Amtrak
reviews and complaints

Your on line system is truly frustrating I found a low-end cheap fare, selected and filled out all the necessary info When I hit the purchase button, the system would not allow me to proceed further I tried filling out the necessary info a second time with the same repeated result When I went back to the site, the fare I had reserved was unavailable and had increased $80 This is the third time I have experienced this with trying to purchases on line I called to note my experience but the hold times continue to be very lengthy I use AMTRAK very frequently and wish it was an improved experience

On 10/16/2021 I was On a 1:17 train heading to Wilmington, DE. When the train arrived at the station the doors on my car did not open, and then proceeded to the next stop which was Newark, DE. I was attending a funeral service which due to your trains malfunctioning I ended up having to pay 50.00 for an Uber car to bring me to my location and I missed the service. I am not sure how your staff on the trains don't check to ensure all the door have opened, I was very unhappy with the service down and would like to a refund for my trip. I hope a resolution can be settled for this issue. Thank
You. My reservation number was 8B2924 my
Name is Ivy Williams my phone number is [protected]. My email address is [protected]@yahoo.com

Your station is a disgrace to Amtrak and to the town of Palatka. The passenger train stops there, so even if nobody gets on or off, everyone aboard sees this station. It is a pigsty. Garbage cans on the front and rear are full of rotting garbage which flows onto the passenger platform. It reeks. Vines have overgrown the platform and the eaves have rotten through in several places. It is shameful.

I suggest you spend a few bucks and have the garbage cans removed or serviced regularly. Clean up the exterior, pick up trash, sweep it clean. Repair the eaves and repaint. Amtrak, do this now or beg the Chamber of Commerce there to get the job done. I suggest the top executives of Amtrak travel a Palatka, get off there and get that job done, then meet with the local officials. Shame on Amtrack!

Hello,

I recently had to book a train for my in-laws to come visit us. After numerous times trying to use your website which does not work at all, and no one seems to be correcting the issue, I was told to call Customer Service to book my travel.

I spent about 1.15 hours on hold waiting to book my travel. The person who took my booking did not spell my email correctly, so I never received any confirmation of the dates/times.

I called today and spoke to a person named K. after being on hold for 1.5 hours. His aggressive and annoyed tone (like I was imposing on him) were not appropriate. He was going to email me my itinerary, and said he sent the email. I spelled my email address to him and he said everything is spelled correctly on his side, and to check my spam/trash/etc.

At this point I asked to be transferred to a manage, he response was dismissive, telling me he would transfer me once we were done.

He then asked for an alternative email address and I was was telling him this address he realized he had spelled my email incorrectly. Now I clearly spelled this out to him, but he did not listen, instead he proceed to tell me he had spelled it out to me and I had somehow told him [protected] is correct. In what world would I say my email was correct if indeed it was spelled incorrectly?

The truth is he sent the email to the same address the original person spelled incorrectly. He did not verify my email address (again, I would not say that the email was ok if he would have told me what he had on file).

Once I finally received the itinerary in email he hung up on my without transferring me to a manager.

A couple of things:
1. Please fix your website? If the website were working I would not have had to be exposed to your customer service which was very poor IMHO.
2. Hire more customer service employees! I should not have to wait for over an hour or hour and a half to speak to someone. You need help here

I just noticed the suggestions for complaint details on your website, it say to be polite. K. was anything but polite, his tone throughout my experience was that I was wasting his time, he had better things to do, and I'm stupid - that was the experience.

This is a Complaint of Awareness not to find fault with a person. On my returning Amtrak trip on the first morning I must have been a sight, my unsteady walk and slurred speech coming into the Dining car and asking for orange juice with my breakfast. It was my fault for not identifying myself as a Diabetic II by showing my Red Medical Dog Tags being Retired Military. I have Military service connected Diabetes with VA Disability.
I must have made a first bad impression with my return trip Server, from then on there was little things: twice asking me if I wanted a beer I'm a Diet Coke Drinker, the look, making me feel I was the Server's less favorite passenger and I felt being served last on purpose, Demanding why and what I was putting in my hot water I ordered, I answered sugarless French Vanilla Cafe.
My last meals on my five day Amtrak return travel before moving to my first trip Server's dining car I was seated with two other passengers when I was told to move and was moved by the Server to another table by myself embarrassing me in front of the other two passengers without a word; I was told I was seating too close to the aisle. Then when I was brought my meal the Server had the first trip Server observe me, seeing if I would protest, which I didn't give the satisfaction. Later one of the two passengers I was seating put his hand on my shoulder and look of support as he was leaving.
The funny part I too dislike handling drunks in my careers and lifetime and I've never drink alcohol in my life time.

I paid $1, 000 last December to go up North to visit my daughter on AMRAK in a roomette, but gladly paid it knowing I could stay in my roomette the entire time, as it had a toilet and sink in the room, as well as room service for meals. I booked my ticket for this year's trip back in July, and now I find out that the new Viewliners don't have a toilet in the roomettes! When I've asked why, I was told passengers complained it was unsanitary. I'm a nurse, and I no problems with the toilet in my room. The lid was tight and there were no odors, plus I wiped everything down as soon as I got in my room. Now I have to share a communal bathroom with other passengers, which given COVID, makes me nervous. Not to mention I have to get up several times a night to use the toilet due to a medical issue. I am beyond distressed about having to leave my room in the middle of the night, in addition to having to possibly wait to use the bathroom. Why couldn't you have two sleeper cars-one for those of us who like the in room toilets, and those who don't? I have called customer service three times to find out if I am in the new or old Viewliner (Car 10 on the Silver Service), and have gotten three different answers. This will be my last trip on AMTRAK!

We are 30 mins outside of the destination and have been stuck here for 90 MINUTES. We were supposed to have arrived 40 minutes ago. They said norfolk Southern isn't communicating. Then why did another amtrak train pass us? How come another amtrak train going the same direction as us can pass and according to the conductor we havent heard anything yet. Okay. [censored]. Especially when ANOTHER ANTRAK TRAIN JUST PASSED US.

I bought a ticket good for 10 one-way trips between San Luis Obispo and San Diego, California. Travel Is limited to an 8-week period between July 26 and September 23.

The tracks were closed between San Luis Obispo and Goleta, California, amounting to approximately 1/3 of the total route, for three weeks during August. I needed to drive rather than take the train during that period.

Since travel was unavailable for those three weeks, it is only fair that Amtrak. extend the period for three weeks. However, I am told by both the San Luis Obispo station and a train conductor that Amtrak does not accommodate that basic adjustment. This is blatantly unfair, and I therefore request that my ticket be extended by the three weeks to compensate for the track closure.

RES # 520B56 - 19 JUL 21

Amtrak have removed trains from Harrisburg to Philadelphia between 4.30 pm and 8.30 pm . My work schedule is from 8.00 am to 5.00 pm everyday. As no train is available from Harrisburg to Philadelphia between 5 pm and 8.30 pm I have to wait 4 hrs to travel 1 and half hour to reach home which is causing me health issues. I have contacted Amtrak directly the customer service didn't help much they are saying as not much passengers travel from Harrisburg to Philadelphia they have permanently removed trains between those timings.

My request for the Amtrak service team is add at least one train in between 5.30 pm and 8.30 pm asap. It will not only help me it will help everyone who is travelling from Harrisburg to Philadelphia for work as their is no means of other transportation available. I buy monthly pass from Amtrak by spending 425$ to travel three days a week and I am not satisfied with the service at all customer have to wait 4 hrs to travel 1 and half hour journey to reach home.

I was a passenger on train #65 @ 10:22 pm from Providence R. I. to Thurgood Marshall BWI on August 7 2021. Resv. #123743

During that trip I was disrespected by the conductor. I feel I was blatantly discriminated against. I'm not sure if it was because I am a senior or because I am a lady of color. I was assigned a single seat so maybe he didn't feel I qualified to have a single seat. I still don't understand why I was treated that way, I really feel it was because of my color.
let me give some background:

From the moment I sat down the conductor came to me and said, "I don't think you belong in that seat". I showed him my ticket, he said, "you can't sit here because I'm showing you as a no show", my reply how can I be a no-show when I'm sitting here, he then said he show me as a no show going to Rhode Island, (surely I didn't walk from Maryland to Rhode Island). he insisted that I move that he could find me a seat in Coach. I said I paid for business and wasn't going to coach. He continued to come back and harass me, finally I agreed to move to a seat further up because by that time I was getting nervous and stressed out. He took me to the front of the car and said he had reserved me a seat in 1d when we get to New York. That trip to N.Y. was the most miserable ride ever. I felt every bump and twist, consequently my sciatic nerve was bruised.
Then to add insult to injury when we got to N.Y. I was seated right across the isle from my original seat and no one sat there from N.Y. to BWI, also before N.Y. I went to the restroom at some point and the seat was empty. I think he felt I did not deserve to be in business class and certainly not in a single seat.

That conductor needs people skill especially when dealing with Brown skin people. He need to know color discrimination is illegal and will not be tolerated. I'm sure your records will identify him.

I had already booked a trip for October 13 and 19, reservation # 56B004, I hope the employees are not as arrogant.

Doctor Mary McLaughlin
[protected]

Amtrak is discriminating against me for being disabled based on my service dog. My service dog does not hold it for 6 hours and I put a diaper on the 22 lb. dog I can change in a sanitary method and place in a scented bag. I have the right to change my dog's diapers and my dog has the right to use the diaper and get it changed while on the train. It can be done in a perfectly sanitary manner that would not offend anyone at all. Humans do not have the right to force dogs to hold it for however long a human makes them, and dogs have the right to go to the bathroom when they need to. They are alive and it is bad for humans to have to hold it for too long, and humans do not have to, and dogs should not have to hold it as long as the federal government says. It is not biologically normal to make a rule about. Amtrak does not have the power and right to tell dogs when they have to urinate and how often exactly or throw them off the train. I need to take a simple 24 hr. trip and want my service dog to be respected and have diapers on to make it until we can get off the train. My disability makes it too hard for me to carry the dog off and on the train so a Rep said they can use the wheelchair lift for me, but I said I could take the service dog off and change the diapers off the train and the Rep said that is not going to work.
Amtrak is discriminating against small dogs, service and/or pets who do not hold it as long as Amtrak says they have to and Amtrak is treating dogs like they are inanimate objects. Not every dog holds it as long as Amtrak says they have to and dogs should be allowed to use diapers their owners sanitarily change just like babies can be changed and wear diapers or it is discrimination. There is nothing wrong with the disabled person being allowed to use the lift to deboard and then change the dog's diapers and come back onboard and the representatives at Amtrak are discriminating against service dogs by saying there is.
I want a reply because Amtrak has not got an Accessibility Disability department for me to contact and the regular representatives are not trained to think about disability accessibility situations and do not want to care about dogs at all because Amtrak says they do not have to take care of dogs. I am not asking employees to take care of my service dog that is what I do, and they refuse to let me take care of my service dog. Disabled citizens do take care of their service dogs, their service dogs do not take care of the disabled all the time or so much they are not allowed to be taken care of by their disabled charge. They are allowed to be dogs and this is federal discrimination. I am allowed to take the train and then I have to be watched, judges, scrutinized, and thrown off the train by undertrained Amtrak representatives who are not trained to allow disabled citizens the freedom they need to take their service dog on the trip. Many Pet dogs cannot hold it for the 7 hour trip they are allowed to take, either.

Our Res#2366DB for the California Zephyr on 7/28/2021. Food was the only thing & the sceneary that was good. Train was very dated & dirty. We were told if you had to do #2 to go to the bathrooms down below, because in our room bathroom had no exhaust ventilation. Really? Third world accommodations. At night the noise of banging, rocking & the springs bottom out to hit solid metal was not comfortable to get any sleep. Don't count on sleepy joe biden to help you with much needed repair on your tracks, he's only a puppet. This was bad enough, but to have one delay after another was over the top. Way too many trains & not enough tracks. Mechanical troubles & then crew ran out of time. Eight hrs late to Emeryville & missed our flights out of San Franciso to Fort Myers, FL. I would like a response, but that is unlikely.
When I hear people thinking about taking Amtrak, I will tell them about our experiences & suggest they fly or take Greyhound for better service.
Very Sincere, Roger & Debra Williams

As new equipment is ordered, here are suggestion to improve the quality. Emulate the airline by offering pillows and blankets, so that is one less carry-on passengers have to work about. Ad better quality seats and foot rests. current equipment is hard to operate and not very comfortable. Try adding seat-back tv-games. Follow your competition, the airlines. The window sill is slopped and would be better if level where you could rest your arm. Mid seat arm rests would be nice and too much space from edge of head-rest to the window, not conducive to resting against the window. Since most seats are on the second level, how about a door at that level to avoid the climb which is hard for older folks with baggage.

I understand that the dining car and lounge will be open to coach travelers; that would be very nice. Coach passengers are treat as second class riders when we pay a lot for a seat and car transport.

Now when it comes to trackage rights, Amtrak needs to lease a second track right of way so that we can not be held up by freight traffic. Build bypasses around yards to avoid slow orders.

Today, July 21, 2021 is the 4th day in two weeks that I have tried to make a change on my existing reservation #479399. The least hold time of the 4 days has been thus far 1 hour and 40 minutes. On yesterday after a 2 hour 28 minutes of hold time I was connected to a young lady and immediately she put me on hold for another 46 minutes. No success

I have been sitting on an Amtrak train with about 500 other people. The reason? Anonther Amtrak train was delayed so we are waiting for 2 people

On 6/29, 2021, from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm, I tried to get my e-ticket resend to my e-mail. When called, I was connected to Julie, Amtrak's automated system. She was unable to help me with my problem, so I asked to speak to an agent. When I was switched over, the phone would ring a few times before going into a busy signal. This happened more than 8 times. Later, I tried again and was directed into a phone query. I gave my info and waited for a callback. When I got the callback, it appeared as spam on my phone. I answered the call and was prompt to press one to accept the call; when I press one, I waited a while before the call went into a busy signal. Someone needs to check on Julie from time to time to make sure she is working as designed. Something so simple turned into a two-hour project, which hasn't been resolved. Ridiculous!

I had money taken from my bank account and I called my bank and informed that Amtrak took the money out but I never purchased a ticket for a trip this mouth but there was a payment charge for Amtrak ticket for the mouth of June for the sum of 460 dollars I don't understand why I never purchased a ticket so why did this happen I never authorized for this so how did this happen without my permission I did use Amtrak last month in may from Houston to Indianapolis but I paid for that using my debit card so what I'm I paying for this has to be resolved immediately

I was on the #27 train, the Empire Builder and stepped off to stretch my legs and take a smoke break at the Spokane, WA train station at 2:20am this morning, June 27th. I asked the one train attendant outside on the platform when the train was going to depart, how much time I had, and he said "A full hour". He said I had an hour from that moment I asked him how much time we had, not ten minutes or five minutes left of that "full hour". I decided to then take a quick stroll downtown to sight see, being I seemingly had a full hour left. I did so keeping an eye on the clock and returned at 2:50am, a half hour later, under the full hour. When I got back, the train had left. I met up with a security guard named Tommy who brought me down to the Amtrak office to speak with Wyatt and Matthew, who took down the details of my carry on belongings and checked baggage. They radioed ahead to the next train stop following Spokane to gather my carrycots and have them return here at the Spokane WA train station the same time the next morning when the train's on its way back to Spokane and that my checked baggage goes to Portland Oregon, my final destination where they're held on to for me. I was then given a ticket to leave on the next train this morning headed to PDX around the same time 24 hours later on a day it's supposed to have extreme heat, without my water bottle, my ID, or my wallet so I could get something to eat in this time frame.

I think it's completely unprofessional for the train attendant to say I had "a full hour" when I seemingly only had 10mins left of that hour stop, where they split up the train, half going to Seattle and the other half going to Portland. He withheld telling me the exact amount of time left before the train departed the station. This has effectively stolen my time from me while putting my carry-ons in the position of potentially being stolen or damaged. It has messed up a scheduled ride I had for me this morning at 10:10am when I was meant to arrive at the PDX station that I will not have tomorrow morning. This has caused me significant emotional distress on top of my PTSD because it's not only my personal belongings, my identification and wallet and money, it's also my art portfolio that been taken out of my care effectively putting my intellectual property in jeopardy. This is an abuse of power and someone should not be in that job position to give ambiguous times of departure to travelers withholding the exact time, misleading the traveler to believe they have more time than they do per stop. This is completely unprofessional and disingenuous. Someone should not hold that work position with Amtrak to do this to any travelers again, who have paid for tickets and made other ride arrangements that then become totally messed up while putting the traveler's property in threat of theft, loss and/or damage. This train attendant was on the Empire Builder #27 from Memphis to Chicago to Spokane and is a middle aged stocky African American man who wears a Bluetooth ear piece.

My name is Kevin Andrew Jones.
Phone number: [protected]
Email: archetypal. [protected]@gmail.com

We booked three rooms in the same car several months ago. Actually called in to make sure we had three rooms in the same car. We booked a family room with bathroom and two roomettes. Our roometts assigned were 5 and 7. Get on board the family room is four entire cars away and rhe attendant decided he liked one of our rooms more then wr did so now instead of being able to have our doors open and talk to each we have him across from us and our family completely diagonal. So now in order to talk, wr have to stand out in the hall or go to the lounge car to spend time as a family. Two cars, three rooms and inept staff can ruin it all. Yeah. We will just drive next time.

I booked a ticket for my brother (age: 86) New Rochelle, NY to Meriden, CT on #148 etd 7:26pm. We arrived an hour early and saw that the posted time was changed to 7:56pm. There were no station attendants available for any updated information or to provide alternative connections. We waited until eventually a new time of 8:26pm was posted. At no time was any relevant announcement made. We waited. Other Amtrak trains passed thru, with possible connections to Meriden, but we had no way of knowing for sure. I tried calling Amtrak and listened to an endless supply of recordings while on HOLD. No one ever answered. It started getting dark and cold with no bathroom facilities nearby. Eventually the time was changed on the board to 8:56pm. My brother, by now, was very agitated and extremely nervous, besides needing a bathroom. An Amtrak train pulled into the station at 8:53pm. There was no announcement, no train markings and no conductor visible. My brother boarded the train. I started to leave and heard someone say it was the train to Boston. I became frantic and began waving my arms and calling for help. A conductor appeared from the front of the train, approached me and helped locate my brother who then got off.
A possible tragic situation was avoided. The correct Amtrak train finally pulled in 15-20 minutes later. Fortunately, this time the conductor was easily spotted in the middle car and confirmed this was the correct train. This 1hr - 45 minute delay was very unfortunate. The absence of ANY meaningful communication was irresponsible, dangerous and unforgivable. It would have allowed us an opportunity to decide how to best handle the situation instead of remaining clueless the entire time while sitting, waiting and not knowing what to do.
This is the 21st century and we are able to make pinpoint landings on the Moon and Mars. How is it possible that Amtrak's service can be so terribly deficient and lacking in the basics? Amtrak must take responsibility to ensure that its passengers are not risking their health or their lives just by taking a 1 hour and 51 minute ride.
Sincerely,
Kenneth S. Kaplan - 36 Bascom Place, Staten Island, NY 10314 [protected]@gmail.com