AmtrakReviews 88

You cannot find a worst train in the entire world (including India)! If you can move any other way DO IT.

We recently took Amtrak from Milwaukee Wisconsin to Memphis Tennessee are were a few good things and many not so good things about our trip. The ride between Milwaukee and Chicago was just fine and on time. However the restaurants inside the station was closed completely.Air temperatures were far too cold and there were several homeless people asking for money. Union Station in Chicago was a little better but ask a disabled veteran and senior no one wanted to assist us with our luggage. The Amtrak staff we asked were very cold and didn't want to be bothered. On both trips to and from Chicago to Memphis, my wife and I couldn't get lower level seating nor could we get Amtrak staff to help us carry our travel bags to the upper level. We both had a struggle! This was even after we added the special information to our tickets. The night ticket agent in Memphis was really slow unhelpful and was reluctant to help us or answer our questions. He acted like he didn't want to be bothered. Thoughtout the trip Amtrak staff were unfriendly and very cold acting especially Memphis and Chicago. Milwaukee staff were more helpful. Not sure if we will take the train again

Well for one thing it was hot and the conductor wouldn't adjust the AC then there's the fact that it was just a long painful trip if I had to do this again I'll definitely reserve a sleeper that's for sure you can't sleep in the chairs they are uncomfortable.

We went on our first and last train trip via Amtrak with the rudest employees ever. Being sworn at being treated with disrespect and paying my hard earned money for this. Walk if you have to

Amtrak is the most ridiculous type of transportation. It has been continuously late. I have been traveling from St. Louis to Chicago. It looks like you guys do not care at all. I am in st. Louis five steps away from getting out. They stopped the train. O wanted to tell you, amtrak is getting worse every day. I am sure you do not care. I hope someone call me at *******006. Thanks

The train was extremely cold and with no regard for passengers, crew was unattenative to guests and their requests I rode the train 8 hours to my destination to and from with no fresh air break and train was not clean at all

Hello,

I traveled with Amtrak USA Rail Pass.

One of my segment trains was cancelled due to weather conditions (El Paso - Houston: 20 hour trip). Amtrak did not offer any solution to get me to Houston on time. With the next train leaving 2 days later, I couldn't wait that long. So I had to cross Texas on my own, adding another $300 to the $500 cost of the rail pass.

After calling customer service to explain the situation, they offered me 2 more free segments, which would have been great if they'd also extended the end date of my rail pass. But it was a resounding "no" from customer service. I now find myself with 7 train segments left and only 2 weeks to use them. Who can seriously use 7 segments in 13 days? What's the point of giving extra free segments if they don't extend my pass duration? I'm furious.

Cancelled trains should be refundable or at least have financial compensation (gift card, vouchers, etc).

I spent $800 to end up with 7 unitilisable segments. It's a disgrace! It's a shame because the trains and on-board staff are great, but the lack of interest on the part of customer service towards such major problems is despairing...

We booked a round trip with 2 sleeper rooms from Austin to Boston. Almost $5k per room but we thought worth it based on fond memories from childhood and maybe last such trip for 88 yr old father to enjoy. Didn't work out that way.
Outbound leg from Austin to Chicago was late arriving. Old train cars - dingy and worn. No AC control and temps in room in low 60s. Had to have vent duct-taped closed by attendant. No observation car, though they continue to show one in their ads. And the food… Terrible. They say they "cook" the food, but most people would say they press a button on the microwave. Plastic plates and table-ware. The menu consists of 3 choices for breakfast and 5 choices for lunch and dinner (total of 5 choices, not 5 each). Which means that for our round-trip we got the same 5 choices for 8 separate meals. Plus they were frequently out of some of the choices. The cafe car (when it was available, and when it was open - both big "ifs") has minimal seating so coach passengers basically had to eat in their seats.

In Chicago we had an 8 hr layover (probably the best part of the travel). After we made it past the nazi lady guarding the lounge where you can store your luggage in an open non-secure room, we had time to walk around and go to a restaurant in Chicago.

Boarding our 2nd leg, we had newish sleeper cars. With adjustable vents! Unfortunately, the redesigned beds/rooms now completely block access to the room. With the bed down you have to walk or climb across the bed to get in or out of the room.

Return trip (where the fun really starts). The day prior to our scheduled return we get an email from Amtrak indicating that we have been down-graded to coach for the first part of the leg from Boston to Chicago. No explanation. Can't reach customer service no matter how long I wait on the phone. Ticket personnel on the phone don't know the reason. One even says that we must have made the changes ourselves because Amtrak can't do that without our approval. Well, they did. When we get on the train we are told by the crew that the problem was the entire outbound from Chicago to Boston had mechanical trouble so the sleeper and dining cars never got to Boston. We would catch the train from New York to Chicago in Albany. Which we did (although it was 90 minutes late). Of course, same 5 entrees. And they are out of red wine (on the first meal served on the train).

In Chicago we arrive 3 hours late so just time to run to a sub shop in the terminal and get something to take on the train so we don't have to eat the same entrees. Find out you can only eat your own food in your room or at your seat - can't take it into the dining car. Incidentally, the rule doesn't apply to the crew who we saw getting food from restaurants along the way that they ate in front of us. The train out of Chicago is delayed due to electrical problems with the Cafe car and one of the coach cars, as well as mechanical problems with the locomotive. So we leave about 2 hours late. We stop before getting out of Chicago because a truck hit a bridge we were supposed to cross and they were going to wait to have it inspected before we could cross. After an hr they decided to back the train up and re-route to other tracks. Of course, this meant that we were now subject to multiple additional waits for freight trains that were traveling in front of us. Had a total of 5 of these delays (so far). In Ft Worth apparently the locomotive "fix" didn't work, so we were delayed without electricity or AC for 90 min while they put a new locomotive on.

The engineer apparently then decides that he/she is going to make up some time. Our speed becomes unbelievable. There is no way the train was going less than 80, perhaps significantly higher. The faster the train goes the more severe the bumps and rocking / jerking becomes. My father has been riding trains for over 60 years and he said he has never been afraid for his life, until now. We seriously consider getting off at the next stop and renting a car. This was the train journey from hell. Have taken some video and will try to upload.

Advice: Avoid Amtrak. Defund Amtrak. Close Amtrak. Encourage private rail companies that might care about their customers, their safety, and their money.

This was the most frustrating and awful travel experience. If you have any other option available to you please take it.

Amtrak was incredibly rude, unhelpful and their staff is highly disengaged.
We had a train from Seattle to Vancouver booked. The train was cancelled and we were rebooked on a bus. There was no communication regarding the bus departure time or where to load the bus. When we were directed to the bus, there were limited seats left. The crew suggested we split our family up (our kids are age 8&11) there was enough room on the bus but we we're advised the crew required these seats and we were diverted to a different bus. We needed to unload and reload our luggage.

Additionally the tickets for the train were $100 more than the bus tickets. I'd like to be refunded the difference between the bus and train. I've spoken with 3 separate agents, each had advised me to call back at different time frames and "if I'm lucky" I'll get and agent willing to refund the difference.

I can truly say this is the worst customer service experience I've ever had. I'm not the kind of person who writes negative reviews or complains but I'm hopeful another family can avoid the same experience.

I used to take Amtrak from West Coast California to Chicago on a fairly regular basis. For me, the enjoyment of train travel itself along with the idea that it helps you keep your carbon footprint low made up for the incompetent customer service, rude conductors, and the sense that overall they just don't care about their customers very much.
At this point though I've stopped using them and just switched over to flying. Reason being: their website just doesn't work. It's badly designed in the first place, you have to push a few buttons with cryptic labels in order to find what you're looking for and then, more often than not, the button doesn't actually work: click on it over and over? Nothing happens.
It's been like this for years now.
I would still rather take the train but it's just too tempting now to switch over to an airline's web page, click on a clearly labeled option, and have what you're looking for come up immediately.
That compared to an hour of frustration often to no avail on Amtrak's website.

WORST TRAVEL EXPERIENCE EVER FROM AMTRAK

In short, after being offered $750 as compensation for my recent trip I declined as the trip was 100% not to my satisfaction nor would anything less than 100% refund be acceptable.

Upon arrival at Ft Lauderdale bound for NY we were given our room and offered a coffee by the conductor, or whatever his title is. The first time we used the toilet we noticed it was stuffed up. My wife, 7+ month pregnant attempted to flush whatever was there down. The result was the toilet overflowed with urine and feces with a foul oder. We advised the conductor and he attempted to snake the toilet unsuccessfully. During the entire 26 hour trip we were unable to use the toilet in the room we purchased and we also could not shower in the bathroom as the water that came up and over the top spilled out the floor where one would stand for shower. The smell was awful and lasted the entire 26 hours. We complained and nobody made another attempt to fix the issue. We asked to be moved to another room and was informed no rooms were available. To add insult to injury when we reached NY we noticed that the conductors bag was in the handicapped room and perhaps we could have used it instead of him.

We both had the stink of that room make us sick to our stomachs. And the only reason we stayed is because ny wife could not trevel by car or place due to her late stage pregnancy other we would have left the train, rented a car or found a flight.

One more thing I might add. The conductor never offered to turn down our bed and so we didn't know there were two mattresses in the top bunk and I ended up sleeping on the bottom which was hard and uncomfortable and ended up wrenching my back which made the rest of the trip worse. I am unfortunately sick with Stage 4 cancer and am weak enough. This made the whole experience a nightmare for my wife and I.

It has taken more than a month to have Lou call me back and I would imagine it had something to do with me contacting American Express and complaining about the charge of more than $3850 for the trip so they could intervene. The hardship of this experience is worth much more than $750 or an offer for credit toward my next AMTRAK travel. I will never use the service again after the aforementioned experience.

I would like AMTRAK to refund my trip as compensation for the awful experience. While I do not know the name of the conductor the fact that he never offered to turn down the bed and didn't call ahead to the numerous locations along the way where the train stopped and perhaps someone with experience requesting someone fix the bathroom is unreal!

Hope of getting adequately compensated instead of insulted with the offer of $750 or Amtrak credits.

It was our second time on the Lorton to Sanford run over night.
There are good points for sure for the Aug 9th overnight.
Amazing team called us as we approached Lorton, checking on us. I was impressed. A nice gentleman asked, can you get here before 3:30….I said yes.…great see you then
We were last car on…THANK YOU
Our suite was great, and our meal was so good. My steak was excellent.
The highlight of the journey was Mathew our, let's say concierge. He was fantastic
And really made a difference in our travel….so helpful. Not every staff member
Has his service level, but could copy his traits.
I really think you should upgrade the breakfast and get people that serve
Look like they enjoy their job. I don't think Ryan does.
Maybe he is just tired of the public.
Overall Matt made our trip and we got pretty good sleep, despite the rough tracks
And rattles.
Thanks
Peter Brousseau

I bid for an upgrade. I thought it was for the round trip that I paid for…. Nope! Only on the way home and I didn't get the email till I was already sitting in coach. Also, the seats are exactly the same! I paid an extra $70 for a window curtain and some extra leg room. Coach was perfectly comfortable on the way there, I will never ever bid for an upgrade again. Lesson learned!

Sat at the station 5+ hrs as Our train was 8.5 hrs late, amtrak employees act like this is normal (maybe it is). We did get a water 8oz and a bag of chips, guess they feel thats all we deserve for problems they Cause. Connecting flights, rides that we niw need to try and rescedule. They will let you reschedule with amtrak fir NO EXTRA charge … Dont be a fool Find another way even walking would have veen fast and more respectful yhan these people…. Finally on the train 9.5 hrs later… and the boarding person was being rude… he has No business being in a customer service job

All carts of amtrak regional 177 smell like urine.i have a head ache from the smell.also it shakes a lot.its scary.please do not take it