What do you think of Amtrak?

Question

I left from Birmingham one time at 3pm going to D.C. I got there at 2pm the next day. I hated it! What about you.

Answer 1

I take it all the time between DC and NYC and it's great.  Anytime I've taken it outside of that NE Corridor though it's been problematic.

A big problem for Amtrak is that a large part of it's funding is usually approved on a year by year basis by Congress making it hard for them to plan for the long term.  Recently I think they got a five year funding bill approved since everyone is looking for alternative transportation these days.  So maybe things will be better soon.

Answer 2

In May '08 I took a trip from Portland, OR to Springfield, IL and back.  The train was on time both ways and I thought it was a great ride!  I wrote an article about some of my experiences here:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2311141_have-bla...

Answer 3

Certain routes on Amtrak are chronically late.  The problem is that Amtrak doesn't own the traks, they lease them from the freight railroads.  The freight railroads are required by law to give Amtrak priority since passenger trains go faster, but this law is very poorly enforced.  There is a lot of opposition to Amtrak in Congress due to lobbying from the airline, automobile and oil industries, so Congress doesn't want to do anything about it.

Answer 4

I first rode on Amtrak from Northern California to Portland OR, in 1990 and it was a very good experience.  I was in first class so I had my own private car, in which they brought me all of my meals, etc....

         Flash foward to 2003 when I took Amtrak to Ohio from California, when I moved to Ohio for three years.  After this nightmare on Amtrak...........NEVER AGAIN.....I could tell that this form of transport had gone down hill.  My biggest complaint was the extremely rude and hostile staff on Amtrak, all the way from the train attendants to the ticket counter people.  Don't even get me started on the staff at the Chicago Union station.....rabid badgers are friendlier than this bunch.  I absolutely could not believe the attitude and anger that eminated from these people, and how they amazingly are still employed.  I thought this was partly an industry that is supposed to cater to customers, and not the other way around.

      The pros..........  Beautiful scenery and the opporitunity to see America's backyard as I call it, since we bypassed a lot of major cities and just saw the outskirts.  

       I will never use this train again, for ANY reason.