I recently rode the SL from LAX to HOS with the Feb-March adjusted schedule in place. It didn’t take long to notice how attentive and friendly the car attendants were. I questioned my sleeper attendant and the dining car crew only to find out most had 25-30+ years of service. I discovered that they bid the SL this month and next month because of the 2-day layover in NOL due to the adjusted schedule, a rarity for them. Traveling alone without my wife I had a roomette for this trip. My sleeping car attendant actually cleaned the restrooms and shower all along the trip and they were spotless. The dining car staff was cheerful and polite and the food was better than normal. During two separate meals in the diner, I encountered two different couples traveling Amtrak for the first time. They loved it to the point they both indicated this would be their new form of travel. I didn’t tell them that this experience was, unfortunately, not the norm. Yet, the equipment on the train performed as designed (after I quieted a rattling panel in the hallway outside my roomette door) and we arrived in HOS on time. I thought I was in the Twilight Zone!
What I took away from this trip was that good, friendly service, properly working equipment and arriving on time still works, in spite of the older equipment.
It’s really too bad that many of the newer, younger car attendants don’t know how to provide customer service to that level and if they did, what a difference it might make for all.