Amtrak Questions

Factual Questions
21

My daughter and I rode the train from LA to San Antonio several years ago. We had a roomette and all of our meals provided and had a very pleasant time because, as has been mentioned above, we weren’t in a big hurry. The train was delayed by floods in the Arizona desert, of all things, and then was a the mercy of the freight trains’ schedules and dropped further back. We arrived in El Paso about 12 hours late and at that time Amtrak provided busses for passengers who were making connections with northbound trains in San Antonio. Since we were ending there we stayed aboard.

Our car attendant was outstanding and the shared showers and bathrooms never were a problem for us. Because the trip was unusually slow the food selection was becoming pretty limited toward the end in the diner and we also noticed that the coach cars were getting a little funky smelling.

My wife and I also rode the train from LA to Flagstaff and back in coach seats. The trip east was good, but when we boarded to go home we were informed that one of the cars on the train had been left behind in New Mexico because of mechanical problems and that our coach seats had been given to people from that car. We had to ride in the lounge car which was spacious enough but had no reclining chairs to sleep in. The crew was sympathetic and gave us free snacks.

22

Just completed our Denver/Emeryville trip. Onboard service was mostly OK, dining car personnel were rude, however. Food was better than I expected. Sleeper room was OK except the mattresses were as hard as a rock. The toilet/shower combo was fine. Interacting with other passengers was very enjoyable. The observation car was, at times, unbearable. Some of the Coach Class passengers were very obnoxious (noisy, messy, etc.). The Coach cars looked like a third world country. I suspect that riders who book Coach class for multi-overnight trips are different from those who ride Coach on day trips. Train could have been cleaner. Scenery was great. We had a 2 hr delay about an hour into the trip, but is was not Amtrak’s fault. A piece of Union Pacific maintenance equipment broke down up near the Moffat Tunnel.