Thoughtless Amtrak Passengers.
(The following was posted from my roomette in the 1130 car on the Coast Starlight. How about that!)
Some travelers have no instinct for getting along in close quarters with their fellow passengers. It’s an important even on an Amtrak long-distance train.
For instance, there’s the person who stands in the corridor of the sleeping car and carries on a loud, lengthy conversation with the person in the roomette right across from mine.
Next is the person who grumbles about the food in the dining car while ether unaware or unconcerned that I’m eating and enjoying the very same dish.
Then there’s the passenger seated next to me in the diner who is wearing a T-shirt, shorts, rubber slippers and a baseball cap (worn backwards, of course). Occasionally they even smell bad. I may make allowances if it’s a coach passenger, but not if they’re traveling in a sleeper. Every Superliner has a very adequate shower room.
And fie! on the people who stake out choice seats in the Sightseer lounge car (or the parlor car on the Coast Starlight) and set up camp for the day. I heard a lot of complaints about that on the Builder, especially because many of the space hogs were Boy Scouts. There must have been 50 or 60 of them on that train. Hello, Scoutmaster? Hello??
Next? There always seems to be a 300-pounder who comes barging down the narrow corridors of the sleeping cars forcing you to back up . . . after you’ve already come halfway.
Kids, little or big, who cannot be controlled. It’s hard enough to put up with that on a four or five hour flight. But we’re talkin’ a couple of days here!
Finally, and I admit this doesn’t really qualify, I deplore the person (car attendants tell me there’s one on almost every trip) who refuses to sit with strangers in the dining car and ends up taking all meals in the room. That person has no idea what he/she is missing!
I hope I won’t break any of these rules on my trip. I am over 300 lbs (also 6’5 so it balances out a bit), but I’ll try not to barrel down the hall lol
What should be considered a violation of public health regulations and basis for refusal of service is a man coming into the diner with a sleeveless t-shirt, shorts, and shower togs, on top of inappropriately wearing a stupid ball cap at the table. Usually, they depict a character out of “Deliverance…” Same goes for women who enter a diner as if they’re dressed going to the beach. Even the airlines cannot keep up with how people act like they can dress like slobs in public.
Also, whatever happened to the signs posted in sleepers by The Pullman Company: “QUIET is requested for those who have retired”? Whether on lower or upper level of sleeper, so many passengers coming and going after 10pm are loud and ill-mannered; oblivious that people are sleeping.
I’ve noticed that often when the train is running significantly late, there is always at least one person that gets hysterical and abuses the train staff mercilessly. I don’t know how they expect that to solve the problem.