I'd like to share a very recent (tonight) expierience I had with Amtrak to give some idea of how bad it's gotten. I'm trying to get my girlfriend back home to Bellingham where we live from Hood River Oregon on short notice. I checked the Amtrak website and found that it could be done in a day, which is amazing enough in itself. I tried to make reservations for her on the site and it said that since it was less than 5 days before she was travelling I had to call the 800 number. I called the number, confirmed that there was space avilable, and was ready to buy the ticket when they told me that I couldn't buy a ticket over the phone and my g/f would have to pay for it on the train. When I explained that this was not possible I got put on hold for another few minutes while she went and checked with some faceless boss. When the agent did come back she said that no, there was no way I could pay for the ticket, over the phone, and that no, I couldn't pay for it at my local station either. My only option was to go to a travel agent and buy it, which will cost me another $20 over the cost of the ticket because Amtrak will not pay comissions to travel agents. In an age where I can buy groceries over the internet and have them delivered to my home, I find it very very hard to continue to support Amtrak when it costs me both time and money to use their service.
This could very well be that Amtrak is now following the same safety precautions as the airlines. The airlines do the same thing in fear that someone purchasing a ticket with no advance reservation might be up to no good, and that being with screeners in place. If you do purchase a ticket without reservation and in cash you can be guaranteed a thorough search when you arrive for your flight. Amtrak does not have the abilities to search and screen but is a nice target for someone wishing harm, so while this is ashame that customer service will now suffer, I do not think that Amtrak is to blame here but rather all the nitwits that wish harm. Please read this from the Amtrak website, it tells you all about their stepped up security procedures including not being able to purchase tickets on the train: Amtrak new procedures for security. Russ Hoffman Valley RR [ 31 December 2001: Message edited by: rush2ny ]
I can not come close to answer why you were told what you were told and if it was right or not. People who ride Amtrak need to know that the conductors are stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to ticketing passengers. They have to jump threw so many hoops to be secure in the knowledge that they won't be held responsiable for loss revenue due to fraudulent crooks who every day are ripping off the American people by using bad checks and credit cards. The conductors have to cover any bad checks or credit cards they take if they don't do it by the numbers. Just about every trip they get into with a passenger or two who try and pull something over on them. When you take into consideration that some tickets can run into the hundreds it's no wonder conductors don't want to sell tickets on board the train. That dosen't even take in the wacko's who ride Amtrak just to try and get voucher and a free ride. People are bringing all kinds of animals on the train under the idea that they are some kind of service animals. Cats, birds and now horses I wonder when the FDA will step in and say enough. But again Amtrak is stuck having to allow wacko's like the infamous cat lady on to the train who then let their cat run wild all over the train doing all its bodly functions every where and Amtrak can't do anything but say all aboard. Sorry to roam from the topic into one that is it self a possible 3 or 4 page responeder.
