Jersey Mike

Dear Amtrak,

I’ve been riding your rails for over fifteen years now. When was in my late teens and early twenties, I’d ride from New York, Penn Station to Hartford, CT. Mostly on Sunday nights. Occasionally on a Friday afternoon. And I fondly remember how nice it felt from the time I boarded until I arrived at the Hartford station just over two hours later.

The fare at the time escapes me, but it was reasonable. Especially considering the pleasant greeting “Welcome Aboard” that passengers would receive when passing a conductor on our way to our seats.

Occasionally, I’d ride from New York to Boston and the fare was just as reasonable and the service was just as nice.

But fifteen years later, I really want to know: what the hell happened, Amtrak?

Why do nearly every one of your employees whom I encounter react as if a simple question or request is the most inconvenient thing that’s happened to them? Why is it that I sometimes find myself sighing out of frustration when I board a train with my seven year old, only to find many of the seats occupied by a single rider or, worse yet, the four seaters at either end of the train occupied by a single rider and when I ask for assistance in getting two seats together (so my seven year old daughter doesn’t have to ride alone) your employees predictably react ambivalently?

Is it because you’re doing SO well that you don’t NEED to treat your customers with dignity and respect?

Or is it simply because you don’t have any competition and know that I don’t have another option when I would rather do the right thing for the environment and take a train to Jersey?

And what’s with your exorbitant pricing? Checked fares today, and found that if we were to take the 1:05 train from Harrisburg to Newark on Friday, the fare was around $130 for two tickets (one adult and one child) but the fare for the 5:35 train was nearly half that at around $70?

Aren’t you supposed to be enticing customers to choose rail travel over driving, flying or taking a bus?

Isn’t that the idea? Shouldn’t you be trying to make it more affordable and realistic for a family to travel by rail rather than acting like a true fat, lazy, corporation and squeezing every single penny you can out of each customer?

Look, when it was all said and done, my trip to Jersey this weekend for two adults and one child, round trip, is going to cost us $225.60. To travel 180 miles. On a pretty popular route.

How is that affordable? Gas prices have mostly stabilized. We could have easily chosen to drive- with tolls and two tanks of gas (not to mention the lack of snooty conductors) it would have been less than a hundred bucks. And gotten us door to door.

I WANT to take Amtrak. I really do enjoy it…but we’re not talking about luxury travel here. Not only have fares gone up and customer service gone down, but the Keystone line is sometimes even DIRTY.

Sure, you’ve got hundreds of people sitting in those seats daily. And I’m sure your staff doesn’t particularly care to pick up what some inconsiderate riders leave behind. But how about sprucing up the cars at the longer stops? Open the doors, air em out, maybe run a vacuum?

We constantly hear about the need to drive less, take more public transit and conserve more energy…but you, Amtrak, are not making it easy for us. And fares aside, many of your employees act like complete assholes.

I guess this has been building for awhile, this is nothing new. No one particular incident sparked this…other than the fact its’ going to cost me nearly triple what it would to drive home for Easter Weekend.

All in a time that we’re supposed to be encouraging train travel and mass transit.

C’mon, Amtrak. Get your shit together.

Hugs and kisses,

Jersey Mike

Well this was interesting, eh?

We’ll do another one of these about a week before the primary- but as it stands right now, the Jersey Mike Mayor and Council Poll Results are (sort of) right where I thought they’d be.

Respondents were gathered from posting the link on my Twitter and Facebook accounts in addition to a link on the Harrisburg Forum of PennLies…er, PennLive.

Starting with council, it’s looking like Papenfuse, Kim, Summerford and Harris in the lead. Bringing up the rear is Mikey Thomas, Pat Stringer, Eugenia Smith, Joe Brown, Danielle Green and Pat Stringer.

In my humble opinion, Pat Stringer should just drop out and scatter her few votes to more capable candidates. Again, she seems like a nice enough lady…but I can picture her making me a warm bowl of soup on a cold winter day…sort of like my Grandmother.

The most surprising name in the top four is certainly Kelly Summerford. Based on what I’ve heard, this guy doesn’t have much street-support outside of his immediate family and friends. What’s he going to bring to the table? Dance lessons? Acting lessons?

(And do keep in mind that there is certainly room for error in this poll. The system isn’t foolproof and it is quite possible that the votes could have been stacked by visiting multiple computers, proxy sites or IP masking.)

Onto the Mayoral poll-

Nothing shocking, here. What’s going to happen is this: Les and Linda are going to potentially cancel each other out. Giving Reed the leeway needed to muster up enough support to get a ninth term as Mayor.

On the surface, this poll shows Les Ford leading with 37% of respondents selections. Close behind is Steve Reed with 33%, Thompson with 21% and Republican Candidate Nevin Mindlin with 9%.

Realizing that this is just a simple and unscientific study, much of the Thompson street-support didn’t participate. Either because of not knowing or just not wanting to. Either way, I was certain there would have been more support for Linda than Les. But hey, it’s just a poll from a blogger, right?

This is where the process gets fun. Watch the mailers. Look at all of the campaign signs and propoganda hitting the streets. And listen to what these people have to say at the upcoming candidates debates.

This is getting good….