[SJSAMPLE]

Can’t be worse than being ON an Amtrak with a non-functioning restroom in EVERY car.

Ann Arbor to Chicago in July, 1994.
I had a great car at the time, so I a cannot imagine what the f&^k I was thinking.

Never again.

[Vigilanteman]

The local trains which I rode in Japan in the 1970's had crappers with signs which said "Do not use when train is stopped" in English and Japanese.

I kid you not. When you flushed, you could see daylight and the tracks go by. There was some sort of motion activated fanlike device which actually chopped the stuff up so it would be spread out for easy decomposition. It did two good things:

1. Kept people from getting too close to the tracks as trains passed.
   
2. Gave a whole new meaning to the expression "When the sh*t hits the fan . . . "

[Logophile]

Can’t be worse than being ON an Amtrak with a non-functioning restroom in EVERY car.

I know what you mean. My wife and I got on the Amtrak train at 1 a.m. in SLC. We had been assured that the train was running on schedule. But we waited four hours for the train to leave the station. During that time, we were not allowed to use the restrooms on the train itself. Nor were we allowed to get off the train to use the restrooms in the station.

(By the way, Amtrak insisted that the train was on time because half the train was on time. We waited for the cars from the Bay Area to be joined to the cars from Los Angeles. No matter. The LA cars were on time, so the entire train was considered to be on time.)

The rest of the trip was no better. The Amtrak crew was surly. They exhibited the worst Must-I-Help-You attitude I have seen outside the Department of Motor Vehicles. Later, when the supplies ran out, the crew disappeared entirely.

Never again.

Amen to that.