Seriously.

We have reservations for Memorial day long weekend, and the schedule has changed by 10 to 20 minutes on some legs of our trip.

If this would be a flight, I'd be lucky to see the change in red on my reservation, forget e-mails.

Amtrak representative called my home phone, left a message, starting with: we have some minor changes, so in case your machine will cut me off, here is the number to call: 1-800-...-.... And she went on with details.

Now, is this what the service should be, or what? I am still shocked.

Then I got angry that kind service is something so unusual nowadays! We don't expect it. We are used to calling to confirm. To verify. To be on hold. To go through the debris of: press 1, press 2, press 3, press 4.

And all of a sudden here comes Amtrak. And the sun is bright and the sky is blue again

I used Amtrak for bus service instead of Greyhound to go to a city 200 miles from here. Cheaper than Greyhound, faster, better buses and much nicer service.

I am glad you had a good experience with Amtrak -my daughter and I both use it all the time between Boston and NY and have never had a problem, or when there was a change, which was a minor time change and once, was immediately notified -

and when she was recovering from a surgery and had to return to the city, they escorted her to the train so she wouldn't get "squished" in the rush, carried on her bag, and got her settled on the quiet train before any other passengers were on the platform....at no charge and with no convincing to help her out !

planes, trains, buses, autos, all experience delays - and there are those who seem to have had bad experiences with Amtrak, but in five years I have nothing but good things to say about them either.

Nice to hear of a good experience, but the bad ones can be real doosies.

My son's girlfriend's family (mother of girlfriend and elderly grandparents) took Amtrak up to Boston for graduation.

The train was running late from NJ, so when it pulled into the station in Boston (next to last stop), it didn't leave the doors open long enough for people to disembark. The mother got off the train and the next thing she knew, the doors closed with the grandparents still on board!! They got off on the last stop, but were totally disoriented since they didn't know where they were. Tears were flowing, and an hour later they finally found them. True story. And I only thought things like that happen to my family, lol.

"do I have to say something NICE )" Nah! But that is great to hear, Faina--kudos to Amtrak!

United Airlines has been kind enough to call, twice, on two separate occassions with schedule changes months in advance which I truly appreciate.

Oh, heavens....an airline that calls about schedule changes AND an unscheduled emoticon!

Oh, I loved the time when Delta called and left a message with my 10 year old..."Tell mommy that your flight time has been changed." Okay? Did you ever know a 10 year old to actually take a message, lol?

SeeTheWorld, now you know, you should treat your elderly as small children: let them get out of an elevator first, out of a train car...

I use buses a lot, and it always drives me crazy when some passengers sit till the last moment, then only when the bus stops, they try to make their way to the door... and shout obsenities when the driver takes off! How would he know?

While we are praising Amtrak. I just had a Boston-NYC run that actually arrived early. The Amtrak credit card is also very generous, I have had many free rides.

Amtrak called us too, twice, to let us know that the train was delayed and that the connection would be impossible. One of the two times I'd forgotten we made the reservations, as plans changed & somehow we forgot to cancel ... so we were able to cancel now without penalty (Railsale tickets).

yes, they do come thru every so often.

Faina - how about the people who are ALREADY seated BEHIND the rear exit, yet push their way up to the front door? I wish buses had turnstiles! That slows down bus service so bad.

RB, I wish the back doors have turnstiles, in San Francisco it's sometimes a problem to get out as people are pushing you in to get on the bus through the back door to save the bus fare.

The senior ticket, and usually they are seniors, is .50, and the monthly pass is $10 - how can this be not affordable?

Faina, this was not my family. But from what I understand, the daughter was pulling off the luggage, turned her back and poof -- the door was closed. She yelled, but no one responded.

this is my assessment of Amtrak. Its great if you use it for east corridor use NYC, BOS, PHL, BALT, DC but anything else and its a piece of cr*p service, constant delays.

In January, my husband and I took Amtrak from a Philadelphia suburb (Exton) to NYC. No problems on the way up. Unfortunatley, that was not true on the trip back. THe trip was great until 2 stops from home. THen, the train seemed to be stopped for a long time and then started moving again. Next, it stopped. I saw one of the attendants walking around with a kid; I told my husband I thought he missed his stop. We are waiting and waiting (in between stations). I said they are going to put the train in reverse and go back to the station, hubby said that was not possible. Next thing we know, the train is in reverse. Then, the conductor came on and said "A child did not have anybody to pick him up at the stop and we had to wait for somebody to pick him up." THis child was probably 12 or 13. WE waited for about 20 minutes for somebody to get this kid. When all was said and done, our train arrived 30 minutes late because of this situation. Needless to say, we were livid. My husband kept saying the policy was that unaccompanied children had to get off at manned stations, but this station was not manned.
We called AmTrack and they gave us a $25 gift certificate.
I am a teacher, so I am concerned about the well-being of children. HOwever, I don't think it is fair to inconvenience a whole train full of people for one irresponsible family. I think they should have kept the kid on the train until we got to a "manned station" as the ticket requires and then inconvenience his family. Or, they could have called the police and have them come get him and call his parents.