Is It Time to Ban Bicycling at Night?
The Desertification of Seattle Has Begun
Elevator or Hellevator? Maybe Take the Stairs
A Reader Writes
We got an Amtrak phone survey call over the weekend and they wanted to know if having a snack bar in business class would make us more/less likely to travel by rail. How much would that be worth? In-station hotspots? Now how much would we pay? Private lounge with butler?
On the other hand, what if they put leather seats in coach and added more legroom? How did we feel about that? Bit of a letdown after the butler thing, but okay.
This was three days after a freight train derailed at Steilacoom and blocked Amtrak traffic completely. And three months after they had to pull the Talgo cars for repair, so the Seattle to Portland trip expanded to at least 4 hours. (The Talgo trains are fully back in action as of October 29th.) We say at least because the last four trips we've made between Seattle and Portland, there's typically been an extra 45 minutes to an hour delay, thanks to molasses-slow freight trains in the way -- Amtrak only leases its use of freight-owned rails and delays are chronic, with no resolution in sight. Despite that, the Amtrak Cascades route still saw ridership increase over 7% in 2007 from 2006, and revenue increased almost 10%.
After the 15-minute survey, we had covered a lot of onboard amenities that were mainly nice-to-haves -- all we really need is free WiFi on the train and a place to plug in our laptop. That takes care of work and entertainment right there. The survey did not solicit our feelings on the crappiness of King St. Station and its amenities, the absurdity of a non-automated boarding and seat assignment procedure, or rate the importance of guaranteed on-time arrival.
A snack machine in the business class car -- that's where Amtrak is looking. It's like Mel Brooks says, the money is in merchandising!
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The most annoying thing about Amtrak is that it's a crap shoot. Sometimes it's way easier than riding a car. Sometimes you should've just walked to Portland.
Right now, it's set up to reward people who memorize the system -- don't take the Coast Express because it's always slow, pack light when the Talgo cars are out of service because there's no baggage check.
I think the best thing Amtrak could do to boost ridership is deliver consistent service. Better to go in knowing it'll be slow than to have to gamble every time.
Taking the Coast Starlight southbound is actually a great experience, since it generally does leave Seattle on-time, and you get the added bonus of the full-service dining car, which puts out reasonably good fare, although admittedly it's a bit pricey.
But yeah, Amtrak really needs to beef up its Customer Service component, especially because track closures seem to occur about once a month. There is nothing more frustrating than being stranded in a station, particularly during the holidays, and not only NOT having anyone physically present to answer questions, but having to repeatedly call Amtrack in a futile attempt to extract information from a telephone CS rep, which is harder to accomplish than pulling teeth without anesthesia.
I don't get the snack machine in busness class, though. The CS has the dining car and the Cascades has a deli car; is Amtrak saying the patricians in BC are so lazy they can't walk two cars down to get their overpriced Ivar's Clam Chowder?
James, I agree wholeheartedly. The service is too variable. (When Talgo cars are out of service, there's no bike car, either.) I'd rather they just shot for a consistent 4-hour trip, rather than make-or-miss 3.5 hours so wildly. I've heard people say that in the Northeast, where Amtrak also leases freight tracks, the delays aren't as bad/frequent, so I wonder what the deal is here.
That "rewarding people who memorize the system" attitude is also my problem with Metro here in Seattle. I don't know why there isn't more of an effort to make transit simple to use and consistent in service. Am I crazy for thinking your Amtrak fare should include a day bus-pass for the city you arrive in?
Comte: As a patrician biz class patron, I've had to rub shoulders with plebs standing in some *long* lines in the dining car. So there's a convenience issue. But I think the notion is just to soak the biz class folks for as much as possible by putting another way to spend money right in their car.
Yep, I'd agree. Consistency is sorely lacking.
Though sometimes it's surprising what they can pull off. We took the Empire Builder to Glacier NP (FYI, this is a great way to get there), and on the way back the train was four hours late. But we made up enough time on the way back, so that we pulled into Seattle just about on time!
I think ultimately the problem is that mass transit/non-automobile transportation is just an afterthought or considered an "extra" rather than an integrated part of a transportation network. Witness Seattle's disjointed plans for a streetcar, and now Prop1 plans for the light rail- neither of which goes anywhere near the entire western side of the city.