Amtrak sucks. Big time.
My first time on Acela was last weekend with my 2 friends. 3 of us total. We took Acela from Phili to NYC and it was NOT cheap.
We get to 30th street station 30 mins before departure time and find out the train is delayed 1 hour. After 1 hour it's delayed another 20 mins. Then after 20 mins its delayed yet 40 mins. At this point we could have just drove (but who wants to pay NYC tolls, fight NYC traffic, and pay NYC parking???). Amtrak staff at the station were terrible, rude, no help at all. Just useless.
We finally board and go to the seats we selected (Acela is assigned seating). We selected table seats so we could work. A woman and her 2 kids ages 8-10 are sitting in our seats, sprawled out with food and tablets. She looks up at us and says "oh, yea, about these seats. See these are my kids and for some reason I couldn't select seats online an I need to sit together with my kids. You'll need to sit somewhere else". Ok this is my problem how? She refuses to move and expects the 3 of us to sit all over the sold out train. I had to call the conductor over who 15 mins later finally shows up as we are standing there in the vestibule with the entire coach now watching us. He checks everyone's tickets and tells her she must take her assigned seat, it turns into a screaming match until she finally moves to the first car.
Food in the cafe was overpriced and disgusting.
We only booked one way tickets as we were not sure of our return date. When our return date was decided, I was half asleep in bed and book our one way return. I screwed up the date as the Amtrak app defaults to todays day when our return was 1 day later. I realize the mistake later in the date and call Amtrak to change. Sorry, it's more than 1 hour since your train time NO REFUNDS and NO CREDIT. Are you kidding me I just spent $900!!!! Sorry, no refunds. Had to spend another $900 for the correct day. Called Amex who promptly reversed the charge.
We get on our return train - table seat. Guess what.... a couple with their laptops and headphones on is sprawled out in our seats on a sold out train. And they refuse to move.
Throw ontop of everything screaming infants, screaming toddlers. OMG. And you wouldn't believe how many dipshits bought NJ Transit commuter train tickets and "accidentally" got on the Acela. The conductor threw them all off at the next stop.
If this is the flagship of Amtrak my goodness they just need to tear down and rebuild from scratch.
My first time on Acela was last weekend with my 2 friends. 3 of us total. We took Acela from Phili to NYC and it was NOT cheap.
We get to 30th street station 30 mins before departure time and find out the train is delayed 1 hour. After 1 hour it's delayed another 20 mins. Then after 20 mins its delayed yet 40 mins. At this point we could have just drove (but who wants to pay NYC tolls, fight NYC traffic, and pay NYC parking???). Amtrak staff at the station were terrible, rude, no help at all. Just useless.
We finally board and go to the seats we selected (Acela is assigned seating). We selected table seats so we could work. A woman and her 2 kids ages 8-10 are sitting in our seats, sprawled out with food and tablets. She looks up at us and says "oh, yea, about these seats. See these are my kids and for some reason I couldn't select seats online an I need to sit together with my kids. You'll need to sit somewhere else". Ok this is my problem how? She refuses to move and expects the 3 of us to sit all over the sold out train. I had to call the conductor over who 15 mins later finally shows up as we are standing there in the vestibule with the entire coach now watching us. He checks everyone's tickets and tells her she must take her assigned seat, it turns into a screaming match until she finally moves to the first car.
Food in the cafe was overpriced and disgusting.
We only booked one way tickets as we were not sure of our return date. When our return date was decided, I was half asleep in bed and book our one way return. I screwed up the date as the Amtrak app defaults to todays day when our return was 1 day later. I realize the mistake later in the date and call Amtrak to change. Sorry, it's more than 1 hour since your train time NO REFUNDS and NO CREDIT. Are you kidding me I just spent $900!!!! Sorry, no refunds. Had to spend another $900 for the correct day. Called Amex who promptly reversed the charge.
We get on our return train - table seat. Guess what.... a couple with their laptops and headphones on is sprawled out in our seats on a sold out train. And they refuse to move.
Throw ontop of everything screaming infants, screaming toddlers. OMG. And you wouldn't believe how many dipshits bought NJ Transit commuter train tickets and "accidentally" got on the Acela. The conductor threw them all off at the next stop.
If this is the flagship of Amtrak my goodness they just need to tear down and rebuild from scratch.