Portland Union Station — Local services in Portland

My first impression were negative mainly due to staff and the waiting area. Taking PTO from work I decided to take the train instead of an airplane (first time on a train) since the prices for business class on the train were similar to economy seats on a plane and I had extra time to enjoy the view. My trains was a scheduled 30.5 hour trip from PDX to LAX scheduled to leave at 2:25. Due to a landslide on the SEA-PDX section of the train a 45 minute delay was added since passangers sechduled for that section had to be transported to pdx by bus. I arrived to the PDX Union station about 45 minutes early thinking I would have to go through some sort of security check point but no such thing existed meaning I was "checked in" within 5 minutes (business class/ First class sleepers check in at the metropolitan lounge). My check in process was pretty bland, the attendent was slouching on an office chair and did not say an entire word to me in the entire process, basically I showed him my ticket and he gave me a green paper stock with my destination writen on it (you will want to keep this as you are required to put this ontop of your seat once in the train, this wasn't explained to me during the check in process), after that the attendant pointed toward the seating area and my "check in" was completed. Due to it being so close the holidays I knew the lounge might be a bit full but saying full would be an understatement, there was double the amount of people than seating areas (about 70-75 people squished into an area designed for maybe 40). The only upside of the lounge was the complimentary drinks (Pepsi, juice, tea, coffee, etc) and snack (not plural, just almonds) but sadly that "upside" came to a quick end due to the packed lounge/ extended waiting time everything ran out (a passanger asked an employee to restock the area but was told to do it her self from the storage area in the lounge ((she surprisingly did, making her a hero to all the hot and sweaty co-passangers))). After waiting 30 minutes past scheduled departure with no updates an employee who pronounced himself to be the conducter began scaning tickets and checking id's but im pretty sure not everyone was scanned. After the scans boarding began where all the passangers moved through the main lounge doors prior to coach. At the train a car attendant assigned seats appearing to place the more elderly passangers in the bottom section and the younger passangers at the top. After your seat was assigned a number was given coralating with your seat which was also to be displayed above your seat for use by in train employees. Once inside as a business class passanger a $6 coupon off anything consumable in the train was provided, a couple minutes later an announcement was made statting an employee would be around setting up reservations for the dinner car begining from the sleeper cars, through business and finally through coach. Once the train started moving acsses to the observation lounge/snack bar was allowed where one could purchase things like Cup-O-Noddles, microwaved Pizza/burger/hotdog/mac&cheese/breakfastSandwhich/ among other such foods with an acceptable drink verity of soda/beer/wine/spirits (including mixers)/and water (quick note they are not allowed to heat anything in their microwaves brought on by passangers but you can get hot water for insta noodles/ oatmeal etc). At my scheduled dinner time an announcement was made statting the dinner staff were ready for our arrival, once in the dinner car (1 seat row and a door away from my seat) I was escorted to an empty booth which was later filled by two other passangers, the menus were passed, orders taken and within a fairly short amount of time the main course arrived (surprisingly good and fresh tasting), dinner completed I was given my bill which I paid with my card and went back to my assigned...

I had a horrible experience. To start off, I had prepaid for my return ticket but had never left from this station before so I was unfamiliar with where to go. I got there about 15/20 minutes early went to the counter to check-in or find out where to check in and the man at the desk, named Dave, calls me forward then I give him my ticket and ask to check in. Its about 2:10 so I'm not late. He then tells me I'm to late and that I have to buy a new ticket for the next day. Which he goes into the computer to adjust my reservation account at 2:15 so I still had 5  minutes to get on the train. Okay, still shocked over being told I'm not allowed on the train. Though it hasn't left yet I say okay and then he proceeds to tell me you have to pay $10.20 more for the ticket and starts asking about my service dog. This is where things really turns even more uncomfortable for me. He starts to ask what my dog does so I believe he is asking how my dog alerts me, which Amtrak has asked before and that's fine, so I begin to tell him what my dog does to alert me to my medical condition. He then says no what is your medical issue that you have your dog for. Okay. Not okay. I tell him he is not allowed to ask that question. So he tells me okay well Amtrak will be in contact with you and you may not be able to take your dog with you on the train. Wow. For a person that has a service dog this is severely traumatizing. Then also says to get to the station at 1:45 the latest for my train at 2:25! Which btw if you have your ticket you just have to check in at least 5 minutes before departure time! Its best to check in before that but no where does it say you have to check in nearly 40 mins before departure or you won't get to go on the train! So I leave and my sister who dropped me off tells me to go back and ask his name because we are going to call Amtrak about him. I go back to ask for his name and he refuses to give me his full name. So my sister then goes in and gets his name from someone else along with the name of the supervisor. She makes a complaint for me and nothing happens. Amtrak did nothing to compensate for this horribly stressful experience. So the next day (Nov 2, 2016) I go back and try to speak with the manager. She is unapologetic for his actions and again nothing to compensate for this. So basically its all terrible service at this station and even with Amtrak itself. Because of feeling utterly ignored by these wrongs and completely disregarded I'm putting a complaint in with the ADA and I hope they get fined for this. ANYONE WITH A SERVICE ANIMAL BEWARE THE SERVICE DESK, THEY HAVE TERRIBLE SERVICE. I didn't know about the cutoff time before arriving otherwise I would have argued to get on the train Nov 1, 2016 my original departure date.

As for the actual train staff they weren't terrible. I liked the staff from the klamath falls to Portland better. The attendant let me stay on the bottom level which was much easier for me then the top level. Which the attendant from Portland to klamath falls made me go to a top level seat which was much harder for me with my bags and my service dog to comfortably sit. And I was not offered any help from any of the staff with getting to the seat though it was obvious I was having difficulty. That to me was not okay.

Needless to say I do not plan to take the train again to travel. The service all around is lacking but to put it all together everything I went through traveling from klamath falls back again just made it not worth traveling by...

We took the Coast Starlight from Tacoma to Portland and back. The first train trip in decades and it was such a pleasant surprise! Compared to flying, the train was a luxury of comfortable, roomy, reclining seats, huge legroom, and unbelievably inexpensive. (About $50 roundtrip!) A relaxing trip and tremendous scenery as well. Food in the dining car was quite good, and the cafe car convenient for snacks.The only downside is the announcements were very hard to understand both in the station and on the train. The station in Tacoma is small and unimpressive, but it was clean and the employees efficient and friendly. The station in Portland was a wonderful old building - all marble with high, decorative ceilings, antique chandeliers, and wonderful, heavy, old wooden doors and benches from a bygone era. We were delighted to find an old fashioned penny scale near the door...something we haven't seen since we were children! BUT...best of all were the employees. To our great surprise, everyone we encountered was polite, helpful and friendly - so rare these days, when surly has become the norm. There were a few real standouts: Pete, the conductor on the Portland to Tacoma leg, was remarkably friendly and helpful. We enjoyed chatting with him and he made sure we knew when and where to go when boarding and disembarking. Kudos, Pete, we really loved you! In the dining car the server was charming and exceptionally nice too, I hope I'm remembering her name correctly - Sabrina (?) perhaps. The fellow in the cafe car was jocular and friendly, a real pleasure, and I'm sorry I didn't get his name. He was singing for a while, which made us smile and really added a nice touch to the trip. The train was 2 hours late on the return trip, heavy snow and a rockslide closed the track for a while - but you can't blame Amtrak for weather, and all things considered, 2 hours isn't much under those circumstances. We will definitely...