Thirdrail7
Engineer
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2014
- Messages
- 4,542
Yes, for accuracy I suppose they should have followed Devil Advocate's line of thinking about nothing being Amtrak's fault. After all, that is clearly on the website as well::Regardless of the reason for the delay, there's no excuse for Amtrak phone agents to be so dismissive, especially when they cite an inaccurate standard of lateness.Well, how about that. There's an actual reason for the delays involving somebody getting hurt. Too bad this person's (possibly serious) problems messed up Texan's day.
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That is actually a deep and detailed subject that is probably worthy of its own thread, but the short answer it the staff can call ahead if there are known connecting passengers to a published connections. However, it must go through the dispatcher because as previously mentioned, unless there is an emergency, communications must be through the railroad if there is one provided and it is operational.This sounds like a good suggestion to me. I'd be curious what Amtrak employees think of it.Maybe part of the solution would be to give train staff the authority to show initiative, maybe telephone ahead so the connecting bus can be held?
If you call ahead, it is up to the connecting group to decide if they are going to hold the train...and for how long. There are many scenarios that can make or break a hold.
Amtrak has more control over their own performance than "little or none". Every time one of their locomotives dies, or they have to screw around with the electrical connections, or try to fix the food reheating equipment, or bad order a defective passenger car, that's on Amtrak and nobody else. They also have 100% control over how they interact with passengers who are delayed.Amtrak has little to no control regarding the on-time performance of most of their trains.
I'd disagree with 100% control over how they interact with the passengers. There are operational situations where updates may not be available since the entire crew has to leave the train to find a body, make a repair, get people out of ditches. You can make an announcement that you'll be back in 15 minutes, but if there is no one left inside the train to make an update, it is not forthcoming....and yes, that has happened, particularly on trains without attendants. If you're lucky, you'll have an attendant and they can at least guard the doors and possibly make announcements.
I wonder what sort of on-board "injury" brings an entire train to a halt for hours on end. Seems like even with this horrendous event the OBS could have handled communication better and the call center staff could have been more understanding and less dismissive. Maybe they were overcome with grief at a passenger being injured on their watch.532(7) was a late turn due to 527(7) being delayed 2.5 hours because of an on-board passenger injury and the need to re-crew at MTZ.
For the record, the train with the injured passenger was NOT the train Texan Eagle traveled on. That equipment **turned** for the equipment that ultimately became Texan Eagle's train home. So, we don't know what the OBS crew of that train said to their passengers and if you called the reservation center, they would look at his train (which is not two hours late) identify its location to the best of their ability and pass the information.
However, (and I'm not saying that this is the case since I wasn't there) if there is an injury to passenger or employee and the crew feels they need relief for one reason or the other, they are now FEDERALLY protected under the Critical Stress Plan. Amtrak already had one in place but the F.R.A. instituted a rule that all Class One and Commuter carriers must have one..or have one forced upon them.
As long as the injury or incident is F.R.A reportable (and almost all injuries are) crew members that directly witness, are closely connected to a covered incident or witness in person the immediate effects of a covered incident may request relief without repercussion.
This became a rule since railroad were slow to realize the effects certain incidents have on people. A notable example is when someone decided to put their head on the rail as a train approached. Well, the engineer was relieved as was the train crew that had to walk back and point out body parts and give statements. Unfortunately, this incident happened right in front on manned interlocking tower and the tower operator saw the whole thing. When he requested relief, it was denied since he wasn't "involved in the actual incident," which was ludicrous since he attempted to stop the train. When he asked again, he was threatened with job abandonment. Eventually, he just left his post. This rule is designed to curtail the "don't worry about it/get over it/tough it out and get back to work" mentality.
To wrap this up, if you watch a passengers fall down the steps and break their neck or someone chops off the finger in a door, the F.R.A has instituted a rule that protects you if you're overcome with grief at a passenger being injured on your watch.
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