The question of “why does Amtrak board trains like this?” has never been more pressing.
Conversation
![David Watson 🥑](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="96" height="96"><rect fill-opacity="0"/></svg>)
Post your reply
Why do they say "last and final station stop"? Inefficient, shows a disdain for editors
While the press is ginning up fears, ICE really won’t be doing much differently than it did under not only the first Trump administration, but Obama as well.
Joe Biden’s limited immigration enforcement regime was the outlier.
Theory: some people who operate train boarding don't want to see their job as requiring any less level of complexity and rule-following than airplane boarding.
Absolutely insane that Americans put up with this. The boarding procedure was just as bad, so it's not just an thing.
JUST LEAVE THE PLATFORM OPEN LIKE EVERY OTHER COUNTRY IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. I'm pretty sure the US is the only country (yes, in the entire
Show more
And yet they wonder why public trust is so low… said as I enjoy the pumpkin French toast in Acela first
- any fixes inbound soon?
or will the all important missing Strategy inform a policy that instigates a working group to eventually..
If i get on at BWI (headed to PHI or NYC) i just walk on to the platform and board then show ticket while en route. Queue coming back other way. It’s certainly possible.
Why the attempt on Donald Trump's life is a direct result of dehumanization efforts in the US?
1:38
Click to watch the full documentary
Why I prefer boarding from the current Penn Station rather than the more attractive Moynihan Hall. The latter seems to be designed to maximize the convenience of management to oversee riders. Part of the anti-democratic technocratic/ managerial turn in government I suspect
the real reason is that without an efficiency or profit motive (or in the presence of a de-facto enforced monopoly), operations of a business are significantly less efficient
Lol this is my station no queue system and while a lot doesn't work here, this ain't a problem
Sounds like behavior learned from cross-pollination with airlines that no one has a reason to revise.
I appreciate your dogged fight to change this absurd policy.
Why the attempt on Donald Trump's life is a direct result of dehumanization efforts in the US?
![](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="1200" height="675"><rect fill-opacity="0"/></svg>)
In a sane world this would be something DOGE could look into and help solve
Why would they change though? Out of the goodness of their hearts and love of efficiency?
Queueing makes no sense since they don’t even check your ticket at Union Station. Makes absolutely no sense and creates such an annoying rush to find the gate quickly
Speed of Amtrak operations on empty train platforms, & dog screening at gates,
& reduced risks of: falling injury so delay, train sabotage risk (eg bombs in bags on trains, suction / magnetic / glue attached explosives on trains skin), drug or espionage messages affixed too.
None of this has anything to do with what happened, Amtrak driving away an empty train without even calling on the radio to see if passengers were waiting.
I am currently on train from Brussels to Frankfurt. Got on the platform 10 minutes before departure, and waited for the train to come.
Have a total of 6 trains today. Connections vary from 5 minutes to 42 minutes. Expect to arrive home on time.
Why the attempt on Donald Trump's life is a direct result of dehumanization efforts in the US?
...why didn't they open the gate? It's obviously the station's fault.
Of course the train conductor (if they exist) should have noticed as well.
Typical of a State-run and (worse yet) unionized organization.
No one should expect Amtrak service to be better than that of a Soviet organization... because they are the exact same thing.
We ride Amtrak a lot, and it's always an embarrassment. Sadly, it's all we got. Staff are always friendly, helpful, and willing. Their bosses are clearly incompetent
Who's "they" exactly, who holds the actual decision power to make this change. Which exact person or group of people. They should be named and shamed till the change happens.
This is why I never wait in those lines at Union Station. There are at least 2 points where you can get through open doors to the platforms and no one says boo. People need to assume incompetence from Amtrak and take matters into their own hands.
The story you started this thread with doesn't seem like a queuing problem.
That story is more like if American Airlines told people to line up at gate A for boarding and then said the plane left because no one was at gate B for boarding.
Do you know when they started it? It wasn't that way in the 80s or early 90s when I lived in NJ and went to DC on business a lot.
I did get kept out of part of Union Station in 1989, but that was because Bush was holding an inauguration party there and I only had a train ticket.
Someone FOIA’d Amtrak emails and memos on this a few years ago, and the answer is “because that’s the way we’ve always done it” ie internally nobody knew why other than that.
Show additional replies, including those that may contain offensive content