In what may be the single most Amtrak story ever, the last Amtrak train of the day following Christmas left all of its passengers behind at Union Station in Washington, D.C. Everyone stood ready to board, no one bothered to let the 100 or so people on, so the train left.
We were supposed to board at 10pm. Got in line at 9:40, got a text sayings it time to board.
10:15 train says it’s departed, 100 of us are still waiting for the gate to open
11:00 station manager says the train left because no one came down to board
NE regional left without 100 passengers from DC
byu/PreparationDry8083 inAmtrak
The gate to the platform remained locked, and no one ever bothered unlocking it. The first Amtrak agent at the scene reportedly left quickly, to avoid customers.
Perversely, Amtrak told its regulator that there is no reason why they board trains this way in DC – that some stations try to improve processes, and others just don’t.
Around 11:00 PM, the station manager informed passengers that the conductor simply assumed no one was boarding.
Ultimately, passengers were rebooked on trains the following morning. Some were offered refunds and reimbursements, but not hotel accommodations for the night (although customer relations says some passengers did receive an offer of hotel). Customers were incredulous.
The conductor was thinking no one was getting on board…on a train that stops in Boston, Philly, and NYC…on the day after Christmas.
Meanwhile, passengers had simply assumed the delay in boarding was routine, because it’s Amtrak and such delays are routine. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until the train had left and was trackable enroute to BWI.
Some passengers reported being hesitant to leave the line to find help, worried they’d miss their boarding window. The ticket office was closed and passengers reported other staff as appearing unresponsive.
Before the pandemic, former Delta CEO Richard Anderson was brought in to try to fix the mess at Amtrak. But Amtrak doesn’t want to be fixed, and he got bounced for his efforts. The 2022 federal infrastructure bill committed an additional $66 billion to Amtrak, but the government train corporation’s fundamental problems aren’t fixable just with money.
At least this one wasn’t as bad as the time it took seven months for Amtrak to respond to a customer that got stuck in an elevator.
(HT: Find Flights For Me)
I love trains and have ridden some long haul Amtrak routes (in sleeper car with extra room and private bath – never just in a seat). However the Amtrak experience is so far below other countries it is laughable. I am all for a functioning train system but Biden (aka Amtrak Joe from his days of commuting from Delaware on it) just threw money at it as, as usual, it was eaten up by the bureaucracy and spend poorly. Very sad!
Amtrak is a hard one to fix. Without a profit motivation, it can never be good. But I don’t think Americans want a profitable Amtrak, if that’s even possible. I do hope Trump commissions a study of the Western world’s intercity rail services and comes up with a strategy to improve this perennially failing money sop. Obviously, politics and special interests greatly hurt the possibility of real reform.
Maybe the passengers should have called 911 to report unresponsive staff (sarcasm).
And the Amtrak powers that be will shrug this off, also.
I was on a New Year’s Eve trip on Amtrak and had booked the most expensive accommodation on the train, a full bedroom. We were heading from NYC to MIA. It was okay when we boarded as we were seated on the sofa/bench. When night came, though, and we wanted the sofa made into a bed we waited for the cabin attendant, who was nowhere to be found. As a matter of fact, no cabin attendants could be found, anywhere. Close to midnight (!) I went to the dining car, which was closed. I banged on the door and one of the attendants opened it. There were all the attendants, playing a game of cards and drinking. The coup de grace was when I asked our attendant to come make up our bed; he grudgingly left the game to lead me to a place where the fresh linens were. He pulled out a set of linens and a blanket and thrust them at me, telling me it was easy and I could make the bed myself.
Time for the Trump administration to attempt to claw back as much of that $66B they can.
Amtrak operations are a complete joke. No one ever takes accountability for anything. Processes vary based on individual employee whims. Even if you take Amtrak often you can’t figure out what is happening since there’s no consistency.
Often their app, station signs, and platform signs give conflicting information. Several times I’ve raced to a platform for LAST CALL. Later it will switch to departed (without departing) and then delayed (maybe). A couple weeks ago I switched to a more expensive Acela from a regional train due to a non-specified “delay” warning. I arrived even later because the delay ended up being 6 min. They often let a 20-30 min delay occur with zero communication so I assumed it would be worse.
The employees don’t communicate with each other and there’s always a focus on avoiding blame.
How is Amtrak THIS dysfunctional? They continue to out due their own incompetence.
Both in NYC & DC I often just enter where the commuters go vs waiting on a gate to open – or go thru another gate or even the exit. I hate lines so basically I avoid the line. Security – which is the reason for a manned “gate” that doesn’t exist anywhere else – is a joke. If someone wanted to do harm they would just get the train outside of these 2 stations. Like Old Town Alexandria or BWI. At the old Penn Station i would simply go down to the Mez level & to avoid the gates. I simply check what gate the arriving train will be at & wait down there.
The purpose of Amtrak is to perpetuate the idea that train travel — and particularly high speed rail — wont work in the US.
Go thru the most scenic parts of the US? Sure, at night.
Add new service? Sure, Chicago to Florida at trolley car speed.
But if Amtrak was functional, reinvestment in rail travel would come at the cost of other special interests.
Last year I was riding in the Amtrak NE regional business car (last one) from Boston to New York (LGA), which requires you to take a 20 minute cab ride from the New Rochelle station.
Except the conductor never opened the doors to our car and before anyone knew it, we were already moving again to the next stop at Penn Station another 30 minutes away. Arrived there exactly an hour before my flight at LGA was scheduled to depart, paid a cab a fortune to drive like Jason Bourne through NYC and somehow made my flight at the Marine Terminal as the doors closed.
Clearly this is Trump’s fault for not fixing this during his first administration.
I used to take the NE Regional weekly. Once going into Baltimore at night none of the doors opened. Then we started moving again. Conductor said basically that they’d forgotten but “nobody said anything.” Then at BWI Airport they told everybody bound for Baltimore to get off, said if anybody went on to DC they’d have to buy a new ticket back.
Typical Amtrak response: refund. That’s what they always do: here’s a refund or a voucher.
A friend of mine, who is a YouTuber, did a trip on long distance Amtrak in a bedroom… they had no food. Apparently the dining car chef no-showed. But the near pallet of food at the commissary was waiting and never picked up because the chef never signed for it. So the train left with nothing, despite food sitting there to be loaded. Guess it wasn’t someone’s job past the “put food here until signed for.” But that’s extremely Amtrak… very very narrow union job descriptions and an unwillingness (or mental inability) to stray. The train crew had Pizza Hut delivered to the train. Each sleeper passenger was given 2 slices and 1 chicken wing. And leftovers were for the next meal. Complained and oh, here’s a 50% refund.
I have a photo I discretely took of a ticket agent at Baltimore Penn who was wearing her uniform clip on tie clipped to the top side of her collar. I asked what’s up with that. She said the guidelines say she has to wear the tie at her collar but doesn’t specify where precisely, and her supervisor can’t write her up.
Wonderful Silver Meteor sleeper service from BAL December 19th to CHS. Cabin attendant was amazing.
Cue up the Amtrak bashing stories. I wonder why Amtrak passengers and receipts are higher than they’ve been the company’s history. Obviously it’s a different social strata than those who participate on this comment board who hope their hero will cut services to those outside their circle.
Amtrak need a train person running it , not airline executives that think the only way to run a railroad is under 700 miles per train. While Gardner Corsica and others say they want to fix Amtrak , they are doing their level best to run it into the ground. Heads should roll over this fiasco , all sorts of managers and conductors and station personnel need to be fired for this monumental screwup!!!
DEI
The answer to Amtrak problem is to go on LinkedIn, search up Japanese Railways, find the one who speaks the best English and bring him in for a low American salary that’ll be 2x what JR pays. Trains are not airlines and nobody in America has tangible experience running an airline well.
I’m in Japan right now…JR is amazing
It’s funny how many of you mock Amtrak and its $66B budget but have nothing but hero worship (pathetic BTW) for the $900B the military gets to not win wars and let terrorists take out skyscrapers.
Pretty terrible operational and customer service experience for those passengers.
Regarding amtrak delays, too bad your thawt leader has failed to mention track priority with amtrak has by us federal law (part of what allowed all those freight rail carriers to consolidate to just 4 in the us today). yet there is no enforcement of your federal law. so, longer and longer and longer american freight trains and lots of single trackage means…delays (oh and derailing dumping crap all over middle american towns like east palestine, ohio for related reason – no enforcement of safety federal safety regulations). no new set of competent operators (or team of operators) at amtrak or any other private train operator will fix this. your congress doesn’t want to allow your excecutive branch to uphold your law.
enjoy.
So sad that our trains and airlines suck so much in the US. Don’t hold your breath on Congress fixing Amtrak though. My congressman has been in office for over 20 years and the only noteworthy thing he ever does in my gerrymandered district is write letters to the local paper about what a good job he is doing.
I made a long Amtrak roundtrip the week before Christmas. It was crowded at times but I saw no problems, no delays.
They couldn’t have stopped the train at the first station and bussed the passengers to the train? Amtrak routinely arranges last minute bus transport to fix
issues with stranded or late trains.
Billionaires don’t take attractive, so no, trump won’t do anything to fix it.
@Mike where is this hero worship of which you speak..?
They left me and my little daughters in Lynchburg Virginia in the middle of the night because the conductor said I was drunk. Even those all the costumers around me told him I only had 2 beers and they were hours apart. We had to sleep in the station and waut 24hrs for the next train and buy new tickets
Done in honor of Democrats locking out Amtrak Joe Biden from another four years.
Why Washington Union Station feels the need to line up people like they’re at the airport instead of just allowing them unto the platform is beyond me. They dont even check your tickets! Boston South Station is a major transit hub as well, yet they allow folks unto the platform prior to boarding. This is absolutely disgraceful and idiotic to think “no one is boarding” at Union Station.
Only in the US do we lock the gates to the platform. Everywhere I’ve travelled extensively in Europe and Asia you just walk onto the platform whenever you want. Even our commuter trains here is the US don’t lock. What’s with Amtrak? Dumb dumber dumbest.
I have to say that I have taken Amtrak frequently without any serious problems. I won’t claim no problems, but they do their best with what they have. There has always been food available (except on the very short Chicago Milwaukee route). The food won’t kill you, but the quality needs work ever since that guy they brought in from the airline tried to ruin it. Amtrak employees have always been helpful. Trains are often on time or nearly so, and late trains are usually due to problems on the host RR. True high speed would require major rebuilding of creaky private railroads, and the money is not being made available. Amtrak is there because the transportation is necessary but cannot be profitable. That Washington incident needs investigation, but I have never seen it happen on my trips.
I am utterly shocked that there are Amtrak employees that don’t put customers’ needs before their own.
The DOGE needs to close down Amtrak. It will never be a profitable, functional business.
The boarding system combined with awful signing and an odd track layout at Union Station is ripe for this. I was boarding a train where they had a line out to the street about an 1/8th mile. No one could tell what line to get on or what one they were on. The electronics were all misleading or wrong. South Station Boston or even NY Penn doesn’t have any of this. Why DC?