Amtrak review: Sleeper room

5456 Wild Cherry Cir

Greendale, WI [protected]

[protected]

Reservation number #695284

29 August 2023

Amtrak

T0 Whom it May Concern,

In the past 7 months I have taken 5 of your trains. I want to compliment you on your treating us (the sleeper car) customers totally 1st class. This starts with the service I have received when I was booking my trips to the service we received in the sleeper car, in the lounge at the stations, in the dining car and almost all of your employees who we interacted with. I was very impressed when our room attendant must have informed the room attendant on our next leg of the trip on the Starlight Coast already had a 2nd blanket on the upper bunk, which I needed for the comfort of my back and neck which I have had surgery on.

That being said I have to say that our accommodations on the California Zephyr, departing from Chicago (originating in Milwaukee on July 17, 2023 on the Hiawatha) to Sacramento was lacking in ALL ways. Our biggest concern was that our door on the California Zephyr, would not stay closed when we would leave the sleeper. We almost always had to have one of us in the room as we were concerned about the theft of our belongings. Even though, if the door had stayed closed when leaving the cabin, the door wouldn’t have been locked no one would know that we weren’t in there if the door would have stayed closed. What we discovered is that the little mechanism at the top of the outside of the door that was designed to keep the door closed when not locked, had fallen off or been removed. (The same situation was true on our return trip on July 26th from Portland on the Empire Builder). Also, the reading light on the upper bunk was burned out, one of the overhead lights was burned out in our room, the mattress in the upper bunk was paper thin and it felt as though I was sleeping on a board. Thank goodness our attendant gave me a second blanket to put under myself to give a little more cushion. On our return trip, our attendants answer to keeping the door closed was to jam a hanger in the door. It didn’t work. This situation really made the trip quite stressful and I would like Amtrak to make this right for us.

Several other suggestions/requests. Would it be possible to make the observation car of the train and the lounge rooms “quiet” spaces. People on their phones, sometimes on speaker phone made those moments in those places quite undesirable. In the Portland lounge there was actually a man who was playing a baseball game out loud so that you couldn’t carry on a descent conversation.

I look forward to hearing from someone with some explanation as to why Amtrak does not make sure that the sleeper room doors do not stay closed. It made what was overall a very enjoyable trip quite stressful.

Sincerely,

P

Daniel O’Connor