What should Amtrak change?

[TheCrescent]

English is the global language. Figuring out basic signs in a train station or airport is not difficult. If I can make it through Bulgaria 30 years ago (Cyrillic alphabet used in most places), travelers can generally deal with a train station.

 

[Joe from PA]

Now I will say, as someone who has been fortunate enough to travel broadly internationally, we as a country are unique in providing terrible information and signage for travelers.

Ever use the subway in Paris? There is not one stop that gives you a clue to what major tourist spot is upstairs.
But I admit Philadelphia is no better. They changed "Market East" (which is on East Market St.) to "Jefferson".

 

[rs9]

English is the global language. Figuring out basic signs in a train station or airport is not difficult. If I can make it through Bulgaria 30 years ago (Cyrillic alphabet used in most places), travelers can generally deal with a train station.

Have to disagree here. As a longtime Chicago resident fluent in English, I have not known where to go/sit/line up to wait for an Amtrak train at Union Station. How is someone who doesn't speak English going to figure it out?

 

[jis]

Have to disagree here. As a longtime Chicago resident fluent in English, I have not known where to go/sit/line up to wait for an Amtrak train at Union Station. How is someone who doesn't speak English going to figure it out?

I agree. There is no fix for absence of signs or misplaced signs other than for someone to sit down and design proper signage for a facility and actually install them. And it is worse at more complex facilities.

Presence of good signage can make complex things look simple. As exampl;es of good signage in my experience, Stations like Tokyo Central, Shinjuku or Yokohama come to mind .

 

[TheCrescent]

Have to disagree here. As a longtime Chicago resident fluent in English, I have not known where to go/sit/line up to wait for an Amtrak train at Union Station. How is someone who doesn't speak English going to figure it out?

Amtrak should get rid of the insane boarding procedures.

I’m not aware of any signs that indicate where to go for that.

Clearly the choice of language used on signs isn’t the issue, if English-speakers can’t figure out where to go to board an Amtrak train.

 

[MARC Rider]

While Amtrak and METRA cannot do anything about signage at O'Hare, they could indeed improve signage and while at it, add a language or two to the signage at Union Station. In general the US is not very good at being multi-lingual, though states like California and Florida are better than the average in the US.

Notwithstanding that, Amtrak by itself could certainly improve the boarding experience in Chicago quite a bit by following some of the suggestions made in the posts above.

Another thing Amtrak, Metra, and CTA (as well as a lot of other local transit agencies) could do is reprogram the ticket vending machines to be multi-lingual.

 

[MARC Rider]

Ever use the subway in Paris? There is not one stop that gives you a clue to what major tourist spot is upstairs.
But I admit Philadelphia is no better. They changed "Market East" (which is on East Market St.) to "Jefferson".

Ever use the subway in Beijing? At least in Paris you can read the station names, and even sometimes figure out what the signs mean.

 

[TheCrescent]

Another thing Amtrak, Metra, and CTA (as well as a lot of other local transit agencies) could do is reprogram the ticket vending machines to be multi-lingual.

The MTA’s ticketing machines in NY are multi-lingual. That does make sense and that’s a reasonable request to make.

 

[MARC Rider]

The MTA’s ticketing machines in NY are multi-lingual. That does make sense and that’s a reasonable request to make.

What languages do they support?

 

[jis]

What languages do they support?

At least some machines support Spanish, Chinese and Korean in addition to English apparently

 

[como]

Ever use the subway in Beijing? At least in Paris you can read the station names, and even sometimes figure out what the signs mean.

I've used the subway in Beijing, but only after careful guidance from a co-worker who was from Beijing and wrote out the stop names, transfer points, and names for streets so I could match them with the signs. He didn't tell me how do the return trip which featured the wrong station and wrong exit!

 

[AmtrakMaineiac]

Ever use the subway in Beijing? At least in Paris you can read the station names, and even sometimes figure out what the signs mean.

Don't know about Beijing but I was in Seoul SK and all signage and announcements were in Korean, Japanese, and English. I learned to transliterate Korean which is fairly straightforward but having the English really helped. It was an easy system to navigate even buying tickets etc. I wish more US systems were as good.

 

[jis]

Singapore is more or less uniformly four languages with a fifth language added occasionally. The four standard languages are English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil. The fifth add on language is Bengali.

In the US if it were following the Singapore model, the two core languages would probably be English and Spanish. The local add on third language would vary with the locality.

 

[Qapla]

If they followed packaging and/or assembly instructions they would post English, Spanish, French and German. While some instructions also include Chinese and Japanese and a few others, not all do - but most I have seen include the first 4

Xfinity displays "Welcome/Bienvenidas/Bienvenue" for their X-Fi boxes during their bootup.

 

[TheCrescent]

I vote for simplifying the boarding process and making stations so user-friendly that additional signs shouldn't be needed.

Want to find the tracks? Look for a sign that shows tracks, and an arrow (and the word Tracks).

Want to find the exit? Look for an exit sign.

Want to find bags? Look for a sign that shows bags and the word Baggage.

Want to find where to go to be lined up and inspected? Well, get rid of that, and no sign will be needed.

It should be so easy that even someone who doesn't speak of word of English should have no problems. That's how train stations in Europe are--you have a door, a ticket counter, tracks, a "meeting point" and not much else that you can't see clearly.

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

Now I will say, as someone who has been fortunate enough to travel broadly internationally, we as a country are unique in providing terrible information and signage for travelers. The city I live in, Chicago, bills itself as an international destination and features flights from six continents at O'Hare Airport. Naturally, the only language O'Hare signage features is English. Watching international arrivals with limited English trying to buy Chicago "L" fare at O'Hare is a sad but repetitive experience.

We got burned with Fraktur in the 19th Century!

(at certain points many things in Chicago were bilingual English-German with the German in Fraktur, the old style alphabet)

 

[Qapla]

At the JAX depot they set up a lectern/stand/counter for the conductor to check tickets from - there is no "kindergarten walk" to the train. Once your ticket is checked you walk through the door and out to the open-air ground-level platform and board - following the general direction from the conductor (like left for sleeper, right for coach or the other-way-around, depending on which direction the train is headed). Sometimes, if the weather is good, they will set up the check station just outside the doors.


At Palatka, since there is no place to check tickets inside, they just check your ticket at the train. Often people get confused as to which direction the coach and sleepers are from the very small waiting area and it is often not explained very well - especially when the train is long enough they move it to load the two different types of seating.

At a station like PAK it would be difficult to provide signage since the exact spot to load can vary depending on just where the train stops, how long it is and what the weather is like so the signage would need to be "portable" - especially since there is no one at the station to set out or move such portable signage before the train arrives.

Some sort of consistency would be nice but I can see how the design and space of the individual station can make that a little difficult. However, making sure the train personnel are courteous, helpful and informative would be nice - as well as exercising a little more patience toward those who are new to train riding and don't know the routine.

 

[TheCrescent]

How about this for consistency:

The train pulls up to the station and stops.

Passengers get on.

That's how European railroads work.

 

[MARC Rider]

For a brief period from about 2004 to, maybe, 2010, boarding at Washington DC was terrible. They not only made people line up at the gates in bit long lines (a big security vulnerability, if you ask me), they actually checked tickets before you could go on the platform, I guess to make sure you were on the right train. This was right after they made the Northeast Regionals all-reserved trains. They had all of these boarding lounges between the gates and the tracks that could have absorbed all the lines, but the only one they put in use was the one at Gate B for MARC customers. Of course, MARC customers could just walk up and board their trains without any lines at Gates A and L. I did use that a couple of times to use the Amtrak lines, but then I qualified for Select Plus, so I started boarding Amtrak trains directly from the lounge.

 

[Cal]

How about this for consistency:

The train pulls up to the station and stops.

Passengers get on.

That's how European railroads work.

That works, buy it's always easier where theres some form of direction showing you where you will board as many trains have two or more classes.

 

[TheCrescent]

That works, buy it's always easier where theres some form of direction showing you where you will board as many trains have two or more classes.

Yes, even Amtrak has numbers on some platforms showing where your car will be. That’s one way to do it.

 

[Cal]

Yes, even Amtrak has numbers on some platforms showing where your car will be. That’s one way to do it.

Key word: some, but not nearly enough

 

[John from RI]

1. Improved customer service, as Neroden expounded on. Not "white glove" Lucius Beebee, stuff, but fundamentals, like timetables, agents that know what they are talking about, on-board staff that doesn't make up restrictive rules on the fly for their convenience, etc.

2. Increased frequency of service on most routes.

3. Either totally eliminate dynamic pricing ("buckets") or narrow the range between the lowest and highest bucket. Amtrak's goal should be maximizing ridership and getting people out of their cars, not managing scarcity by raising fares. To maintain revenue, they'll need to obtain more rolling stock to be able to handle rush periods without selling out. They really should be aiming to make passenger rail, at least in the corridor markets, a major player in transportation mode share along the route. The average American should know that taking a train is a viable transportation option in much of the country.

I well remember the old days when you went up to the ticket window before train time, told the clerk where you were going and brought your ticket.
But it isn't the old days any-more. Airline companies use the bucket system. It is simply the current state of the art of pricing.
Like you, I would like to see more low-price coaches on trains. But buying new rolling stock is expensive and Amtrak has to live within the budge Congress allows it. I think we have to accept the bucket system for pricing tickets. I buy my ticket early to get a good price.

 

[John from RI]

1) Bring new sleeper accommodations online and regularly refurbish them. The Viewliner IIs are a good start, but they are a drop in the bucket for what is actually needed.

2) As new sleepers come online, price the sleeper product to appeal more toward the masses. A roomette for one night should be in the $200 - $250 range.

3) Get pre-clearance set up in Montreal and Toronto (along with bringing back Toronto - Detroit - Chicago service)

Didn't make the list:
1) Market cruise ship packages that include seamless transportation from major Northeastern cities (and Chicago?) and the cruise ship ports. Time the train's arrival so you can go right from the train to your room on the ship. (Trains running late would be a major hurdle for this to work.) This could even work with cruise ship ports in the northeast and mid-Atlantic. A shuttle would meet you at the train station and bring you right to the port.

2) Have some lie-flat seats on long distance trains. I know that this has been debated ad nauseum as far as space utilization is concerned, but this would be a great option for people who are not traveling twelve hours or more, but who want to be able to get a couple of hours of decent sleep.

3) Have a last-minute option to pay extra to guarantee an empty seat next to you if the train is not sold out.

4) Have good seat maps and allow all passengers to reserve their specific seat ahead of time.

5) Have streaming entertainment on all trains.

6) Develop an app that plays audio guides along the route. The app would be tied into GPS and would connect its content with where the train was at the moment.

7) A new overnight route between Montreal and Boston-New York - DC. Same for Toronto.

8) A new overnight route: Chicago - Indianapolis - Louisville - Nashville - Atlanta - Florida.

Re: Suggestion no. 2. How about offering open sleepers which trains pioneered? Seats that folded into one bed with a second pull-down bed above, curtained off from the aisle. Railroads offered these for many years. Viarail in Canada still offers them. They are a good idea.

 

[jis]

That works, buy it's always easier where theres some form of direction showing you where you will board as many trains have two or more classes.

In big stations Europeans seem to be able to more or less predictably assign the same trains to the same platforms every day. Then there is a big chart of the layout of the consist of each train that uses that platform also showing how the car positions line up with the marked positions on the platform. This chart is posted at each platform prominently. So people who know what they are doing can figure out exactly where their car will come to a stop, and can position themselves accordingly.

On those rare occasions when the train comes in in the opposite order or on a different platform the bedlam that follows is a site to behold. Fortunately this is quite rare.

More upto date equipped stations have an electronic sign showing which car will platform at its position. Heck even Indian railways manages to pull this off at most large station even with 26 car long trains.