Makeshift Courthouse Set Up in N.O. Amtrak Station

[jccollins]

Posted on Wed, Oct. 12, 2005
Makeshift courthouse set up in New Orleans Amtrak station

BY DAVID HEINZMANN

Chicago Tribune

NEW ORLEANS - (KRT) - On the second floor of the shabby Amtrak station, in a cavernous old room with missing ceiling tiles and dingy green paint, a handful of tired but well-humored people in jeans and T-shirts sat around folding tables piled with scrounged office equipment.

The recent scene was like any number of makeshift relief operations that have been set up in unlikely places all over New Orleans.

Read the rest of the article HERE. Is this for real??? I thought Amtrak had returned and was using its own station in New Orleans once again... Also, what is the status on Greyhound service at the station?

 

[Amtrak OBS Gone Freight]

Yes, this is for real! The city owns the station and the property the station is on. Amtrak is able to run trains in and out of the facility and utilize the station itself. However, it cannot be used to house the offices it had in that complex. The crewbase is closed for both OBS and T&E. OBS jobs are handled out of NYC crewbase for #19/#20, and out of CHI crewbase for #58/#59. LAX handles the #01/#02 jobs as far as OBS jobs are concerned (which is not an issue right now with that train). The T&E jobs are handled out of MEI and JAN for their respective trains. There are a few "ready crew" jobs in NOL that I know of at this time. But I don't see the crewbase or offices opening in NOL based on my observations of Amtrak's operating plan for this next year. This is all I have regarding this subject at this time. Maybe my friend Mr. Henderson can post better info here being he has closer contacts to speak with out there in LA. OBS...

 

[trainboy325]

The information listed by OBS is correct. When Katrina came into town, the T&E division moved the conductors and engineers all to Jackson. Before Katrina, conductors operated 58/59 from NOL-GWD, GWD-CDL, CDL-CHI and with engineers NOL-JAN, JAN-MEM, MEM-CDL, CDL-MEM. T&E crew bases were located in NOL, MEM (engineers only) and CDL. NOL and CDL conductors layover in GWD and engineers layover in JAN. When the CNO returned to HMD, the T&E jobs were set up like the engineers ran pre-Kartrina (except switching NOL for JAN). JAN station has a T&E room set up with computers for train orders and manifests. As for the Crescent, it has been a MEI train and no changes where made in T&E operations when it retuned to NOL. The old Southern office building where Amtrak had office space on the second floor was spared major flood damage, but was overrun by mold and made the complex unsafe under OSHA regulations that forbid the buildings use as a work site by Amtrak due to being a federally funded corporation. The first floor was flooded up to 5 feet above ground level and destroyed the commissary and all of the motorized equipment (forklifts, baggage carts, people-movers, etc.) Secondly, the City of New Orleans/Orleans Parish Goverment have terminated all non-essential leased space in city/parish-owned buildings to salvage what's left of the infrastructure to help bring the city back to normal. Since NO Union Passenger Terminal belongs to city government, specifically the New Orleans Public Belt Railway, the building is no longer under the leased jurisdiction of Amtrak or Greyhound. I don't know where the T&E and OBS crews are laying over in NOL due to very few hotel rooms available in town, but they did stay at the Hotel LeCirc on Lee Circle just down from the station on the corner of St. Charles Ave. and Howard before Katrina.

 

[jccollins]

I don't know where the T&E and OBS crews are laying over in NOL due to very few hotel rooms available in town, but they did stay at the Hotel LeCirc on Lee Circle just down from the station on the corner of St. Charles Ave. and Howard before Katrina.

The last I heard was that Amtrak brought three Superliner sleepers to the NOL station to be used as crew quarters. Maybe that is still the case?

 

[trainboy325]

I received some old information regarding the station building. It was true that OSHA had closed the building to Amtrak, but has since reopened it to the company due to blanket exemptions the President Bush authorized for many federal laws and rules in the Hurricane Zone. I just got off the phone with my friend who's a NOL crew base clerk and she was at her desk at Union Station. Amtrak operations have been there since Sunday, but on a very limited scale. I'll be in New Orleans tommorrow get the facts regarding operations and the trains from the horse's mouth personally since my corporate source isn't as up-to-date as I would like to use for the purposes of informing the members of this forum. I'll make a list of various questions regarding the station and trains and report what I learn as soon a possible.

 

[Save Our Trains Michigan]

As far as i know Amtrak has a NOL crew base for engineers and Conductors and the Ticket agents.