Open Letter To Amtrak
© 2024 Mark McWiggins
I took a long train trip in 2023, first on the Coast Starlight and then on the California Zephyr, if I recall correctly.
I made it in one piece, but it’s almost that Amtrak is trying to get more business for the airlines.
My experience: First, I got into Sacramento very early, just after 6am with a lot of luggage. I got some help getting to the terminal but after that I was on my own. They had a “preferred seating area” (whee — a pale imitation of what you get in any airport). But that was minor compared to what came next.
I asked the gate guy if he could watch my bags for a few minutes while I went to the bathroom, and he said no!
So I had to wrangle my bags into the bathroom, which was Less than Perfect in another way. The water was off to the handwashing facilities, first I thought through the whole bathroom. I finally found one working in the huge bathroom; fortunately I was the only one in there. I can imagine there would be quite a hand-washing queue.
Anyway, I wrestled my bags out to the non-palatial waiting area and I finally got on the train.
The good parts: the scenery cross country is beautiful. The food was well beyond what I was expecting. (This is one place they wipe the floor with airlines).
There were a few glitches and one large annoyance; that’s next.
There is absolutely no phone service on relatively large parts of the Western part of the route. It is possible to have satellite internet, which is avialable on some Amtrak routes, but why not on this one?
Also, modern Amtrak routes have lights on the bathroom door that show when someone is in there.
But these were almost all completely out, leaving passersby to pound on the door to see if anybody is in there. I was, often enough, when I heard a BANG 2 inches from the top of my head. I’m 5'10.5 and it was a tight squeeze for me. I don’t know if a 6'4'’ hulk would have been able to fit at all!
I don’t know if there was just a funding cut in congress or something, but it seems that whatever resources they have could have fixed this.
That’s all I have to say on this subject
Mark McWiggins’
