Forgot to take the tickets!?

A friend of mine recently took the Acela Express from 30th street to NYP and he told me waiting to go down the platform the Amtrak Ticket guy walked right past him, same on the train. He then used his ticket for his return trip and used the extra money to upgrade to first class. Amtrak is a major and Expensive inter-city rail company. Do these mishaps happen often?

rbreslow wrote:A friend of mine recently took the Acela Express from 30th street to NYP and he told me waiting to go down the platform the Amtrak Ticket guy walked right past him, same on the train. He then used his ticket for his return trip and used the extra money to upgrade to first class. Amtrak is a major and Expensive inter-city rail company. Do these mishaps happen often?

Something doesnt make sense here. Ok, maybe his ticket wasnt checked from 30th Street to NYP. But how was he able to use the ticket for his return trip? The tickets have the train numbers printed on them and date of travel. I dont think these mishaps happen often...if everything here is correct.

srock1028 wrote:

rbreslow wrote:A friend of mine recently took the Acela Express from 30th street to NYP and he told me waiting to go down the platform the Amtrak Ticket guy walked right past him, same on the train. He then used his ticket for his return trip and used the extra money to upgrade to first class. Amtrak is a major and Expensive inter-city rail company. Do these mishaps happen often?

Something doesnt make sense here. Ok, maybe his ticket wasnt checked from 30th Street to NYP. But how was he able to use the ticket for his return trip? The tickets have the train numbers printed on them and date of travel. I dont think these mishaps happen often...if everything here is correct.

I just called him and he said that he took it to a customer service desk and told them that they did not take his ticket and the lady there was nice and told him that they he could use that ticket for his return trip.

Wow...very nice lady and he was lucky too!

If the conductor doesnt take your ticket it's the same as not using it or missing the train.

They give you a voucher or even exchange for any train you would like plus or minus the difference.

It just seems kinda weird that both inspections the conductor did not collect. Is Amtrak's service becoming bad?

rbreslow wrote:It just seems kinda weird that both inspections the conductor did not collect. Is Amtrak's service becoming bad?

I wouldn't jump to this conclusion, what is sounds like to me is he sat in someone elses seat (Who was perhaps in the cafe) and the person already had a seat check, hence when the conductor walked by he thought your friend was good. This could very easily happen between nyp and phl since it's only an hour and someone could go up to the cafe for the last hour of the trip.

It's happened to me a number of times, and not just on Amtrak, but on various commuter services. Sometimes the conductor misses that the "seat check" person is in the cafe or elsewhere, and the "extra" person sitting there has not been ticketed. Sometimes they miss someone's seat check when they're getting off, and it remains. When only going one stop away (ie Baltimore-Wilmington), I've been asked for a ticket even though I'd just given it to them (no seat check, since I'm getting off at the first stop).

It's certainly the exception, but it will happen. When it does, thanks for the cash.

When I was riding home on Train 87 Sunday I boraded SB at Wilmington and my ticket wasn't checked until right before Baltimore, we had stopped at Newark, DE and Aberdeen intermittently before the check just before Baltimore. Maybe they checked stubs at Aberdeen and Newark since everyone disembarks from the cafe and no one would be able to sneak out. Usually crews check them frequently and carefully on the NEC trains I've ridden, but there's always exceptions, especially in a company as big as Amtrak in terms of employees.Its probably not common because thats a major part of the job to check tickets but its feasible a few tickets go unchecked every once in a while...

Davis

Im calling shenanigans with this thread because it doesnt make any sense whatsoever. Is it possible that the train was understaffed(which happens alot during the warmer months) or that your friend was playing games on the train or even possibly lying to you? If your ticket isnt used on one train, it sure as hell wont be allowed on another train as the other train number will be on ticket. The crew wont accept it and its that simple. Who cares what some lady supposedly said to him. I swear I really hate threads like these

BuddSilverliner269 wrote:Im calling shenanigans with this thread because it doesnt make any sense whatsoever. Is it possible that the train was understaffed(which happens alot during the warmer months) or that your friend was playing games on the train or even possibly lying to you? If your ticket isnt used on one train, it sure as hell wont be allowed on another train as the other train number will be on ticket. The crew wont accept it and its that simple. Who cares what some lady supposedly said to him. I swear I really hate threads like these

He said "I did not use this ticket can I please have my money back."

Hold on, it was actually a northeastern regional, this is what he said "The conductor took everyone's tickets but mine and I aplied it to my return ticket." Just called him he told me the full story. He also did not use the money that he was going to use for the return trip for first class. Also the on return trip they took his ticket and it was a Keystone Service. Sorry I did not get the full story PM me for further details.

This happens to me every now and then on commuter RRs around NYC. I just then throw the ticket away. Beat me up about my view if you want, but I view using an uncollected train ticket again as theft from the RR.

A similar thing happened to me on the Texas Eagle and I was in a sleeper?!!! My girlfriend and I boarded 22 in STL. When we got to the station, the way to the platform was open. The rope was not connected to block access. No Amtrak personnel was in sight, and it was about 30 minutes before departure. So we walked down, and since I knew where the sleeper was, we went to the correct car with no problem. The attendant was inside changing a room. We boarded and as we got to the top of the stairs, he saw us. I showed him the ticket, and he pointed to the room and continued his duties. I assured him I knew my way around. After departing Alton, our tickets still had not been lifted. I went up to the lounge car to buy a snack, and saw the conductor seated at a table counting/organizing tickets. I walked over and handed him mine. Instead of saying thanks, he grilled me about how I got on the train, and then scolded me for not following directions in STL and boarding without permission. I suspect he collected tickets and boarded passengers on the platform, and that I arrived after he did this. This guy was definitely a fool. And I was not happy.

SouthernRailway wrote:This happens to me every now and then on commuter RRs around NYC. I just then throw the ticket away. Beat me up about my view if you want, but I view using an uncollected train ticket again as theft from the RR.

So it's someone like you that caused me to find what was seemingly a perfectly good ticket to Huntington laying on top of a bunch of trash, which I had zero qualms about picking up and using? Thanks for saving me some money, bro. We need more like you.