Amtrak Reviews 

Two stars only because of the kindness of the employees @the Cary, NC station and the friendliness of the train staff. But other than that two thumbs down. My past experience with Amtrak has always been great. But this time had been nothing but a disappointment. Made reservations on 6/8 no mention of any delays. Train 41 was suppose to arrive in Cary around 8:30pm but didn’t arrive until 3am. Seems like every stop along the way there was some sort of delay. Time keeps getting pushed back with no explanation. I’ve been told this has been an issue since the Silverstar isn’t running. Once I leave Florida and return on Thursday, they have lost my business. Won’t get off the train till around 7pm and right back @5:45 6/9. A waisted business trip.

We had a 5 hour delay so we could switch engines. It doesn't take 5 hours to switch engines. On the way back we had an hour delay because the conductor never came back to the train. That's right the conductor didn't come back to the train. The wifi doesn't work at all and when I asked a crew member they said oh that never works. How dare y'all charge us all this money for below average service.

Bald headed guy I believe he’s the guy that patrols the area started to harass me and my fiancé at first for sitting in a particular area and then he tried putting hands on me

As long as nothing goes wrong you may be okay. But I’ve spent hours trying to get some questions answered regarding the logistics of a California rail pass. I was on hold about an hour and finally got my question answered. This morning, a couple of weeks later, my email was answered giving me the opposite answer I was given by phone. What is it with this company??? I recall this poor customer service 35 years ago, why is it so difficult to get questions answered? Maybe I should just drive to the depot and ask the ticket agent if one is there

I booked Amtrak from Boston to New York City but my trip stopped in Stamford CT when a power outage resulted in an indefinite delay! It cost me over $100 to take an Uber to NYC but that saved me a lot of time since the delay to fix the power outage lasted more than three hours. To make matters worse, there was no wifi on any part of the route!

Very poor pricing - they promised my group one amount and then changed it without informing me of a time limit to pay. This is shady and the ai voice system is the worst. I don't recommend that groups use this company for questionable practices in ordering.

Traveling Fort Worth to Austin, be warned. The train departs from the far south end of the platform... out of sight... with no announcements... and no signage.
So I missed it despite being on the correct platform 20 mins early. No staff bother to tell you what's happening.

You buyd one chair, amtrak officers keep on saying this! is amtrak torturing and punishing people for bying one chair?! Why amtrak is not considering humanity in case of long travels such as those from north to south?! why they are not allowing the chair to be usable for a humanitarian sleep by making the leg part more elevatable so can be used for sleep not only sitting, instead of trying to use two vacant chairs for sleep?! and why the officers insisting to refuse allowing the people to get a sleep rest on vacant chairs?! They intentionally assigning people on the vacant chair beside the single person although vacant chairs are available, and accordingly insist to torture them to sleep on this (one chair) under the pretext that stay in your assigned chair! although no chair number even was assigned during reservation. In any place even in airplanes if a chair with same price category and vacant it's ok to use it. But here in ametrac it's the worst experience ever and I trully regret to travel on, it was expensive, non comfortable, with bad dealing from the assigned officers, I don't recommend this experience for long travel with ametrac ever. Amtrak you can deal more humanterian with people by just improve the leg part to be elevatable on the same level of the chair, so the human being who want to sleep will not think about using (two vacant) chairs as he payed for (one chair!) you can decide which option is more convenient and even cheaper with you. Nevertheless the bad internet.

Friendly staff, comfortable train cars and the man running the food service car alone today on the way to Boston @11am deserves his own 5 star review, he’s speedy, friendly and doesn’t take crap from any Karen’s trying to cut the line for her wine breakfast. Love him deserves a rise but I tipped him what I could.

I’m sitting in Chicago at 2:00am awaiting a train that was supposed to depart at 9:30pm the previous day. The weather is great and we are given no explanation as to why it is delayed. Every time I decide to give Amtrak another go, I regret it. Trains travel should be fun and relaxing. It is in every other developed country in the world. But here in the U.S. it is a sad joke. I’ve been awake 22 hours with layovers and delays for a trip that is 20 hours long.
Update: June 4, 2026
The train didn’t depart until 6:30am. We stayed awake in the station as they kept pushing back the time of departure in half hour increments. The only consolation was that staff were friendly even though they too were 9 hours off schedule.

We recently completed a trip from Chicago to Poughkeepsie on the Lake Shore Route. Sasha was fabulous. She anticipated our needs, was there when we needed assistance or had a question, and left us alone when we needed rest. We would definitely consider another Amtrak trip if all staff was as good as Sasha.

I gave one star because I had to give one. Listen is there any other way you can travel? If so take it! Don’t do it. The people are literal savages they are cruel and will screw you over just for fun. Take the bus. Greyhound is wayyyy better
It’s not worth the hassle

The most disgusting toilets after halfway. They were beyond sickening and began to stink out the whole carriage. Truly revolting.

Worst company ever got stuck on train for 20hours theyre impossible to contact not offering compensation spent dozens of hours customer service keeps hanging up on me very poorly run inefficient greedy satanic government monopoly will never ride again

Our Lakeshore Limited #48 departing from Chicago was originally scheduled to be in Penn Station Station NYC at 6:40 . Instead we are sitting outside Scenectady NY for 30 minutes waiting on some BS excuse that it needs another engine to guide it into the yard. We were already 3 hours late and due to arrive at 9 in NYC but now we'll likely not get there until 10. AMTrak needs to give passengers a major rebate on fares . They have NEVER given us any reason for these bull shit delays. My last time on this train.

Comfortable and easy trip.

I must say, it cost me a lot to realize, as I was used to how Amtrak runs in the California Corridor, that it is different in the rest of the country.
For example, I could not find the shuttle, nor anyone that knew a damn thing at the Phoenix Airport about it and almost wore my wife out walking around the airport before the trip even started. Then we paid for a ride all the way back to town and two hotel nights as the train leaves Maricopa at 5 am every 3 days!
But what you find is the early morning train and a bygone experience that is priceless and relaxing way to travel. People of all shapes, sizes and colors and backgrounds and nearly everyone willing to share. Never had to worry about my computer sitting in the observation car and made many freinds and even gave some advice to a drunk Woke person who really had poor self esteem, about not buying into to every brainless label and category people put on you. We are all more than a category or limited label—whether as to sex or mental capacity! Really enjoyed all the Amish I met and a couple of real southerners, black, white and native. An exceptional way to really relax and just hang out with God’s children on their way to different places in life!

My wife and I just completed a round trip to NYC from Richmond, VA this past weekend. SABINA: stands for Such A Bloody Experience Never Again. We decided to travel Business for $ 435 per ticket! Upon our boarding in Richmond, and reaching the Business Class car, we found that the door was not functional, i.e. it did not open. Therefore we had to hurry on back to the end of the next car, which is where we came from, to board the train and sheep our suit cases and bags 1.5 car length! So much for business class treatment! None of the Amtrak staff, including the conductor, knew about the door issue! The ride, while still on VA rail, was somewhat acceptable. This unfortunately changed for the worse once we crossed the State line into DC. Regrettably it got worse as we proceeded north. The cars were shaking and rattling so bad, I kept wondering when we would reach the moment when the train would derail. I am not exaggerating! Forget about attempting to type on a computer. The food and beverage car was an absolute joke! Coffee, once the server arrived from his break, and plastic wrapped sweets with a 100 year shelf life! That’s it! The seats were the exact same as in cattle class, just a little more space from row to row. The form or shape of the seat back could not have been more ergonomically incorrect. My shoulders and back still hurt 48 hours later. Like I stated at the start of this review - NEVER AGAIN!

My young adult son and I took a round-trip on the California Zephyr from Chicago to Provo, Utah. Including the train rides from our hometown to Chicago and back, plus layovers in stations, we spent about 80 hours. Most of the unpleasant parts of the experience were beyond Amtrak’s control and related to the behavior of passengers. I can’t hold Amtrak responsible for its ticket-buyers being inconsiderate, smelly or snoring. The Amtrak staff ranged from benign to very nice, and we encountered one single delay of nearly an hour — again over the course of 80 hours of traveling — which I don’t consider egregious. If the ticket and food prices were a little lower, I would give them 5 stars. I will definitely ride with them again. It’s a big train and not too difficult to identify the unpleasant passengers and avoid them. I hope more people who like Amtrak will publish positive reviews, because I think such a low star rating for them is not an accurate reflection of their average trip.

Two stars only because some good past experiences on auto train. But the latest was so bad I'm still baffled. First class from Sanford to Lorton, roomette, cabin attendant refused basically the most basic of services. I'm currently at the station now waiting to disembark and my bed has not been put back up despite calling 3x. He refused all services on this first class 17 hour trip. Amtrak needs more consistency. The tickets are not cheap.