Frederick Shaddock
Fairfield, IA  52556
641-472-5830

Amtrak Customer Service

Re: Request for credit for ticket price due to extremely late train

Dear Sirs:

Thank for your service through the California Zephyr from Mount Pleasant Iowa to Chicago.  I have often recommended Amtrak to my friends and have shared my positive experiences with them through my web site at www.CICorp.com/Iowa/Travel  

I am a supporter of Amtrak, a member of the National Association of Railroad Passenger (member 112223) and have written Senators Harkin and Grassley to encourage them to support legislation to help Amtrak.  This train is key to my ability to travel to major cities, through the airline hub in Chicago.

If the train arrives in Chicago even within 4 hours of the schedule time, this is enough to take the CTA train to Midway Airport, then to a flight.  For example, I was scheduled to take the last flight out of MDW to Washington DC the evening of September 12th.

Unfortunately, the train that was scheduled to arrive at MTP at 10:  did not arrive until 4:05pm, which was over 5 hours late.  The train got in at 8:11pm, after the last ATA airways jet had already flown from Midway airport.  There was no later flight to take.

To Amtrak's credit, you were offering passengers a free hotel stay to get their connections on the next day.   That was very nice of you.

I do not wish to incur extra expense on Amtrak, as a supporter of Amtrak.  But since my objective of arriving in time for the plane was not met, and that I had to incur the expense of a hotel (the inexpensive Midway Hotel for $50)  I would like a refund of the ticket price. 

Or if you could give me a credit for a free train ride towards my next Amtrak trip between Chicago and Mt. Pleasant, that would be much appreciated.

I would suggest revising the schedule so that the arrival and departure times are more realistic.  This will help people make their plans accordingly.  Posting an unrealistic schedule does service to nobody, is an embarrassment to Amtrak, and causes you expense of putting people up at hotels.

The train in the west direction is just fine, and always on time, so keep up the great work. 

Yours  truly,