I’m sensitive to heat, so when I heard about an Amtrak train that broke down in a tunnel during a heat wave it sounded like my personal nightmare. And unfortunately, it’s not an isolated incident. A quick spin through online discussion groups found other anecdotes of trains breaking down, losing power, or traveling for hours…
Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? And implausible. But a group of people belonging to a rail passenger advocacy organizations have been patiently gathering information—a tidbit here, a morsel there—which, even if only partially true, is cause for concern. For example . . . In October of 2018, Amtrak had 428 Superliner sleepers in active service and…
Friends of mine took an overnight train several years ago and had something less than a satisfactory experience in a roomette on an overnight Amtrak train. They have refused to travel by train ever since. I’ll bet a box of donuts that the problem—whatever it was—could have been fixed with a call to the car…
In my experience—and that includes thousands of miles on Amtrak long-distance trains—passengers who cause trouble are annoying. It’s rarely a serious problem, but they do show up from time to time. However, Amtrak conductors are very good at spotting a potential troublemaker and getting him to shape up before he becomes a serious problem. Like…