National Limited
Service Attendant
I had supper this evening with a couple of friends. In the course of conversation Amtrak came up. The minute I mentioned taking the train they rolled their eyes and told me the following "never again" experience. Several years ago they took one of the Silver Service trains from Jacksonville, FL to Washington D.C. and back. On the return trip their engined died, including the HEP. They were stuck on a siding for 8 hours waiting for another engine to arrive. They said that during the wait the crew went past their service time and stopped working--the lounge crew, the diner crew, the coach attendants, etc. They said there was no food, no electricity (and this was in May of the year) and no one cleaning the coaches, especially the bathroomw. I have heard of the engineer and conductor having to stop work because of passing their maximum hours but I've not heard of the OBS crew doing this. Their trip would have been 10 or 15 years ago. Could this be possible?