CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Amtrak is a passenger railroad run by the government. That says a lot.
Regular listeners know that I enjoy train travel. Traveling cross county in a sleeping compartment is part of my vacation, which I look forward to. And at the end of a vacation nothing eases you back into your regular life like a train ride. And Amtrak-the government run railroad-is the only remaining choice for people who like train travel. Private railroads got out of the money losing passenger business in the 1970s.
My train to New York was canceled. That’s not Amtrak’s fault. A freight derailment in upstate New York blocked the line. But Amtrak’s serving of its customers is exactly what you’d expect from the government.
That derailment happened on Friday. Amtrak didn’t tell me that my train was canceled until Monday, the day I was going to travel. I’d already driven to Milwaukee before my phone rang: an automated message with another number to call to make alternate travel plans.
I called. There were no sleeping car compartments available the next day or the day after. They could re-book me on Thursday; it would cut my vacation in half. Why are the sleeping cars so crowded? Well, that’s a series of mismanagement decisions by our government run railroad. You’d think when a train is crowded, they’d add an extra car or two. That’s what the private railroads used to do. And Amtrak has the cars, sitting empty in a coach yard somewhere. They don’t have the people. Amtrak laid off all their staff who wouldn’t get COVID shots, so they are chronically short-staffed.
Many people get notices about late or canceled trains through Amtrak’s Twitter feed. But Amtrak’s Twitter feed is blank. Apparently our government-run railroad didn’t switch over to “X”, so their feed is blank. Now Amtrak has an entire IT department, and no one was on top of the changes at Twitter?
The computer program that handles cancelations at Amtrak apparently doesn’t talk to its reservation system. I received a ‘welcome aboard’ email around the same time I got the ‘your trip is canceled’ notice. I asked that my entire train trip be canceled; I rebooked to fly on JetBlue. So far, only my sleeping car reservation has been refunded. It will take four weeks to process the rest.
You could not imagine a private company being run this way. Hypothetically, an airline would not take days to notify customers of a cancelation. They’ll text or call if anything changes. (Jetlue even sent me a text when my luggage was loaded onto the plane.) They add flights during peak vacation season. They refund immediately if you’re entitled to one.
The airline industry struggles with customer service too. Whoever thought we’d pay extra to check a bag or select a seat? But these are for-profit companies. Amtrak is what an airline might look like if it were run by the Department of Motorvehicles.
Chris Conley
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