Perils of the Modern Age

[Devil's Advocate]

I should have said "taking delivery" instead of "ordering" to clarify that I was intending to refer to the Viewliners. Acela is great but it represents such a tiny portion of all rolling stock. Personally I prefer the systems that are extremely quiet with little or no banter/berating from the PA and visual indicators for routine instructions.

Not a very good example even if you said taking delivery since none of the cars being delivered are coach cars.

If I'm eating in a Viewliner Diner and my stop is approaching it would be great to see how far away we are so I can be sure to finish up in time or get my meal to go. I could also see a benefit to having next stop countdowns for things like showers and such in sleepers. But maybe that's just me.

 

[neroden]

There's always the low-tech method of providing visual announcements of station stops... the nice big signs with the station name, repeated every fifty feet along the platform, which you can see out the window.

I learned to look for them when I was four riding the T in Boston. They're pretty foolproof if the passengers bother to look out the window.

It cannot get any easier than that, but the only problem is so many pax have their muzzles buried in a screen and they do not look out the windows!

Some locations have had no signs or very faded signs or signs that were not easily visible from the rear of the train.

Yeah, honestly, I really hate that. The sort of signage which has been standard since the 19th century seems like such a minimal standard for trying to be a railroad. Amtrak should have fixed such situations long ago.

 

[jis]

And then there are the likes of MARC who have lots of station name signs in a font so small that it almost requires a telescope to read from a passing train. NJT, MNRR and LIRR get it right when it comes to station name signs along the platform.

 

[afigg]

I should have said "taking delivery" instead of "ordering" to clarify that I was intending to refer to the Viewliners. Acela is great but it represents such a tiny portion of all rolling stock. Personally I prefer the systems that are extremely quiet with little or no banter/berating from the PA and visual indicators for routine instructions.

While Amtrak won't directly take delivery of the 130 corridor bi-level cars, the NGEC PRIIA specification for the bi-levels calls for interior Passenger Information Displays. Four in the upper level of coach and cafe/lounge cars, 2 in the lower level. The displays are to have Ethernet 6 cable connections, be readable from a distance of 60 feet (presumably using vision standards), be mounted in tamper-proof, anti-theft enclosures, and so on. So if the Nippon-Sharyo order does not fall apart and the funding deadline issues are gotten around, the Mid-West states and CA will get equipment with modern interior displays which should be showing useful info such as the upcoming station stop. ADA regulatory requirements are presumably a factor for the interior and exterior displays (by each door).

I expect that CA will order more bi-levels and the Mid-west states, including WI, will do so eventually as well. I think we can expect that the HSR Acela replacement trainsets will have modern and useful interior PIDS. So modern interior displays will be present in parts of the fleet in a few years.

 

[jis]

Hopefully the new displays will all be modern flat panel generic displays allowing display of more than just the next station name. I think the Cascade Talgos have the right idea. My understanding is that Brightline will also have relatively large flat panel displays rather than the single line scrolling thingies.

 

[fillyjonk]

I remember some years back, when I was taking the EB from Chicago to Winona and back (meetings), when I was on the return trip, there was a family that missed their stop.....they were in the lounge car playing cards.

I am pretty sure this would normally be counter to Amtrak practice, but the engineer BACKED THE TRAIN back into the station (not far, but still) to let them off. The conductor who walked through my car was cursing the whole way as he did....he was of the opinion they should just have to get off at the next stop and find their own way back.

I usually travel roommette and have always had the car attendant come find me, even though I usually know exactly where we are and how far we are from my stop....

 

[the_traveler]

In order to back the train up, permission has to be obtained from the dispatcher and a conductor must be stationed at the rear door on the radio during the backup move. It is not a very common occurrence on the main line.

How far was the backup? :huh: If it was 100 yards, it is much more likely than if it was 2 miles!

 

[Hal]

In order to back the train up, permission has to be obtained from the dispatcher and a conductor must be stationed at the rear door on the radio during the backup move. It is not a very common occurrence on the main line.

How far was the backup? :huh: If it was 100 yards, it is much more likely than if it was 2 miles!

Correct if out of the block. Rules may vary on different territory. In any case a qualified crew member had to be at the rear with radio leading the movement and a crew member had to be by an emergency brake. The engineer did not decide to be a nice guy and back up the train. The Conductor was the person made the decision to back up for the passengers based on the situation, and the dispatcher was called if permission was required to do that particular back up move.

 

[fillyjonk]

In order to back the train up, permission has to be obtained from the dispatcher and a conductor must be stationed at the rear door on the radio during the backup move. It is not a very common occurrence on the main line.

How far was the backup? :huh: If it was 100 yards, it is much more likely than if it was 2 miles!

I don't remember but it wasn't far. More than 100 yards but not 2 miles. I dunno, there was just that one Amtrak employee I interpreted as a conductor (if he was, he wasn't the one who made that call) who was not happy and was grumbling, "If it was me, they'd just stay on to the next stop."

I wonder if it was an Important family. They weren't people I recognized but I suppose they could have been some kind of state legislator or something.

I always assume no slack will be cut for me like that - if I miss the stop at Mineola, I have to ride on to Dallas and hope I can get a taxi back (and pay for it). But there are some people who seem to get infinite slack cut and usually it is because they are Important (or believe themselves to be)

 

[Seaboard92]

I will admit to having a really slack attendant on the Silver Meteor by the time he came to get us we were in our station three minutes. And I was already on the ground taking pictures of the train. I never saw him the entire trip. And he had the nerve to put his hand out for a tip

 

[Bob Dylan]

Amtrak really dislikes "Carrybys", and Conductors get the blame when this happens even though the OBS may be @ fault.

I've seen lots of this on the Texas Eagle where Dinner starts early leaving Temple, and people miss their stop @ Taylor and even Austin because they are eating. Amtrak actually pays for a taxi to take people to missed stops.

Also lots of times the PA doesn't work in every car, and the slacker OBS fail to look @ the seat checks or the rooms for detrainees!

That was probably the Assistant Conductor the OP heard, the Conductor would have been on the rear during the move as was said!

 

[wwchi]

On the Michigan trains they are very good about announcing stops ahead of time. Since I am usually in business one of the conductors always comes to get me, which is VERY nice of them considering they know I'm a regular and know where/when to get off. Sometimes though it's just to say that I need to walk through a couple more cars to get off. But still, good service!

 

[SarahZ]

On the Michigan trains they are very good about announcing stops ahead of time. Since I am usually in business one of the conductors always comes to get me, which is VERY nice of them considering they know I'm a regular and know where/when to get off. Sometimes though it's just to say that I need to walk through a couple more cars to get off. But still, good service!

From my experience on the Wolverine, they also walk through the coaches, fold the ends of the seat checks up, and say, "Kalamazoo in ten minutes," or, "Kalamazoo is next."

If someone is wearing headphones or sleeping, the conductor makes sure to get their attention. The Michigan conductors are awesome.

 

[glomor]

On the Pere Marquette also! Great service on the Grand Rapids to Chicago train!