It was, without any comparison, the worse experience with travel, of my adult life. On the Ohio…read moreend, Amtrak employees were completely absent. The station was locked. There were no signs, posted information, no employees to explain train traveling to those with questions, nothing. We got there, and just hoped we were in the right place. It was very nerve wracking. On the Chicago end, forget about it. The employees in the station were rude, unhelpful, arrogant and acted like everything about train travel should have been common knowledge--- "what do you mean you don't know the train starts boarding 30-45 minutes before it is scheduled to leave?" There is no information on the app, none of this is printed on the ticket-- My Aunt handed her ticket to the baggage agent and asked him to please show her where it was explained that her bags had to be checked an hour before boarding; he started reading... his response, "well, it's not clearly stated here, ma'm, but, if you go online ( he circled the website) it will explain all this information." Seriously? Does Amtrak not know they can clearly post all this information IN THE STATION? SOMEWHERE? How about posting all the cities the trains, boarding from each gate, are going to make stops at?
"Gate C " Train
stops at:
South Bend, Indiana,
Waterloo, Indiana,
This town, Indiana,
Toledo, Ohio
Sandusky, Ohio
Etc." Instead, my daughter and I got downstairs and stoped at the gate that read, "Gates, A, B, C, and D." We thought, okay, this is our line. We stood in that line for about 10 minutes before my daughter realized we were in the wrong place... again, no one in a uniform to ask, and we ran to the other gate C, only to be told by a very rude employee, "Sorry, Ma'm we just closed boarding for this train." Insert SSSSSCCCCCRRREEAAAMMMMMM, here. An image of me punching him dead in the face flashed through my mind. Never again. NEVER. We paid $74 more dollars, waited 3 more hours, and finally got on the 9:30 pm train. Where we FROZE. "Holy Icebox, Batman, we have to help these human popsicles!"
Our train car was so cold, people started taking their bags down from the overhead, and putting on clothes over the clothes they were wearing PLUS their blankets. We asked a conductor about it, he said "i'll see if I can turn it down". Apparently, he meant it, because it seemed to get even colder as the night wore on. My bones hurt! It was horrible. My daughter and I were holding each other, while curled up, in our seats, for warmth. I don't know how people travel this way. Even if this was just a one-off for Amtrak, it was such a magnificently bad one, that I will never, willingly, schedule another train trip.
Horse and buggy would be better. Motorcycle would be better. TRICYCLES would be better. Nothing, nothing, NOTHING, even comes close to reaching the level of sheer ineptitude and madness that Amtrak occupies. My husband's assessment, there is a reason Amtrak is going bankrupt.
I don't know, maybe I'll see if there are any zeppelins heading my way, next time I want to take a trip, to Chicago.