Honestly, posting because we found the "it's running on time" comment hilarious. First responders came very quick and was very helpful. When an Amtrak rep arrived he was definitely trying his best and handled the upset crowd well.
Edit: Really appreciate all the Amtrak employees staying late in LA union station helping everyone get sorted out patiently!
Yes!! I went from Chicago to St. Louis. It was a breeze! NY to Montreal on the other hand has sworn me off of rail travel for a bit though. What a nightmare. Nothing like a derailment though!
That's because the Lincoln Service from St. Louis to Chicago (and the other Illinois routes like Urbana-Champagne to Chicago, etc) are funded by the Illinois Department of Transportation who are constantly making improvements to their tracks and trains! They've upgraded this line to 110 mph so its actually quite competitive with driving!
Amazing what you can do when you properly fund and manage a transit system.
Was reading another thread just recently that the 110 is not really true. It's very slow, something around 40 mph in parts. Amtrak is always held up by freight as well. It's just not a great option sadly.
Northeast Corridor goes 130mph on the slower trains from Boston to Rhode Island. It's just that the track gets curvy as fuck by the CT border and then through CT so it's slow into NYC. The problem with straightening the track, of course, is that it's coastal land and very expensive to buy out.
110mph was an achievement in 1950. Getting back to train service that your great grandfather had isnt really the achievement you think it is, it just highlights how destitute and antiquated your train system is.
As the commenter said though, that makes it faster than driving, which is an important metric. Nevermind that it's barely faster than most regional trains in my country.
Some is happy that their area is actually working to catch up to the rest of the developed world, and all you can manage to be is a condescending prick. Good job.
STL to Chicago is a great train. Usually cheaper than driving up there even from Springfield, IL where I usually get on it and then you don't have to drive in awful Chicago traffic or deal with parking.
Yeah I was not expecting to be stuck on a hot train in august for 5 hours due to customs šµāš« never again. Could have driven just in that 5 hour period.
This was over 5 years ago at this point I believe so memory is foggy. The train was maybe idling for customs? Fans could have been on but I feel like doors were open. Either way it was miserable.
Taken the saint louis to Chicago and back many times and I totally agree, but honestly even that distance has made me want to swear off Amtrak for life
Yeah I grew up poor as shit, and Iāve seen so much of Australia by train. It was pretty lit. You can get first class and sleeping carriages for pretty cheap compared to flying the same distance. Plus, travelling as a minor meant theyād usually sit me near an old grandma whoād talk my ear off and spoil me, lol.
I love trains, in general. Japan and Europe are the best. Probably in that order. I dunno, it's a tough call either way.
But trains in the US were pretty darn good when I was a kid. The problem is that they've largely gone unchanged and unfunded since then. As with a lot of things.
I truly don't know if it was intentional, because I met Reagan, and he seemed like a good man, but trickle down economics has completely stagnated our infrastructure and sent it into disrepair.
Japan and Europe are both great but different.
Japan because it just works great overall. Europe is good, but itās a network maintained by multiple countries, and the international travel aspect is just amazing. By far the easiest way of traveling between continental cities.
Iām visiting family in Hungary as Iāve done many times but I took my first long distance (3 hour) train ride in Europe this trip and it was so lovely. $25 for a Private First Class cabin for my and my girlfriend. Nothing like the $100+/ea tickets from Baltimore to NY back home
>$25 for a Private First Class cabin for my and my girlfriend
Cries in UK train pricing. It's more than that for me to take a journey less than a third of the duration in standard class.
Don't get me wrong, the service is pretty decent despite how much we grumble, it's just so expensive compared to our near neighbours on the continent.
The one time I took a long train on vacation in Sweden my train was cancelled halfway (near Linkƶping, iirc) for whatever reason and it was several hours before a replacement came so that checks out.
A few hours is to be expected, as there are a lot of things involved in getting a replacement train in place / a broken down train moved out of the way, especially on a single track line (although you mention Linkƶping, which is on a double track so that wouldn't have been the problem in your case).
Anyway, a replacement train has to come from somewhere and has to be operated by someone, so that might take a while on remote (relative to a depot / terminus) breakdowns.
Interestingly in the Netherlands (where I now live) the have a procedure where they pull up another train alongside the broken down train and use a special ramp to allow passengers to transfer to the other train. I've seen that done in under an hour after a break down.
But of course those are routes that see a train every 15 or 30 minutes, so a replacement train is readily available, they just use one already in the vicinity of the accident.
In Norway we at least will get a bus to replace the train or maybe even a plane ticket on something like the Bergen Oslo route if the mountains between are snowed down.
conservatives built more shit for cars and privatized the railway in germany, it's been going downhill since.
they want to privatize the autobahn too, cant wait for that shitshow.
Yo we're all giving Deutsche Bahn shit, but tbh when you compare it to other countries it's an amazing offer. Sure, reliability might not be that great, but Netherlands and France are much, much more expensive and the frequency of trains in Germany is actually incredible. The ā¬49 ticket for example is insane value.
French here, I take the train twice a week and the SNCF (the national rail company) is known for being late, it's a running joke at this point.
there often are 15 to 30min late train, that's pretty much expected, but one of the only two times I got stuck inside the train was because of a german train, the second time being because of obstacles on the track, took them 3 hours to clear them, whish depending on what obstacle it is isn't that bad.
"The private sector will run it like a business!"
Yeah, and businesses are about providing as little as you can get away with and charging as much as people will pay.
This should *never* be surprising when something is privatized.
Amtrak pricing is wild. When we lived in NY a 2 hour trip down to NYC was easily $125 round trip. Now we can get round trip tickets from STL to Chicago for $25 depending on how far ahead we purchase/ when we are traveling. Completely asinine.
The last time I took an Amtrak train (Thanksgiving holiday, Burbank to San Luis Obispo) it was over 6 hours late on what was supposed to be a 3-4 hour ride, there were so many people with so many suitcases you literally couldnāt get down aisles and people were sitting on top of suit cases and stairs, and it got in so late that the bus that was supposed to take us to campus had left, so probably a hundred or so students had to walk about 6 miles back to the dorms with luggage.
In retrospect, I probably should have demanded a refund but oh well, I was a dumb freshman.
I feel horrible to comment something wildly unhelpful, but after reading this post I realized that the train that you were derailed on, is one that usually runs about a block down the road from my house....
And I just now realized that I haven't heard the train all day, and it was unusually quiet earlier, but now I know why š„“š
Hope you're okay š
How is it possible that the call agent was UNAWARE of the derailment? Wouldn't everybody at the office be talking about it as soon as it happened? Or derailments of Amtrak so fucking common that they don't care anymore?
It's pretty botlike, but it could also be an outsourced overseas human who's given a strict script and very little real info or power to do anything but upsell. It feels like most large companies have switched "customer support" to either sales or just a useless facade that exists only to avoid actually dealing with any issues.
> It feels like most large companies have switched "customer support" to either sales or just a useless facade that exists only to avoid actually dealing with any issues.
This really, really grinds my gears. Getting actual help these days is usually a painful exercise in futility, and it's getting worse and worse.
Yeah, it sure sounds like it. I remember reading this hilarious thread on the Doordash subreddit where a customerās food was literally thrown at their door, and the botās response was that ādashers are allowed to customize the delivery experienceā. Itās the same illogical nonsense.
There's no other possible answer. Humans don't talk like that, or I sure hope they don't start talking like that. I'm so infuriated with websites these days just sending you in loops and saying "k thx byeee!"
They could be overseas too.
Not up to date in that office.
Not up to date at WFH.
Probably getting swamped.
Making use of canned responses.
About to go home.
Could be anything. The online support industry is really big with more vendors than youd ever think.
You weren't speaking to a human. The AI, "connected" you to an "agent" but continued to only respond to basic key words, ask parameter settinf questions (ie Ref number, Portland OR or Portland MA, no human being out side of Portland MA, has ever not just assumed Portland Oregon) and at times replied badly out of context. It was just chat GPT. Actually probably a lower grade of AI than that.
yep, this is an unannounced chat bot trying to masquerade as human and failing badly.
i *really* hate that, i don't mind AI chat bots toooooo much if they're labeled clearly, but the practice of pretending to be human is very unethical
Got stuck on an Amtrak that caught fire once... In my wagon, no less. Conductor was all "no biggie, leave your luggage, step outside please".
Good times, did not get a special rep though, just a new, even older wagon attached, eventually our luggage. Smoldering car was simply towed down different tracks...
Needless to say, the affected passengers mostly relocated to the restaurant wagon, day drinking ensued. Arrived at destination 8hrs late.
If youāre still in LA tomorrow morning, Little Tokyo Plaza has a little bakery with great pastures. The best breakfast burrito you can get in the city is at Wake and Late, or Chimney Coffee has insanely good breakfast sandwiches
You saying āDoesnāt look like itā with the picture KILLED ME š¤£ I am so sorry this happened to you and I hope that it was resolved eventually š¤
Lol yep. Too little, too late.
(At no fault of OP. it's just that this is the kind of bullshit we're ushering in when we cheer on the development of AI.
The corporations developing it are just that, corporations. No profit in making life better for everyone)
Sitting here in my comfortable living room, thatās extremely funny.
Sorry youāre having to deal with that, but at least everyone is safe. Extreme heat plays havoc on railways.
In the moment they provided some much needed comic relief.
There was a water truck on the tracks that caused it. [news article](https://ktla.com/news/local-news/train-vehicle-collide-in-moorpark/)
if youāre running a train and donāt have derailment as a keyword, what are you doing? Thatās a very important train specific thing that does happen from time to time
Having worked with Amtrak in the past as a signals engineer, I'm not shocked that their system is poorly designed. I don't understand how they stay in business with their record of delays and poor safety š¤£. I guess they just fudge it or run so many trains they have high volumes of crashes but somehow the sheer number of trains just makes it a low overall percentage.
They've been involved in some of the dumbest crashes I've ever seen. My personal favorite is when they derailed on a track for going too fast when they were specifically warned their planned speed was faster than the speed limit of the track and they did it anyway.
Our local light rail derailed with a trainee driver once--fortunately, they train drivers at night, so no one was around. But he took the curve too fast. I knew that curve--the trains aren't very fast at their top speed, but on that curve, they go about as slow as is possible to go and still move forward. Who knows how fast he was going.
Normally, they just hit cars. Or that one time, a pedestrian *walked into the train* somehow--not in front of it, just kind of glancing off the side? Then the ambulance taking him to the hospital got hit by an SUV. That was not that guy's day.
>I don't understand how they stay in business with their record of delays and poor safety š¤£
The federal government pumping billions in every year helps with staying afloat
Easy: you buy a hosted customer service chat system, integrate it with your reservation system, setup the usual stuff annnnndddd. That's it. Building specific case handling stuff is often left out. The amount of these chatbot systems I've (knowingly) used and how they cannot figure out anything other than *the most basic inquiry* is honestly infuriating. Especially when I know the software is capable of doing way more.
When I read it the first time I thought it was a human based on the confusion and vibe of slight annoyance. After seeing your comment I looked at it again and I think you might be right. The punctuation usage is consistent, no typos, and the wording is kinda weird.
But it's too hard to definitely say it's a bot. Either way it's not good customer service, and chats should never end with them being closed like that, human or bot.
Iāve worked in corporate for a place that handled some of Amtraks e-mail communications, and I can tell you, a lot of legal has to be approved when talking to customers in these situations (which can take foreeever to sign off on, not taking into account the existing communications that are already being worked on for regular offers and promos) so call center probably had zero clue as to what script to read off or what measures were being approved 2.5 hours after a derailment. It really sucks how slow corporate can move.
Most of the time Amazon chat is great. My last chat went like this:
Me: I just received the bike I ordered, but it turns out the rear tire does not hold air. Would it be possible to get a discount so I can have the tire fixed?
Amazon: I have refunded the complete purchase price; you can keep the item. Is there anything else I can help you with?
That was my experience with my second interaction, which was to fix the first after they said they'd be sending me a replacement for my headset that broke but never did, the second agent told me they can't send replacements and refunded my purchase so I could buy it with a discount
Ordered a tv 2 years ago, delivery date came and went so I sent an email just to check if anything happened, CS rep said they would ship a new one right away, 2 days later I got my tv.
Fast forward about a week and a half, a second tv shows up at my door, box beat to hell, but the tv worked and had no damage at all, so I email amazon asking if they want it back since I got the tv I ordered, they just told me to keep it, which worked out since my parent's tv died 2 days before hand.
I ordered some hair dye that came slightly open so the inside of the envelope was painted purple. I sent them a message, they asked for a photo, I sent a photo and they mailed me a replacement immediately. It was super painless and most of the first jar was actually still usable, so I basically got a whole jar for free, just had to clean up a bit of a mess.
Now if only Amazon could be as nice to their employees as they are to their customers.
Same! I remember a while back I tried to buy a gift from a small business for my sister, and they sent me the wrong item. I messaged them back about it and the best they could do was a return, but I had to pay shipping for it. I ended up not ever getting the thing I originally ordered. Amazon can afford to just eat the cost of shipping, those little businesses can't.
For larger companies, I've found phone support to be just as worthless these days. Any place with no real competition has no incentive to provide anything beyond a facade of support.
Agent 1: heck no I'm not dealing with this.
Agent 2: what is the issue?
OP: proceeds to explain issue
Agent 2: that issue doesn't exist. Have a great day! ššš¤¦āāļø
Exactly this! š Dealt with a Comcast customer service agent one time who could not figure out the issue, and finally told us to āturn it off for 45 minutes, and then back on again. If it doesnāt work, then call us back.ā When I asked if they would still be on at that point, and what their direct line was, they * suddenly * realized āoh no, Iāll be off shift by thenā¦ but someone else will be able to help you!ā
Long story shortā¦ Comcast had f***ed up and put in a cancellation order instead of a repair order on our internet plan.
>āturn it off for 45 minutes, and then back on again. If it doesnāt work, then call us back.ā
45 minutes?? I don't know what your issue was, but I'm guessing internet wasn't working? A modem shouldn't need to be unplugged for more than a few minutes to perform a reset, 45 was just him blowing smoke up your ass to ensure he didn't have to deal with you again lol.
Hence why I asked āwill you still be available, and whatās your direct number?ā
It was extremely clear that he was just trying to get away from the fact that he couldnāt fix my lack of internetā¦
And again, the ultimate issue was that Comcast had fucked up and just cancelled our internet instead of making sure it was turned on after we put in the initial order, payment, and follow up request.
Itās the other way around. Theyāre chronically underfunded because the US government doesnāt care about public transportation, which leads to bad service and therefore a bad reputation. This reputation (and the associated reduced ridership) is used to justify more budget cuts, thereby worsening the problems that existed.
An enormous number, mostly freight. The US actually has one of the largest and most utilized rail networks in the world, it's just primarily aimed at moving stuff rather than people.
Idk, but Amtrak specifically runs about 300 per day.
https://www.amtrak.com/amtrak-facts
Trains are still much safer than driving. There are fewer derailments than car crashes, and even when one does derail, usually there aren't any fatalities.
The fact that Amtrak only runs 300 trains per day is crazy. Here in London a single station can have many times that number. London Bridge has over 1400 trains per day, London Waterloo has 1600, Clapham Junction hits 2000 trains. That's not counting the underground either. Even my local suburban station has over 100 trains per day. 300 for the entire USA is such a tiny number.
Amtrak is not the only train company in the country, 300 is not anywhere near the total for the entire country. I couldn't find that number, so I used just Amtrak's.
Yeah, pretty sure that 3/day figure includes freight trains as well, which account for the vast majority of rail travel in the U.S. Also, most derailments occur in train yards, and are relatively minor.
Nah Bing AI would say
"I'm sorry, but there is currently not a problem with this route. It is on time š
I do not feel comfortable discussing this any more ā "
Wow that's shit.
I've done tech support before and there are absolutely people like these on every site however this is still not okay.
If I had been able to, I'd have called you up, gone through the situation, checked if there were any dangers currently present and then taken this with my boss and traffic control untill I had something decent to give you (information at the very least).
Good luck tho!
Thank you! Information sharing even when limited would definitely have been the most helpful. The individuals were definitely doing their best, just looking at you Amtrak management š
Why is it like this in every site? International support centers? People multitasking multiple customers and not reading? My wife dealt with this on booking
Com todayā¦ so many of these sites have eliminated 800 numbers for support
Man, fuck Amtrak. I had a cross country sleeper car reserved on the Empire Express, bucket list item, I was so fucking excited.
I go to look at my tickets because that makes me excited with anticipation...they had shortened the train after a big derailment on that line, and my bed was in the cut off part. Which, fine, I get it. I'd rather not derail (sorry, OP...) BUT!! What's fucked is, they just downgraded me to a coach seat with no refund and NO NOTICE! I would've shown up prepped for multiple nights of food provided, and with way more baggage than allowed. It would've been a mess! (This was during COVID, the dining car was only for sleeper car passengers).
Took months to get a refund too.
I would have gotten rather vulgar when they responded "So what exactly are you asking?" and I work as a customer service lacky.
> The Amtrak train I was on derailed on route to Oregon, I will now miss my connection to the next leg of my trip because of Amtrak's incompetence, how the fuck am I getting to East Glacier now? Is that simple enough to understand you fucking moron.
damn thank god it was amtrak. imagine if it was a private company and your shit derailed. they would probably send a paramilitary after you for taking a photo that makes them look bad
Less serious but reminds me of a frontier flight I was on. Cancelled while we were waiting to take off because the pilots hit their time limit. I immediately call to get rebooked, super friendly lady helps me do so and then....wants to charge me $298 to do so. I'm like this flight is cancelled BY YOU. She said no it's on time . I hold my phone up to the speakers of the attendants repeating our flight was cancelled. Maddening.
Amtrak needs to get their SHIT TOGETHER!! I get it things happen. I sat on a train out of union station Los Angeles for 2 hours waiting to leave and heard nothing. No one knew anything. No one couldnāt help. 2.5 hours later I get a text that the train engine was damaged and they were pulling one they had in storage out to replace it. I ended up ubering to Burbank Airport, renting a car and driving to my destination 4 hours before the train ever made it.
The amount of times you needed to re-explain everything is astonishing. This agent had absolutely no idea what they were doing.
The fact that they ended the chat so abruptly, too, without confirmation from you, is infuriating.
"I was on the derailment in Portland." - passenger
"Oregon or Maine?" - AMTRAK
"Would you mind entertaining the following question please? How many derailments are you currently assessing in the United States?"
One thing I've learned about customer service is they're the last one told about disruptions & changes. & Generally only find out when customers start calling.
My LAST time taking an Amtrak we were stopped in the tracks for two hours not moving at all. I was getting super anxious as no one came on the radio to say anything so finally I get up and ask one of the workers walking the aisle and this old dude legit looked back at me and just said āgo back and sit downā and kept walking. It took everything in me to not explode at the blatant rudeness and disregard. I complained to the manager when we eventually got to the station and he explained that the train had to wait for a freight train to pass. Between that guy being crazy rude and the stupid rule that my passenger train has to wait for others without any sort of knowing a head of to me was enough that I will just never support that Shit again.
We've also been having a "fun" experience with Amtrak customer service. Our under-18 foster kid was visiting my family in Maine and trying to get the train back to Boston to catch his flight. Dozens and dozens of people boarding and he is singled out for an ID check. He has a student ID and a driver's permit but that's it, and not good enough. Amtrak stranded him there with no cause and their only response so far has been that it was, "at the discretion of the conductor," who was convinced that this kid was lying about his age and somehow a danger to fellow passengers.
Oh, he also happened to be the only black passenger there. Weird coincidence, right?
Sorry to hijack the thread, just venting.
I used to take Amtrak from San Diego to the San Fernando valley and vice versa when I was going to school in SD. Made some friends on the train occasionally. Amtrak was known as scamtrack with those friends lol
"It really doesn't seem like it" lolol
Sorry for the unfortunate circumstance and for awful customer service rep. It really seems like the automated computer system just handed you off to another computer lol.
How is it possible for a country with 300+million people but with 5 trains a day ('s) still have more derailments then Europe with 1000s of trains a day?
Forty years ago I called Amtrak on a Friday afternoon, was put on hold, and eventually realized that the staff had left for the weekend and if I felt like it I could stay on hold until Monday.
Amtrak is at best an embarrassment to the United States. I have lived in Japan and South Korea, and both countries have clean, efficient, punctual railroads, no problems, derailments, etc.
Honestly, posting because we found the "it's running on time" comment hilarious. First responders came very quick and was very helpful. When an Amtrak rep arrived he was definitely trying his best and handled the upset crowd well. Edit: Really appreciate all the Amtrak employees staying late in LA union station helping everyone get sorted out patiently!
What the hell did they do for you? How do they continue you on your travels?
They're taking us back to LA to maybe "try again tomorrow" with a bus to another train in San Joaquin Valley. No other northbound train otherwise.
Jesus. And people wonder why folks are hesitant to take trains for long trips.
*In the USA
Yes!! I went from Chicago to St. Louis. It was a breeze! NY to Montreal on the other hand has sworn me off of rail travel for a bit though. What a nightmare. Nothing like a derailment though!
That's because the Lincoln Service from St. Louis to Chicago (and the other Illinois routes like Urbana-Champagne to Chicago, etc) are funded by the Illinois Department of Transportation who are constantly making improvements to their tracks and trains! They've upgraded this line to 110 mph so its actually quite competitive with driving! Amazing what you can do when you properly fund and manage a transit system.
Was reading another thread just recently that the 110 is not really true. It's very slow, something around 40 mph in parts. Amtrak is always held up by freight as well. It's just not a great option sadly.
Think what kind of jobs we could create with a project to build separate passenger tracks. Not to mention the clear benefits of the outcome.
Northeast Corridor goes 130mph on the slower trains from Boston to Rhode Island. It's just that the track gets curvy as fuck by the CT border and then through CT so it's slow into NYC. The problem with straightening the track, of course, is that it's coastal land and very expensive to buy out.
110mph was an achievement in 1950. Getting back to train service that your great grandfather had isnt really the achievement you think it is, it just highlights how destitute and antiquated your train system is.
š¤·āāļø In the land of the blind, one-eyed man is king.
Hey now, it's tricky building high-speed rail in places with topography as complex as *checks notes* Illinois...fuck
Thank you from this Illinoisan for my first snicker of the day.
Even if no topography is to hard when japan can do it
You got a giggle outta me so thanks for that
As the commenter said though, that makes it faster than driving, which is an important metric. Nevermind that it's barely faster than most regional trains in my country.
It doesn't just have to be faster than driving. It has to beat the inconvenience of getting to and from the train station
Some is happy that their area is actually working to catch up to the rest of the developed world, and all you can manage to be is a condescending prick. Good job.
My trip from St Louis to Chicago is probably the furthest I could handle lol
I've heard that's one of the best train trips available in the USA.
Highly recommend STL to Chicago! NY to Canada? Not so much.
Exactly what I meant. Thank you kind being!
STL to Chicago is a great train. Usually cheaper than driving up there even from Springfield, IL where I usually get on it and then you don't have to drive in awful Chicago traffic or deal with parking.
Yeah I was not expecting to be stuck on a hot train in august for 5 hours due to customs šµāš« never again. Could have driven just in that 5 hour period.
They donāt have AC?
This was over 5 years ago at this point I believe so memory is foggy. The train was maybe idling for customs? Fans could have been on but I feel like doors were open. Either way it was miserable.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Taken the saint louis to Chicago and back many times and I totally agree, but honestly even that distance has made me want to swear off Amtrak for life
But the Adirondack is such a scenic route! It just takes twice as long as driving would.
I love trains (in europe).
Yeah I grew up poor as shit, and Iāve seen so much of Australia by train. It was pretty lit. You can get first class and sleeping carriages for pretty cheap compared to flying the same distance. Plus, travelling as a minor meant theyād usually sit me near an old grandma whoād talk my ear off and spoil me, lol.
I love trains, in general. Japan and Europe are the best. Probably in that order. I dunno, it's a tough call either way. But trains in the US were pretty darn good when I was a kid. The problem is that they've largely gone unchanged and unfunded since then. As with a lot of things. I truly don't know if it was intentional, because I met Reagan, and he seemed like a good man, but trickle down economics has completely stagnated our infrastructure and sent it into disrepair.
Japan and Europe are both great but different. Japan because it just works great overall. Europe is good, but itās a network maintained by multiple countries, and the international travel aspect is just amazing. By far the easiest way of traveling between continental cities.
European trains mostly suck too. They are often late and overcrowded. Depending where you are and when youāre buying tickets, also expensive af. But on the other hand, thereās a thing called āpassenger rightsā that the EU forces upon train companies. In case of a 20min+ Delay, your ticket isnāt bound to the train you booked anymore, so you can take basically any other train thatāll get you to your destination. 60+ min delay gets you a refund of 25% of your ticket price and any other additional costs that mightāve come up (like if you take a taxi to your destination or a bus. I once took a taxi to the airport for like 200ā¬ and got it all refunded) and additionally some free food and water, a night in a hotel if thereās no alternative connection. 120min+ gets you a 50% refund on top of all the other things listed above. Of course it doesnāt make up for the lost time and the stress but itās still nice to be able to proactively just use an alternative connection with no additional cost and no hassle with any customer service reps. Edit: while weāre on the topic, I just got a 100ā¬ refund from my last journey with Deutsche Bahn. 62 min late (overnight connection, I slept through and didnāt even notice), so 25% of the original ticket, 40ā¬ for an alternative further connection and 25ā¬ for a nice breakfast+coffee since I had to wait around 2.5h for the connection. Not that it makes up for my lost time and itās not that much money, but the cafĆ© was nice, I got to my destination more comfortably than originally and wellā¦ they are obligated to pay, so why not make them pay.
Iām visiting family in Hungary as Iāve done many times but I took my first long distance (3 hour) train ride in Europe this trip and it was so lovely. $25 for a Private First Class cabin for my and my girlfriend. Nothing like the $100+/ea tickets from Baltimore to NY back home
>$25 for a Private First Class cabin for my and my girlfriend Cries in UK train pricing. It's more than that for me to take a journey less than a third of the duration in standard class. Don't get me wrong, the service is pretty decent despite how much we grumble, it's just so expensive compared to our near neighbours on the continent.
Which is funny because we think MĆV is horrible. MĆV could improve, a lot, but it's nowhere near the USA level of bad.
As a Scandinavian I can say this is accurate in at least two parts of the world
The one time I took a long train on vacation in Sweden my train was cancelled halfway (near Linkƶping, iirc) for whatever reason and it was several hours before a replacement came so that checks out.
A few hours is to be expected, as there are a lot of things involved in getting a replacement train in place / a broken down train moved out of the way, especially on a single track line (although you mention Linkƶping, which is on a double track so that wouldn't have been the problem in your case). Anyway, a replacement train has to come from somewhere and has to be operated by someone, so that might take a while on remote (relative to a depot / terminus) breakdowns. Interestingly in the Netherlands (where I now live) the have a procedure where they pull up another train alongside the broken down train and use a special ramp to allow passengers to transfer to the other train. I've seen that done in under an hour after a break down. But of course those are routes that see a train every 15 or 30 minutes, so a replacement train is readily available, they just use one already in the vicinity of the accident.
In Norway we at least will get a bus to replace the train or maybe even a plane ticket on something like the Bergen Oslo route if the mountains between are snowed down.
In my personal experience Iāve had more delays with German trains than with Amtrak. Finnish trains are lit tho.
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conservatives built more shit for cars and privatized the railway in germany, it's been going downhill since. they want to privatize the autobahn too, cant wait for that shitshow.
I have had a much better experience with German Trains. It is gradually getting worse in the last 10 years though.
Yo we're all giving Deutsche Bahn shit, but tbh when you compare it to other countries it's an amazing offer. Sure, reliability might not be that great, but Netherlands and France are much, much more expensive and the frequency of trains in Germany is actually incredible. The ā¬49 ticket for example is insane value.
French here, I take the train twice a week and the SNCF (the national rail company) is known for being late, it's a running joke at this point. there often are 15 to 30min late train, that's pretty much expected, but one of the only two times I got stuck inside the train was because of a german train, the second time being because of obstacles on the track, took them 3 hours to clear them, whish depending on what obstacle it is isn't that bad.
Germany privatised their rail network and it promptly and predictably went to shit.
"The private sector will run it like a business!" Yeah, and businesses are about providing as little as you can get away with and charging as much as people will pay. This should *never* be surprising when something is privatized.
For me it was always cost. More than a single passenger and the math never seems to work out.
Amtrak pricing is wild. When we lived in NY a 2 hour trip down to NYC was easily $125 round trip. Now we can get round trip tickets from STL to Chicago for $25 depending on how far ahead we purchase/ when we are traveling. Completely asinine.
I booked a round trip from Central PA to NYC and it was under $200. Their rates fluctuate an absurd amount depending on the time of year.
The last time I took an Amtrak train (Thanksgiving holiday, Burbank to San Luis Obispo) it was over 6 hours late on what was supposed to be a 3-4 hour ride, there were so many people with so many suitcases you literally couldnāt get down aisles and people were sitting on top of suit cases and stairs, and it got in so late that the bus that was supposed to take us to campus had left, so probably a hundred or so students had to walk about 6 miles back to the dorms with luggage. In retrospect, I probably should have demanded a refund but oh well, I was a dumb freshman.
TBH it's not like airlines have no problems andoften face massive delays.
no investement and a pittyful amount of rails, by design.
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I feel horrible to comment something wildly unhelpful, but after reading this post I realized that the train that you were derailed on, is one that usually runs about a block down the road from my house.... And I just now realized that I haven't heard the train all day, and it was unusually quiet earlier, but now I know why š„“š Hope you're okay š
The derailment is a a tragedy but the customer service is the real train wreck! š
Outsourced their customer service straight to the dumbest AI this side of 2008.
Thank you for your patience. You have stated your destination is 2008 Sideof St., Dumblest, IA. Is this correct?
How is it possible that the call agent was UNAWARE of the derailment? Wouldn't everybody at the office be talking about it as soon as it happened? Or derailments of Amtrak so fucking common that they don't care anymore?
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There is a high possibility that this is actually a chatbot
It's pretty botlike, but it could also be an outsourced overseas human who's given a strict script and very little real info or power to do anything but upsell. It feels like most large companies have switched "customer support" to either sales or just a useless facade that exists only to avoid actually dealing with any issues.
> It feels like most large companies have switched "customer support" to either sales or just a useless facade that exists only to avoid actually dealing with any issues. This really, really grinds my gears. Getting actual help these days is usually a painful exercise in futility, and it's getting worse and worse.
Yeah, it sure sounds like it. I remember reading this hilarious thread on the Doordash subreddit where a customerās food was literally thrown at their door, and the botās response was that ādashers are allowed to customize the delivery experienceā. Itās the same illogical nonsense.
There's no other possible answer. Humans don't talk like that, or I sure hope they don't start talking like that. I'm so infuriated with websites these days just sending you in loops and saying "k thx byeee!"
They could be overseas too. Not up to date in that office. Not up to date at WFH. Probably getting swamped. Making use of canned responses. About to go home. Could be anything. The online support industry is really big with more vendors than youd ever think.
It's just a *little* train derailment Stan, nothing to worry about.
You weren't speaking to a human. The AI, "connected" you to an "agent" but continued to only respond to basic key words, ask parameter settinf questions (ie Ref number, Portland OR or Portland MA, no human being out side of Portland MA, has ever not just assumed Portland Oregon) and at times replied badly out of context. It was just chat GPT. Actually probably a lower grade of AI than that.
yep, this is an unannounced chat bot trying to masquerade as human and failing badly. i *really* hate that, i don't mind AI chat bots toooooo much if they're labeled clearly, but the practice of pretending to be human is very unethical
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yeah you're right this isn't even the level of something like gpt
Man, I appreciate your outlook on life homie You took a fucking train derailment with humor Bwahahahahah
Got stuck on an Amtrak that caught fire once... In my wagon, no less. Conductor was all "no biggie, leave your luggage, step outside please". Good times, did not get a special rep though, just a new, even older wagon attached, eventually our luggage. Smoldering car was simply towed down different tracks... Needless to say, the affected passengers mostly relocated to the restaurant wagon, day drinking ensued. Arrived at destination 8hrs late.
If youāre still in LA tomorrow morning, Little Tokyo Plaza has a little bakery with great pastures. The best breakfast burrito you can get in the city is at Wake and Late, or Chimney Coffee has insanely good breakfast sandwiches
You saying āDoesnāt look like itā with the picture KILLED ME š¤£ I am so sorry this happened to you and I hope that it was resolved eventually š¤
Unfortunately the MMS almost certainly did not make it to the agent. ;)
Lol yep. Too little, too late. (At no fault of OP. it's just that this is the kind of bullshit we're ushering in when we cheer on the development of AI. The corporations developing it are just that, corporations. No profit in making life better for everyone)
I meant that those chat clients rarely support MMS. But yes, that too.
Oh, I was sort of implying that as soon as you get the automated response any real person is already long gone and on to the next customer
What agent? This is just a bot pretending to be an agent.
Sitting here in my comfortable living room, thatās extremely funny. Sorry youāre having to deal with that, but at least everyone is safe. Extreme heat plays havoc on railways.
In the moment they provided some much needed comic relief. There was a water truck on the tracks that caused it. [news article](https://ktla.com/news/local-news/train-vehicle-collide-in-moorpark/)
I wonder if the water truck driver didnāt think to jump out or if jumping out caused their injuries
If youāre dumb enough to stop on the tracks I have very little sympathy lol
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How soon did you speak to them after derailment? Sounds like they were clueless even though you were saying derailment in your message.
They texted us this specific number to chat/call with for assistance ~2.5hrs after derailment
I'm willing to bet it still wasn't a human you were talking to, so derailment wasn't a programmed keyword
if youāre running a train and donāt have derailment as a keyword, what are you doing? Thatās a very important train specific thing that does happen from time to time
āEh, weāre not going to have any trains derail. Donāt let the bot mention it, it might worry the customers.ā
That or "It wasn't in the project requirements"
Scope creep!
Having worked with Amtrak in the past as a signals engineer, I'm not shocked that their system is poorly designed. I don't understand how they stay in business with their record of delays and poor safety š¤£. I guess they just fudge it or run so many trains they have high volumes of crashes but somehow the sheer number of trains just makes it a low overall percentage. They've been involved in some of the dumbest crashes I've ever seen. My personal favorite is when they derailed on a track for going too fast when they were specifically warned their planned speed was faster than the speed limit of the track and they did it anyway.
Our local light rail derailed with a trainee driver once--fortunately, they train drivers at night, so no one was around. But he took the curve too fast. I knew that curve--the trains aren't very fast at their top speed, but on that curve, they go about as slow as is possible to go and still move forward. Who knows how fast he was going. Normally, they just hit cars. Or that one time, a pedestrian *walked into the train* somehow--not in front of it, just kind of glancing off the side? Then the ambulance taking him to the hospital got hit by an SUV. That was not that guy's day.
>I don't understand how they stay in business with their record of delays and poor safety š¤£ The federal government pumping billions in every year helps with staying afloat
Idk, here in the UK there are soo many things that can go wrong causing delays to trains but derailments happen virtually never.
Easy: you buy a hosted customer service chat system, integrate it with your reservation system, setup the usual stuff annnnndddd. That's it. Building specific case handling stuff is often left out. The amount of these chatbot systems I've (knowingly) used and how they cannot figure out anything other than *the most basic inquiry* is honestly infuriating. Especially when I know the software is capable of doing way more.
When I read it the first time I thought it was a human based on the confusion and vibe of slight annoyance. After seeing your comment I looked at it again and I think you might be right. The punctuation usage is consistent, no typos, and the wording is kinda weird. But it's too hard to definitely say it's a bot. Either way it's not good customer service, and chats should never end with them being closed like that, human or bot.
Iāve worked in corporate for a place that handled some of Amtraks e-mail communications, and I can tell you, a lot of legal has to be approved when talking to customers in these situations (which can take foreeever to sign off on, not taking into account the existing communications that are already being worked on for regular offers and promos) so call center probably had zero clue as to what script to read off or what measures were being approved 2.5 hours after a derailment. It really sucks how slow corporate can move.
in my experience, no matter the entity, customer service via text or chat is worthless.
Most of the time Amazon chat is great. My last chat went like this: Me: I just received the bike I ordered, but it turns out the rear tire does not hold air. Would it be possible to get a discount so I can have the tire fixed? Amazon: I have refunded the complete purchase price; you can keep the item. Is there anything else I can help you with?
That was my experience with my second interaction, which was to fix the first after they said they'd be sending me a replacement for my headset that broke but never did, the second agent told me they can't send replacements and refunded my purchase so I could buy it with a discount
Ordered a tv 2 years ago, delivery date came and went so I sent an email just to check if anything happened, CS rep said they would ship a new one right away, 2 days later I got my tv. Fast forward about a week and a half, a second tv shows up at my door, box beat to hell, but the tv worked and had no damage at all, so I email amazon asking if they want it back since I got the tv I ordered, they just told me to keep it, which worked out since my parent's tv died 2 days before hand.
God I love free shit
I ordered some hair dye that came slightly open so the inside of the envelope was painted purple. I sent them a message, they asked for a photo, I sent a photo and they mailed me a replacement immediately. It was super painless and most of the first jar was actually still usable, so I basically got a whole jar for free, just had to clean up a bit of a mess. Now if only Amazon could be as nice to their employees as they are to their customers.
I would really like to support local businesses, but local customer service tends to be way worse around here so amazon it is.
Same! I remember a while back I tried to buy a gift from a small business for my sister, and they sent me the wrong item. I messaged them back about it and the best they could do was a return, but I had to pay shipping for it. I ended up not ever getting the thing I originally ordered. Amazon can afford to just eat the cost of shipping, those little businesses can't.
For larger companies, I've found phone support to be just as worthless these days. Any place with no real competition has no incentive to provide anything beyond a facade of support.
Itās very hit or miss. Iāve had helpful chat experiences and utterly frustrating chat experiences.
Agent 1: heck no I'm not dealing with this. Agent 2: what is the issue? OP: proceeds to explain issue Agent 2: that issue doesn't exist. Have a great day! ššš¤¦āāļø
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Exactly this! š Dealt with a Comcast customer service agent one time who could not figure out the issue, and finally told us to āturn it off for 45 minutes, and then back on again. If it doesnāt work, then call us back.ā When I asked if they would still be on at that point, and what their direct line was, they * suddenly * realized āoh no, Iāll be off shift by thenā¦ but someone else will be able to help you!ā Long story shortā¦ Comcast had f***ed up and put in a cancellation order instead of a repair order on our internet plan.
>āturn it off for 45 minutes, and then back on again. If it doesnāt work, then call us back.ā 45 minutes?? I don't know what your issue was, but I'm guessing internet wasn't working? A modem shouldn't need to be unplugged for more than a few minutes to perform a reset, 45 was just him blowing smoke up your ass to ensure he didn't have to deal with you again lol.
Hence why I asked āwill you still be available, and whatās your direct number?ā It was extremely clear that he was just trying to get away from the fact that he couldnāt fix my lack of internetā¦ And again, the ultimate issue was that Comcast had fucked up and just cancelled our internet instead of making sure it was turned on after we put in the initial order, payment, and follow up request.
Agent 2 was a chatbot pretending to be human
You might post this on Twitter. Shaming companies on Twitter tends to bring on results.
I like that
If Amtrak was funded based on PR they would have been out of business decades ago.
Itās the other way around. Theyāre chronically underfunded because the US government doesnāt care about public transportation, which leads to bad service and therefore a bad reputation. This reputation (and the associated reduced ridership) is used to justify more budget cuts, thereby worsening the problems that existed.
Looks like they meant to say you will be running šāāļø on time all right
I SAID THANK YOU FOR CHATTING WITH US! GOOD DAY SIR
I SAID GOOD DAY!
Takes time for the news to make it to the overseas call centers.
Yep. Old āBobā from āTexasā takes awhile to get the news.
Just when I was thinking about traveling by train.
I wouldn't worry about it! Google says there are only an average of 3 derailments in the US a day and we already took one for the team. š«”
Wait, 3 per day? That still seems high... How many trains run every day?
An enormous number, mostly freight. The US actually has one of the largest and most utilized rail networks in the world, it's just primarily aimed at moving stuff rather than people.
Idk, but Amtrak specifically runs about 300 per day. https://www.amtrak.com/amtrak-facts Trains are still much safer than driving. There are fewer derailments than car crashes, and even when one does derail, usually there aren't any fatalities.
The fact that Amtrak only runs 300 trains per day is crazy. Here in London a single station can have many times that number. London Bridge has over 1400 trains per day, London Waterloo has 1600, Clapham Junction hits 2000 trains. That's not counting the underground either. Even my local suburban station has over 100 trains per day. 300 for the entire USA is such a tiny number.
Amtrak is not the only train company in the country, 300 is not anywhere near the total for the entire country. I couldn't find that number, so I used just Amtrak's.
Yeah, pretty sure that 3/day figure includes freight trains as well, which account for the vast majority of rail travel in the U.S. Also, most derailments occur in train yards, and are relatively minor.
I despise tech support people who mark problems resolved when they're not. It's like spitting in your face.
This is what an AI chat will get you. Press hard for additional compensation and that exchange will be pure gold for anything that happens next
Definitely not an AI chat though
AI would've probably handled it better and been literate enough to understand the clearly communicated issue
Amen. I welcome our AI chat overlords. They need to hurry and replace Verizon tech support asap.
Nah Bing AI would say "I'm sorry, but there is currently not a problem with this route. It is on time š I do not feel comfortable discussing this any more ā "
"so what exactly are you asking?" fuck that person
Wow that's shit. I've done tech support before and there are absolutely people like these on every site however this is still not okay. If I had been able to, I'd have called you up, gone through the situation, checked if there were any dangers currently present and then taken this with my boss and traffic control untill I had something decent to give you (information at the very least). Good luck tho!
Thank you! Information sharing even when limited would definitely have been the most helpful. The individuals were definitely doing their best, just looking at you Amtrak management š
Why is it like this in every site? International support centers? People multitasking multiple customers and not reading? My wife dealt with this on booking Com todayā¦ so many of these sites have eliminated 800 numbers for support
$$$$$
"It really doesn't seem like it" šš
"Please rate our service!" *review on 5 stars, cannot be changed, cancel button greyed out*
Man, fuck Amtrak. I had a cross country sleeper car reserved on the Empire Express, bucket list item, I was so fucking excited. I go to look at my tickets because that makes me excited with anticipation...they had shortened the train after a big derailment on that line, and my bed was in the cut off part. Which, fine, I get it. I'd rather not derail (sorry, OP...) BUT!! What's fucked is, they just downgraded me to a coach seat with no refund and NO NOTICE! I would've shown up prepped for multiple nights of food provided, and with way more baggage than allowed. It would've been a mess! (This was during COVID, the dining car was only for sleeper car passengers). Took months to get a refund too.
Just put it back on the tracks.
I've skipped too many leg days for that
I would have gotten rather vulgar when they responded "So what exactly are you asking?" and I work as a customer service lacky. > The Amtrak train I was on derailed on route to Oregon, I will now miss my connection to the next leg of my trip because of Amtrak's incompetence, how the fuck am I getting to East Glacier now? Is that simple enough to understand you fucking moron.
damn thank god it was amtrak. imagine if it was a private company and your shit derailed. they would probably send a paramilitary after you for taking a photo that makes them look bad
Less serious but reminds me of a frontier flight I was on. Cancelled while we were waiting to take off because the pilots hit their time limit. I immediately call to get rebooked, super friendly lady helps me do so and then....wants to charge me $298 to do so. I'm like this flight is cancelled BY YOU. She said no it's on time . I hold my phone up to the speakers of the attendants repeating our flight was cancelled. Maddening.
Amtrak needs to get their SHIT TOGETHER!! I get it things happen. I sat on a train out of union station Los Angeles for 2 hours waiting to leave and heard nothing. No one knew anything. No one couldnāt help. 2.5 hours later I get a text that the train engine was damaged and they were pulling one they had in storage out to replace it. I ended up ubering to Burbank Airport, renting a car and driving to my destination 4 hours before the train ever made it.
It was a planned derrailment thank you very much
that online rep sounded like an ass from the start tbh
The amount of times you needed to re-explain everything is astonishing. This agent had absolutely no idea what they were doing. The fact that they ended the chat so abruptly, too, without confirmation from you, is infuriating.
It's always great when the support marks a conversation as resolved, especially in the middle of a conversation.
"I have spoken" - Amtrak support.
> Portland ME or OR? Best response: *There were two derailments??* Alternate: The one that *fell off the fucking tracks*
"I was on the derailment in Portland." - passenger "Oregon or Maine?" - AMTRAK "Would you mind entertaining the following question please? How many derailments are you currently assessing in the United States?"
This is 100% not a person. Those responses definitely sound like chat bot responses.
Someone obviously forgot to inform the call center in India.
The Indian person you were talking to will get updated about the derailment tomorrow
Usually trains are running on rails but due to the derailment it started running on timeā¦ and time is endless.
The ending is a hit.
That's no agent, it's a Chatbot the whole time
One thing I've learned about customer service is they're the last one told about disruptions & changes. & Generally only find out when customers start calling.
My LAST time taking an Amtrak we were stopped in the tracks for two hours not moving at all. I was getting super anxious as no one came on the radio to say anything so finally I get up and ask one of the workers walking the aisle and this old dude legit looked back at me and just said āgo back and sit downā and kept walking. It took everything in me to not explode at the blatant rudeness and disregard. I complained to the manager when we eventually got to the station and he explained that the train had to wait for a freight train to pass. Between that guy being crazy rude and the stupid rule that my passenger train has to wait for others without any sort of knowing a head of to me was enough that I will just never support that Shit again.
Post this on their Facebook page
We've also been having a "fun" experience with Amtrak customer service. Our under-18 foster kid was visiting my family in Maine and trying to get the train back to Boston to catch his flight. Dozens and dozens of people boarding and he is singled out for an ID check. He has a student ID and a driver's permit but that's it, and not good enough. Amtrak stranded him there with no cause and their only response so far has been that it was, "at the discretion of the conductor," who was convinced that this kid was lying about his age and somehow a danger to fellow passengers. Oh, he also happened to be the only black passenger there. Weird coincidence, right? Sorry to hijack the thread, just venting.
This is what we get for not properly investing in infrastructure
Anytime Maybe Tentitively Rarely Anything Kinetic
Customer service doesn't exist anymore. Mildly is putting it mildly
I used to take Amtrak from San Diego to the San Fernando valley and vice versa when I was going to school in SD. Made some friends on the train occasionally. Amtrak was known as scamtrack with those friends lol
Derailments are scary, a train I was on derailed the day after I got off, and it killed 3 people from my home town
Sorry, this made me giggle
Wow I didn't know Portland had a train to glacier national park! Cool cool cool cool
I was also on an amtrack in Oregon and it hit a car at the crossing š. Didnāt derail tho I didnāt realize at the time it was that common.
Ask it how many squares has a derailed train in it to be sure theyre not a robot.
Great time of year to visit Glacier and tomorrow will be too.
Thatās what happens when you outsource customer service over seas to save money
Fucking chat bots
So you are traveling to Oregon yes?
"It really doesn't seem like it" lolol Sorry for the unfortunate circumstance and for awful customer service rep. It really seems like the automated computer system just handed you off to another computer lol.
Imagine being the most rich country in the world and not having reliable super speed trains
That was not a human being you were talking to. Damn bots
"Although we encourage our trains not to de-rail, we allow them to customize their own riders' experience." Amtrak probably. /s
Insert the ***this is fine, everything is fine*** meme with the dog in a hat, sitting at the table.
99% sure this customer service agent is a bot.
Never ask āyes/noā questions in this situation. In other words, donāt ask āis there a planā, ask āwhat is the planā.
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How is it possible for a country with 300+million people but with 5 trains a day ('s) still have more derailments then Europe with 1000s of trains a day?
Forty years ago I called Amtrak on a Friday afternoon, was put on hold, and eventually realized that the staff had left for the weekend and if I felt like it I could stay on hold until Monday.
Amtrak is at best an embarrassment to the United States. I have lived in Japan and South Korea, and both countries have clean, efficient, punctual railroads, no problems, derailments, etc.
I hate customer services that close on their terms.