posted
Is it just me, or has Amtrak in conditions such as today, not offered alternate transportation when a train is canceled? Today, the Sunset Limited #2 will not depart due to flooding...In situations such as this in the past, I would see Amtrak offering at least bus service to passengers. Now it seems as if they are being like airlines and leaving passengers stranded. This was a big pro to rail travel in the past, you always new you were going to get there, one way or another. Now, if a train is canceled...so are your travel plans apparently.
Posts: 1082 | From: Los Angeles, CA. USA | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
Purely from reports on this forum, yes, I agree that Amtrak seem to now just cancel rather than bustitute. Perhaps Amtrak are following the exact letter of the law which presumably allows for giving up in the event of "acts of God".
Geoff M.
-------------------- Geoff M. Posts: 2426 | From: Apple Valley, CA | Registered: Sep 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Geoff M: Purely from reports on this forum, yes, I agree that Amtrak seem to now just cancel rather than bustitute. Perhaps Amtrak are following the exact letter of the law which presumably allows for giving up in the event of "acts of God".
Geoff M.
I once had a debate with an American Airlines agent about the whole 'acts of God' thing. She didn't want to send me to a hotel room when my 8:00pm flight to Chicago was canceled due to a horrible storm. "Act of God" she said.....just like my previously booked the 6:00pm flight which had also been cancelled due to the weather.
I pointed out that before that I had originally been booked on the 4:00pm flight which had been loaded and sat on the tarmac for an hour before being cancelled due to mechanical difficulties. That, I reasoned, was not an act of God but an act of American Airlines.
Still she hesitated because the line of affected passengers stranded for the night was quite long. I, without losing my temper, pointed out that I had a sleeping bag in my luggage and would otherwise spend the night camping at her supervisor's door (this was pre 9-1-1.....I would never try this in present climate) to make sure someone woke me up in time for the first flight to Chicago the next day.
And that is how I came to spend the night in a Howard Johnsons adjacent to the runway in Rockford, IL!
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Geoff M: Perhaps Amtrak are following the exact letter of the law which presumably allows for giving up in the event of "acts of God".
A theologian, or a really good lawyer, might argue that such calamities are not acts of God, but acts of the devil, and thus Amtrak is still required to fulfill its transportation contract.
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