Comments on: What’s wrong with the southbound Coast Starlight these days? http://trainblog.com/2006/06/whats-wrong-with-southbound-coast/ TrainBlog - Blogging about passenger trains, high-speed rail, Amtrak, Caltrain, VTA, railroads, transit, public transportation, passenger rail advocacy and related politics. Mon, 31 Oct 2011 04:22:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Anonymous http://trainblog.com/2006/06/whats-wrong-with-southbound-coast/#comment-77 Anonymous Fri, 18 Aug 2006 18:27:00 +0000 http://trainblog.com/2006/06/whats-wrong-with-southbound-coast/#comment-77 I just got off the Coast Starlight this morning in LA a little before 5:00 am. It was supposed to at 9:00 pm the night before. Not only was the train really late, but the service was terrible. We ate in the dining car, and the wait staff seem to have no idea what the menu was, refused to give my son his choice of side dishes, twice tried to take my food away before I finished it, didn't inform us of menu items that were sold out until about 10 minute after we made the order, and generally were astonishingly incompetent. I gave a pretty big tip anyway, and no one said thank you. The rolling stock is pretty old and seems to be in less than ideal condition. The first car we rode in made a horrible groaning noise whenever the train was at low speed. Another car smelled like something had died in the ventilation system. When we arrived in LA, we had to wait almost half an hour for the checked baggage to come off the train. All in all a really bad trip. I had specifically booked this train, because I wanted to see the Pacific Coast views in the daytime, but we went through all those areas at night. I just got off the Coast Starlight this morning in LA a little before 5:00 am. It was supposed to at 9:00 pm the night before. Not only was the train really late, but the service was terrible. We ate in the dining car, and the wait staff seem to have no idea what the menu was, refused to give my son his choice of side dishes, twice tried to take my food away before I finished it, didn’t inform us of menu items that were sold out until about 10 minute after we made the order, and generally were astonishingly incompetent. I gave a pretty big tip anyway, and no one said thank you.

The rolling stock is pretty old and seems to be in less than ideal condition. The first car we rode in made a horrible groaning noise whenever the train was at low speed. Another car smelled like something had died in the ventilation system.

When we arrived in LA, we had to wait almost half an hour for the checked baggage to come off the train.

All in all a really bad trip. I had specifically booked this train, because I wanted to see the Pacific Coast views in the daytime, but we went through all those areas at night.

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