Last edited Sun Mar 22, 2020, 08:22 AM - Edit history (2)
My belated sympathies about that sub-par experience you had on the train back in the day. What an interesting story, though!
Before Amtrak was created in 1971, many railroads did everything they could to get out of the passenger business & would often defer any maintenance not deemed "safety-critical". As a result Amtrak inherited a lot of equipment-related issues that they struggled with in their early years when they took over the passenger service.
To their credit though, Amtrak did upgrade the service over time & eventually got new rolling stock to replace their old 'heritage fleet'. I've traveled about 100,000 miles cumulatively on Amtrak and VIA Rail and have had only very good experiences onboard.
Thanks for the compliment BTW! 
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