Surly

I promised myself I would compose a long letter to Amtrak after my 21 days of train travel. The gist is I want to know why everyone who works at stations must be surly.

Do they not realize what great benefits and pension plans they have as federal employees? Do they not understand that every year congress considers doing away with them because they lose money EVERY year? Do they not hear the privatization train coming down the track?

Amtrak people, get it together!!

Someone is training the phone staff to be polite, helpful and even solicitous. Perhaps it is because they do not have to contemplate what it would be like to lose their jobs, they already know that the automated bitch answers the phone and gets first dibs on all the customers.

I tried to be compassionate with them, especially when I noted that one woman working at the Oxnard station had a face full of bruises. Yes, everyone has bad days and all kinds of personal baggage they carry around, but, honestly the poor customer service was fairly consistent from station to station - I visited four, two of them several times.

Another aspect that added insult to injury was that at most (that would be three out of four) there was ONE competent, helpful, if not friendly, employee. And that was the one that was NOT waiting on me.

Did I mention that I LOVE trains and traveling by train. I mean LOVE it. Even in the US, even in California,where the trains are notoriously late and whose timetables are anything but convenient.

I am full of romantic notions about travel by train. I mean FULL. It is probably best not to go into the details of all the fantasies I harbor regarding train travel, let's just say they are vivid, memorable and juicy.

And the surliness did not dissuade me from these thoughts or future train travel, but I do worry for the survival of my beloved trains and I don't think the surliness is helpful.

Lighten up Amtrak workers!