In today’s lesson on “you never know who you could be talking to,” Amtrak is in the hot seat after a conductor attempted to force a woman out of her seat. The woman happened to be Sherrilyn Ifill, the President & Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
Ifill was traveling from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore on Amtrak Friday evening, which also happened to be the beginning of Martin Luther King Day weekend. According to Ifill, she was asked to vacate her seat by the train’s conductor, who said that there were “other people coming” who she wanted to sit there.
Amtrak does not have assigned seating and is on a first-come, first-served basis unless. Each ticketed passenger is entitled to one seat per fare unless it’s a reserved seat or handicap accessible.
Ifill’s knowledge of Amtrak’s policy took the conductor aback.
Amtrak eventually responded with a public apology via Twitter:
However, Ms. Ifill was not having it.
She responded, saying:
The Amtrak conductors have remained nameless.
