Anyone who reads this blog (or follows me on Twitter or follows my page on Facebook or has spent more than five minutes talk to me) knows that I am a huge fan of Amtrak. It’s anti-flying: slow travel that requires no jumping through hoops created by the TSA, no forfeiture of your bottle water (or bottle of wine), &, when traveling into New York City, no $50 taxi ride into the city.
I will admit that I’ve gotten very lucky during my Amtrak travels to avoid their legendary delays. I’ve heard of people delayed hours, even double-digit hours, on the longer routes. But the NYC-DC route usually runs like clockwork. The conductors are always pleasant, the wifi usually works well (especially on the Acela route), & the passengers are always a great mix of students, young professionals, & others enjoying not being on an airplane.
Except when it’s not.
Last weekend was one of those not times. Actually, the first not time I’ve ever experienced on Amtrak. I won’t go into a long, detailed complaining post, as who really wants to read about someone whining – you can head over to Twitter if you want all the details. The train was late arriving at Penn Station, so we were all boarded quickly, ready to leave, when they decided to swap engines, & when we rolled out of the station an hour late, it was stifling hot on the train. As people complained about the heat, the conductor told everyone there was “nothing they could do.” I questioned further & was told that the temperature was set at the train’s departure point (Boston) & that it was much colder in Boston than in NYC. So we’d have to “deal with the heat.” Four hours of sweating later, on a train with no working Internet, we arrived in DC an hour late.
What struck me was not the mechanical delay (these things happen), but the staff’s indifference to both how uncomfortably hot it was on the train (the explanation doesn’t even make SENSE!) & how late we were. This isn’t the Amtrak I’ve grown to know & love. It made me wonder if the country’s only national train system is moving in the wrong direction? Maybe their staff is being cut due to the sequester? Maybe the staff was just hot & cranky like the rest of us? I was left with a bad taste in my mouth which, all in all, is not the end of the world. I got home to DC safely & only an hour late. But I didn’t arrive relaxed & caught up on work, which is how I usually do after an Amtrak trip.
This one instance won’t turn me off from train travel, but I’ll definitely approach my next trip with a feeling of skepticism. Hopefully next time, I’ll be able to write a glowing review like this one.
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