by charlesriverbranch
I took train #65 to Virginia from Boston Friday night for a family event, returning last night on #66. This seemed to make the most sense since I don't fly. Amtrak did get me there and back more or less on time, so I suppose I should be happy with that. However, I assumed I would be allowed to get some sleep, but the crew of #65 between New York and Washington seemed to go out of its way to make sure that didn't happen.
On previous occasions when I've been on an Amtrak train late at night, crews turned out the lights and tried to disturb passengers as little as possible. Under the regime of Delta "Customer Service is Job Zero" Dick, it would appear that has changed; the lights stayed on all night on both trains, and the crew in question introduced themselves to us by bursting into our car at three o'clock in the morning yelling "TICKETS OUT! ALL TICKETS OUT!". Why they should need to re-scan our tickets when their predecessors had already done so is anyone's guess, but this crew then went out of their way to make sure none of us got any sleep, periodically storming through the car with their radios at full volume and yelling "GET UP! GET UP!" at any passenger they saw falling asleep all the way to Washington, and making liberal use of the PA system to scream at us. I felt as though I was part of some sleep-deprivation experiment. This crew was also on #66, again between Washington and New York, but they were not as obnoxious and were gone by 1:30, when the train pulled into Penn Station. Their successors, who still had to rescan everybody's tickets, were much more respectful and kept their voices down. However the lights on #66 also stayed on all night.
Can anyone tell me what purpose is served by re-scanning passengers' tickets?
On previous occasions when I've been on an Amtrak train late at night, crews turned out the lights and tried to disturb passengers as little as possible. Under the regime of Delta "Customer Service is Job Zero" Dick, it would appear that has changed; the lights stayed on all night on both trains, and the crew in question introduced themselves to us by bursting into our car at three o'clock in the morning yelling "TICKETS OUT! ALL TICKETS OUT!". Why they should need to re-scan our tickets when their predecessors had already done so is anyone's guess, but this crew then went out of their way to make sure none of us got any sleep, periodically storming through the car with their radios at full volume and yelling "GET UP! GET UP!" at any passenger they saw falling asleep all the way to Washington, and making liberal use of the PA system to scream at us. I felt as though I was part of some sleep-deprivation experiment. This crew was also on #66, again between Washington and New York, but they were not as obnoxious and were gone by 1:30, when the train pulled into Penn Station. Their successors, who still had to rescan everybody's tickets, were much more respectful and kept their voices down. However the lights on #66 also stayed on all night.
Can anyone tell me what purpose is served by re-scanning passengers' tickets?