Refurbished roomettes-can't shut off speaker??

[cirdan]

I would hope Amtrak wouldn't only rely on the PA in an emergency...it's often not reliable enough or loud enough to be an effective means of communication in an emergency.

Plus we don't actually now whether the wiring is set up to be resilient in an emergeny situation. If there was a fire in an electrical cabinet for example, would the PA still work. Did the designers route the cables in such a way as to avoid high-risk pinch points? Is there redundant wiring using independent conduits to assure against such risks? Would the PA system pass any SIL certification? Probably not. So it shouldn't really be part of any emergency plan.

 

[City of Miami]

What really annoys me is not even the announcements but when the crew uses the PA system to communicate with each other. "Miss Polly, please come to the diner and pick up your dinner." As is often the case, they act as if we the customers do not even exist and the whole thing is for their own personal convenience.

 

[rrdude]

What really annoys me is not even the announcements but when the crew uses the PA system to communicate with each other. "Miss Polly, please come to the diner and pick up your dinner." As is often the case, they act as if we the customers do not even exist and the whole thing is for their own personal convenience.

"LIKE"

Or "Ms. Polly, please pick up the IC..." Grrrrrr, i don't need to hear that!

 

[SarahZ]

Traveler - we leave our door open during the day and can hear the PA just fine. That's why we don't need the room speaker turned on. At night, like everyone else (I imagine), we turn the PA off so we can sleep.

If there's an emergency, I would hope Amtrak could override the shutoff switch. Since most people turn it off at night anyway, I don't see how it's a big deal if we turn it off now. If they're concerned about emergencies, then they need to come up with an override because it's going to be super irritating to have that thing squawking all day.

Also, even if I couldn't get the door open, I'm perfectly capable of removing the window. If I couldn't get our door open, having the PA turned on doesn't do much good. I don't need to be told how to remove the window. It's written right on the handle, and it's in the emergency guide.

Additionally, I can hear the PA through the closed door while I'm asleep. It woke me up during our last trip. It just isn't as intrusive as having it coming through the room speaker.

So, really, we're fine with the PA off during the night.

 

[SarahZ]

Here's the thing - if there's the option to turn it on/off, people can decide whether they want to hear the announcements or not...those who are worried about an emergency or like hearing the announcements can turn them on, and those who want the silence could turn them off.

I would hope Amtrak wouldn't only rely on the PA in an emergency...it's often not reliable enough or loud enough to be an effective means of communication in an emergency.

Yeah. This. I should have just quoted jebr.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

What really annoys me is not even the announcements but when the crew uses the PA system to communicate with each other. "Miss Polly, please come to the diner and pick up your dinner." As is often the case, they act as if we the customers do not even exist and the whole thing is for their own personal convenience.

Remember the Passenger Service Crew do not carry radios and this is the only effective way to for them to keep in contact.

 

[Ryan]

What really annoys me is not even the announcements but when the crew uses the PA system to communicate with each other. "Miss Polly, please come to the diner and pick up your dinner." As is often the case, they act as if we the customers do not even exist and the whole thing is for their own personal convenience.

Remember the Passenger Service Crew do not carry radios and this is the only effective way to for them to keep in contact.

Maybe it's just that my 4 years at sea taught me how to tune the 1MC out, but this doesn't bother me in the least. Probably the same way that I can sleep on the train with a scanner in one ear.

 

[City of Miami]

If they need to keep in contact they can walk up to the person they need to contact and say whatever it is they need to say. This does not include yelling from one end of the diner to the other as if the diners were not present and they are in their own homes, and it does not include using a PUBLIC address system. These are not 25 car trains. They can WALK and find the person so urgently needed that they are willing to disturb 100-200 paying customers because it is easier for them that way and no one tells them not to. They may not carry radios but 10 to 1 they carry cell phones and they can text each other if they can't be bothered to walk a few car-lengths. Can you tell I have a festering resentment about this?? :wacko:

 

[boxcarsyix]

Maybe some cardboard and duct tape?

 

[Bob Dylan]

I'm with Ryan (I only had 12 MOnths of Sea Duty)! Like all things Amtrak it Depends on the Crew as to the Quality and Quantity of the Announcements! There are LSAs and OBS that Do Repeat Announcments Ad Naseum, but I feel that it's Better to have Too Much Info than Not Enough or Even None! And its not Practical for LSA to Walk the Train hunting up Passengers with Dinner Reservations! I also like it when the Cafe LSA lets us know the Operating Hours of the Cafe, and When the Menu and Prices for the Diner are Annoiunced even though I generally know them by Heart! As to the Conductors, I personally like it when the Conductors keep the Passengers and the Crew Informed but maybe ive been Spoiled by riding the Texas Eagle so much!

The thing with the Diner Calls ie "Miss Polly pick up your Meal!" (not that shed be caught dead doing that! :giggle: )is the LSA letting a Crew Member know that the Meal to be served to a Passenger is ready to be picked up, the Crew Eats in the Diner just like us and a Good Crew Member always tells the Passengers in their Car when they are going on a Break!

I like the Rehabbed Sleepers with the New Controls, the Old Ones are Basically Worthless! As has been said, if I hear an announcement in the Hall I just open the Door to my Roomate if the Speaker doesnt Work in the Room! YMMV

 

[SarahZ]

If they need to keep in contact they can walk up to the person they need to contact and say whatever it is they need to say. This does not include yelling from one end of the diner to the other as if the diners were not present and they are in their own homes, and it does not include using a PUBLIC address system. These are not 25 car trains. They can WALK and find the person so urgently needed that they are willing to disturb 100-200 paying customers because it is easier for them that way and no one tells them not to. They may not carry radios but 10 to 1 they carry cell phones and they can text each other if they can't be bothered to walk a few car-lengths. Can you tell I have a festering resentment about this?? :wacko:

It takes a while, though, even if it's just a few car lengths. Additionally, sometimes they can't leave their post. It's much easier and faster to page someone.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

If they need to keep in contact they can walk up to the person they need to contact and say whatever it is they need to say. This does not include yelling from one end of the diner to the other as if the diners were not present and they are in their own homes, and it does not include using a PUBLIC address system. These are not 25 car trains. They can WALK and find the person so urgently needed that they are willing to disturb 100-200 paying customers because it is easier for them that way and no one tells them not to. They may not carry radios but 10 to 1 they carry cell phones and they can text each other if they can't be bothered to walk a few car-lengths. Can you tell I have a festering resentment about this?? :wacko:

It takes a while, though, even if it's just a few car lengths. Additionally, sometimes they can't leave their post. It's much easier and faster to page someone.

One thing I've noticed though is that when a PA broadcast fails to receive the response the originator desired they just keep making the same broadcast over and over again with a more and more annoyed tone in their voice. Never mind if the PA is out in the area being paged or the person being paged is indisposed or they simply don't want to reply or whatever. That can get really old over the course of a trip.

 

[SarahZ]

I can see that. It would be nice if they all had radios; I'm not sure why they don't. Regardless, it makes the inability to turn off the room PA even more irritating. I guess I never noticed that before because we shut our PA off and have headphones on the entire time. We only hear occasional announcements when we go to the restroom or sit in the dining car.

 

[PaulM]

Looks like this is another example of the brave new world of constant change. It always seems like a feature everyone liked gets eliminated when an "upgrade" happens. IMO the emergency issue is a red herring. Somebody just dropped the ball.

When it comes to change, I'm from Missouri - show me!

Although I didn't appreciate being awakened at 7:00AM on a recent trip in one of the refurbished cars, I will say the sound quality was an improvement..

 

[Ryan]

The radios are intended for use to talk train<->dispacher and amongst the operating crew. You wouldn't want all the OBS using the same radios and clobbering operational traffic.

It may be possible to get a second set of low powered radios used on a different frequency for on board use, but I'm not sure where that would be. Couldn't be in the ~160MHz railroad band, because you wouldn't want interference (unless there was a disused AAR channel that could be appropriated for use).

Edit: Looks like there are some designated "low power" channels in the 450MHz band that may be suitable for intra-train communication.

 

[SarahZ]

The radios are intended for use to talk train<->dispacher and amongst the operating crew. You wouldn't want all the OBS using the same radios and clobbering operational traffic.

It may be possible to get a second set of low powered radios used on a different frequency for on board use, but I'm not sure where that would be. Couldn't be in the ~150MHz railroad band, because you wouldn't want interference (unless there was a disused AAR channel that could be appropriated for use).

That's sort of what I was thinking. I don't know much about radios, but I thought maybe the staff could use one channel while the conductors/engineer/etc used another. When I worked as a tour guide at a haunted house, the guides were on channel 3, but we could switch over to channel 4 or 5, etc. if we needed to speak with security or the front counter. There was a little dial on the radios that we used to switch channels.

 

[Ryan]

Yeah, the issue with that is that as the train moves, the operating crew is changing frequencies every few hours, so you would have to pick a channel that's disused for the entire trip for the internal comms. Preferably one that's disused everywhere so that there could be a standard OBS channel across all trains.

Probably doable, it would take just some planning to work it out.

 

[the_traveler]

It was said they "they could text each other". Remember that for texting to work, you need cell coverage, and the train travels in many places where it is out of range! (Like many areas of Montana is even parts of Colorado, Oregon or West Virginia.) So if the train is out of range, are they supposed to wait 2 hours before they can tell the SCA or CCA that the meal they ordered for a passenger (such as in the H-Room, someone in coach who is disabled or someone who requested their meal be brought to their room or seat) - those are many if the "Rick, your meal is ready" announcements you here. Not the employee's meal but a passenger's meal!

 

[SarahZ]

Yeah, the issue with that is that as the train moves, the operating crew is changing frequencies every few hours, so you would have to pick a channel that's disused for the entire trip for the internal comms. Preferably one that's disused everywhere so that there could be a standard OBS channel across all trains.

Probably doable, it would take just some planning to work it out.

Oh, okay. That makes sense. Told you I didn't know jack about radios.

 

[boxcarsyix]

Still sounds like duct tape, unless you cant get to the speaker grill. :giggle:

 

[Shortline]

Didn't mean to start a storm....but thats ok I guess. never dis find a way to kill the PA pr turn down the volume. in my experience, the sound controls have always worked, in te older cara-first thing I do is change the channel off the PA.

Really regretted it this morning, planning on sleeping in, but instead woke up to a 6:30 commercial for " Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches and coffee on sale in the cafe car located on the lower level of the observation lounge. The cafe at is located in the middle of the train, between the coach cars and the dining car. Sleeping car passengers walk forward through the one coach, through the diner car, and then into the lounge car and go down the steps. Coach passengers walk back through the train to the observation car then down the stairs. If one chooses to purchase a cocktail, liquor wine or beer, a photo is is required. "

Yep, that's exactly how I like to wake up....tried to take a nap later on, but again, station stops, no smoking rules, cafe an diner announcements...just gave up. Usually have ear plugs but somehow had none in my bag this time. Oh well, it's not the end of the world, but I do miss having that option.

 

[AlanB]

If they need to keep in contact they can walk up to the person they need to contact and say whatever it is they need to say. This does not include yelling from one end of the diner to the other as if the diners were not present and they are in their own homes, and it does not include using a PUBLIC address system. These are not 25 car trains. They can WALK and find the person so urgently needed that they are willing to disturb 100-200 paying customers because it is easier for them that way and no one tells them not to.

So in an already understaffed dining car where just 2 waiters (SA's), if we're lucky, are working; you want one SA to potentially run through 2 sleeping cars into the third one to find that car's attendant to tell them to come pick up the meal that they ordered for a passenger in that car. And in the meanime totally abandoning the dozen or so people sitting in the diner hoping to eat their dinner in a semi-timely manor. And all just so you don't have to hear someone on the PA saying "Frank, please come pick up the meal you ordered."

They may not carry radios but 10 to 1 they carry cell phones and they can text each other if they can't be bothered to walk a few car-lengths.

Actually using their personal cell phones while on duty is a violation of company policy and could lead to dismissal. So that is not an option for them.

 

[AlanB]

The radios are intended for use to talk train<->dispacher and amongst the operating crew. You wouldn't want all the OBS using the same radios and clobbering operational traffic.

It may be possible to get a second set of low powered radios used on a different frequency for on board use, but I'm not sure where that would be. Couldn't be in the ~150MHz railroad band, because you wouldn't want interference (unless there was a disused AAR channel that could be appropriated for use).

That's sort of what I was thinking. I don't know much about radios, but I thought maybe the staff could use one channel while the conductors/engineer/etc used another. When I worked as a tour guide at a haunted house, the guides were on channel 3, but we could switch over to channel 4 or 5, etc. if we needed to speak with security or the front counter. There was a little dial on the radios that we used to switch channels.

VIA Rail already does exactly that. The operating crew uses the assigned road frequencies for the area that they're in. The OBS crews all use a different and constant frequency to communicate.

The only real problem as it were occurs for the Service Manager. He/she has to keep flipping channels depending on whether they need to communicate with the engineer or the OBS crews. And there are times where you'll hear one or the other calling for the SM and getting no response because they're on the other channel. I'm not sure if they've solved that problem by providing the SM with a radio that monitor more than one channel. But several years ago I did hear an OBS person repeatedly looking for the SM who was busy talking with the operating crew.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

I just consider the announcements to be a part of the atmosphere of being on the train and provided they do not get too out of hand I do not find them to be the least bit annoying. Beside when on the train if I'm not up and going by 0630-0645 I consider myself running late

 

[Phil S]

I'm under the impression that most (but not all) SCAs turn off the intercom system in their car from 10-7 or some such. Is that not how it works?