does Amtrak's thruway bus wait at the station when the arriving tr

[TimSpencer]

(sorry about the typo in the thread title... Amtrak not Amtra, of course )

does Amtrak's thruway bus wait at the station when the arriving train is late?

the schedule show the train arriving at 1:15pm. the thruway bus leaves at 1:35pm.

there is only one train per day, so the bus will have no passengers if it doesn't wait...

but what if the train is a couple of hours late? does Amtrak just pay overtime to

the bus driver for wairing around?

the bus is a large white bus(45-passenger?) and says "Amtrak passengers only"

on the side....

it looks exactly like this one:

 

[roadman3313]

It depends on the contract in terms of the Drivers pay. I know certain contracts in California, the company pays a fixed amount of time. If the train is late the driver waits but is still paid the fixed hours for the assigned route. The contractor is payed a fixed amount for the trip whether there are passengers or not. With that said, the policy is for the bus to wait. In cases of severe delay the bus may not wait but Amtrak is still required to accomodate the passenger somehow (via taxi or other means) to get to their final destination if the connection was guaranteed.

 

[Anderson]

It is also likely to depend on the route in question...in some cases (particularly out west, where buses are on the schedule in lieu of discontinued LD trains), the "Thruway" is basically a co-listed Trailways bus.

 

[NW cannonball]

But - mainly - no sweat. If it is an Amtrak Thruway bus - and your have a thru ticket with guaranteed connection on that bus - the bus will be there 90% or more of the time when train is late. If not - Amtrak usually provides alternative transport.

That's 90% of the super-late connections, not 90% of all arrivals, so about 2% chance there will be a significant problem.

 

[oregon pioneer]

I get off the train where an Amtrak bus is waiting (CMO). There is no problem. The bus driver is in phone contact with the conductor. The bus is bringing pax to get on the continuing train, and picking up pax from the train as it arrives. The whole purpose for the bus is to meet the train, and they are not going to leave till it arrives (as a side note, if you are arriving on the bus to get ON the train, and the train is late, the bus will take you to a better place to wait than the station shed, and will only take you out to the station when the train is imminently arriving. The driver will NOT leave the station until the departing pax are safely on the train).

 

[the_traveler]

If it is a true Amtrak Thurway bus, it is only for Amtrak passengers. So if it is scheduled for 1:35 but the train does not arrive until 1:45 and the bus las left, there would be a total of -0- passengers on that bus that departed! A dedicated Thruway service bus will wait for the train to arrive before it leaves.

If the train is 30 minutes late, the bus will depart 30 minutes late. If the train is 2 hours late, the bus will depart 2 hours late, etc...

If it is not a dedicated Thruway Service (like if you have to do a self transfer to the greyhound station 1 mile away for a regularly scheduled run), they probably will not hold that bus. But if it is a dedicated service right at the station, they will.

 

[TimSpencer]

......(as a side note, if you are arriving on the bus to get ON the train, and the train is late, the bus will take you to a better place to wait than the station shed, and will only take you out to the station when the train is imminently arriving. The driver will NOT leave the station until the departing pax are safely on the train).

I assume this does not apply if there is a physical train station where passengers can wait indoors, right?

 

[oregon pioneer]

I have been on a late train arriving into LAX (a very big train station), and we had even missed our train connection the last one of the night), and they had a bus waiting for us to take us to our destination. It was a guaranteed connection, and they made good on it. But like others have said -- if it's all on one ticket as a through trip, it's a guaranteed connection. If the bus is from a totally different company (and not ticketed through Amtrak as a single through trip), then the situation is different. Perhaps if you told us the details, you'd find someone on this board that has done the same thing and can reassure you?

BTW, the bus that goes to/from Chemult is run by High Desertpoint (a different company), but is under contract to Amtrak, and it says Amtrak right on the front of the bus. "Under contract" is the important feature.

 

[the_traveler]

Maybe yes, maybe no. If it is a station like LAX or (say) PHL, probably not since you can wait inside the station. But if a smaller station like Kingman, AZ (which does have an unstaffed station), it will stay until the train arrives.

 

[BCL]

Maybe yes, maybe no. If it is a station like LAX or (say) PHL, probably not since you can wait inside the station. But if a smaller station like Kingman, AZ (which does have an unstaffed station), it will stay until the train arrives.

I'm thinking of where there might be an unstaffed stations anywhere close to where I live that does thruway service. All that I can think of have sizeable station buildings. I'm looking at my Capitol Corridor map which shows a bus connection at Susuin/Fairfield (a small station) but I think that's just a local transit bus.

 

[fairviewroad]

In some cases the bus stays until the train arrives for the simple reason that it is scheduled to transport passengers arriving

on that train. The fact that "staying" gives people a warm, dry place to wait is a happy coincidence. Whether or not a driver

is contractually obligated to allow passengers to wait on board, I have no idea.