My brother made a round trip on Amtrak from Sacramento to Albany, OR. earlier this year. I recently asked him how the trip was. He said the train was OK but the Amtrak employees are mean. I asked him what he meant and he said the trip up to Oregon was uneventful, but the return trip was horrible.

When he boarded at Albany he had a seat upstairs but the crew rudely told him they needed it for someone else and made him sit downstairs. His downstairs companions were a ladies book club and they took him in. After the train left Eugene the conductor entered their car and demanded to know who had opened the window in the vestable. He was yelling at the group (yes they were black...seems like dejavu) saying the person that opened the window was going to be thrown off the train. Later he threatened to throw everyone off the train because no one would snitch the culprit. My brother, who is in his 60's and looks like a 49er headed to the gold rush, said the conductor gave up just in time, because he was going to throw him off the train. He said he couldn't see the window from his seat, but the only person he had seen in the vestable was an Amtrak employee.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, but when he got off in Sacramento he said "have a nice day" to the conductor as he walked by him and his response was "yea, whatever." I asked him if he would ride again, he said maybe.