This train's got the dismaying railroad blues

The Boston Herald

Beverly Beckham

I spoke - or wrote - too soon. Sunday I praised Amtrak. Today I have to eat my words. Sunday I said my ride to New York late last week was convenient and comfortable and quick. Today I report that my ride back from New York Sunday evening was none of the above.

I should have known we were in trouble when we didn't pull out of Penn Station at 4:55 p.m. as scheduled, but started heading south instead. Seems there was a stalled train on our track so we had to take another track. No problem, we'd make up the lost time.

The train was full, 349 people in coach, 64 in business class, everyone eager to get where they were going. -But the train started off late and ended up late and instead of happy customers, there were unhappy ones who said "Never again."

Here's the main thing that Amtrak did wrong: It hyped this great, new, marvelous, deluxe service when there is no such thing. It hyped the Acela, a super modern bullet-shaped train that we've seen in advertisements for years, but isn't what you see when you're waiting at the station.

Amtrak jumped the gun, introducing this long-awaited service before it was ready. Most of the customers who booked this "first phase of the new Acela" did not read the fine print. They expected a new train, not just some new upholstery in an old train. This is a shot in the foot for the struggling railroad, a public relations disaster.

But excellent service, even moderate service, could have saved the day. Unfortunately Sunday night there was neither.

People in business class paid $ 84 for their one-way trip to Boston instead of $ 64, the price in coach, and they expected something more. Coffee brought to them, maybe. But they got nothing. No one did.

All customers struggled with their luggage, took a seat and got the same ride. And all customers got to wait in a 20-person deep line at the one cafe car (it was, after all, dinner time) that was serviced by one man who worked nonstop for five hours.

Right, five hours, not the three hours and 45 minutes promised from Penn Station to Route 128. It seems there was a problem with an electrical connection in New Haven - the new much-touted electrical connection. But all this - expecting a deluxe train and not getting one, paying for service when there was no service, waiting 25 minutes in line for something to drink, arriving in Westwood minutes before 10, not at 8:39 as expected - all this is nothing compared to what happened next.

In Sunday's column I said that parking was a bargain at just $ 3 a day and that the new Route 128 station was convenient and easy to get around with luggage. That was on the way out of town. Was I ever wrong.

First we all struggled off the train at this porter-less station and schlepped our bags onto the elevator for a ride up to the third floor to pay our parking tickets. But Sunday night the elevator wasn't working, so dozens of us had to drag our stuff onto the escalator. Then we had to pay $ 10 a day to park, not the expected $ 3 (it's only $ 3 for the first 14 hours). "Only cash and checks," the cashier said. "If you don't have a check, we'll accept what cash you have left in your pocket and bill you for the rest."

The final affront was that after a return trip down the escalator, the automated parking gate jammed. So there -was horn blowing and people shaking their heads and swearing "Never again."

And who would blame us?