Wow, the crew on this Amtrak has an unusually high asshole quotient.
Rail travel in the US is such a disappointment.
If anybody has the Secret Amtrak Complaint Line and wants to help me return the headache for some dudes running a dining car with unnecessary police vibes, let me know
The snack car person is singlehandedly redeeming the whole crew with her salty good humor and utter disregard for the petty tyranny going on upstairs
Train food refrigerator broke. They had to throw away a bunch of food. No more meals from the kitchen.
No problem! Crew just ordered 30 pizzas to be delivered to the next train stop
(That’s as we were crossing the CA/NV border, west of Reno)
In other news, neighbors inform us that golf-ball-sized hail shattered one of the storm windows on our house back in Minneapolis. This train ride has been a real roller coaster! (mercifully only in the figurative sense…so far)
Pizza’s going to be a long time coming: conductor told snack car person she’s on her own parceling out those 30 pizzas to the passengers.
We asked if we could help her out somehow. She said yes: really enjoy those slices when you finally get them
Traveling by plane in the US, the dominant feeling is •extraction•. You can just feel the distant MBAs spending untold sums to squeeze every last drop of blood out of you.
Traveling by train, the dominant feeling is •disinvestment•. It’s not efficient. It’s barely functioning. The crew is always teetering on the edge of social-emotional breakdown trying to hold the operation together within a system designed to destroy it.
UPDATE: The crew appear to have started speaking to each other, and have a tight pizza operation up and running like they’re a WWII submarine crew. WE HAVE PIZZA. It is entirely edible.
/me weeps
https://wandering.shop/@thorncoyle/110874498309631835 (from @thorncoyle)
The pizza is all served on single-use Amtrak-branded plastic plates. Snack Car Hero Lady informs me this is a COVID countermeasure. Me: ?!? Her: Because less touching the plates. Me: ??!??!? Her: Yup
In the meantime, we’re in a crowded coach car with what appears to be at best light external ventilation. (We are the weirdos wearing masks here, of course)
@inthehands Thats nuts. I’ve wanted to travel on #amtrak but won’t do it if I can’t open a window. Science matters.
@skry
Definitely no open windows allowed on the cross-country lines. Honestly I’d feel fine about I if I knew what the ACH rate in these cars is like. Not nearly as crowded us a plane or bus — but if they’re recirculating the air…