> > What services do you pay for that you expect and
> > accept sub par service?


> The phone company, the cable company, the post office, Chase Bank, DMV, Congress...


You forgot a few!

One being SP passenger service under "Old Baggy Knees" (B. F. Biaggini), who literally became the Hollywood stereotype of the grumpy old railroad president trying to kill the passenger train (as in "It Happened To Jane" or even as in "Petty Coat Junction"). The exceptionally crappy service drove the passengers away in spades, until there were literally none left on most long distance SP trains.

Indeed, I personally experienced that in the late sixties, while trying to catch my next ship assignment in San Diego (from San Francisco). Judging from the outrageous behavior of the ticket agents in San Francisco, they must have been paid bonuses for for each potential patron turned away!

Why else would they try so hard to talk me out of a ticket to LA on the Coast Daylight? They argued with me quite rudely, and at great length, that I should just take the greyhound instead! Finally, after several minutes of this, I got hot and in the most eloquent sailor language that I could muster, demanded they just shut the hell up and sell me a damn ticket.

Most people would have just walked out never to return. But I was a train nut! And got my ticket anyway; only to discover that there was no food to be had on the train. AT ALL! By then SP was using "Automat" cars in place of diners. But only one of those vending machines worked, which was emptied quickly. There was a small snack bar on board, but the attendant never opened it up until late in the day. But hey, I was a train nut!

Of course, at each passing freight, we took the siding for a half hour or so wait. But that was in some respects, a relief; as you weren't being constantly jolted and jostled by worn out running gear. But what the heck - I was a train nut riding a famous train! And being a train nut - did I really care so much that nearly every window on that famous train was badly scratched lexan - making it hard to see the ocean in the setting sun. Yeah - I was a train NUT all right!

Too bad though, that my new CO was NOT! And thus couldn't care less why I missed the connection to the last San Diegan, and was therefore a day late reporting. Indeed, that was not a good way to impress my new "Boss". As it turned out, those ticket agents agents knew something I did not. That SP would intentionally fail to deliver, what was paid for with perfectly green dollar bills.

I find it hard to believe that whatever imperfections are to be found at any operating railway museum, that they ever will rise to the level of this train ride from hell - or the many others endured by the public, at the hand of a professional railroader. Oh - and BTW, my first few experiences with Amtrak were not much better!

We ought to keep a little perspective, when riding a train that could only run at all - because of volunteers. At this point, they are doing as good as, and in many respects, much better then the pros were doing back then (and sometimes even now!).

OPB