If you want me to skip to the chase so you do not have to read the entire review, here it is. I highly recommend you choose some other form of travel rather than AMTRAK trains, unless you just want to experience a train once or twice in your life, or have no other option. Drive if possible to your destinations. You can see so much more than on an American train and you can get out and stop when you want. Plus you get none of the cost of the train and the, usually, poor service. The only positive of taking an American train is it keeps you from having to drive and it's good for those afraid to fly or drive. I have used AMTRAK as an adult 3 times. Each time was pretty bad. You cannot say I didn't give it a chance. My daughter used it a dozen times, maybe, getting back and forth from school but stopped due to there being much cheaper options and not as much hassle.
Twice we took the train long distance, once was the Auto Train to Florida and the other was a regular sleeper train from Pennsylvania to Florida. We had a sleeper room on both trips. Needless to say, these were bumpy sleepless nights. The people working on the trains as bartenders and porters were not friendly and almost seemed a little, well, less than normal in common sense! We tried to be nice to them and left tips, but, man, were they somewhat incompetent. We were never so glad to end the journey! I have been on a regular daily long-distance train in Europe and it was like night and day. Of course, no one expects a totally smooth ride on a train but I find it likely engineers could improve the ride on AMTRAK trains somewhat.
The tracks are along some of the least scenic areas of the United States for most of the AMTRAK trips. We saw a lot of empty lots, shacks and the backs of industrial buildings, plus trees and some rivers of course. The trains themselves are not fancy inside like European trains and the dining/bar cars were very basic cafeteria looking. The food and snacks I will not comment on as they were adequate though not a great selection. We brought on most of our own snacks and booze, as I recommend to you. You really are not on the train to get good dining. The sleeper cars were decent and are a nice option on a long ride. They just seriously need to improve the porter service on these sleeper cars and add more options. We were supposed to have unlimited coffee, but the coffee was only there during certain day time hours. They need to offer free snacks to the sleeper customers as well, 24/7.
Train delays, yikes! In both of the above rides, the train was delayed on at least one leg of the trip. On one it was delayed some three hours causing us to have to hang out very late at night in the Philadelphia station for hours because we missed our connecting train. Of course, you get no money back for this hassle, not even a voucher good for another train ride. This leads to my next paragraph.
Recently we booked a trip from Harrisburg to NYC but canceled due to the virus outbreak of 2020. We canceled over two months in advance. Of course, we not only got a $0 cash refund but they charged us $24 per ticket to cancel. Are you kidding? That was 25 percent of the cost of the ticket. Plus there was plenty of time for the company to re-book the seats as it was months in advance. You can't get a cash/credit card refund back! They give you a voucher good on another train trip. So now we have this AMTRAK voucher (for a train company we don't even like), still have the credit card bill, lost the cancellation fee, and will be forced to use AMTRAK again. OMG.
Finally, the cost of using an AMTRAK train is almost unreal. You can fly to most cities and rent a car for a week and still save like 25 percent! We wanted to book a train to Cincinnati once. The cost was three times a flight cost and took twice as long as driving there. This is typical with whatever trip you plan with AMTRAK and the train will inevitably be delayed somewhere along the trip. It is just not worth using train travel in the United States, yet. I hope they improve this before I die because I actually would love to be able to take the train more often. But who has the time, patience or money to take AMTRAK as it stands now? read more