Tacks Scattered In My Path!

I can be, at times, an impatient person. Whether it’s waiting to board a train or waiting for the start of the Red Sox-Yankee game on TV . . . I’m not very good at waiting.

For example, I thought it would be a good idea to contact someone empowered to speak on the record about the rationale behind removing all the timetables for long-distance trains from the Amtrak website.  I got the telephone number of their Media Relations office in Amtrak’s Washington headquarters hoping to at least get an official explanation.

However, the published phone number for Media Relations in  Washington turned out to be the very same number you would call to make a reservation for an Acela ride up to New York: 1-800-USA-RAIL. When the call was answered, what I heard was the familiar automated voice of Julie telling me they were very busy and it would be a 30-minute wait before someone could take my call.

Of course we all know that Amtrak’s Media Relations Department  in Washington really does have its very own phone number. Still, one has to wonder at the rationale behind requiring a reporter from the New York Times to wait until one of the people selling roomettes on the Southwest Chief becomes free to take the call and put it through to someone in Media Relations: the summer intern.