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jis said:
Thirdrail7 said:
jis said:
I suspect that the decision to operate a train a particular way on a single day based on equipment availability is more at Wilmington than 60 Mass. I think people have a mistaken impression of how big 60 Mass really is.
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Actually, it has more to do with the facilities than it does CNOC. If CNOC says they want a car and there isn't one available, there is not much they can do.
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Oh absolutely! My point was that 60 Mass is way far removed from all that day to day stuff that happens when you are running an operation. CNOC cannot magically create equipment, but as the operations center hopefully they are aware of what exactly is running in each train at a given moment.
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"Hopefully" is a good way to put it Jis! :giggle:
 
2 sleepers on front of 92 today and 3 coaches on rear.
 
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It looks to me like 50 Mass Ave. NE is actually located physically inside DC Union Station -- am I mistaken? I'd think they'd stay in touch with the situation on the ground in the station which they are *actually working inside*.... they don't even have to cross the street...
 
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neroden said:
It looks to me like 50 Mass Ave. NE is actually located physically inside DC Union Station -- am I mistaken? I'd think they'd stay in touch with the situation on the ground in the station which they are *actually working inside*.... they don't even have to cross the street...
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Amtrak management concerned with the situation on the ground at Union Station or operations in general are not located inside Union Station. All the offices for the terminal and the operations center for Washington Terminal are in another building.
 
Hal said:
neroden said:
It looks to me like 50 Mass Ave. NE is actually located physically inside DC Union Station -- am I mistaken? I'd think they'd stay in touch with the situation on the ground in the station which they are *actually working inside*.... they don't even have to cross the street...
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Amtrak management concerned with the situation on the ground at Union Station or operations in general are not located inside Union Station. All the offices for the terminal and the operations center for Washington Terminal are in another building.
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I work for a big corporation.

My official work snailmail address is the company HQ. But in reality I'm not in the HQ building (and hardly ever even go there) but have my office in a smaller building more than a block away. The internal mailman brings me the mail there. But we still use the snailmail address of the HQ building. Maybe for prestige and recognition reasons? Maybe because its simpler to organize the mail that way? I don't know why. The only downside is that visitors don't always understand this and come to the wrong building, so I spend a lot of time giving directions to people.

Maybe it's similar with Amtrak.
 
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cirdan said:
Hal said:
neroden said:
It looks to me like 50 Mass Ave. NE is actually located physically inside DC Union Station -- am I mistaken? I'd think they'd stay in touch with the situation on the ground in the station which they are *actually working inside*.... they don't even have to cross the street...
Click to expand...
Amtrak management concerned with the situation on the ground at Union Station or operations in general are not located inside Union Station. All the offices for the terminal and the operations center for Washington Terminal are in another building.
Click to expand...
I work for a big corporation.

My official work snailmail address is the company HQ. But in reality I'm not in the HQ building (and hardly ever even go there) but have my office in a smaller building more than a block away. The internal mailman brings me the mail there. But we still use the snailmail address of the HQ building. Maybe for prestige and recognition reasons? Maybe because its simpler to organize the mail that way? I don't know why. The only downside is that visitors don't always understand this and come to the wrong building, so I spend a lot of time giving directions to people.

Maybe it's similar with Amtrak.
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The corporate HQ is in the offices at 60 Mass, the CEO office is there. There is not enough office space in Union Station though for everything to be located there. Also Amtrak does not own Union Station. There are several other buildings in DC that have Amtrak offices. National Operations is at CNOC in Wilmington. Local operations in Washington Terminal are in another building. Day to day stuff with equipment will be decided at those operations offices. Certainly managers in the corporate offices are aware in general of what is happening nationally. There is a text message info system from CNOC in Wilmington. And the CEO is certainly getting reports. So in that sense they would be in touch with what is happening at Union Station. But they would also be in touch with what is happening in New York, California, New England.
 
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Good info Hal, but the question is what are they doing about it when things go wrong like is happening daily on all Routes?

Does the right hand know what the left is doing @ Amtrak? ( ie, the chronic Cluster flubs in Chicago)

The answer is Blowing in the Wind, but seems to be No!
 
Merely knowing about something and actually being able to do something about it after negotiating the gauntlet of Union and other (ossibly well intended but mutually contradictory) rules and protections and associated political connections is a separate matter. Every hand can know all that is there to know, but be quite paralyzed due to other factors. I have seen this sort of thing happen too often in many large corporations to dismiss it as an impossibility at Amtrak.
 
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AmtrakBlue said:
2 sleepers on front of 92 today and 3 coaches on rear.
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Was on this train RVR-WAS. Wondered why it looked a little short...

Edit: It's going to be darkly amusing if the diner cut is thrashing coach more than the sleepers. Then again, even Amtrak's numbers had hinted at this for a long time.
 
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jis said:
Merely knowing about something and actually being able to do something about it after negotiating the gauntlet of Union and other (ossibly well intended but mutually contradictory) rules and protections and associated political connections is a separate matter. Every hand can know all that is there to know, but be quite paralyzed due to other factors. I have seen this sort of thing happen too often in many large corporations to dismiss it as an impossibility at Amtrak.
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You don't have to bring rules and politics into play. A more simple response is even if you are aware of the problems, are you giving people the proper tools to correct the situation? You can't complain about late trains and turning times if you're not providing the resources (finances, staff, equipment and most importantly time) to get what really get the tasks accomplished.
 
We have round trip reservations for Winter Park (FL) to Philadelphia in September (bucket list trip). Is this what we'll encounter? Overnight without a dining car?
 
Chucktin said:
We have round trip reservations for Winter Park (FL) to Philadelphia in September (bucket list trip). Is this what we'll encounter? Overnight without a dining car?
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If you are riding the Silver Star, there will be no dining car at least until end of the year according to Amtrak notices. We are going to

Fla this winter but will only be riding on the Meteor. No diner means no travel for us. :(
 
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The one good thing about your trip without a dining car is that both ends have good food--there's a Panera in Winter Park (up by the Morse Museum), so you can stock up with sandwiches, salads, etc. for dinner. And when you get to Philly, you can't walk more than a foot without coming across somewhere with good food to eat (including good stuff at 30th Street).

What you will miss is the adventure of meeting new and interesting people in the dining car, plus a nice breakfast and lunch on the second day. I won't take the Star again unless they put the dining car back, so please say hello to Hamlet (cute station) for me as you go by. And let us know how the trip goes and what you think.
 
Thirdrail7 said:
jis said:
Merely knowing about something and actually being able to do something about it after negotiating the gauntlet of Union and other (ossibly well intended but mutually contradictory) rules and protections and associated political connections is a separate matter. Every hand can know all that is there to know, but be quite paralyzed due to other factors. I have seen this sort of thing happen too often in many large corporations to dismiss it as an impossibility at Amtrak.
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You don't have to bring rules and politics into play. A more simple response is even if you are aware of the problems, are you giving people the proper tools to correct the situation? You can't complain about late trains and turning times if you're not providing the resources (finances, staff, equipment and most importantly time) to get what really get the tasks accomplished.
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True that. However, in the situation that Amtrak is in, providing financial and other resources is intimately entangled in politics. This is not to say that there is not mismanagement. however, even in times of better management (as is allege in discussions here) many things that ought to have been fixed easier, were not. So I surmise that there are external problems and issues even beyond just internal bad management.
 
I would have difficulty considering a two day ride on an LD without Diner. But on what amounts to a somewhat extended overnight ride from KIS to WAS, I have no problem. I'd take the lower fare. Though as I have said before I'd prefer that the train did have a Diner but buying the meal plan upgrade to the Sleeper transportation was not mandatory, since I seldom partake in all three meals, and the amount of food provided is way more than I'd normally consume.
 
Jis - I would be very interested to know what the stress loading in the cafe is. Do they run out of food? Are the lines horrible? Is there still coffee and juice in the sleeper?
 
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