# Amtrak ride from he!!



## rrman987 (Aug 29, 2021)

How a 5.5 hour ride from Michigan to Chicago turned into a 19 hour nightmare of no food no power, In other words anything that could go wrong, did
Passengers flee train during 19-hour ride from Michigan to Chicago


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## SF Gal (11 mo ago)

OMG! Goes to show what can happen on a train, plane, or bus.
I feel for those who didn't have the means to debark earlier.
I remember the horror stories of people crammed in planes, waiting on the tarmac to take off, for hours and hours.
I suppose you have to remember to take precautions when traveling and take NOTHING for granted.
I do like driving myself the best, I can be better prepared for a journey and rely on myself for its outcome.
Public transprotation, not so much.


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## Fire21 (Mar 9, 2014)

Sometimes the gremlins sneak up and attack all at once. But Amtrak should know how to communicate with passengers. Yeah, I like driving myself to destinations.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

And people wonder why I don't like public transportation!


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## OilValleyRy (Oct 3, 2021)

That explains why my weekend has gone so well, Murphy was to busy layin down the law elsewhere to bother with me.


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## Streamliner (Feb 21, 2021)

As someone who has been a train lover almost since birth, I looked forward to retirement, when my wife and I would ride every Amtrak route in the country from the comfort of a first class bedroom. How utterly disappointing it was to find out—years ago—that service had deteriorated to a point where such trips were no longer enjoyable. Today, it is immeasurably worse. An old friend of mine used to say about himself “I was born too late for everything great.” When it comes to rail travel in North America, he was spot on.

Hope you are all doing well,

Allen Drucker


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

Streamliner said:


> “I was born too late for everything great.”


I like it! I’m going to use it….. 😁


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## GTW son (12 mo ago)

From what I've heard Via Rail ain't no better, gone from a national treasure to a national disgrace.
Apparently the Toronto - Montreal route isn't too too bad but the rest of Ontario is a chocolate mess.
Out west may be better, don't know, never hear about its goings ons.


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## MohawkMike (Jan 29, 2018)

Rode the Crescent Limited once. Ran out of water with 5 hours left to travel. A minor inconvenience, (we still used the toilets) Amtrak is not for the feint of heart.


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## Desperado (Mar 14, 2021)

You could probably wrote a book on all things bad about Amtrak. I'm 55 and have lived on the west side of Cleveland my whole life (along the Lakeshore Limited route). For most of that time the only stop in Cleveland was (I think) between 2:30 and 4:00am; I could be off but not by much. I also think that was the westbound to Chicago. The eastbound was similar - stopping in the wee hours. Basically you would do almost the entire trip in darkness. The romantic ideas of riding the rails is way, way over. 

I do, however, think that in the east Amtrak is still viable (at least Virginia to Boston commuter lines). It's just that going anywhere Amtrak is buying / leasing expensive trackage rights and vying for space with fast freight. 

It's a sad reality.


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## johnboy (Dec 28, 2018)

"Amtrak did apologize to passengers and _offered transportation vouchers_........"

Well, who could complain about that generous offer for 19 hours in hell! 

I don't know what is more disgusting, the ride to hell or that we don't give a damn make good! Enjoy your ride to hell and here's a voucher so you can do it again!


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## Chris At FilmWorks (3 mo ago)

... and I thought the only Amtrak line with problems was the Coast Starlight through California and Oregon! The conductor doesn't have a watch he uses a CALANDER. 

Very often passengers that have a connection in Portland get dumped east of the cascades at Oakridge Oregon and have to ride a bus or van to Portland. The bus is faster. However, the passengers miss the high altitude view of the Oregon cascades.


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## Madman (Aug 22, 2020)

We recently returned from a vacation in Italy and France. During our stay we rode trains from Italy to France and trains within France. For most of the rides we had assigned seats. Luggage was handled by us, unfortunately. There is space at each end of every coach for luggage. Shlepping suitcases in and out of the coaches was not that easy as most of the coaches had steps to climb in order to enter. Mind you, only one or two steps but with luggage it can be difficult navigating through the crowd. Some trains had double decks. 

Our ride to Provence from Lake Como consisted of two trains, one to Zurich, then a second train to Lyon. The train to Lyon had a nice dining car, with an actual waiter. Still not like dining cars of the past, but nicer than what Amtrak provides.









I must say that the trains do run on time over there and there are plenty of trains.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

When I was in Europe a few times, I did notice that the trains and trolleys did for the most part run on time. You could literally set your watch by the train into Munich that I took a few times, it arrived to the minute according to the schedule! They were pretty good in Italy as well, though not as precise as the Germans.


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