I Hate Amtrak
I don't get angry often. But right now I am livid. I have fucking had it with Amtrak. They are rarely on time (I know they have stats saying otherwise - but in my experience, they are more than frequently over 30 minutes late). They are expensive (significantly moreso than flying even though the trip takes longer). Their customer service sucks.
This Easter weekend, I decided to waste ridiculous amounts of money on Amtrak to take the train. Why?
-with the holidays, there will be lots of traffic on the roads affecting the buses while the trains should be running more on time
-the train is pretty fast and I did not have a lot of time to waste traveling this weekend
-unlike the bus, Amtrak will go all the way to New Rochelle instead of making me change from Penn Station to Grand Central and then take MetroNorth
I should know better than to trust Amtrak. They've messed up my plans more than they've been on schedule. And I have taken Amtrak a good deal. I've probably had more Amtrak trains cancelled on me than some people have taken.
So, after waking up at 6am to be at work at 7 for an intense all-day conference and getting home at 6pm, I find myself on a train set to get into NY Penn Station around 12:15, finally arriving home after 2am. With only an hour to pack and get my house ready to be left, I hope I didn't forget anything important! The only reason I spent $200 more than I would have on the bus was to avoid all of this hassle.
Tomorrow, I'm going to sign over a large sum of money to another person in exchange for a car. If I had been feeling any doubts leaving the ranks of car-less people, this experience would certainly dispel them.