Every time I mention Amtrak, people seem to reflexively wince or shrug and make some comment about government inefficiency. The initial reaction has been universally negative. Not a single person starts with an “I love trains!” or “rail trips are great,” although some have gotten to that point after the requisite Amtrak bashing.
If you read the Wikipedia page (or numerous other online sources) The National Railroad Passenger Corporation (a.k.a., Amtrak) was formed in 1971 because of declining private rail routes and availability. Ever since, Amtrak has been an institution everyone loves to hate, whether because it’s socialistic and therefore a priori evil, or because it covers insufficient routes, or for myriad other reasons.
Despite myself, I find myself with additional ammunition for the haters.
While planning our journey, I wanted to purchase rail passes for Elizabeth and me, and to make reservations for the various segments. The way the rail pass works is that you have (in this case) thirty days and/or twelve separate rail segments paid for by the pass, but you need to reserve your specific seats separately and/or upgrade to sleepers or roomettes. I had planned out a route that used up eleven of those twelve segments.
So, first step, I tried to buy the passes through the web site, but couldn’t find a way to buy two of them. I called the support phone number, and talked to someone who didn’t seem to know much about rail passes. Had I just hung up and tried again, everything would have been fine, but instead I asked if I could make arrangements in person down at Union Station. “Of course,” I was told.
So I drove down to Union Station over that weekend, and waited in line at the ticketing office. There was some chaos because the LA to San Diego line was undergoing repairs, and thus part of the journey needed to be taken by bus, which was confusing large numbers of people. After finally reaching the head of the line, the agent told me I was out of luck. “This is for ticketing, not reservations. There are four of us here to manage all the ticketing, while at the phone center, they have four hundred people to help you. We can’t make all those people ” — he indicated the line behind me — “wait while we do all your reservations. Call the phone center.” When I asked where I could fill out a complaint, since I had been given bad information, he told me that complaints were handled — you guessed it — via the phone center.
So, when I got home, I bit the bullet, and (foolishly, once again) ordered my rail passes through the web site. This involved going through the order process twice. But, in the end, I had my Rail Pass numbers. I decided to put off actually reserving the eleven legs of the journey until another day.
(to Be Continued)