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