Neither James nor I had ever taken a train any long distance before, so when we were faced with the decision of how we'd get to Kansas City for our summer vacation, we thought Amtrak would be a great idea. I'd heard both good and bad things about taking the train anywhere. Most people I'd talked to were excited for us and our new experience. We were too, before the whole experience started.
Our experience with Amtrak was hectic and frustrating. Instead of telling the entire story, I'll just touch on a few points that I was disappointed about.
1. Three hour delay with little to no information offered and no room to wait - We spent three hours going back and forth between an information board and the food court at Union Station in Chicago. When asked about the delay, Amtrak staff was rude and unhelpful. When we dared to enter the Amtrak waiting room, we were greeted with a packed room that was poorly ventilated. There wasn't even room to stand! We nearly missed our train because of poor communication between Amtrak and the information board and no space to wait by the gate.
(The Amtrak waiting room at Union Station, Chicago)
2. Poor food selection and hard to make dinner reservations - In order to eat dinner (or any other meal) in the dining car on an Amtrak train, passengers must make reservations. I understand this process, due to lack of seating space in the car itself. What I don't understand is why it has to be so hard to make those reservations. Whoever is in charge of the dining car walks from the front of the train to the back and takes reservations for available times from passengers. If a passenger is sitting at the back of the train, he may have to wait until 11 or midnight before he can have dinner. On the way to Kansas City, we got hungry before the dining car man got to us to make reservations. So instead, we visited the cafe car to see what they had available. The selection was poor. I ended up eating ramen noodles and James just ate pretzels and cookies for dinner. We never saw the dining car man on the way but he did blow by us on the way back to Chicago. He barely stopped to see if anyone actually wanted to make a reservation. I felt like, if I had wanted to spend $9 on a salad, I would have had to jump out of my seat and shout at him to get him to stop.
3. Break promised in Iowa lasted about 2 minutes or less - On both trips, we were promise what they called "smoke breaks". We assumed that these would last at least five minutes, since they say that passengers would be able to smoke a cigarette during the break. We disembarked the train to get some fresh air and stretch our legs and almost as soon and we'd set foot on solid ground, they were calling for us to get back on the train. Why didn't they just tell us we'd only get two minutes to be outside instead of just saying there would be a "smoke break"? "Smoke break" implies that one would be able to smoke. I'm not sure how long it takes to smoke, but I know that two minutes was not enough.
Overall, we were unimpressed with Amtrak. It was only about $50 cheaper to take the train than it would be to fly. The ride was the same length as driving would have been and, when driving, a person doesn't have to deal with long waits, rude staff, and poor food choices. I don't think we'll be taking the Amtrak train ever again.
My rating: 
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