CZ Stuck between Reno and Sacramento

[dleritz]

It looks like train 6 has been connected to the next day's train. As of 5:30 PM (MT), both are due into Granby, CO at 8:00 PM. (27 hrs 43 min late, and 3 hrs 43 min)

 

[Guest]

"Baghdad to Mosul by way of Kirkuk) have been pretty awful recently. But so much more comfortable than going by armored convoy, especially since they upgraded the dining car menu!!! "

I know you're being funny but I just got off the phone with my battle buddy's wife (other soldier's wife). Hers just came back off of convoy and talked about driving around all the potholes (to avoid IEDs and switching over to drive on the wrong side of the road. Mine's working the command TOC in his area. Both are eating steak, shrimp and crab on Wednesday nights and getting visits from the likes of the world's "most sexiest woman", Scarlet Johansen and the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. The only sane and acceptable thing we can think of to do is get in a sleeper, get ridden around the country, have someone cook for us and wash dishes and get waited on by the cabana boys/girls, aka, sleeper attendants.

....Always Controversial

Yeah,yeah, I know. Half of you just raised your hand to enlist and the others are saying, "that war is too damned expensive".

 

[AlanB]

The guy that refunded my tickets at the counter let me know that he was doing me a favor by not charging me an extra 10% for the refund on my canceled train.

He wasn't doing you a favor, he was doing his job. If Amtrak cancels the train, or for that matter if the train is late by more than 2 hours at your station, you are entitled to a full refund without question.

So he was dead wrong and needs to be retrained to do his job properly.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

Do you know how many people act like doing their job is a favour to whomever they serve? He doesn't need to be re-trained. He needs to have his career path modified to fit his personality. I.E. he needs to be canned.

 

[frj1983]

On our recent trip on the SWC, the conductors were excellent in telling us why we were stopped, how our OT performance was. "And there's that BNSF freight we were waiting for" and "now we're ready to go". He was a humorous guy, unlike many conductors, and made the trip a fun one. We said goodbye to him in Trinidad, I think. But communication is generally lacking on Amtrak and they could alleviate lots of upset passengers if they would at least tell them something.

I've been riding Amtrak since 1983 and I must say that communication with passengers has been a problem that has consistently plagued them. Delays and problems can be taken with a grain of salt when the passenger has an idea of what is going on...when passengers are told nothing, they get disgruntled, frustrated and angry. I get the feeling that Amtrak's Legal Department has instructed it's onboard crews not to say anything...then we won't get sued, callled on the carpet, etc. I just don't understand why communication with passengers is not a priority, wouldn't it defuse a lot of the angry feelings regarding the situation???

This is probably and entirely anecdotal, but I once heard a story that John McCain went from neutral about Amtrak to an Amtrak "hater" after his Wife took a trip and was delayed saying the same thing as these passengers: "they never told us what was going on!" Now that story may be entirely untrue, BUT, if I were a Congressman or Senator who happened to be ridng a train (I know I know, I'm dreaming here), it might change my mind about supporting Amtrak!

 

[MrFSS]

Don't you think the On-Board Crew could be instructed to announce, "Folks we don't know what the problem is. We're waiting for information. When we have something to report, we will."

If I heard that on a train I would feel better than no announcement at all. At least there would be hope of finding out something. The Crew wouldn't look so bad in the eyes of the passengers, either, if they made that type of announcement.

 

[Rex]

Don't you think the On-Board Crew could be instructed to announce, "Folks we don't know what the problem is. We're waiting for information. When we have something to report, we will."

Yes. That statement right there tells the passengers that even though the on-board crew might not have the answer right now, they have started seeking out the answer(s) by contacting the correct parties. If I heard that, I'd feel better for a short time, and I'd be expecting an update in the future.

You may not agree, but I think that in today's world where blackberrys and and cell phones allow immediate access to information from almost everywhere, the common expectation is to be kept informed, no matter if you're on a train, in a traffic jam on the interstate, on the tarmac, etc... Even if the news is that there is currently no news, it should be reported.

 

[AlanB]

Don't you think the On-Board Crew could be instructed to announce, "Folks we don't know what the problem is. We're waiting for information. When we have something to report, we will."
If I heard that on a train I would feel better than no announcement at all. At least there would be hope of finding out something. The Crew wouldn't look so bad in the eyes of the passengers, either, if they made that type of announcement.

Tom, you would feel better because you understand some of the complexities and issues surrounding things. But most people would simply start wondering why the heck it is that the crew doesn't know anything. Additionally that announcement might work the first time right after the train has stopped, maybe even a second time if it's within the first half hour of the delay, but after that point it simply won't be acceptable to most people.

And it is that fact that I suspect keeps a lot of the crews from making announcements. I'm not saying that it's right, but I believe that many feel that no matter what they do or say, many pax simply won't accept that and will therefore seek them out and complain. So they just go into hiding, which then makes an already bad situation worse.

Now mind you there are situations where the crew is on the ground trying to fix things, and therefore unable to make continuous announcements. The story that started this topic isn't one of those occasions. And considering that Amtrak actually put customer service people on the trains who according to the source, went seat by seat explaining things tells me that some angry people are just blowing this whole thing out of proportion. Yes, the info may have flowed slowly at first, no doubt due to the unusual nature of the problem in the first place.

But I see no evidence in this case that suggests that the passengers were kept in the dark both literally and figuratively. The claims in this case sound more like sour grapes.

 

[wayman]

Don't you think the On-Board Crew could be instructed to announce, "Folks we don't know what the problem is. We're waiting for information. When we have something to report, we will."
If I heard that on a train I would feel better than no announcement at all. At least there would be hope of finding out something. The Crew wouldn't look so bad in the eyes of the passengers, either, if they made that type of announcement.

When I was on an SNCB (Belgium) train which broke down and sat for four hours, a status update was given every fifteen minutes. The status update rarely changed ("we apologize for the breakdown. the engine is [whatever they thought the problem was]. helper engines have been requested/dispatched/are on the way/are expected at [time]"), but it was given regularly and reasonably frequently.

It was also given first in Dutch, then in French, then in German, then in English, each time.

 

[dleritz]

It looks like train 6 has been connected to the next day's train. As of 5:30 PM (MT), both are due into Granby, CO at 8:00 PM. (27 hrs 43 min late, and 3 hrs 43 min)

I guess the two trains are not attached to each other after all. They are due into Chicago this evening, a couple hours apart. I bet they are running low on food!

 

[CapitolLTD]

I have the answer to this communication issue....

People need to do one of the following in the absence of an official announcement by the ignorant crew:

1. Bring an AM/FM radio with you and listen to the news.

2. Buy a cheap 50 dollar scanner and program in the rail freqs, or just scan through the rail band to get the crew's radio transmissions. Completely legal, no one can say anything about it.As I know it, there is no federal laws against scanning anywhere except in a few states that prohibit them in cars or anywhere else but your private home. Trains don't count as cars, and no one that I have heard of has been arrested or had something taken from them on a train.

Edit: bring a charged cell phone and use that! Make a bunch of calls, be a pain in the arse until someone talks to you! Wish arse biscuits to anyone who gives you an attitude!

I love my brick!

Arse Biscuits!

 

[wayman]

Edit: bring a charged cell phone and use that! Make a bunch of calls, be a pain in the arse until someone talks to you! Wish arse biscuits to anyone who gives you an attitude!

Good luck using it in remote mountainous regions where a train is likely to get stuck. There were large stretches of the Zephyr's and Chief's routes where I had zero reception.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

There are large portions of the AutoTrain route my cell phone couldn't get through on. A massive, electrically wired moving electrical box is not the best place to be operating a cellphone.

 

[AlanB]

There are large portions of the AutoTrain route my cell phone couldn't get through on. A massive, electrically wired moving electrical box is not the best place to be operating a cellphone.

Then may I recommend either getting a new cell phone, or perhaps a new company, as I've had decent service on the Auto Train. And I don't just use my cell phone for phone calls either, I plug it into my laptop and use it as a modem.

 

[RailBirder]

It looks like train 6 has been connected to the next day's train. As of 5:30 PM (MT), both are due into Granby, CO at 8:00 PM. (27 hrs 43 min late, and 3 hrs 43 min)

I guess the two trains are not attached to each other after all. They are due into Chicago this evening, a couple hours apart. I bet they are running low on food!

AMT6-02 caught up with AMT6-01 at Winter Park. The crew on AMT6-02 died on hours-of-service and waited at Winter Park for a fresh crew to reach them. They were about an hour apart by the time they reached Denver.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

There are large portions of the AutoTrain route my cell phone couldn't get through on. A massive, electrically wired moving electrical box is not the best place to be operating a cellphone.

Then may I recommend either getting a new cell phone, or perhaps a new company, as I've had decent service on the Auto Train. And I don't just use my cell phone for phone calls either, I plug it into my laptop and use it as a modem.

Its not just me. My dad didn't have an easy time either on the Silver Service trains, at a time when we really needed to get in touch with him.