Kudos to making a more pleasant alternative to flying.

An hour late? Boy you east coasters have it good! A one hour delay is the best we can hope for in the Pacific Northwest!

I hope the local agent didn't get herself in hot water for showing initiative. Amtrak: give her a raise or something - she's a keeper!

@a_pink_poodle: In Virginia, the joke was that "on time" meant "same day" for Amtrak. It was rarely their fault, but the service was still plagued with delays.

@Julius Seizure. (the CANUCK one): From all the times I have traveled amtrak (Crescent Line) I have always had great service.

Though for that line, being late by a few hours was normal (it went from new orleans to DC. lots of things that could go wrong. though it was usually not their fault.)

@Julius Seizure. (the CANUCK one): Seconded, give the staff there a raise and keep 'em on the job!

About 4 years ago my partner and I were planning on taking Amtrak from Oakland CA to Eugene OR. We called a few hours before the scheduled departure time and the recording said the train had been delayed, but not by how much, and said to call back later for updates. After calling every half hour or so and never getting an update, and being unable to actually reach a human being either, we decided to drive down to the train station and ask there. We were told it was going to be 12 HOURS LATE. We took a plane.

@MostlyHarmless: I'll second that. Back when I rode Amtrak, their CSR's were great. Unfortunately, I rode the Lake Shore Limited line. Few hours late=normal. A friend of mine had the train be 23 hours late. Can you imagine seeing people for tomorrow's train coming in while you're still waiting at the station?

Love Amtrak, delays notwithstanding because staff treat you like a person, not a head of cattle. Snack car staff are usually lovely and helpful with an extra cup of ice or two or letting two non-food-purchasing vegans use the microwave for our weird treebark food.

And the conductors have always been more than happy to help us get two seats next to each other on full trains..

Good people. They need more funding.

Now if only taking to the rails was a viable option in most of the rest of America... But seriously, this is above and beyond practically any American airline.

I'll never use Amtrak again as myself and another young rider were stranded overnight at a train station with homeless folk wandering around offering to sell me drugs. I called repeatedly throughout the night only to be told "don't worry a train is on the way" and when I called yet again to let them know nothing ever came, they called me a liar and would not try any further to help me in any way.

@RickScarf: You should have told them that you know Joe Biden.

I recently flew from NC to Cleveland, on the way back I cancelled my return flight and took Amtrack. It was wonderful. The plane had been filthy and had frightening mechanical problems (including the bolts coming out of one of the seats and the toliet overflowing into the aisle). Amtrack was clean, comfortable and had endless juice and coffee. I got a sleeper and rested peacefully. Love Amtrak.

@RickScarf: i've never met homeless drug dealers. i guess the business just isn't what it used to be anymore, huh?

LIE! LIE! LIE! we all know public institutions cannot provide better service than private enterprise! move along; it's a farce! nothing to see here!

@Julius Seizure. (the CANUCK one): Amtrak has always been great except that the trains are absolutely never on time. But, you don't have your underwear stolen so that just means trade-offs.

But Amtrak is overpriced to begin with.

@RickScarf: Were you in the Midwest? Midwest Amtrak is horribly ghetto. The one time I took it I had to get on at an unmanned station in the middle of the ghetto. (Said station isn't even available anymore.) If you're on the East/West coast it's a lot better. They tried to push to get a train station at my rural Ohio college, because kids without cars would use it - yeah right, of course it didn't happen, Midwestern people would rather drive their SUVs and to hell with anyone who doesn't want that lifestyle.

I'm glad there's a push for new funding because it seems like the Midwest corridor might actually be somewhat worth riding if so.

@mac-phisto: I wouldn't think of an hour delay as "better service".

@mac-phisto: Actually, Amtrak is a publicly-funded (via subsidies) private corporation. Thus, when it does bad, conservatives can trash it, and when it does good, they can thank it on free enterprise.

@mac-phisto: Also, we don't have a private company offering passenger rail service.

I use Amtrak and while the trains are not always on time I find their service to be much better than airlines. The people I've met at the stations and those spoken to on the telephone have always been cordial and helpful. There have been occasions when they have gone way beyond what I would have expected them to do.

When flying I never know what to expect. When riding Amtrak I've come to expect great service and so far I haven't been disappointed.

There definitely needs to be more funding for them. If Congress was able to find all of the money for the banking and auto industry they should be able to come up with some for Amtrak.

@TVarmy: it's not a private corporation. it's a public corporation.

@MooseOfReason: we don't have pricate companies offering rail service b/c amtrak was a government bailout of private enterprise that chose to exit the marketplace. read a little history on the demise of rail travel in the US & you'll understand why amtrak exists & why it sucks so much. here's a hint: you don't sell as much oil, tires & cars in a country that has a viable rail system.

@atashida: Yeah this was at the Lafayette, IN station.

And regarding the homeless drug dealer, he was trying to get me to meet him in the bathroom to buy a nickel bag of weed. So looking back in hindsight he may not have been a drug dealer!

Ya Syracuse! (Its my hometown, so I pretty much had to write this).

I overslept once for a really early (5AM) train. I called and they rebooked me at no charge. (If it would have been a pricer train I would have to pay the price difference, but no "change fee")

Try that on an airline and its $250 fee + price difference or nonrefundable!

@a_pink_poodle: I've taken the "Late For Sure Limited" in and out of Syracuse, and a one hour delay would be heaven. This article is the FIRST positive thing I've ever heard about Amtrak.

@Michael Plasmeier: THey were nice to me once when I missed my train due to poor planning and bad traffic. Customer service gave me a refund for that portion and I decided to fly home for that half of my trip. The sad thing is that I chose United out of O'Hare (more convenient) when in hindsight I wish I had gone completely out of my way to fly Southwest out of Midway. Sigh...

@mac-phisto: Wouldn't that mean the government doing a sucky job on purpose, to help out the oil companies? Since we went into Iraq and Afghanistan for oil.

Personally, I always liked Amtrak. I used to use them all the time in the North East Corridor. I remember one time I was late arriving at Penn Station, and the line was rediculously long. I was going to somewhere in VA, with a connection in DC. I had a reservation and already paid for my ticket, but by the time I got to the ticket window, the train had already left. The women explained that if I was late in the future, to just go to ticket window 16 (or something like that) to be taken care of before it was too late. She put me on a metroliner that would make it to DC before my connection, and didn't charge me anything extra, even though the metroliner was more expensive normally. Ironically enough, my original train had mechanical problems, and while I made it to DC with more than enough time to make my connection on the metroliner, if I had taken the original train, I would have missed my connection and been stuck in DC overnight.
Another time, I had a car accident in Delaware going to up NYC for a job interview. I got a ride to Philly and asked for the next available train, regardless of price. They gave me my ticket, and I went to the track. Apparently I had bought an Acela Express (the high speed train) ticket, but it was broken down (apparently this is/was a frequent thing), so they put us on a metroliner instead. They announced that because of the inconvenience, they were refunding 100% of all Acela tickets. Wow.
So while many people might hate Amtrak, I always found their customer service great. NEVER had a bad experience on my countless trips.

@I Love New Jersey: Actually not really, the problem is you have to go outside of the country to compare it to other train services.

But we pretty much pay less than other nations who are more heavily invested in travel by train.

I take Amtrak twice a week in the Northeast Corridor, and this story very much rings true. Their agents and train staff are exceedingly nice, and their trains are always late.

This week, I took Amtrak for the first time outside the Northeast, for a trip from Seattle to Vancouver, BC. Their train was a bus, and it was 25 minutes late. Different vehicle, same timetable. And the bus company they contracted with was Cantrail. Should that be read as Can-trail or can't-rail? You decide.

Go Amtrak.

@MooseOfReason: Exactly right, Moose. In the WA, OR, CA and on the east coast, state governments have invested money to improve the tracks - there the trains generally run 80 in rural areas and 50 in urban areas. This has attracted enough passengers to the lines that the trains run at a profit.

In CA, they make this profit even though there is no high-speed connection from LA to SanFran/Sacto.

This makes Obama's high-speed rail program understandable. High-quality tracks could eliminate the need for subsidy.

I took Amtrak to Boston and back and did not like it at all. But it wasn't really their fault. It was the fault of the people in my car, whose cell phones kept going off all night (it was an overnight train). I should have gone to the quiet car, but I wrongly assumed that no one would have anyone they could talk to loudly in Creole for an hour at 3AM. I learned my lesson.

On the way back, the lady in front of me threw up all over herself and the floor, then slept in it from Stamford to Wilmington. She was supposed to get off in Philly but missed it. It was so, so gross. And then an entire Model UN team got on at Penn Station.

Now that Southwest is flying from BWI to Logan for some really cheap price, I can't see myself ever doing that again.

I generally take Amtrack for three reasons:

1) "Security...what security?" I get on at my departing station, I get off at arriving station...the end.

2) Plausible deniability for tardiness, etc.

"Aw man...the train was running late. And there was no phone service. Oh...and there was no outlet for my laptop."

Honestly, thank God for that.

3) Price.

I love Amtrak and recommend it to everyone.

The airlines are such a clusterf*** lately, it's not worth it to fly unless you're going overseas or you have a short timetable. Taking the train is such a pleasure. Comfortable ride, no security checkpoint BS, no crowded terminals (even the big terminals are less crowded than most airports), take as much food and drink on as you like, pleasant station agents and cabin staff, comfortable sleeping accommodations.

Until the airlines get their act together, I'm taking the train every time I'm able.

@kolacek:

I take Amtrak pretty often, and considering that I have to choose between the train, the bus (I can't stand lengthy bus rides), or a plane (too pricey, and I don't exactly like removing my shoes, belt, and everything in my pockets), they win. Call me crazy, but I actually like the fact that phone service tends to be spotty for the whole trip, and that there's no internet. It's good to spend a bit of time disconnected from the outside world.

Anything under 2 hours late is really 'On Time' for Amtrak between Kansas City and St Louis because its consistently 2 hours late or more. Frequently, its 4+ hours late. I remember picking up my brother who took Amtrak and was suppose to get to the Kirkwood station at 8.30PM, but instead arrived at 2-freaking in the morning-AM.

@mac-phisto:@TVarmy: Amtrack is government owned, and has a mixture of public funding, private funding, and profitability.

@Bogart's Falcon aka Philly Falcon:

In fairness, it must be pointed out that "compared to flying" is the lowest possible bar you could set.

Well, OK, I suppose you could take a canoe up the coast. You'd probably still have better service, though. You'd have the same amount of space for luggage *AND* could carry as much water as... well... you could carry.

@a_pink_poodle: For the record, trains from/to/through Syracuse are late, period. Any train that passes through the stretch of track from Schenectady to Buffalo is late. To my knowledge, there are no exceptions. This is not Amtrak's fault, but the fault of the host railroad, CSX, who have an underbuilt infrastructure, which, to my understanding, is in turn caused by the New York State taxation situation on that property that their tracks occupy.

An hour delay is actually doing pretty good.

I have learned that when traveling between Schenectady and NYC, you want to either (a) find a train that is coming from the north or (b) take a CDTA bus to Rensselaer (Albany) (bus 55, 56 or 57 to downtown Albany, then 24 or 214 to Rensselaer) and get a train that originates there.

If you live in the NE corridor, Amtrak is great. If you live in the south or midwest, Amtrak service is something that you just read about and yet pay taxes to support. If those of you who rave about Amtrak's service ever took a train from Chicago to, say, Texas, you'd swear it off forever and urge congress to pull the plug on Amtrak unless it provides service equal to that which others get.

I used to ride Amtrak regularly between Philadelphia and New Haven. I hated it because it took so darn long. Going Philadelphia -> New York would be really quick, but going New York -> New Haven would take forever.

It's really not entirely Amtrak's fault though. The lines on that part of the corridor are old and really busy, they can't go very fast a lot of the time.

The worst time was when I was going to New Haven -> philadelphia. I got to the station and the trains heading towards Boston were all several hours delayed. My train was listed as "delayed", which in my experience is a really bad thing. So I asked an Amtrak agent if my train was delayed or if there were any problems between New Haven and Philadelphia that's causing all these delays. I figured if the delay was going to be bad, I could walk over and get a bus instead. She gave me a curt "no, there's nothing wrong".

My train did arrive on time*, and we set off. We get a little past Stratford and stop at some commuter rail station. They then tell us that there had been a train that derailed earlier in the day (so much for there not being anything wrong) and there's no power, so we have to wait for a diesel engine to pull us through and it would only be a twenty minute delay. We sat for a half an hour and then pulled up so that we were slightly passed the station, and proceeded to sit there for several more hours. That 20 minute delay turned into over 5 hours.

Now, I understand that accidents happen and long delays like that are inevitable. But my issue is that I asked if there were any major problems, and was told no, when there obviously was a big problem. Also, they had no clue how long the delay was going to be they kept telling us "10 more minutes" etc... If I had known it was going to take hours, I would have called someone to pick me up at the station we had been stopped at and gone to take a bus.

*Side note: What the hell is it with the New Haven station and going from "On Time" straight to "All Aboard" on the board, skipping "arriving" and "boarding".

@David in Brasil: "If those of you who rave about Amtrak's service ever took a train from Chicago to, say, Texas, you'd urge congress to give Amtrak reasonable funding so that it can provide service equal to that which others get."

Private railroads in the midwest and west are to blame for poor on-time stats, not Amtrak.

@RickScarf: Homeless people in the station is not Amtrak's fault.

That's Lafayette's fault.

@veg-o-matic: That may be so. But the last ticket I bought said "Amtrak", they left Chicago 6 hours late, the private car I reserved was filthy (and I mean 'filthy'), their personnel rushed and rude, I got none of the amenities that were advertised, and we arrived in TX 18 hours late. Never again.

I meant "private cabin".. I'm not rich enough for my own car. Yet.

@RvLeshrac: In looking at the different ways to travel, I believe that flying on any airline gives you the greatest chance to get the poorest service if/when problems happen. I say this from personal experience.