AMTRAK

(This event happened immediately on my return to the US. I am a bit behind in my entries. I still have not written for a refund.)

If you read my blog from my trip to Russia last summer, you might know my nemisis was Citibank. You may have noticed that I had no such problem this year and have done very little railing on this blog, until now. The key word: AMTRAK

My plane arrive about 2:20 PM and I had a fairly easy time getting through customs and the passport check. By 2:40 PM I knew to get on the shuttle train to the Amtrak station. Strangely the shuttle stopped two stations short and we had to catch a shuttle bus the rest of the way. I heard a man telling his son that when it gets really hot that the something expands or contracts and that the trains do not fit on the tracks. Perhaps that is what had just happened.

I got to the station at 3:06 and the attendant said that unforntunately I had just missed the 3:05 to Philadelphia. He pointed to the place where I should buy a ticket. He said that the next train for Philadelphia would arrive at 4:45 PM, about an hour and a half wait. At 3:07 PM I bought the ticket. The ticket costed $51, more than .50 a mile. Strangely my ticket had the time of 3:05 PM on it. I thought that the clock on the machine was just off a little. ( I thought, "That ticket machine could not have sold me a ticket for a train that has already left.)

At 4:45 PM the announcer said that the train to Washington would be arriving in two minutes and Philadelphia was one of the stops. I went to the on the train the woman conductor looked at my ticket and said, "This is not your train." I tried to give her an argument, but she said, "Your train is the next train." Another guy gave her more of a hard time and successfully boarded the train, even though she said that it wasn't his train.

I waited 15 more minutes and decide to take the stairs up two flights and talk to the attendant who told me to buy the ticket.

He said, "That was your train. She was suppose to let you on. Come on with me and we're going to make a complaint to AMTRAK."

I met with the supervisor and he had another view on the matter. "You bought a ticket for a train that already left. I can't help that."

We tangled a bit and I got a little heated up. "How can the machine sell me a ticket for a train that has already left?" I said.

He answers, "Well, if the train is late, then people will need a ticket for that particular train. And all of the trains are usually late."

I say, "Well, my train wasn't late."

His answer, "Your train is never late. It's only the ones that come from Boston."
I say, "I paid $51 for a ticket and I can't use it for any other train."
Then he says, "I'm here to help you, getting upset is not going to get you where you want to go. But you're not going like what I'm going to tell you now. It's going to cost you more."

So he goes through all of the all of the reasons why I should buy tickets earlier and the earlier, the cheaper. He also says that I need to take another train back to Newark Penn Station and get on that train to Philadelphia- the cost? $91