TIMES SQUARE GOSSIP

My friend wanted to take a Amtrak train to Chicago to see the country. I told him he was crazy, nuts, off the wall! It brought back horrible memories from around 2 years ago when I wanted to do the same thing. The trip to Chicago was bad enough, but the way back to New York City, I could have died and I mean dead, not alive, a stiff.......As I boarded the train in Union Station in Chicago the conductor took my ticket and assigned me a seat. I said my ticket was general seating, which meant you can sit anywhere. He started yelling that he just got in from NYC and has had it with New Yorkers and said I will sit where he tells me or get off the train. So I sat! Right away I went to the bathroom as the train pulled out of the station. The toilet was clogged with shit and when I went to other bathrooms on the other cars it was the same thing. None of them worked. When I complained, I was told the train arrived late in Chicago and they did not have time to service the cars. Two hours into the trip, it started snowing and the doors frooze open on the train. It was snowing inside the cars, YES SNOWING ! I sought shelter in the only car that had heat, the dining car. They charged all us freezing passengers for the coffee that we needed to keep us warm. The dining room was a mess with litter everywhere, boxes piled high because the staff was too lazy to unload the supplies. Finally somewhere in upstate New York when we thought we were getting closer to home, they made a announcement that we some how had gotten on the wrong track and would have to go backwords for a hour till we could find a track that crosses over to the right track. So here I am on this Amtrak train , it's snowing in the cars, no working bathrooms and we are going backwords to find a track to cross over too. I finally call Amtrak from my cell phone. After a hour on hold, they said they would radio the train and find out what is going on and would call me back. They never called me back ! Meanwhile the conductor heard me talking to Amtrak and told me if I didn't stop upsetting the passengers, they would throw me off the train at the next stop. I'm upsetting the passengers? They announce next stop is Albany and we can have time to get food, have a smoke and relax for a while and they say how sorry they are for all the mishaps on the trip. The train arrives in Albany, I jump off the train and light up a smoke and they announce "All Aboard" ! So much for a smoke and a little relaxation.I arrived in Penn Station sick, hungry, frozen and almost dead. I called my lawyer who happens to be one of the last railroad attorney's and he said I could sue. He said why didn't they put repair crews on the train? They have them at every stop. Why didn't they stop the train at any location and put the passengers up in a hotel till they fixed the train? He said I had a case. He wrote the president of the railroad and never got a reply. I never sued, but I should have. This is a company that get's bailed out from our government because they can't make a profit or run a railroad right. They don't have to make money because Uncle Sam will bail them out each and every year. They have no incentive to run a railroad right!

BOYCOTT AMTRAK !

(Photos- WWW.JamesEdstrom.Com )