46 replies to this topic

[MotownRRon]

It all started innocently enough. I talked my new wife into finally taking a train trip. We planned this one as rail one way (time did not permit round trip anyway) on my favorite SOUTHWEST CHIEF after riding the WOLVERINE from Dearborn to Chicago - just as I have done MANY times. It was my first train trip since 2001, and I was GREATLY disappointed. Amtrak really blew this one, and she says she will NEVER go on another one. It all started out innocent enough with a good ride that was pretty much on time on #351. We got to CUS and checked into a packed Metropolitan Lounge (where we laughed at inbound train 6 with an ETA 16 1/2 hours late). It came time to Board train 3 and an announcement was made that there is a short delay and boarding will begin shortly. Boarding began when the train was SUPPOSED to be departing. They blamed it on the CAPITOL LIMITED getting in late, and train 3 uses the same equipment. Why did they not show this on the monitors??? It was only 2 hours late, and they had plenty of time. We finally boarded car 331 room E (deluxe room) way at the front of the train (what ever happened to keeping first class closer to the terminal for a shorter walk to the train and further from engine noise by putting the sleepers at the rear of the train??). We departed CUS 35 mins late, but that would be VERY short lived. Apparently nobody checked out the EOT (End Of Train) telemetry unit, and we stopped just after we pulled out from under the train shed - we were still in the yard. 3 EOT's later (and another 30 min delay) and we were under way again - an hour late. Agin, this would be short lived. Just after we departed Mendota (a mere 80 miles down the track) our 3rd engine had an overheated support bearing, and the 2nd engine had already died (fuel pump failure). Who inspects these engines?? When I am at work as a fire department Engineer, I check my truck out thoroughly at the beginning of my shift - regardless of whether there were any problems with it the day before. We were down to just ONE of our 3 engines to pull the train and provide Head End Power (HEP), They decided to set out the two engines at a siding up the track a bit, and take the train into Galesburg to get 2 BNSF freight engines added on. We crept along at 30 MPH (I have a GPS that shows this) and got to the siding where the 2 engines were cut out and set on the siding. I am wondering why Amtrak did not have 2 more engines sent from CUS yards - there were dozens there - since we were only 80 miles down the track. They could have been there by the time we set the engines out. We finally got our BNSF engines in front of our Amtrak engine and headed on our way. For the rest of the trip our speed limit would be 70 MPH instead of 90 MPH due to the freight engines not having ATS capability. Certainly Amtrak knew this if someone as dumb as ME knew it, and they knew what would happen going 20 MPH slower. Our crew hit their 12 hour time limit at La Plata, MO. We sat for 1 1/2 HOURS waiting for a crew to drive our train. Again, Amtrak had known for HOURS that this crew would run out of time, and approximately where they would. WHY WAS THERE NO CREW WAITING?? With all these delays, we were now 7 hours late into Kansas City and would be seeing the rather boring scenery of Kansas during the daylight, and NOT seeing the rockies in CO and NM, as we usually do. This was one of the major selling points in convincing my new wife (Deb) to take this trip, and now we would not see the only good scenery. We kept losing time, and after Hutchinson, KS, our crew again hit their 12 hour limit, and we stopped in the middle of nowhere in Sylvia, KS waiting for a crew to come to our train. This crew did not even leave their motel in Dodge City until we were already stopped in the middle of nowhere. Nobody could get off the train or anything (this was all overheard on my scanner). Again, AMTRAK KNEW WHEN AND WHERE THIS WOULD HAPPEN AND DID NOT PLAN FOR IT. Another 1 1/2 HOURS wasted waiting for a crew. In Albuquerque (at 3:30 AM) we sat for over 2 HOURS while they messed around with the @#%&* FREIGHT and put new brake shoes on 2 wheels of one of our BNSF engines. MORE LOST TIME and the delays continue as we can only go 70 MPH. We finally got into Flagstaff at 11:30 AM a full 13 HOURS and 32 minutes late. IF AMTRAK HAD THEIR ACT TOGETHER AND BROUGHT US 2 OF THEIR ENGINES WHILE WE WERE ONLY 80 MILES AWAY AND HAD RELIEF CREWS READY, THIS WOULD HAVE ONLY BEEN ABOUT A 2 HOUR DELAY, which probably could have been mostly made up with schedule padding, and we would have seen the gorgeous scenery that we were SUPPOSED to see. Now for the On-Board service. Food was WAY below what it used to be as far as quality and selection. Service in the diner was not attentive at all. Paper was used for breakfast and lunch. Our Cabin was even worse. We turned the call button on both mornings to have our room made up, and the attendant was nowhere to be seen for hours. No newspaper delivered EITHER morning, no personalized service, no turndown service, and no assistance with getting ready for our arrival in Flagstaff. Our attendant has been with Amtrak for 25 years, so no excuses here. My wife was TOTALLY unimpressed - especially after I had spent a FULL YEAR talking this up and convincing her to spend $500.00 extra ONE WAY for the 3 of us (my daughter was with us) to take the train over flying. We lost most of a day in Arizona with family as a result of all of these blunders. WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE AMTRAK I USED TO KNOW, LOVE, AND PROMOTE BOTH HERE (on Prodigy in the old days) AND ELSEWHERE??? Almost this ENTIRE 13 1/2 hour LATE ARRIVAL in Flagstaff could have been avoided with some proper management by Amtrak. Again, they have shown that Dollars from Freight are a priority over passengers, and nobody plans ahead when things do go wrong - they ONLY MAKE THE ERRORS WORSE. I doubt I will EVER be able to convince my wife to try Amtrak again, which would make this my final trip on the SOUTHWEST CHIEF - a trip for which I am famous for on this board and its predecessors, and who could blame her. I WAS TOTALLY APPALLED. MotownRRon RRon in Detroit

Edited by MotownRRon, 16 February 2004 - 06:22 PM.

[ICGsteve]

The evidence is pooring in that Gunn does not have a managment team that can run the railroad through crisis or attempts to reorganize. This is a subject that I have commented on before, but everything seems to be completely falling apart now. Gunn knew that his team was weak but felt that he had to solidify Amtrak before he could bring good people in. He has flat run out of time.

Edited by ICGsteve, 16 February 2004 - 07:19 PM.

[BillMagee]

Sadly, yours is an all too familiar story. Whether the reason is a demoralized work force due to the never-ending financial struggles (often given as the excuse for poor service) or just too many uncaring employees, too little operational competence, and a management that lacks what it takes to correct these flaws, the end result is the same. The very aspects that make long-distance train travel attractive: the relaxation, the on-board service, the thrill of dining with real, freshly cooked meals in a moving restaurant, viewing the country at "see" level, the quiet sanctuary of a sleeping car room; get lost behind a Three Stooges operation and indifferent service delivery. And you’re a railfan. Imagine the impression non-railfans would have. It is a disgrace, it is not acceptable or excusable, and cannot be somehow blamed on budget. Budgetary issues are always used as the excuse for Amtrak’s failings, but in many aspects that is a smoke screen. Common sense is not a budget issue, yet operational common sense was obviously missing on your trip. Amtrak has been running trains for nearly 33 years. They haven’t got things like responses to failed power or positioning of relief crews figured out yet. Give me a break. The train is adequately staffed to provide service, but your 25 year veteran sleeping car attendant was AWOL. Was this the very first trip this sleeping car attendant was unresponsive? That is very doubtful, but there he (or she) was doing nothing and getting a paycheck, and it has probably been that way for years. I suspect he or she is on duty right now and not responding to service calls. That is not a budget issue. It is bad management, pure and simple. And it is an utter disregard for the customer that starts at the top and must be changed from the top. And $1.8 billion or $18 billion will not cure that. You paid some real bucks for that ride. You expected the ride to be an integral part of your vacation, not just transportation. You had every right to get the service you expected and deserved. And Amtrak failed you miserably. You could try writing Amtrak or even David Gunn but expect little other than a canned response and maybe a small credit toward a future trip (like you or your wife would find that prospect attractive). Other than that, I think your material options are limited and you are relegated to simply vowing to use another transportation mode unless or until Amtrak or someone else can run the trains with some competence and class. Amtrak should not just be given money to run trains. They should be held accountable for the service they provide. I see no such accountability. Isn’t this the sort of thing NARP should be hammering Amtrak about?

Edited by BillMagee, 16 February 2004 - 07:27 PM.

[MotownRRon]

By the time we got to Flagstaff, many passengers decided to give up and detrained along with the several who were scheduled to. One passenger who was behind me in line to detrain summed it up when he said "The rats are abandoning the sinking ship" I will be sending Gunn and Customer service a letter (containing much of this text), and I will post their reply here. Perhaps if they comped a trip in a deluxe room, I could convince Deb to try it again. Only time will tell, and I am certainly not holding my breath. It is sad to see this, as I have been riding #3 annd #4 for almost 15 years.

[DaveVoeltz]

Hi RRon: Sorry to hear things have deteriorate that much on Amtrak. We haven't been on a trip in about 7 years and based on the cost of doing so nowadays, doubt that we will. We did ride the Cascade 2 years ago from Vancouver, WA to Seattle and that was a good ride. However, one can not compare a day train to a long distance train as they are different beasts. Dave in Pierre, SD (Former Prodigy RR member)

[Amfleet]

Amtrak on-board service and time keeping has been improving, slowly yet surely, ever since Gunn took over. It's going to take more than 22 months to re-organize a system of poor management and uncaring employees. Times not up yet. You need to send a letter to customer service and/or David Gunn in response to your experience. Also when on the train take down names of all employees (conductors, attendants, etc.) and include that in your letter as well. Let them know who's doing a bad job and it's encouraging to let Amtrak know who's doing a good job as well. Garanteed that action will be taking because Amtrak does care to a point and wants its passengers to be happy. This is NO time for Amtrak to give up and it's heading in the right direction. No, it will never be perfect and the service will never come near that of the 1950's, but it can and is being improoved. To end on a lighter note, I just finished up one of my best trips in three years aboard the Silver Meteor. On-time the whole way and a train full of dedicated crews and the food in the diner was some of the best I've ever consumed on a train.

[MotownRRon]

Jon, I plan on sennnding gun/customer service a letter, but how do I convince my wife to try it again?? It took a LOT to talk her into this trip, and even "I" admit it was a disaster, compounded by many avoidable delays that were ENTIRELY Amtrak's fault. The result was 1) 13 1/2 hours late into Flagstaff, 2) I had really promotd this trip based on the beautiful scenery along the rails, the ABQ native american crafts, the native american guide between ABQ and Gallup, etc and NONE of these happened due to the lateness of the train that was ENTIRELY Amtrak'ws fault. I have always been a fierce supported of Amtrak, and fully understand the difference between delays that are and are not their fault, and these were all Amtrak's fault. The result was 1) instead of seeing the beautiful scenery of Colorado and New Mexico during the day, those were entirely at night, and we saw the farmfields of Kansas during the day. EXTREMELY boring scenery, and 2) we lost an entire night and part of a day at our destination. THEN we get to the service issues. I had promised her the service I had become accustomed to over the past 15 years, and it simply WAS NOT there. NO EXCUSES for that. She has said she will NEVER go on another overnight Amtrak trip, and who could blame her. It cost us 500.00 more to go one way by train than flying, and NONE of the benefits I had promised were delivered. I am totally embarrassed and appalled

[Amfleet]

Jon,
I plan on sennnding gun/customer service a letter, but how do I convince my wife to try it again?? It took a LOT to talk her into this trip, and even "I" admit it was a disaster, compounded by many avoidable delays that were ENTIRELY Amtrak's fault. The result was 1) 13 1/2 hours late into Flagstaff, 2) I had really promotd this trip based on the beautiful scenery along the rails, the ABQ native american crafts, the native american guide between ABQ and Gallup, etc and NONE of these happened due to the lateness of the train that was ENTIRELY Amtrak'ws fault. I have always been a fierce supported of Amtrak, and fully understand the difference between delays that are and are not their fault, and these were all Amtrak's fault. The result was 1) instead of seeing the beautiful scenery of Colorado and New Mexico during the day, those were entirely at night, and we saw the farmfields of Kansas during the day. EXTREMELY boring scenery, and 2) we lost an entire night and part of a day at our destination. THEN we get to the service issues. I had promised her the service I had become accustomed to over the past 15 years, and it simply WAS NOT there. NO EXCUSES for that.
She has said she will NEVER go on another overnight Amtrak trip, and who could blame her. It cost us 500.00 more to go one way by train than flying, and NONE of the benefits I had promised were delivered. I am totally embarrassed and appalled

I'm not disagreeing with you and I'm sorry to hear you and your wife had a bad trip after spending quite a bit of money expecting satisfactory and close to (within the hour) on-time service. However, not all trips are like the one you had and most of them can be quite relaxing and enjoyable. From my year of riding Amtrak I would say 75% of them good and 25% not up to par. Hopefully, you will be able to take a personal trip for yourself in the future or maybe convince your wife that is not always that bad.

[AlanB]

Rron,

I’m certainly disheartened and saddened that your trip turned out to be such a disaster. While there may be nothing that I can say that will help you to convince your wife to try again, heck I may not even convince you to try again; I think that there are a few things that you should be aware of with regards to your disastrous trip.

[quote name='MotownRRon' date='Feb 16 2004, 05:47 PM'] It came time to Board train 3 and an announcement was made that there is a short delay and boarding will begin shortly.  Boarding began when the train was SUPPOSED to be departing.  They blamed it on the CAPITOL LIMITED getting in late, and train 3 uses the same equipment.[/quote]
Amtrak has 8 long distance trains and 16 short distance trains that arrive every day and need to be cleaned and restocked each and every day. Three days a week they also add the Cardinal to the mix. Only a few of the trains actually spend the night in the yard allowing for extra cleaning time.

So with a work force that has been reduced to the bare minimums in an effort to please Congress, just one train arriving late can stretch resources. Have two or more trains arrive late and it can be utter chaos trying to get every train out on time. Granted all those trains don’t arrive at the same time, but again Amtrak often has more than one train needing cleaning within a certain period of time and a late train will upset the delicate balance of the cleaning crews’ schedules.

[quote name='MotownRRon' date='Feb 16 2004, 05:47 PM'] Why did they not show this on the monitors???  It was only 2 hours late, and they had plenty of time.[/quote]
Right or wrong, Amtrak generally will not show an originating train as departing late until they are positively sure it will be late. Even then they usually won’t put it up on the boards until 15 to 20 minutes prior to departure.

However it is also possible that your train suffered from the same problem that my departing Lake Shore had. In my case, someone on the cleaning crew screwed up. They cleaned the whole train, but somehow missed the very sleeper that I was to ride in. The supervisor, if he/she actually checked things, also missed that sleeper. So when my attendant showed up for work about a ½ hour before departure, he had to have the conductor call for someone to come and vacuum the car out. This delayed our departure by 15 minutes.

Now yes I can blame Amtrak for failing to clean that car and worse for the supervisor’s failure to ensure that it was cleaned. However no delay was posted on the board until 7:00 PM, since no one could predict just how quickly the car would get cleaned and it was hoped that we might still have an on time departure.

[quote name='MotownRRon' date='Feb 16 2004, 05:47 PM'] We finally boarded car 331 room E (deluxe room) way at the front of the train (what ever happened to keeping first class closer to the terminal  for a shorter walk to the train and further from engine noise by putting the sleepers at the rear of the train??).[/quote]
It’s a toss up as to which is a better position for the sleepers. Put them up front and you may hear the horn more. Put them in the back and you tend to have a rougher ride, more bouncing, especially with Express Trak cars on the rear.

Of course trains that split, end up with sleepers in both places, but generally these days Amtrak puts the sleepers closer to the engines. As for the walk, you’ve got to walk at one end or the other on your trip, assuming that you were to ride all the way through.

[quote name='MotownRRon' date='Feb 16 2004, 05:47 PM'] Just after we departed Mendota (a mere 80 miles down the track) our 3rd engine had an overheated support bearing, and the 2nd engine had already died (fuel pump failure).  Who inspects these engines??  When I am at work as a fire department Engineer, I check my truck out thoroughly at the beginning of my shift - regardless of whether there were any problems with it the day before. [/quote]

Other than a visual inspection on the outside, plus some on-board diagnostics, the engineer does not check out his engines. In fact he’s not allowed to do mechanical work on the engines. All of that happens in the yard and is the responsibility of the mechanical team in the yard.

Here’s a brief description of what’s supposed to happen from an Amtrak electrical technician based in Hialeah, Florida, that I know.

[quote] So,when the train hits the yard, we break off the engine, take it to the loco pit. The machinist inspects the undercarriage, and the fluid levels on the engine. The loco tech runs a 10 min computerized self test, which causes the loco to check all systems under "load", and report any electrical or mechanical defects the computers detect. He also checks the cab signal system, horns,radio, etc. When they are done, the engine is shut down. [/quote]

Now there’s certainly no way that I can guarantee that the above did indeed happen on the day in question, but that is supposed to be the procedure.

Should you have had two failures? No. Can it still happen, even after the above tests? Sure.

Even with the best of procedures mechanical things don’t always follow the rules. Our firefighters here in NY, check out their trucks too at the beginning of every shift. Yet in the 13 years I’ve been living here, I’ve seen two different engines breakdown on the way to a fire. I’m sure that there are more incidents than I’m aware of too.

[quote name='MotownRRon' date='Feb 16 2004, 05:47 PM'] I am wondering why Amtrak did not have 2 more engines sent from CUS yards - there were dozens there - since we were only 80 miles down the track.  They could have been there by the time we set the engines out.[/quote]

That’s not as simple as it might seem. First off I’m certain that at least some of those engines sitting back in Chicago had reached their FRA maximum hours of operation and therefore needed a mandated inspection before they could go out on the road. It’s also likely that some of those engines might have had enough hours still available to do a short run, like the Michigan services, but not enough for a two day run. I’m also sure, since Chicago is a major engine repair facility, that at least a few of those engines sitting there were awaiting repairs having already been bad ordered.

Next at least some of those engines were earmarked for another train leaving later that day. So sending two engines down to your train might have deprived another train of its power.

Finally, let’s assume that despite what I’ve mentioned above, Amtrak did have one or two diesels to spare. Now you’ve got another problem to deal with, who’s going to crew the engine. First off you need both an engineer and a conductor to move the engines those 80 miles. So you must have two spare employees available to bring you those engines.

Next, you can’t just grab just any engineer or conductor sitting in the yard. You need a crew that has qualified on the tracks in question. This means that they have each made several trips on that line with a qualified trainer. Qualifying means that they are aware of all signals, interlockings, stations, and a myriad of other things on that line. With nine different lines departing from CUS, Amtrak has many crews in the area. However most crews are probably only qualified on one or two lines, max three lines.

Then factor in that some of the crews qualified for your line were already out running on the line or about to take out another Amtrak train on that line. Others were either at home or in a hotel complying with mandatory rest regulations. So the odds are not in favor that Amtrak had a qualified, rested crew available to bring those extra engines those 80 miles. Finally let’s assume that by shear luck Amtrak does have a qualified crew available. Odds are that they are on standby at home.

So now Amtrak has to give them two hours warning that they must come to work. Add a half hour in the yard to get the engines ready to go and review slow orders and things like that. Now you’ve got an hour and a half run down the tracks to reach you. So you’ve now been waiting for four hours, before they even start to hook up the new engines, instead of your hour & a half wait for those BNSF engines.

Next even if they did have a crew available, then they would now be out of place for their next assignment and even worse possibly unavailable for a train the next day depending on hours worked vs. hours of rest requirements. So bottom line is that to fix your train may well have meant screwing another train either later that day or the next.

Finally, even if Amtrak did have all of its cards in place, such that they could have sent two extra engines (something that is unlikely based upon what I’ve outlined above), they would still have needed to get permission from BNSF to run those extra engines down the tracks. BNSF might well have not had the track capacity to allow Amtrak an extra run.

Even if they did have the capacity, that’s a lot of work for BNSF. Remember someone has to sit in their dispatch office throwing all the right switches, hitting the correct signals, and possibly moving other freight and/or passenger trains out of the way of the two engines. So BNSF may well have told Amtrak that they would instead supply the extra power, rather than tying up their mains both with the stalled Chief and the relief engines.

[quote name='MotownRRon' date='Feb 16 2004, 05:47 PM'] We finally got our BNSF engines in front of our Amtrak engine and headed on our way.  For the rest of the trip our speed limit would be 70 MPH instead of 90 MPH due to the freight engines not having ATS capability[/quote]
To my knowledge, although someone else here on the BB may know better, there are only two stretches of track, one in Illinois and the other in Arizona where the Chief can run at 90 MPH. Most of the journey is made at 79 MPH max or less.

So being limited to running at 70 would not have hurt time keeping that much in the overall scheme of things.

[quote name='MotownRRon' date='Feb 16 2004, 05:47 PM'] Our crew hit their 12 hour time limit at La Plata, MO.  We sat for 1 1/2 HOURS waiting for a crew to drive our train.  Again, Amtrak had known for HOURS that this crew would run out of time, and approximately where they would.  WHY WAS THERE NO CREW WAITING??  [/quote]
As I mentioned above, crews aren’t just growing on trees for Amtrak. They just can’t throw any engineer & conductor in there. They must be qualified on that route and they must have fulfilled FRA mandated rest requirements.

Even if Amtrak had the money to hire more engineers & conductors, this would still be a problem, as you simply can’t have too many people sitting around on standby. Not because you can’t afford them, but because those employees aren’t getting paid for being on standby. They get paid when they work, if they only get called to work once or twice a month in an emergency, then they are going to look for a new job.

I would also question just who outlawed. Are you sure that it was the Amtrak crew or was it the BNSF crew? After all it’s possible that the original Amtrak engineer was no longer running your train, it may well have been a BNSF engineer who was running your train.

[quote name='MotownRRon' date='Feb 16 2004, 05:47 PM'] We kept losing time, and after Hutchinson, KS, our crew again hit their 12 hour limit, and we stopped in the middle of nowhere in Sylvia, KS waiting for a crew to come to our train.  This crew did not even leave their motel in Dodge City until we were already stopped in the middle of nowhere.  Nobody could get off the train or anything (this was all overheard on my scanner).  Again, AMTRAK KNEW WHEN AND WHERE THIS WOULD HAPPEN AND DID NOT PLAN FOR IT.  Another 1 1/2 HOURS wasted waiting for a crew. [/quote]
Again I first must ask who actually outlawed? The Amtrak crew or a BNSF engineer? If it was a BNSF engineer, then Amtrak would have no control over things.

Next one must take into account a few other factors here. One, it is possible that the crew sitting in the hotel couldn’t leave before you were stopped. They may not have met the required FRA mandated rest requirements. After all remember that Amtrak’s train #4 was 16 hours late. This crew might have been on that train and therefore had not yet met their rest requirements. Plus as I’ve already mentioned, you can’t just send any crew, they must be qualified on that section of track.

Secondly, it really isn’t that easy to predict where the train crew will outlaw. Remember Amtrak does not control that train’s progress. They can’t even monitor it on a control board. They must rely on relays from the host RR, manned station stops, and cell phone calls from the conductor to know where a train is at any given minute.

Finally since a freight train can delay your train at any given moment, moving a crew to a predetermined point in a rural area with few roads is not necessarily practical. Plus I think that once Amtrak does start moving a crew out of their hotel, they’ve started the 12-hour clock running, not sure about that though. So getting a crew moving too early could simply cause them to outlaw sooner than expected.

[quote name='MotownRRon' date='Feb 16 2004, 05:47 PM'] Food was WAY below what it used to be as far as quality and selection.  Service in the diner was not attentive at all.  Paper was used for breakfast and lunch.  Our Cabin was even worse.  We turned the call button on both mornings to have our room made up, and the attendant was nowhere to be seen for hours.  No newspaper delivered EITHER morning, no personalized service, no turndown service, and no assistance with getting ready for our arrival in Flagstaff.  Our attendant has been with Amtrak for 25 years, so no excuses here.  [/quote]

There are simply no excuses here for this issue and I won’t try to make any. I cannot fault either you or your wife for being upset.

It however is too bad that you didn’t catch the crew that I had for my ride on the Chief on the 25th of February to Kansas City. I had an excellent crew in the dining area and my one meal was quite tasty and served promptly.

Even my sleeping car attendant was great, even though he didn’t need to do much for me, since I wasn’t overnighting. He made at least two (maybe three) announcements telling anyone who needed their beds setup for nighttime to simply push the call button and that he would be with them as quickly as possible. I heard several bells go off and I saw him several times walking by my room shortly afterwards. On two occasions that he wasn’t busy, I found him sitting in his room as I walked by. He never seemed to be hiding.

[quote name='MotownRRon' date='Feb 16 2004, 05:47 PM'] Again, they have shown that Dollars from Freight are a priority over passengers[/quote]
I’m not quite sure just what you mean by this statement. However it should be noted that Amtrak has by and large discontinued its Express Trak program or freight shipments. While they are still running out some of the contracts that they were unable to break or get out of, the days of 10 to 15 freight cars on the back of an Amtrak train are over. Some trains run with nothing on the bottom, while others haul 3, 4, or 5 cars maximum. However freight is no longer Amtrak’s priority in any shape or form.

David Gunn has made it quite clear that Express Trak was a failure and wants it gone. He can’t however just break contracts without consent from the companies holding signed contracts.

In summation, I’m not trying to suggest that Amtrak didn’t screw up in several areas with regard to your trip. No doubt a fair amount of blame does indeed fall at Amtrak’s feet. The failure of even one engine is inexcusable; the failure of two is beyond even that. Also while it does happen, again the failure of the EOT again falls squarely on Amtrak’s shoulders.

If the freight was already on the back of the train when you boarded, then this should have been fully tested. If they added it after pulling out of the station as they did in my case, then I might be a tad more forgiving as the failure could be with the engine’s computer and not the EOT. However it still should not have happened.

The failure of the crew to perform admirably is also not excusable. Thankfully there seems to be more good crews out there than bad ones. As I mentioned in another post under the Amtrak forum, I encountered two excellent crews in the diner’s on the Lake Shore Limited. That’s a train that was once known for having horrible dining car crews. Hopefully Amtrak can continue to weed out the bad ones and the unions will stop protecting the bad apples.

However I also hope that at least in a few of the cases where you felt that Amtrak had failed you, like sending replacement engines, that perhaps I’ve convinced you that the events may well have been beyond Amtrak’s control. That at the very least that there was no easy answer and that maybe they really did choose the correct way to deal with the problem.

Finally, while I know that first impressions are important, I can only say that one is not a fair sampling of anything.

[ICGsteve]

Alan, your point about no crew being able to take motive power 80 miles down line is a good one, but one that was partly caused by AMtrak bringing the crews into their employ. When the crews were still employed by the railroad it would have been a simple task to pull a crew off of the next frieght scheduled to depart Chi, calling a new crew for the frieght (4 hours time needed). I am not sure that in better days it would have been done in a case such as this. I suspect that Amtrak would have gotten the train to Kansas City as best they could and then done a fix there, most likely replacing one unit. I am sure that the SF always, and Amtrak almost always has banked some extra power there for emergencies. I believe that Amtrak also once would have been able to have a tech waiting in Galesburg to see about that fuel pump. WHat I don't get is why, when management obviously gave up on this train a few hours after it left CUS, was no one dealing with the passengers? If AMtrak is going to run a national system on the cheap where they leave no capacity to manage problems, then they must be prepared to comp tickets, give out free meals, and have information at the ready. The on board chief should have had the power to do what he could to make the trip enjoyable, and he should have had a form to send in to get a refund on the fare. Here we have the mechanical crews srewwing-up (sorry Alan, loosing 2/3 of the power 80 miles out of Chicago means somone did not do their job), a few hours later management gives-up on the train, then seemingly the crew gives up on the passengers for the rest of the trip. This disaster was a collective failure, and lack of money does not explain it all.

Edited by ICGsteve, 09 March 2004 - 04:41 AM.