Amtrak Coach Passengers vs. Going To The Zoo

ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY (March 20, 2014)

ADVISORY FOR UNFORTUNATE LANGUAGE (Translation: There's bad words)

My wife and I were traveling on Amtrak's Silver Meteor from New York City to Miami. We were staying in a roomette, a cabin which features two seats facing each other during the day and upper and lower berths at night. The toilet flips up next to one of the two seats. As anyone who has traveled in these accommodations knows, as. a matter of practicality, one traveler must step out when the other needs to "go."

Rather than impose upon my wife to step outside, I would normally go to a coach car and use its restroom.

While mercifully not shown in this video, the coach restroom was a mess despite the train having started its journey barely an hour earlier in New York City.

When I got back to our room, I ended up performing this entirely unscripted, spur-of-the-moment, highly inflammatory yet incredibly accurate rant about the quality of people who ride in coach on Amtrak (or Greyhound or the airlines for that matter).

Despite many of them being cooped up together for 24 hours or more (much longer on cross-country trips), they seem to have no sense of cleanliness or courtesy towards their fellow travelers.