Amtrak Reviews 917

We rode the California Zephyr from Denver to Reno in Feb. 2025.
1. The cleanliness of the train cars is seriously lacking. There was garbage underneath the seats, grime, dirt, and globs of sticky stuff littered the table, floor and seats. We had to wipe the windows down as there were layers of dirt and fingerprints covering the inside and outside of the glass. I was fairy nervous just sitting on the seats not knowing when they were last cleaned, do we need to worry about lice, who knows.
2. The menu looked wonderful, and we were very excited to try it all however, it was obvious the food was 100% highly processed, unwrapped from its plastic shell, and warmed in some sort of microwave prior to serving. For the amount we paid for a ticket, you could definitely upgrade the cuisine. Processed food is a killer, stop serving it!
3. The process of boarding the train was easy and pleasant however, the pleasantness ended there. The car attendant had directed me to place my luggage on the unsecured designated shelves which I did. After 8-10 minutes I chose to retrieve my luggage and store it in my room. When i approached my bag, it was unzipped and contents removed. I attempted to contact the attendant however...........NO ATTENDANT. For the remainder of our trip, the attendant was nowhere to be found. We never saw him again. In fact, the only Amtrack employee we interacted with was the gentleman in the dining car who was by the way was lovely and very kind. I attempted to look up instructions of what to do when items are stolen, yet since internet was not available nor our "designated attendant", I was at a loss. I did however complete the appropriate online form for lost & stolen items after we disembarked.
4. THE SMELL. We unfortunately were lathered in a grotesque, noxious odor for the entirety of our trip. This smell was so putrid, we could not identify it. We searched for an employee to aid us in possibly switching rooms but...refer to #3. If you can imagine a car to be filled with a group of 20 individuals with severe digestive disorders who only eat cabbage and raw beef and have used the car as their personal lavatory, then multiply that smell x10, then you may get an idea of what we dealt with. You can reasonably understand that we had little sleep or comfort.

For the costly price we paid..... we are remarkably disappointed.

I booked coach tickets for Kingman, AZ to Los Angeles, CA and a roomette from Los Angeles to Seattle, WA. Expense for two people was $816 (flying from Seattle to Arizona one way is $307). About a week after I booked my LA-Seattle leg (a few days after booking Kingman-LA) I received notification via text that my LA-Seattle train had been cancelled. Called customer service to confirm and a gentleman (who didn’t really sound well informed) told me that the train was still going but my reservation had been inexplicably cancelled. I called again later that day hoping for more clarity and the second customer service agent told me the train was cancelled due to roadwork and my reservation was not.I don’t normally complain about these things but I would also note that the first two people I spoke with were rather challenging to understand as they had heavy accents (not American).
Two days later I received an email from Amtrak letting me know that the service would be disrupted but they said “Don't worry, we've already set up alternate transportation for some or all of your route, and there's nothing you need to do.” They did not detail what the alternate transportation was nor how that would impact my travel logistics. I called Amtrak yet again, hoping someone could explain the details of the “alternate transportation” and above all, explain the discrepancies in communication. The third person I spoke to initially repeated that the train was cancelled and when I told her about the email I received, she confirmed that the service was up to Emeryville, CA and I would be taking a bus up there from LA. She was not able to confirm how long the bus ride would be except (most of the way). By the way there was no refund so I would be paying $700 (which was the price of this leg of the journey) for a bus ride across 2.5 states. I asked if there was a supervisor available to speak because by this point I had heard three different things from three different people and the vaguest text and email ever. She pointed me to customer service. The 4th customer service agent I spoke to eventually confirmed everything the third customer service agent had said and also couldn’t tell me how my arrival time would be impacted by the bus trip. She had to look on google maps to get an idea of the distances and times and said “well that’s a long detour.” I asked to speak to a supervisor about 5 times and told her it was the worst experience I’d ever had and they’d lost a customer and earned a poor review and she was not able to connect me to anyone else. Cherry on top was the call ending with an opportunity to complete a survey and then the survey was out of order. I ended up cancelling. Of the four, only the first person I spoke with offered me any kind of future discount for my trouble and it was $50. Ridiculous at every level.

I am currently on the 9.02 Amtrak train 2152 from New York to Boston.
We upgraded to first class from business. We're in the US on holiday from Australia and wanted to experience the railways so booked first class from Washington to New York for about USD 1300 for 3 people, and upgraded from Business to first class from New York to Boston, total cost about USD 800 for 3 people.

Washington to New York - food ok. Coffee ok. Got a roomette - it was tiny and had a toilet in it. Luckily there were other lockable toilets, but they were filthy.
Seats were ok, and pull out bed overhead.
Train conductors brusque and not at all helpful.
Felt like I was in steerage.
Definitely not worth the price. Would have been better value and more comfortable to fly.
New York to Boston - in a non-reclinable seat as there is an opposite facing seat behind me. No footroom to stretch out eeither.No roomette or room despite this being first class. Saw toilet - it is filthy. Can't believe I'm going to say this but the tiny roomette on the last leg was better - at least I could recline the seat, stretch my legs and have some privacy.

So I accidentally left my laptop in the seat in front of me. I immediately filed a report, but that person was only available via a chat. Very patient and understanding and helpful. I’m happy to say that my laptop was recovered and kept for me at the lost and found, and now I have reclaimed possession of it. I’m sure there are horrible stories of the poor customer service, but my experience was really, really great. My experience made me more likely to take Amtrak in the future between Washington DC and New York.

What is going on? Commuted for 17 years between DC and NY for work (twice a week) and now commute between NY and Hudson. Suddenly, I am being told some rules say you can't sit in the cafe car. For YEARS and YEARS. I would sit in the cafe car...every once in a while, the cafe would close down, but It didn't mean I had to leave the cafe car. I would sit and work...it was usually full of happy people sharing beers and talking. Now, it is EMPTY except for the Amtrak workers. It's closed all the time, and no one is allowed to be in while it's closed. WHY? Today I was told it was closed when I joined at Yonkers. When it opened up a few stops later, I went up and saw three conductors hogging 3 of the six tables. I sat down at an empty one. They said I had to buy something to sit in the cafe car. I spent 6 dollars on a tiny bag of popcorn and a soda. I put it on a cafe table and collected my bag from the seat where I'd left it in another car. I brought it into the cafe car and was told I was not allowed to bring BAGS or COMPUTERS into the car. Whaat? They said the car was for people who were eating and nothing else. There is NOT ONE OTHER person in the car besides these spread-out conductors. They look at anyone entering the car like someone encroaching upon their domain. No one would have been disturbed by my quietly eating popcorn with my computer. I'm sure all the other potential cafe car users had been chased out, just like me. And it seems like that was the point. Has there been a policy change? To what end? I returned my overpriced food and went back to my seat, but the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth, like so much of Amtrak's filthy bathrooms, hit-or-miss staff, outdated web technology etc. If this is truly a rule, it's a dumb rule. If it's just a random enforcement by the train staff, it's the opposite of customer service, and another black eye for Amtrak. Every year, the tickets get higher, and the experience gets worse. When I said I was going to write to complain, the conductor said..."People do it everyday" without even turning to look at me.

Auto train from Sanford, FL to Lorton, VA- left at 4PM yesterday scheduled to arrive between 8-9 am today. I am in Business class sleeper car 5241. Weather temps in SC froze the railway signals so we were delayed in Charleston for many hours overnight. Understand this is not under human control but I do wonder if perhaps there are ways to avoid this... This morning, there were no announcements about what had occurred and even the crew seemed confused.
Now, we are delayed again because the engineers timed out. We have been waiting for a new crew for over 2 hours- we were told this would be 15 minutes. Then announcements that they were 12 minutes away...almost here... that went on for 30 minutes. Since they knew hours ago that this was a problem why wasn't a new crew ready?? Why all the false hope stories and promises that they were only minutes away?
On top of it all, the staff has disappeared! All the sweet suck up for a tip yesterday doesn't seem to matter today. I haven't seen staff in this car all day. No snacks or drinks available- just a coffee machine with burnt coffee from this morning. I am disgusted with this - how is it 2025 and Europe has better rail service than the US???
NEVER AGAIN! I will actively and aggressively oppose all federal, state and local funding for Amtrak until they improve the services and stop rewarding poor performance and leadership- this is ridiculous. I am using this time sitting in Emporia VA to write to my elected officials and the new Sec of Transportation.
Hey, Stephen Gardner, why are we paying you and your exec team 500k+ in salary and half a million in bonuses each year for this??

I took a trip to NC for MLK weekend, we decided to visit family by train because my son love trains.

We traveled in coach from Winter
Park (Orlando, Fl) to Cary (NC).

This is what I found:
Cons:
Rude crew, they yelled! At my husband twice because he moved to different seat, he was trying to be away of the bad smell around his seat, the train having multiple empty seats.

Dirty bathrooms, clog toilets, toilet paper on floors, urine smell.

Dirty windows, crumbs, candy on the floors.

Recliners were hard, malfunctioning, and dirty with sticky arm rests.

Marijuana smell everywhere, including crew members.

Conductors! Smell like urine and cigarette, unbelievable.

Homeless people, sounds like there are travelers who ride for days of course they don't shower. The train reeked of human stench, urine, vomit, all together. People were eating, sleeping, passing gas for 14 hours, totally gross.

I found filth stench misery, everywhere. I felt like I need to shower and disinfect everything after the ride.

The bright lights where on the whole night, I couldn't complete an hour of sleep during my trips.

Our train was delay both ways first for 2 hours and 3 hours in the way back.

Pros: workers at Cary were nicer than the crew on board.
I got text messages about the delays. (Sadly, even the days I wasn't traveling)

Conclussion:
I have travel around for years, by train, plane, bus, boat, etc. Europe, Asia, America's.
Companies in the travel industry (at least serious ones) supposed to follow hygiene, customer services standards and policies. So I can't no understand how a nationwide company of the US can offer a service like this.
Illnesses spread easily by dirty surfaces. This train had urine, vomit and food all mixed around, how this can be allowed?

I used Amtrak before, roomette and coach and yes the roomettes are better but just average, but what I just experienced is incredibly sad.

I love trains and it is awesome to have an alternative to drive and fly I really wish this company can improve their services and I hope the improvements are for all the Amtrak services.

I was waiting for train 138 in Richmond Va the 3:08 one of the workers made an announcement to form two lines outside and end 138 was to the left and 141 to the right the so about 14-20 people was in the line for 138 they announce 141 first the clerk said the signal was for 141 to come in that’s why they announce 141 first then they said 138 once and then they said last call for 138
It was Miscommunication's then 141 come and they said we miss our train
So I had to wait til 535 if it’s not late to catch my train to Woodbridge this time for 90 which most of the people caught to Washington they made more announcements and came Inside and made several an announcement the screems was broke the monitors in the station so this was a bad experience half a day in the station

NEVER on time!!!!!!!!!! My mom had a reservation on Jan 15, to travel from Rugby ND to Detriot Lakes MN, the train was supposed to arrive in Rugby the same night at 1149pm, well that day came and went,and the train finally arrived at 435am, there us absolutely excuse why it was almost 5 hours late, this is unacceptable, my mom missed her very important meeting,because of amtrak is being late, If Amtrak has a schedule, the should stick to it and be on time!!! I DEMAND a response!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My first experience with train...and my last. All the "extras" you pay for in business...a waste of money. The food porter from Montpelier was rude and I had to wake him up to order. He wasn't happy. No wifi. The bathroom in business was locked. It was freezing the entire trip. The food was microwave frozen crap. And not until NY/NJ did anyone offer us our free drinks...I hours later. Americas way to travel my ass...and I have to do the return trip on Sunday. Hopefully this time I can get some Tylenol pm and knock myself out. I should have just wiped my ass with the 300 dollars to take Amtrak. Next time I'll drive.

I strongly recommend that Amtrak rethink its alcohol policy in Acela First Class. My wife and I had bad experiences with apparently inebriated people while going back and forth from Baltimore to New York on 1/10 and 1/12/25. On 1/10 (#2108) a man strolled up and down the aisle cussing and shouting loudly, while talking mainly to two women, but not caring who heard his profanity. On 1/12, (# 2263) l sat across from a man who drank as fast as could be served in spite of having his young daughter with him. He was loud and literally unable to stand. My problem is that they just kept drinking because the alcohol was “free”. Perhaps, if Amtrak charged for the alcohol it might help the rest of us to tolerate these drunks. For my part, I’m abandoning first class going forward.

I bought a ticket that was supposed to be a sightseeing tour from Washington to Deerfield Beach and it turned into a nightmare. With a 5-hour delay waiting at the station and the train breaking down halfway. The food sold on the train is cold ready-made food that heats up very poorly. Due to the delay, they served food that looked more like the food I buy in cans for my dog. I spent more than 27 hours starving on the train. I really regret having believed the story of the perfect train on the internet. Not to mention the lack of education of some of the company's employees.

Traveled from Tampa to Winterpark on 26th and back on 27th. The train on 26th was late, and return trip was 3 hours late, then just before arriving at Lakeland, FL the train ran over a tree limb and train broke!!!!! all shut down even air conditioning. We were told to get off and find alternative transportation! The train personnel said they could not supply busses, etc. to help. Also the train was filthy dirty outside and somewhat inside, towels on the floor in isles at one point.

Never again. Booked a revenue ticket on Amtrak as opposed to driving. The outbound trip seating was terrible and bathrooms in the coaches were filthy. The return trip, first leg was no seats. Stood with my bags in between the coaches until seats opened up in Philadelphia. In Penn station connecting train was 4 hours late with no updates or announcements. When the train finally left it was announced there was no cafe car available. The cafe car would not be attached until a stop that was 3 hours away. I went to the dining car to buy a water bottle to take some medicine but was declined and turned away because I held a coach ticket. Next time, flying or driving.

Signed a former Amtrak Conductor

On December 20,2024, I took a roundtrip train ride from Moorpark, CA to the San Clemente Pier, CA on the Surfliner to visit my brother. I purchased a business class ticket since I like having a guaranteed seat and some of the extra amenities. The trip to the San Clemente Pier was uneventful, however the train was almost at passenger capacity due to holiday travelers. The trip back in the late afternoon was also uneventful, again with basically a full train to Union Station in Los Angeles. I was in Car 1 in business class and the conductor placed a card above my seat indicating that my destination was Moorpark. After reaching the Semi Valley station (the station before Moorpark), a train attendant walked by my seat, picket up the ticket and announced that Moorpark was the next stop. I picked up my backpack, went down the stairs in Car 1 and waited for about 8 minutes before the train arrived at the Moorpark station. As the train was slowing, I began to wonder if any train personnel were going to come down the stairs to open up the door. The announcement was made that the train had arrived at the Moorpark station, however, no-one showed up to open the door. I went up the stairs and there were no Amtrak personnel in sight. I next heard the last call announcement for this station. I quickly made my way to the second business class car (Car 2) and as I was going down the stairs, the door was beginning to close. I told the train attendant that this was my station and that there was no-one in Car 1 to open up the door. She was able to get the door back open and I got off the train. No apology for the inconvenience. I might add that there were two (2) Amtrak employees downstairs in Car 2 at the exit door. No really a big deal, however, if I had not been quick to realize that no-one was going to open up the door, I would have had to get off at the next stop at the Ventura station and make arrangements to get home (and yes, I would have made sure that Amtrak compensated me for the cost and inconvenience if this had happened). There is no excuse for not having an Amtrak employee be stationed to open up the exit door on Car 1, especially since they knew that I was getting off at this station. There was no announcement over their PA system for passengers in business class to detrain from Car 2. Amtrak needs to get their act together and make sure that their employees to their jobs properly. Ultimately the conductor should be on top of this and management needs to read reviews like this and take some sort of action.

The WORST EVER! your company is so bad! You don’t inform your customers about delays or other issues. Your customer service is pathetic. I hope you go out of business soon. Save the public all of this anguish. Please close and let’s gind an alternative way!!!

I am a student who specifically organized my living situation to commute to work on Amtrak. However, Amtrak increased in price for the monthly pass from $360/month (for a 30-40min ride 2x a day between 2 specific stations) to $650/month, an 80% increase. To put that in perspective, my train ticket is now almost equal to my monthly rent, and instead of paying $4,320/year, I have to pay $7,800/year to continue my schooling. They are asking me to pay 25% of my total income for the year on my commute to school. And they can, because they're a monopoly.

But at least I get to work with low stress, right? No. Because the train is almost always late and has been cancelled on me (and left me stranded in Providence, and on hold for two hours with no recourse!). I had time to write this review because the train is late again. :)

They also don't address complaints sent privately, so I'll post this here!

This was also quite impossible to post, given the Amtrak Wifi is practically nonfunctional.

The Amtrak Snow Train 12/7/24
California Zephyr returning to Martinez.
(Chicago Reno NV Martinez CA San Francisco)
The staff on the train did great job during a 5 hour delay. They kept us informed. A freight train broke down on track. The views were breath taking.
Thank you especially to Paris our Amtrak employee on the train based out of Chicago. Paris's hard work to make us comfortable and always asked us how we were doing. She was pleasant and worked overtime. Our special needs son Teddy, loved the snacks! My 90 year old mother enjoyed the ride. Thank you

I spent the better part of an hour trying to get one simple question answered "Where does Amtrak have a hub in Tennessee?" Online is chat is useless, online website is confusing. When I finally got to a live agent, she had me on hold to 20 minutes then got back to me and said "I found some information..." and then I hear a click and AI saying "thank you for agreeing to take the survey, survey is not available at this time." Truly, that's the story. It is a wonder Amtrak is even running with this kind of ridiculous customer service. Forget it.

Where is the customer service? The greeting made by staff is just an open threat to move your bag or you will be charged for the seat. Cafe car staff are lazy AF! Customers are herded like cattle. Let an Amtrak employee know they're a pos today!