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AmtrakFan

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Service Alert: Amtrak Cascades Service Disrupted on Friday, August 3, 2007

August 2, 2007

4:50 p.m. PDT

Amtrak Cascades trains will be cancelled between Eugene, Oregon and Vancouver, B.C., Friday, August 3, 2007, with the exception of trains 510 and 517 (Seattle — Vancouver, B.C.), which will operate on their regular schedules.

As a result of a recent mechanical inspection of some Cascades trains, Amtrak and the states of Washington and Oregon have agreed to impose a service moratorium to inspect all Cascades train equipment.

Amtrak is contacting passengers to alert them of the cancellations. Additional updates will be provided as more information becomes available. At this time, no alternate transportation will be provided.

The Coast Starlight will operate on its normal schedule (Seattle — Los Angeles).

Passengers may call 800-USA-RAIL or visit Amtrak.com for additional information and train status updates.

Anyone know why? This isn't the first time IIRC.
 
AmtrakFan said:
Service Alert: Amtrak Cascades Service Disrupted on Friday, August 3, 2007
August 2, 2007

4:50 p.m. PDT

Amtrak Cascades trains will be cancelled between Eugene, Oregon and Vancouver, B.C., Friday, August 3, 2007, with the exception of trains 510 and 517 (Seattle — Vancouver, B.C.), which will operate on their regular schedules.

As a result of a recent mechanical inspection of some Cascades trains, Amtrak and the states of Washington and Oregon have agreed to impose a service moratorium to inspect all Cascades train equipment.

Amtrak is contacting passengers to alert them of the cancellations. Additional updates will be provided as more information becomes available. At this time, no alternate transportation will be provided.

The Coast Starlight will operate on its normal schedule (Seattle — Los Angeles).

Passengers may call 800-USA-RAIL or visit Amtrak.com for additional information and train status updates.

Anyone know why? This isn't the first time IIRC.
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Very interesting. I have been riding the Cascades a lot over the past few weeks. I didn't hear of anything until now, but I will see if I can find out since I am in the area of concern.
 
Routine inspection found cracking in the suspension of the Talgo cars. All Talgo sets are removed from service pending assessment of the severity of the problem.
 
Hope this isn't another Acela-style debacle. Certainly highlights the desperate need for more available equipment. Amtrak is running so close to the edge that when any chunk of equipment goes unavailable, part of the system has to shut down. For some reason HQ doesn't want to buy anything that doesn't say ACELA on the side of it. Maybe we should lobby Congress to move Amtrak HQ to Denver or New Orleans. No, wait. Make it Tallahassee or Pensacola. And mandate that all management travel to or from that city has to be by Amtrak. Then they might realize (Dohhhh!!) there's a gap in the network and start Sunset east of NOL back up again.
 
I'm guessing that Amtrak is probably trying to scramble as much Superliner and Horizon equipment to the region as they can, however they can only get it there so fast. Unfortunately in this area that uses highly specialized equipment they don't have reserves of other equipment since they aren't a major repair base for anything besides their own equipment.
 
Isn't there still a bunch of equipment in or near NOL that's more or less deactivated, pending inspections, but available to use in some kind of emergency (such as another hurricane)?

How much would it really cost to perform the necessary inspections on those cars, and get them up and running again? I never really understood how a company so short on equipment could park a couple dozen cars that are still serviceable rather than perform the needed inspections (as I understand, these aren't even "broken" cars in need of repairs, per se) and use the fleet to expand capacity. In a situation like this, that extra capacity could be redirected to the Northwest, and they could have a regular level of service by Monday.
 
rmadisonwi said:
How much would it really cost to perform the necessary inspections on those cars, and get them up and running again? I never really understood how a company so short on equipment could park a couple dozen cars that are still serviceable rather than perform the needed inspections (as I understand, these aren't even "broken" cars in need of repairs, per se) and use the fleet to expand capacity. In a situation like this, that extra capacity could be redirected to the Northwest, and they could have a regular level of service by Monday.
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The problem isn't just inspections that need to be done, there are a number of parts that need to be inspected, replaced, and upgraded, that's where the cost comes in. The FRA won't allow these cars to run in regular service, but they are ok on an emergency basis because it would only be a one time deal, not thousands of miles a day with short turns.
 
yarrow said:
why would amtrak cancel runs rather than substituting a bus?
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You presume a spare bus would be available. Plus, "a bus" may not be enough to handle all of the passengers. If Amtrak has 150 people booked on the trip, that's at least three buses right there. Multiply that by the number of trips scheduled, and you've got a problem. If you can't accommodate everybody, it's better to cancel than to selectively decide who you're going to let ride and who you're going to leave behind.
 
They have the ability to run at 110 MPH. Over time the WSDOT and ODOT are making investments to raise the track speed, but AFAIK the highest speed these trains can achieve at this time is 79 MPH, since there is no cab signaling. The tilting mechanism is used however. In this region there are typically three speed signs posted F (Freight) P (Passenger) and T (Talgo). Most of the T signs will appear in curves allowing the train to not have to reduce its speed whereas a typical passenger or freight train would.
 
The pulled a total of 3 sets of Horizon/Amfleet equipment from LA - they have to be able to have a business class car - but that means that passengers who purchased business class seats months ago to go to Del Mar (the racetrack) may or may not actually have that accommodation....
 
With this kind of unreliability of AMTRAK. there is no way any of us staunch proponents of passenger rail can promote AMTRAK as a viable or even existent rail passenger service! AMTRAK needs to be privatized immediately. It CAN and must be self-sufficient.

The management must all be put on train service extra board. The days of Grand Central Station management for what is basically a mom-and-pop level of service would be hilarious if it were not so pathetic for the public. It needs to end. AMTRAK management and labor need to become one and the same: every manager in AMTRAK needs to be on board a train working as extra board for the on-board service crews!

We need ubiquitous rail passenger service on ALL rail lines. And, we need more, mostly re-constructed rail lines to within fifty miles of everywhere. It IS affordable, much more so than the highway and aviation systems. It will, nevertheless, be necessary for the rail community to instigate this system single-handedly. For AMTRAK to be dependent on some socialist landslide to usher in massive funding means AMTRAK is absolutely doomed. Such funding will never occur and if it did, it would be sucked up by an ever more bloated managerial structure with no more or even less, and certainly worse train service than at present.

This public is so helplessly besot with the automobile and airplane that they can't get off either one anymore than they can get off dope or cigarettes! And these addictions are all related. The mad speed rush they're all in is why they want to be passengers at the wheel. They can more readily run over us all if they drive themselves, merely to set with us at the next traffic light! And the pushers of these addictions are their (and our) masters. Our entire economy is based largely on essentially a gas station base. We need to find some more useful, healthy and broadly spread (privately instigated and legally and culturally allowed) industries rather than the automobile/highway/oil/aviation/rubber syndicate to constitute or economy.

A ubiquitous rail and, for the immediate future, bus/van transit system (to within one-half mile of everywhere, in reference to local transit) IS possible and is necessary to replace the automobile and airplane. Otherwise, we have no transportation, environmental, economic, health, political or, consequently, any other kind of survivable future.
 
Ok last post shows how ignorant some people are, blaming managment on a techical deficient problem on a certain type of equipment, a type of equipment not chosen by amtrak but by the states it serves.

The entire debacle is probably gone work into hands of people that have been saying all allong that Euro toy trainms have no place on American rail, no matter how cute they look.

All I can say is that with the amount of Amfleet being diverted to the Talgo route that its probably most likely these Talgo train sets won't be back in service anytime soon.
 
True "ignorance" is blatantly calling other people ignorant, especially when not understanding what they are saying. Management is responsible for everything. They certainly take credit (higher pay) for successes, though, of course, they would blame subordinates (fire, cut their pay or otherwise punish them) for any problems. Technical problems are managerial problems.
 
Guest_timetableflagman_* said:
True "ignorance" is blatantly calling other people ignorant, especially when not understanding what they are saying. Management is responsible for everything. They certainly take credit (higher pay) for successes, though, of course, they would blame subordinates (fire, cut their pay or otherwise punish them) for any problems. Technical problems are managerial problems.
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I'm going to have to agree with Dutchrailnut here, not every problem is management's fault. I will agree that there are definitely areas where management can improve, but it's not right to expect managers to be on the Extra Board. I will not argue that I wish more managers would roll up their sleeves every now and then and get dirty, however it is not the responsiblity of a station manager to go out on a 4 day round trip to serve as a TA. Should a station manager possibly go out and help load a train if they know the front line employees are slammed and they have the ability to? Sure. However, you cannot blame unforseen mechanical problems on management. If anything management has responded well to this situation by scrambling equipment to this location from over 3,000 miles away in three days. That's a pretty impressive feat in my mind.


It is also rediculous to believe that Amtrak can be self-sufficient based on the circumstances it has. All mass transit (trains, planes, and automobiles) all require mass government subsidy. Period. You don't see people screaming that NYC Subways need to be self-sufficient, why should the rules be the same for Amtrak? Bus companies have a prayer of being profitable because they use roads that the government pays for. And most of the airlines these days are deep in red ink, many under Federal Bankruptcy protection. Railroads run on expensive infrastructure, and it takes a lot of money and resources to build and maintain these rights of way. If Amtrak is going to achieve operational profitability (meaning the cost of running a train) it will need its own dedicated right of way, similar to what they have in Europe, and not have to run on private railroads controlled by freight operators. The infrastructure to run these trains will ALWAYS require subsidy. If the roads in our country were expected to be self sufficient we'd be paying so many tolls it'd be borderline rediculous. Why should the rules be different for a railroad?
 
And for those who argue that roads are not subsidized and are paid for entirely by gas taxes, I understand there may be a slightly used bridge for sale, currently in the Mississippi River. And I would point out what I believe I heard this past week, that bringing the current transportation infrastructure up to a "good state of repair" would involve some horrendous amount of money like two or three TRILLION Dollars. So Amtrak is NOT alone amongst our transportation infrastructure woes, even if it is the favorite whipping boy. Even the obscene gobs of money we're flushing down the Iraq toilet wouldn't be enough to fix this. But it would certainly make a good start.
 
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