DAY ONE, Amtrak woes and whys..part 1

[tbear]

Its 4;30 am...May 3rd..time to get on the road for an hour long trip into Boston South Station, for our 28 hour train trip.
The bags have already been packed, and the kids understand the trip is a long one....to look at it as an adventure.
Myself, DW, DS10,DS friend 10, DD9, and DD5, are all very happy today is finally here.
DW friend drives the brood to Boston, and we're there at 5:30am.

The story gets very long at this point, but I will do my best to put it into words without cursing.
I had been tracking the trains for months....just to see the frequency of late arrivals, delays, ect.
I had(and still have) my original tickets in hand....there is a reason for this.....I had booked a train, that quite literally disapeared from the train roster.
I had called a few weeks prior to our departure to the customer service line. I had talked to the woman who had answered, explained to her that I have tickets in hand for a train that doesnt seem to be there...she informs me that the train has been removed, and I would need to rebook the trip........well, no problem, afterall, it only makes our arrival 5 hours later than planned, and scrap's all my plans.
She tells me that I have to choose right then, so I rebook....and a week later, ther is now a train that is leaving the same time, only it is routed to make connections in New York instead of our original connection in Washington DC.
I call customer service, and get some guy telling me that if i rebook again, that I would have to pay additional amounts of money(which would be in the hundres)so I decide to try again later.
I call the following morning, and get a very pleasant woman who changes over our departure ect, with no fee's or penalty's...she says that it is Amtraks fault for removing our original train, and that it is no problem....hmmm, not what I was told the night before, but I say nothing to her about that.
I ask, before she hangs up on me(this is a regular customer service feature you recieve with Amtrak) that I already have these tickets in hand..what should I do??
She says, that the morning we leave, go to the service window when it opens, and exchange for the appropriate ticketing.I ask, should I go beforehand, and she says, no, you can do this the morning of your trip...it is no problem what so ever.

Lets get back to Boston.....so, here we are...the ticket office and signage clearly state the they are open at 5:30, I see someone mulling about inside, but the doors are locked.....hmmmmm.
After a half hour passes, the door is finally opened, and I am pushed back a few folks(I was second in line until they doors were opened, then it became a free for all).
I wait, and finally, its my turn....I try as best as possible to explain this whole 'my train was the 191, but its no longer 191, its the 195' and this joker behind the window starts telling me how I'm causing him all kinds of problems, how its my fault this way and that...how he cant exchange my tickets, its going to take a long time to do this, how dare I come here and do this'...I am floored..I nicely try to explain that one..I am the customer, I was told by HIS customer service that this was what I was told to do....this went on and on for ten minutes...he finally pushes me aside, telling me to straighten out my tickets, organize them..I have no concept of what he means at this point.
The wife(bless her)comes in, and she gets us back in front of this guy....he starts telling her that he has people trying to catch the 6:30 train, and she says "THATS the train WE ARE ON"...he starts in on her, by now, I want nothing more than to have a moment alone in the alley with the jerk, but the wife stays with her resolve...and finally, gets this person to get our tickets, which take him 3 minutes to do!!!!!!!!!AAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!
His supervisor was in the line behind us, and when he walked around ,this guy changed his tune....quickly....but I didnt know about that..I thought it was all the wifes doing..LOL

So finally, after this fun, we get to the train.
The red-cap finds us a seating plan by the doorway, and we are finally on our way!!!!NO MORE BUMPS IN THE ROAD....or at least we thought....just wait till New York.

 

[MI mom of 3]

Oh my!!!

I can't wait to see what happens next.

 

[>>^..^<<]

I am already nervous and biting my nails... waiting for the continuation.....

>>^..^<<

 

[mslangen]

Hi,

What a hassle you have there to buy a train ticket. Fortunately I can buy my train tickets from the ticket machine at our station, but we live in a little country. If I wanted a train to Paris its also sometimes difficult to buy a ticket. Recently they opened an online ticket service and that worked pretty good for the last time I needed train tickets to Paris.

I'm also interested in the rest of the story. Its interesting how the train system in the USA operates.
It seems that the frequence isn't that high as by us. In our country most times every 30 minutes there comes a new train in each direction. International trains have most times a 1 or 2 hour frequency. Used the train to arrive at Amsterdam airport for my flight to the USA and Orlando.

Marcel.

 

[allshookup]

ooooh ooooh ooooh.....we took Amtrak from Boston once too! We didn't have the same problem you did, but it was delayed in GA due to a bad storm so it took us a total of 36 hours. The train was filthy, the train stations along the way were in terrible disrepair and the bathrooms smelled horrible after hours and hours of use by hundreds of people! Never again!

 

[Minniespal]

I can hardly wait for the continuation.......

 

[Annie&Hallie'sMom]

already I can see this train ride is going no where good. My sympathies.

 

[Dopey's twin Dippy]

I am laughing so hard at Tbears account of the train. We have been going the last 3-4 years by train. I am the one who doesnt like to fly. Last year was the first year we left Dedham, MA. to Wash dc. The other times we went into Penn Station. That place was incredible. THere were thousands of people there. I was waiting for my family to get a snack, i was standing off the side and when the train pulled in and all these people got off they ACTUALLY all but knocked me down to get by. I was kinda scared''Last year it did not seem as bad, the trip to Wash. we had a 2 1/2 hr or 3 hr wait there. We had a great lunchand walked around. But the train ride from there to orlando was so late''''''' And coming home it was late. We were waiting for a train to leave to pull in , which the train was the one we were SUPPOSED to be on , well it left. THey gave us seats on ACELLA. Nice train. We are supposed to go this Aug on Train 191, I think I will call them this week to check on it. I cant even think about BATHROOMS, that is the worst. Well cant wait to hear about the rest of your trip. The only way i survive is to think of the 9 - 10 days at Disney at the end. The sleeper cars were sold out. So we have coach seats.

 

[colleen costello]

Years ago, sometime in the 1980's, we took Amtrak from NJ to Orlando. It was a trip from HE** and I literally could not face the thought of getting on the train again for the trip home. Luckily I was old enough (in college) that my Mom let me use my own money to get a cheap ticket to fly home on Delta. Pals picked me up at the airport and all was well.

The train down was crowded and bumpy. When night comes and you get sleepy, it starts making long, noisy stops in every little hick town on the way so you can't sleep. The bathrooms started to stink and the dining car ran out of food. You arrive in Sanford the next morning, about 7am. You smell and feel hung-over from all the interrupted sleep. Disney won't let you in to your room yet so you are miserable. It was terrible. I don't like to fly but flying home was obviously the less scary choice.

NO ONE deserves a night on Amtrak. This is perhaps how we punish our worst criminals.

 

[Mrs. Snowgod]

Now that the IRS is making an effort to provide an attempt at customer service, the former IRS phone agents who were trained to be scary must have all gone to AMTRAK.

My sympathies! Can't wait for part 2!