was on the California Zepher and the stop was SLC. The guy I was talking to asked me how about we "hoof" it over to Temple Square. I declined and said I am not a good hoofer and warned him of the consequesces of hoofing so far from the train. The Temple lights were still on and he took off hoofing!

The train left at about 2 am or later. To this day, I have never seen Temple Square and never saw the Hoofer Dude again. He did not make the train and as we pulled out, the Temple Square lights went dark and silent into the crisp night.

It seemed like a rather dark and lonely place to wait for the next train! I bet more four letter words were involved in his return hoof, more than HOOF itself...................................as the horn blew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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Mine is Jim's situation in reverse. Instead of a day early, we were a day late.

Taking the TE from FTW to SAS, the Tejanita and I arrived at FTW on Friday in plenty of time to catch the TE south. To m,y chagrin, when checking in, I discovered I had reserved a roomette for the day before, Thursday. The agent somehow allowed for us to get coach tix for Friday and not have to pay for them.........since we did not use the Thursday tix. Not sure what he did to make that happen, but I was relieved and grateful!
 
Last July just a few days before I had a connection from the Cap to the Star I grew worried about it enough to call AGR and what seemed to be a very in the know and alert Agent said she would go ahead and switch me over to the Meteor and claimed Roomettes were available even though the Website showed none. She cut the new paper work and sent me the e-ticket which I printed off and quickly looked over before putting it in the pouch. Normally I study these things carefully.

A few days later I'm sitting happy as a kitten in the Washington Club Acela when the Attendant announces a 2 hour delay for the Meteor and since we would miss dinner in the Diner, we were each getting $25 Meal Money. When my name wasn't called she looked up my PNR and saw I wasn't even on the list! I knew right then what had happened as I retireved the printed ticket.

The AGR Agent had booked me on the next day's Meteor and tonight's was hard sold out! But without missing a beat the Club Acela Attendant took my paperwork across to the main ticketing office and when she came back 5 minutes later smiling I figured I at least had a chair in Coach to WPB. Well I had a chair in Coach but only to Staples Mill Rd Richmond where I was upgraded to the H-Room the rest of the way! And I still got my $25 meal money which went for treats :)

And if you haven't experienced the Viewliner H-Room, you haven't experienced riding Amtrak high on the hog!
 
Last Winter when I returned from Florida to Iowa, I booked an AGR roomette as far as Toledo (1 zone) via the Silver Meteor and LSL. I then called the normal reservation number to pay for the roomette from TOL to CHi, not wanting to be rousted out of the sleeper before 6:00AM. I told the agent what I was dojng and she was able to book the roomette the rest of the way.

Being so concerned about the car and room numbers on 49 matching, I forgot to check the date. The agent had booked me leaving Toledo the same day as the train left NYP, not knowing or forgetting that 49 leaves TOL a day later than NYP. I didn't notice this until we were departing NYP and I mentioned to the SCA that I would be staying in the room at Toledo and not to wake me. Of course by that time I was long since a no show at Toledo. The system didn't seem to have any trouble putting me on two different trains (SM and LSL) at exactly the same time.

All I could do at that point was make another reservation for the next day. Fortuanately, I was later able to get an exchange voucher for the no show.

Although it was the same incident, it was connected with another bad goof. The LSL didn't arrive at TOL until noon, so there was no need to book a roomette the rest of the way. To make matters worse, from the very beginningh my wife had berated me for wasting money when she heard I had paid for the roomette. But the previous two times we had done the same itinerary, the LSL was right on time into TOL.
 
Thank you for all these great replies! You guys have some really interesting and entertaining goof-up stories! I guess I am not the only one!
 
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Earlier this year while booking an AGR ticket with a connection from the SWC to the CS, the agent and I were discussing room assignments and he reissued the ticket for a different room. In doing so, he created a stopover and had me leaving CHI on the 2nd and departing LA on the 14th instead of the 4th. It was still a 2-zone award, though. Fortunately I opened the email confirmation while still on the phone, noticed the discrepancy, and had it reissued again, or things could have gotten rather interesting in LA.
 
Mine, fortunately, was an error on my part that was able to be corrected with no problems. This was on my Great Slidell Loophole trip in 2009. I was traveling with my uncle, who lives near Champaign, and I booked a roomette from Champaign to New Orleans. Problem was I had inadvertently booked it for a day later than I wanted. I caught it a day or two later and luckily I was able to rebook for the day earlier with no trouble.
 
Few years back I had booked a my usual NWK-NHV trip via web. Booked it for day later than intended because I was halfway asleep doing it. I was happy to score low bucket on holiday weekend (this should have been a clue something was wrong). I printed them at QT without looking at details (since it was the only res showing on screen) and I got a rude surprise of paying high bucket price difference and on board surcharge after NYP crew change.
 
Biggest mistake I ever made was pre-Amtrak -- 1969 -- when I booked an end-of-summer ride around America in sleepers with no extra days booked for any towns along the way. The journey was supposed to be Capitol LImited from DC to Chicago, North Coast Ltd from Chicago to Seattle, GN pool train Seattle to Portland, SP Cascade Portland to Sacramento, California Zephyr Sacramento to Chicago, 20th Century Ltd Chicago to New York, Afternoon Congressional New York to DC. The very first segment was delayed 8 hours in Indiana by a freight train breakdown, causing me to miss my connection in Chicago. Thereafter, EVERY trip segment had to be rebooked, with most of them being done by the day-before train's conductor at some major station stop.

I never did get to ride the 20th Century (due to a several hours late CZ), and wound going directly to DC on the Pennsy via Philly, as I recall (which I am not doing very well since this trip occurred 45 years ago).
 
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