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ChineseA few quick updates
Contributed by Wad on August 7th, 2009 at 4:09 am
- A follow up to “F— You Amtrak …”: I called 1-800-USA-RAIL, the national hotline, to apply for a refund for my trip on Pacific Surfliner train that ended up taking nearly 7 hours. Yes, Amtrak knows about the problem and will comp me for my trip. It didn’t even play the plausible deniability card by saying it’s an Amtrak California problem and I have to deal with in within the state. It doesn’t issue refunds, however. I will instead receive a credit for one free ride between Los Angeles and San Diego — a $30 value — good for one year. Great … I have to go back on the Surfliner to get my money back. On the one hand, the Surfliner is allegedly 85 percent reliable. On the other, it’s the remaining 15 percent that’s the liquid nitrogen enema.
- I’ve added some more photos to “Scenes from the Purple Line Scoping Meeting” and linked to the Flickr pages for the slide show.
- I wanted to upload some of the happier moments of my San Diego trip Wednesday on Flickr, but even a basic drop-in takes a lot of time. Are there a lot of you that are photo fans? I have galleries of the Little Italy neighborhood, the Padres vs. Braves game and some scenes of the broken down train in Santa Ana (as well as some other station photos shot on the morning trip down that went smoothly).
- I sent an e-mail response to the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System to see whether it knows that L.A.’s TAP cards work on its machines, and what would it do if it found us upstaters using a non-Compass card. I am awaiting a response.
Discussion
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Please keep discussions civil: exercise Troll Controll.
pics, please!
The Surfliner is very reliable. Between Anaheim and Los Angeles the most I’ve been delayed is 15-20 minutes. Yeah, you were unlucky. I would recommend you take another trip to SD in a heartbeat.
Yeah the Surfliner is more of a vacationing/relaxing train, not a commuter one. Go on it for the pleasant ride down the coast and the wonderful freedom from driving, not for the timetables.
I’ve used the Surfliner for years and have had only one trip that was seriously messed up. In fact, there have been times I’ve missed the train because I was a minute or two late getting to the platform as I watched the train pull away.
Look: you had a bad experience, OK? Get over it. One seriously delayed flight (like *that* has ever happened!) and you’d swear off flying? One traffic jam and you shoot your car? Now you’re upset because they gave you a free ticket without putting up any excuses. I suspect most airlines would have laughed in your face if you asked for a refund.
If there service was really unreliable, the Surfliner wouldn’t consistently be the 2nd busiest train route in the country.