---
title: Planes Rather Than Trains
abstract: Amtrak FAIL
categories:
- personal
content-tags:
- travel
---

I was supposed to drive [shannon][1] to Mardi Gras in NOLA this weekend.  But work overload and weather and general stress fatigue prompted abandonment of that plan.

Still desiring an escape on Saturday morning, I snagged tickets on [Amtrak][2] to Kansas City for the afternoon, and a single night at the Westin.  We parked her car at my place and walked to the Amtrak station, arriving at 15:45 for a 16:00 departure.  Cutting it a bit close.

Closer than we realized.  As we stood in line to pick up paper tickets, we waited 10 minutes for the clerk to argue unproductively with some customers.  And watched a train leave at 15:55 by the station clock (and mine).  Our station has only one track, so that was undoubtably our train.

Immediately after we watched our train leave, another clerk opened a window to address the lengthy queue of customers.  We were first in line, and he confirmed that our train had just departed, and that there were no options for credit or reschedule since I'd bought the tickets on Amtrak.com.  Several customers in queue behind us were in the same predicament.

Not to be deterred, I found a [Southwest][3] flight and we hopped on MetroLink, arrived at Lambert with minutes to spare, took a cab from the KC airport, and arrived next door to the train station almost an hour before the train we'd missed.

So nyah.

   [1]: http://www.shannonethomas.com/
   [2]: http://www.amtrak.com/
   [3]: http://www.southwest.com/
