I took the Pennsylvanian, Capitol Limited, and California Zephyr roundtrip from Philadelphia to San Francisco in a roomette past the Pennsylvanian.
I really wanted to give Amtrak 5 stars because it could have been an amazing trip but there are some things Amtrak needs to improve before they can get there.
1. Service on the train.
Some of the attendants were great, others not so much, and some trains were just short staffed which resulted in poor service so I will not blame the attendants themselves because there is not much they can do about that. I found some of the staff to be a bit ageist. My sister and I are in our 20's and most of the customers taking long distance trips in the sleeper are older. I had one person harassing me about my room number while boarding and he did it to no one else. At meals, attendants would give different service to me compared to older couples. I made sure to tip appropriately. The rooms at times were dirty and sheets not changed. My sister and I changed our own bed the one night because it was past midnight before anyone came.
2. Customer Service.
On my way out to San Fran I received an email and voicemail from amtrak telling me that my return to trip had been modified but not to worry, amtrak had taken care of it. That's it. So I spent 1-2 hours on hold while in San Francisco trying to figure out what this meant. Once I was able to talk with someone they told me my sleeper car number had just changed. Except that was a lie. What had really happened, which I did not find out until I got on my train, what that amtrak was doing track work between Grand Junction and Denver so we would need to get off the train and take a bus for that portion. I asked the conductor about this on the train and he said that he was not surprised about my experience because amtrak tends to tell their customers about these things last minute. I was upset about the lack of transparency. This is something they could of easily included in their orginal email that would of saved me my time and stress.
3. Dining hours.
Amtrak needs to be more clear about the dining hours because the ones posted on the website do not match the service on the train. Breakfast and lunch were frustrating because they were served very early. Breakfast started at 6.30 and on some trains ended at 8.45. Lunch would start at 11 and sometimes end at 12.45. I think they should push the times back to make it more accessible.
In addition, trains were delayed multiple hours but I am not complaining about that. The only time it was an issue was in Pittsburgh. I would recommend taking the routes from the starting point and giving ample time between switches. When you are on the train the delay is not to bad, it is just when you are waiting at the station it stinks.