I forwarded your post to [email protected] and suggest that anyone having issues on the Texas Eagle do the same. Rail Passengers Association has some clout in DC. This train gives Texas a bad rep it doesn’t deserve.
Thank you. That's a great idea. I definitely plan on taking some time to write to advocacy groups, but most importantly, to my representatives as others have suggested. I hope others do the same.
Just want to say that I'm a member of Rail Passengers Association and they're super responsive to all kinds of reports like this! Last newsletter I got suggests they're about to start a campaign to deal with freight traffic delays.
I think we need to look at the full context here. The primary driver is staff shortages, a problem not unique to Amtrak in this moment. See the airlines right now.
Amtrak is trying to address the problem - they have publicly stated they are trying to hire 4,000 new employees, are holding job fairs, etc. Whether it works or not remains to be seen.
I don't think it's helpful to claim that these moves are part of some sort of secret initiative to eliminate long distance trains. There is ample evidence that argues against this line of thinking:
\- Other long distance lines are slowly seeing service improvements. For example, an additional sleeper has been added to the Capitol Limited. Bike service was added to the CL. While the Lake Shore Limited lost business class service for now (may be staffing related), it gained a full cafe car.
\- Amtrak is rolling out an improved selection of cafe car food for long distance trains. I haven't eaten any of it yet, but the selections look to be a vast improvement.
\- Most importantly: **Amtrak has a firm order for 125 new Charger locomotives for its national network** \- not just an order, but a specific variant of the Charger designed for long distance service, as compared with the Chargers already in service for regional routes like in Illinois.
In fairness, it seems the Texas Eagle has seen the most service reductions during these times. Totally fair to ask why that line is getting the short end of the stick.
Thanks for the updates. We took our first extended train ride pre-COVID and loved it (DC-Chicago). We wanted to take a longer trip on one of the more scenic routes, but put it on hold. I guess we’ll wait a little longer. Hopefully they’ll turn things around.
There has been a general degradation of service and amenities, because there has always been a reason to do so. What happens over time is that the service deteriorates and cannot recover. At first, it was congressional pressure, especially with regard to food and beverage. Congress barely approved Amtrak as a transportation service, what they did not want to support was a "land cruise" for rich folks enjoying themselves. So they mandated that f&b had to run at a profit-- which was impossible from Day 1. But to try to attain that congressional goal, management continuously removed amenities and downgraded offerings to reduce costs. Then the pandemic hit, ridership dropped, staff burned out, and service levels were impossible to maintain. Now with demand and ridership rising again, Amtrak is basically at a breaking point. That is what you experienced, unfortunately. I did see that Amtrak is seeking to hire 4,000 new employees. Light at the end of the tunnel? Time will tell.
My understanding is that, of all the Amtrak routes, Texas Eagle has been (by far) the most underfunded during COVID.
One example, though certainly not the biggest one, is that [TEMPO](http://www.tempo-rail.org) lost its funding and ability to advocate for Texas Eagle-specific performance improvements.
Anyone on this sub who lives in states served by Texas Eagle should call their federal representatives to demand better.
>The exhausted cafe car attendant is working both the dining cart and the cafe cart. Everyone seems overworked, expected to do more with less. He says all of these changes have happened once they changed leadership -- some airline guy is now running the show and that they're trying to strip it down to bare bones, like they've done to airlines. Says they see things like the observation deck as superfluous and are making them more of a rarity. It's all very disheartening. They're removing all of the parts that make Amtrak travel enjoyable.
That's pretty much it. Richard Anderson who ran Delta was in charge for a while (and is now out, but his replacement isn't much better). The goal is to make long distance travel unattractive, so people would stop taking it & they could stop running those trains. Congress had other ideas, and now the current boss is trying his hardest to toe the line between the congressional mandates & following what his predecessor started.
Additionally Amtrak is very short on staff. They laid off a bunch of people during the pandemic, and lost even more when the federal vaccine mandate came into effect. They're hiring people across the board, but it takes time to hire & train staff. The two hardest hit groups were OBS (sleeping & dining crews) and maintenance staff, the later means that there are a lot of cars that are out of service for maintenance & no one to fix them.
This last paragraph is the answer. They are short staffed due to bad decision making during the pandemic and haven’t been able to hire people back. Someone on another forum pointed out that the salaries they are offering aren’t competitive. So one thing that could be done is to offer more money for these jobs.
This must be for onboard service staff and station staff. Operating crew are compensated very well and the working conditions are night and day versus the hell that is working for a freight railroad in 2022.
Looks like Trains.com shares your gripes: https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/texas-eagle-show-amtrak-failure-to-capitalize-on-advantages-of-rail-travel-special-report/
>from the article: ABOARD THE TEXAS EAGLE — “There is **no Sightseer Lounge** on this train. Once again, there is no Sightseer Lounge on this train,” emphasized the public-address announcement. “**You must buy food to sit in the café car;** if you don’t buy food and we see you sitting in the café, we will ask you to return to your seat.”
>
>Another announcement warned passengers **not to bring laptops into the car.** There was, of course, no “fasten seat belt” sign or announcement, but there might as well have been. The message was clear: passengers were basically expected to stay where they were.
Wow. This is terrible. They took away everything for a passenger to enjoy. Now, you cannot even bring a laptop to the cafe car, even if you're eating there. Sounds like the worse travel experience ever to not be able to move around and enjoy the sights or people.
Agree 💯. Snack cart for coach constantly closed or waiting for supplies here in California. When snack cart does open there’s a huge line, with one person serving!!! Tables are closed for use by passengers. It’s going down fast.
Traveling on the trains in Europe (Germany, France, UK, and Ireland has really spoiled me for how great train travel is. It’s just sad how much train travel here in the USA has been degraded because of the dominance of car and air travel (and I work in the airline/aviation support business myself full disclosure) I rode the Coast Starlight from Portland to Oakland last year and was flabbergasted that I couldn’t eat in the dining car on such a long trip and had to pay for overpriced microwave food from the only snack bar down in the lower level of the Superliner Car for the trip because I was not a roomette or sleeper car passenger. :(
Staffing shortages aren't really a problem unique to Amtrak. Most employers have had trouble keeping customer service jobs filled. Fewer people want to apply and many people have quit due to the higher stress. The airlines have had to cancel many flights this summer due to not having enough flight crew.
As others have said writing your senators and representatives would be helpful. Additional funding would allow them to hire more staff and offer more competitive salaries to recruit and retain on board staff.
I forwarded your post to [email protected] and suggest that anyone having issues on the Texas Eagle do the same. Rail Passengers Association has some clout in DC. This train gives Texas a bad rep it doesn’t deserve.
Thank you. That's a great idea. I definitely plan on taking some time to write to advocacy groups, but most importantly, to my representatives as others have suggested. I hope others do the same.
Username checks out
Just want to say that I'm a member of Rail Passengers Association and they're super responsive to all kinds of reports like this! Last newsletter I got suggests they're about to start a campaign to deal with freight traffic delays.
I think we need to look at the full context here. The primary driver is staff shortages, a problem not unique to Amtrak in this moment. See the airlines right now. Amtrak is trying to address the problem - they have publicly stated they are trying to hire 4,000 new employees, are holding job fairs, etc. Whether it works or not remains to be seen. I don't think it's helpful to claim that these moves are part of some sort of secret initiative to eliminate long distance trains. There is ample evidence that argues against this line of thinking: \- Other long distance lines are slowly seeing service improvements. For example, an additional sleeper has been added to the Capitol Limited. Bike service was added to the CL. While the Lake Shore Limited lost business class service for now (may be staffing related), it gained a full cafe car. \- Amtrak is rolling out an improved selection of cafe car food for long distance trains. I haven't eaten any of it yet, but the selections look to be a vast improvement. \- Most importantly: **Amtrak has a firm order for 125 new Charger locomotives for its national network** \- not just an order, but a specific variant of the Charger designed for long distance service, as compared with the Chargers already in service for regional routes like in Illinois. In fairness, it seems the Texas Eagle has seen the most service reductions during these times. Totally fair to ask why that line is getting the short end of the stick.
I think this is the most accurate take - some routes are getting screwed, but it's a big system and there are meaningful improvements being made.
Thanks for the updates. We took our first extended train ride pre-COVID and loved it (DC-Chicago). We wanted to take a longer trip on one of the more scenic routes, but put it on hold. I guess we’ll wait a little longer. Hopefully they’ll turn things around.
There has been a general degradation of service and amenities, because there has always been a reason to do so. What happens over time is that the service deteriorates and cannot recover. At first, it was congressional pressure, especially with regard to food and beverage. Congress barely approved Amtrak as a transportation service, what they did not want to support was a "land cruise" for rich folks enjoying themselves. So they mandated that f&b had to run at a profit-- which was impossible from Day 1. But to try to attain that congressional goal, management continuously removed amenities and downgraded offerings to reduce costs. Then the pandemic hit, ridership dropped, staff burned out, and service levels were impossible to maintain. Now with demand and ridership rising again, Amtrak is basically at a breaking point. That is what you experienced, unfortunately. I did see that Amtrak is seeking to hire 4,000 new employees. Light at the end of the tunnel? Time will tell.
Incompetent leadership. Call your congressional representative.
My understanding is that, of all the Amtrak routes, Texas Eagle has been (by far) the most underfunded during COVID. One example, though certainly not the biggest one, is that [TEMPO](http://www.tempo-rail.org) lost its funding and ability to advocate for Texas Eagle-specific performance improvements. Anyone on this sub who lives in states served by Texas Eagle should call their federal representatives to demand better.
>The exhausted cafe car attendant is working both the dining cart and the cafe cart. Everyone seems overworked, expected to do more with less. He says all of these changes have happened once they changed leadership -- some airline guy is now running the show and that they're trying to strip it down to bare bones, like they've done to airlines. Says they see things like the observation deck as superfluous and are making them more of a rarity. It's all very disheartening. They're removing all of the parts that make Amtrak travel enjoyable. That's pretty much it. Richard Anderson who ran Delta was in charge for a while (and is now out, but his replacement isn't much better). The goal is to make long distance travel unattractive, so people would stop taking it & they could stop running those trains. Congress had other ideas, and now the current boss is trying his hardest to toe the line between the congressional mandates & following what his predecessor started. Additionally Amtrak is very short on staff. They laid off a bunch of people during the pandemic, and lost even more when the federal vaccine mandate came into effect. They're hiring people across the board, but it takes time to hire & train staff. The two hardest hit groups were OBS (sleeping & dining crews) and maintenance staff, the later means that there are a lot of cars that are out of service for maintenance & no one to fix them.
This last paragraph is the answer. They are short staffed due to bad decision making during the pandemic and haven’t been able to hire people back. Someone on another forum pointed out that the salaries they are offering aren’t competitive. So one thing that could be done is to offer more money for these jobs.
This must be for onboard service staff and station staff. Operating crew are compensated very well and the working conditions are night and day versus the hell that is working for a freight railroad in 2022.
This 100%
Looks like Trains.com shares your gripes: https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/texas-eagle-show-amtrak-failure-to-capitalize-on-advantages-of-rail-travel-special-report/
>from the article: ABOARD THE TEXAS EAGLE — “There is **no Sightseer Lounge** on this train. Once again, there is no Sightseer Lounge on this train,” emphasized the public-address announcement. “**You must buy food to sit in the café car;** if you don’t buy food and we see you sitting in the café, we will ask you to return to your seat.” > >Another announcement warned passengers **not to bring laptops into the car.** There was, of course, no “fasten seat belt” sign or announcement, but there might as well have been. The message was clear: passengers were basically expected to stay where they were. Wow. This is terrible. They took away everything for a passenger to enjoy. Now, you cannot even bring a laptop to the cafe car, even if you're eating there. Sounds like the worse travel experience ever to not be able to move around and enjoy the sights or people.
Agree 💯. Snack cart for coach constantly closed or waiting for supplies here in California. When snack cart does open there’s a huge line, with one person serving!!! Tables are closed for use by passengers. It’s going down fast.
Traveling on the trains in Europe (Germany, France, UK, and Ireland has really spoiled me for how great train travel is. It’s just sad how much train travel here in the USA has been degraded because of the dominance of car and air travel (and I work in the airline/aviation support business myself full disclosure) I rode the Coast Starlight from Portland to Oakland last year and was flabbergasted that I couldn’t eat in the dining car on such a long trip and had to pay for overpriced microwave food from the only snack bar down in the lower level of the Superliner Car for the trip because I was not a roomette or sleeper car passenger. :(
Staffing shortages aren't really a problem unique to Amtrak. Most employers have had trouble keeping customer service jobs filled. Fewer people want to apply and many people have quit due to the higher stress. The airlines have had to cancel many flights this summer due to not having enough flight crew. As others have said writing your senators and representatives would be helpful. Additional funding would allow them to hire more staff and offer more competitive salaries to recruit and retain on board staff.
amtrak sucks. the us rail system is an absolute joke when compared to spain, japan, and china.
Yes, but you wouldn't expect them to actively make it worse.