Amtrak Unwritten Rules | What You Need To Know Before You Ride The Train

hey guys welcome back to the channel today we're going to be sharing with you the unwritten rules of amtrak [Music] amtrak has a lot of rules that are written but also a lot of rules that are unwritten that you may not be aware about if you've never ridden on the train so we're going to break those down for you and just kind of go over what common practices are common courtesies when you're riding the train right yes the first one is that not when you're on the train at all but it's after your ride is that if you had a problem with your ride big or small you can get a voucher from amtrak for a future ride yes so um it's well known that uh there is a timing issue with uh you know a lot of the amtrak train rides especially the cross-country routes that are um sharing the the rails with the freight trains as well so there are some tardiness issues and a lot of times people don't uh don't know that if you just call them they will issue you a voucher that you can use on a future um train ride which is great and so depending on how bad the delay was or how bad the problem was we've gotten vouchers for uh one time the air conditioning did not work at all in the sleeper cars for one whole day and so they gave us a voucher for that they actually told us uh the room attendance to call in gave us the number to call in uh and if you're tardy like six to 12 hours something like that they'll do pretty well with you for that too i think we usually have gotten about half of our fare back is that right about oh yep that's about right sometimes we've only gotten like a hundred dollars depending on what it was but yeah you can get a lot of money back in the form of a voucher for a future ride that's unwritten for a good reason they don't write it on the website hey call in get all this money back but you need to know that that is an unwritten rule uh second one is the temperature and the sleeper cars it's kind of a big deal when you're in there it is because while every room has a little temperature dial those don't really do much of anything yeah the temperature in your supercar is controlled by the attendant who is setting the master temperature for the entire car so what happens is if one person is cold uh in the car and they start complaining a lot the attendant will usually go change it well that changes the temperature for 20 people who were not cold so kind of the unwritten rule here is if you know your temperature preference is outside the norm of everyone else in the car either bring a bank blanket or some cooler clothing because when you go to complain you're affecting everyone exactly and that's one of the reasons why if you've seen our videos before you know i always travel with that wrap that scarf because i tend to be colder than the average person um most people you know are usually warm while i'm cold wrapped up with a blanket or my cardigan so i always bring those with me because i know i'm going to be cold and cold and i don't want you know them to have to change the temperature and the whole train car just for me then everybody else is going to be burning up another one is that you can recline your seat in coach classes this is a big issue yes on airplanes yes it's pretty controversial issue on airplanes yeah which we won't get into what we think about that but not so much on interact because there is so much room between the seats and coach on amtrak when you recline it does go back quite a ways but you will not be bothering the person behind you i mean just look back there and see if it's shaquille o'neal maybe even then i don't think it'd bother him you're probably the only person it would so check that you can recline in fact the the problem that most people have i know allie has this problem is that when you go to use the tray in front of you the seat in front of you is so far up there you almost can't reach the train that is a big problem when the person reclines it actually brings the tray close enough that you can actually maybe use it yeah so reclining not that big a deal yeah in fact we've actually had our luggage our big suitcases in front of us between us and the seat in front of us yes that's how much room there is so reclining not an issue yeah yeah so enjoy that especially if you're you know doing an overnight or a fairly long train ride and you want to take a nap and be fresh from where you get there then definitely recline it and enjoy it and move on yeah don't be mad if someone reclines yeah you know you have a lot of room sitting alone in the dining car is kind of a big deal because a lot of people for whatever reason want to sit alone in the dining car and generally more and more now they're not letting you do that but there is a way to do it kind of an unwritten rule is if you go at the end or you go at the very beginning and you ask to sit alone they'll probably do it if you go at 6 15 not gonna happen or right when everybody's eating i mean the thing is that you can ask them like what is the busiest time because as they're going through the cars um doing the reservations they'll know you know oh 6 15 is going to be the busiest that you know almost everybody wants to eat at that time okay well what's your least busiest and then just you know adjust to that if you want to eat on your own don't try to get a table by yourself um you know if the dining car is full and they're trying to accommodate everybody yeah uh another one that's interesting mostly pertains i think the sleeper cars is after hours and early morning noise problems and the coach cars it's pretty self-explanatory i mean there's 50 people on a coach if you're at midnight that's pretty obvious don't do that what happens in the sleeper car is everyone's asleep with their doors closed and people walk down the hallway thinking nobody can hear mm-hmm those doors are not we can hear you everybody can hear we can hear you running on and off the train through everything so i think it's just important to note whether you're a late person like me or you're an early morning person like her if you're out in that hallway uh and you're talking loudly like at a normal voice everyone that's sleeping will probably be able to hear you so yeah i think it's it i have found that oftentimes it's a big problem in the morning when people are getting up and trying to head to breakfast and such um they assume well it's you know the sun is out so everybody's up so i'm just going to use my regular voice in the hallway or just yell which sometimes you know you want to use your regular voice but you end up talking a little bit louder because you're trying to talk over the noise of the train as well so yeah it comes out it comes out pretty loud especially when you know those doors don't go all the way to the bottom there's a little bit of you know of a hole there and like rep said they're not sound proof so we can hear you in the hallway and you're waking people up just you know be be conscious of the fact that there are people who might be sleeping in and you know maybe you shouldn't be yelling in the hallway of course we have a way around that because ally sleeps with those sleep buds uh we have a link to those on our website yes uh if you get those sleep buds too don't get the originals yeah use the link that's on on our website take it to the ones i use they're literally the best yeah i can hear nothing as a matter of fact if there's a problem that's going to be a problem because i won't hear it rob has to wake me up but there's there's an issue which there isn't ever but um you know those are really helpful so if if you're a light sleeper even and people are not making a lot of noise that's something you know to kind of keep in mind is to bring some ear plugs or yeah and i'm not a light sleeper so i just stick through it we don't usually have a problem but it is a problem we have heard people complain about it next unwritten rule is this is something i certainly don't write about is that your train will probably be late just assume that it will be late just think to yourself when you're booking your ticket okay it's a 42 hour ride just say to yourself it's a 48-hour ride then you'll be happy when you get there on time because it's gonna be four to six hours late if you're going across the country almost without question these days so don't book anything important on that same day another you know flight car run or whatever you're going to be late right because although technically the passenger trains have the right of way there are a lot of freight trains making their way across and uh you know sometimes they get onto those tracks first and what are you gonna do um so they do have to you know kind of concede the the right-of-way to those freight trains yeah the other reason is that especially if you're traveling in the summer there are heat restrictions when the temperature gets above a certain level the train can only go so fast right this is slower than how fast it's supposed to go to get there on time so there's literally no way they can make it on time right in the summer um so just know that and you'll be happier knowing that you're going to be basically on time in your head instead of stressing about it another one uh is this is this is kind of a funny one but it's an unwritten rule of using the trash bins in the bathroom properly so oh my goodness the amtrak bathrooms maybe have the worst design in history for the trash bins so there's like a trash bin and then there's a lid on it and there's a button you push and then the thing goes down and you throw your trash in well it doesn't always work properly and people don't want to push it down and touch it like hold it in and then put their trash so it goes all the way down so what they do is they take their paper towel and they use the paper towel to push it down and then they let it go and then the thing snaps it doesn't go down and it gets caught so then the next person says well it's full and they just start sending it on top and eventually after about three people it's just you can't use a trap that's off a horrible chain of events and you end up with a big giant poof ball of paper towels until one of the attendants comes by and notices the mask and then shoves it all back in and fixes it and this happens in both um you know the coach bathrooms as well as the sleeper car bathrooms we've had it in both so um you know just take a moment put it in there there's usually sanitizing gel all over the place these days wipe your hands off afterwards no big deal order or just be like real quick i've done it real quickly you can get it so just think about that though you know there's probably not anything you can do about it because it's probably already going to be like that when you get there when you get there and you see it you'll think of this video you will you'll say oh this is it if you're the first person if you're the first person then do it properly don't start it okay unwritten rule of tipping we get this question a lot yes and kind of the unwritten rule is for the dining car attendance two to three dollars per person per meal maybe with traditional dining a little bit higher depending on kind of like you're tipping how much the meal would cost at a restaurant that's kind of what people do and then for the sleeper car attendant it's usually five to ten dollars per person per night that's unwritten which means you don't have to do it you you could do zero you could do 50 you could do 100. you can do whatever you want you can do yeah whatever because there is no rule most people want to know what's normal though so that is that's the average normal yes okay coach class there are two chargers for this yeah electrical outlet yeah for the seats for those two seats two outlets both outlets though are next to the wall so that the two outlets are not for the person sitting by the wall it's one for each and if you're sitting by the wall the person on the aisle may have to string something over you so you kind of have to let them do that otherwise their phone is going to be nice and there's i mean there's a couple things you can do like you know wrap the cord around the little flip switch for the the tray across if the cord is long enough and things like that um it's also why we tell people to bring their own portable charger just in case like if you don't want to uh i mean it's there for you if you're sitting in the aisle but if you don't wanna you know you don't know the person next to you and you don't wanna ask them or you know you're uncomfortable doing that yeah if you have your portable charger you don't have to worry about that the other thing is you could always go to if there's a cafe or an or a observation car sites your lounge on your train you could charge your stuff there as well yeah smoking on the fresh air brake totally allowed i mean some people actually just call it they call them smoke brakes brakes some some conductors call it the fresh air break yes it depends but basically at the fresh air breaks which are 10 to 15 minute breaks a lot of people will get off to smoke because you can't smoke anywhere on the train so that's understandable but kind of the unwritten rule is don't get off and smoke like and light up two feet next to the door because it will come right back into the train and then they they can't get get out of it get it out and people that are coming off it not only creates a hazard for people trying to get off the train people that don't want to smell it have to walk through it so just you know kind of the rule unwritten rule is get off the train walk 20 feet away smoke yeah and you'll hear some conductors will even suggest that of like hey take at least 15 steps away from the train before you light up and actually some platforms have very strict rules because of fire hazards some stations will have very strict rules on their platforms as to where you can smoke um and it's important to keep those things in mind because then that affects all of the other smokers if enough people you know break those rules and cause problems they won't let you smoke there are some platforms you're not allowed to smoke at all so keep that in mind to be mindful of others if you're smoking and getting off and using the fresh air brakes as a smoking break that's great and it's you know nice that you have that opportunity because sometimes there are really long rides to you know hold that in but be mindful of others another one for coach class is changing seats in the middle of the night ah not not a good idea no uh because if you fall asleep which you are likely to do they won't know which stops to get off so in coach they'll put a little ticket above your seat and they'll write down the station and they'll go through and figure out who needs to get off where and if you have changed seats then you won't be alerted and they won't know you're getting off and you're on your own so you wake up in albuquerque yeah so unless it's the day and that's not where you're going in the daytime you could change seats but now the other thing is with coach if some coach trains have reserved seating most do not but if you're on a train with reserve seating you do need to sit in that seat because it will cause mass chaos i've seen one person get on and sit in the wrong seat oh my goodness then the next person gets on and they see someone in their seat so they just like oh whatever i'll just sit missy and then the next station 30 people get on and no one has the right seat everyone's going wild and the conductor is like losing their mind yeah i've seen them get out and be like all right right now everyone get up get here right they're like move to your correct seat because the whole thing it's really a nuisance so it's best to either if you have the assigned seat sit in the one you're assigned or if you're in a seat just stay in that one if you want to make any changes you need to speak to a staff person first and make sure that it's okay because they also are aware of things that are coming up like if there's a group getting on at one station and they need a particular set of seats or if there's a family and they're trying to keep them close together and you know things like that so just make sure you let somebody know don't just move and not tell anyone one time we got on the train we were on the train it was pretty empty and people were just sitting right there and he came over the announcement he said all right at the next stop an elementary school is doing a field trip there's gonna be like 200 third graders getting on the train so we were like oh boy it's for kidding us so everybody get to your seat so that was kind of funny that was very fun another one is not bothering the car attendant after hours oh my god unless it's emergency because if you think about it these people that are the car attendants and the sleeper cars they have to be up at like 5 a.m to make the coffee for the early risers they also have to put the beds down for people late 9 10 11 o'clock and if someone's getting on a sleeper car at like 2 a.m which does happen they have to be up to get them on so after you know ten o'clock before five o'clock they have to sleep so if you're just like need water or ice or something that's probably not a good reason to ring the attendant though not only that when you ring it it'll wake everybody up in the hole because everyone can hear everyone can hear the attendant call button uh for some reason i don't know why and if the attendant is sleeping and they don't really hear it doesn't wake them up until they wake up everyone will hear it so everyone will definitely be awake so uh i guess the rule of thumb there is unless it's an emergency don't use the attendant call button after hours it's probably better just to you know where the room is it's room number one walk down there and knock on the door and they usually tell you uh when you first get on the train and they introduce themselves they'll tell you i'm in room it's usually room number one but if it's not they will tell you what room that is but generally it is room number one yep uh luggage so there are luggage racks on most trains in the bottom level they're generally big enough for everything but if you have a group of like six people and you each bring two bags you're gonna take up the whole rack so i guess the unwritten rule there is if you have tons and tons of bags just check the bags because you don't wanna we've seen situations where there was so much luggage that one time i was like trying to come down the stairs from the top and people had set luggage on the stairs and i was just like what would make you think this is a good place to put it so they know where to put it so they ended up putting it like just in the little vestibule and i think they put one in the shower because nobody was using the shower uh but yeah if you bring tons and tons of luggage it could be an issue so just check that down yeah yeah definitely uh and then another one is for the observation car there generally is no rule as to how long you can sit in there but this is just being a good fellow traveler if you see that people keep walking through looking for seats and you've been in there for two three hours you know maybe get up and go back and let some other people have a chance yeah uh they don't generally police that except for around the california is that where they will that's the only one yeah they'll kick you out on the zephyr and let other people in yeah if you go in there too early and try to reserve a spot you will hear the conductor come over and say whoever is in there right now can stay there for another however long or till we get to such and such you know stop and then they clear out the room and let a new group of people come in so um just keep that in mind if you're trying to get if you're trying to use the observation car uh if you don't meet especially on on the california zephyr if you don't need to like if you have a window seat on the side where you can see everything then don't give up your seat just keep your seat or if you know you have a sleeper car with a view of everything why leave your sleeper car room for you know for the observation car i know you can see more but this way this gives more people an opportunity especially those that are not on the correct side of the train and can see you know well we hope this has been helpful for you and you kind of learned a few things that maybe aren't written maybe kind of just under the under the uh under the under the radar and uh hopefully it'll make you enjoy your trip a little bit better we thank you for watching uh give us a like leave us a comment if you've seen any of these things or had these happen to you what do you think or if you think of a different one yes we could add it to the next one add it to the comments and we'll let people see them there so thanks a lot and we will see you on the next video

Channel: Grounded Life Travel

Views: 127,208

Keywords: first trip on amtrak, amtrak travel guide, amtrak overnight, amtrak sunset limited, amtrak texas eagle, amtrak coast starlight, amtrak empire builder, amtrak california zephyr, amtrak observation car, amtrak guide, beginner guide to amtrak, amtrak, amtrak beginners guide, amtrak coach class, amtrak faq, amtrak tips, amtrak vacation, amtrak superliner, amtrak viewliner, amtrak tips and tricks, amtrak first time rider, amtrak unwritten rules, amtrak roomette, amtrak bedroom

Id: q0KDsouyMEU

Length: 22min 34sec (1354 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 16 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/SpiralBreeze]

I love them, I learned so much before I took my first long distance journey. They’re adorable!

[u/anothercar]

These two are doing a great public service with their videos. Surprisingly few other channels on YouTube give Amtrak advice.