Overview

My two last trips were both delayed by around one hour. The last one, from Philadelphia to Washington, was delayed by 54 min. I was instructed by Amtrak staff at the train station to report the delay to Amtrak customer relations to either be refunded the cost of the trip or obtain a credit towards future trips. After waiting on hold twice for around 30 min, I was told that a delay of 43 min (the train made up for some of the delay) is not considered significant enough. I find this unacceptable. Any railway system in Western Europe and Japan would consider delays longer than 15 minutes as significant. Both delays were caused by equipment breakdown. Such a high frequency of failure is a sign of poor maintenance and/or antiquated infrastructure. It is all lagging many years behind the modern railways in other developed countries.

So I wrote an email to their customers service center, after about 2 months they responded by say they are understaffed and are diligently and sometimes the trains are delayed by bad weather... Heres the kicker my email was about their bad customer service. They clearly haven't read my concern and are sending prewritten messages and that's taking them 2 months to do.

Trip from hell. Over 3 hours late arriving. I agree with others a bus ride would have been much better. If you are going to ride the rails go to Europe. Avoid Amtrak at all costs.

I’ve been riding the train the last 2 years between Washington and Michigan. I just paid for a one way trip and the next day my daughter and sons ticket change to free. I send an email and no response, I call and they can cancel my tickets and I can pay for a completely new set of tickets but at receiving a cancellation fee. I just think that’s crazy. I’d have been fine with repaying for new tickets but a few. That’s sad because I’m a consistent customer. Just unfortunate. I’m not mad just can’t believe companies have to get their money this way.

Traveling from Los Angeles to San Diego half way done can’t go further due to “security issue” train left us stranded in the middle of nowhere, no reception very low Lyft or Uber service, Amtrak didn’t offer transfer to next station when we asked for refund they said we need to call customer service has been over 2 weeks no refund yet supposedly take 6 weeks customer service worse you need to call an agent and after waiting over 30-40 minutes you need to be transferred to refunds department and answer is still under process

I wish I could give no star, what a horrible experience, this bad experience started from my seat “Car 1 seat number 6F” “DO NOT BOOK THIS SEAT, THIS IS BROKEN” Wobbling seat, dirt everywhere, so annoying. When I asked to change my seat, conductor said all seats are booked but I can report it and Amtrak will give me discount, I didn’t need discount I just needed a normal seat… finally she changed my seat next to a family which it made them uncomfortable as well, I had a bad experience…. Next thing was lunch, I wish I could post a photo of that… I could say it was for couple days before, bad quality

Old and dirt seats. Toilets were stinking. No help or assistance to be found when needed. Backward seats awkward!

First time we’ve ever taken a train. Seemed like a good solution for a leg of a journey to Glacier National Park. The train is 5+hrs late for a 3 hr trip with someone awaiting us at the destination, Libby, MT. The train itself is very dated and shabby. Passengers smell of alcohol. The Spokane depot had homeless people in and around it before departure. Never again.

Dirty windows, peanuts and crumbs on the floor, bad smell from the bedroom toilet. Everything very dirty. Coat hangers jammed into every rattling door frame. Roomettes and Bedrooms get very very hot. Attendant doesn't answer call button. Worst decision ever, never again.

After being more than 2 hours late, at the horrible Anniston AL station, people are getting rushed onto the train, and before they can even sit down, the train is going! This includes folks w/ kids. Almost ZERO stops so people can have a smoke- making many passengers unhappy. Food is over priced and not very good. A can of soda is 2.50!! Coffee is like mud. Next time I need to go on a long trip, I'll take a bus -because for the price of a train I expected better -as did most of the people I am hearing complain.

I was on a Saturday train headed to Petersburg Virginia train 87 at 3:21 the ride was good but at the end near to my stop the conductor Brian was exceptionally good I had two bags that he helped me with. Arriving at my stop I only grabbed one bags as I got off the train. Brian reminded me that I was missing a bag that I totally forgot, it’s nice to be in a place where someone is observant and he noticed when I got off the train he told me that I was missing a bag. We need more people like Brian. I want to say Thank You Brian.

Was a nice scenic trip Chicago to Portland, food excellent, not enough help on the train, holding tank level sensor issues caused toilets to not work in sleeping car, NOT a gentile rocking, train stopped in Sacramento from Portland due to "never happened" rail strike-totally dumped with no help for alternate transportation-no one cared, hole at the counter was rude and not interested, got my money back with no help from Amtrak (kept email contact from person that booked the trip for me) and rented a car

I’ve ridden Amtrak a lot over the years. From Plattsbergh to NYC and it was great! Fayetteville to Wilmington not so much. The porters were the best but the bathrooms were disgusting!!! And it’s s pretty ride but you couldn’t see out the windows for the dirt. The train outside was filthy. Clean inside except for the disgusting bathrooms. As a middle aged woman the lack of cleanliness of the bathroom is important to me.. I heard a woman in front of me say she will never ride a train agsin because of the bathrooms. Try Men-Women bathrooms. Or X-Y bathrooms, The seat was all peed on too… yuck!!

Travelled from Austin to Alpine, Texas. Air conditioning was going out in the coach car. Sweaty smelly. Never again. Some unhelpful rude staff. 4 hour layover in San Antonio. I couldnt wait on the train due to AC being out. Took a cab to Hyatt to sit in AC till departure at 245 AM. Coach Seats are not comfortable. Observation car seats are worse. Food service is all prepackaged stuff like airplane food but with a much lower budget. Ill drive or fly next trip.

My family took the Carolinian train from NC to NYC over the memorial weekend. Everyone was friendly and helpful! Wanda (who has worked for 54 years) on the return trip was a delightful surprise!