About 20 years ago I called Amtrak to get reservations on the City of New Orleans For Good Friday, for myself and a couple of friends. The Amtrak agent said sorry, the space was booked, but that I could try later (this call was made well over a month before the Easter holiday). The Amtrak agent explained that their computers were such that they couldn’t wait-list people so the best thing to do was keep calling and calling in hopes something would open up.[8]
This annoyed me greatly, as I think RR reservations should be first-come, first-served, not subject to a telephone lottery. [:(!] I believe Amtrak’s reservation system has been modernized since then, but here is what I did back 20 years ago:
I wrote a letter to the Illinois Sec’y of Transportation pointing out that part of Amtrak’s mission was to provide balance in transportation, including events like the airports’ being socked in by fog, leading to a plethora of people wanting rail service ASAP. When Railpax was formed, I recalled, the flexibility of trains was stressed–in times of overload conditions, an extra car or cars should be put on the train. Obviously, one cannot “extend” a plane or bus without putting a new extra one in service, which would be prohibitively expensive. I asked rhetorically whether Amtrak was in any condition to turn down revenues.
The Sec’y answered me by saying he had ordered the Chicago Union Station trainmaster to put an extra coach on the train. Apparently my logic–and squeaking the wheel, so to speak–had worked. When we got aboard the train, our coach was a fairly ancient heavysider with too much heating but it was comfortable enough. All of the other cars were the Amfleet shells so I assume our coach was indeed the one that had been specially ordered-up.
My questions are:
(1) has anything like this ever happend to you?
(2) does Amtrak still possess enough “heritage” or extra equipment to accommodate people at peak times like holidays? Do they use i