Train broke down - Order Pizza

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I have to figure that Amtrak's safety people are not very happy about this.

I used to have the need to enter Amtrak's NEC right-of-way as part of my job. In order to do that I needed to attend annual Amtrak safety training, get an Amtrak contractor photo ID, wear approved Amtrak PPE, and even then if I needed to get within 25 feet of an active track, I needed an Amtrak safety person with me. I'm not sure how all that applies to a pizza delivery guy fulfilling an order.
 
I have to figure that Amtrak's safety people are not very happy about this.

I used to have the need to enter Amtrak's NEC right-of-way as part of my job. In order to do that I needed to attend annual Amtrak safety training, get an Amtrak contractor photo ID, wear approved Amtrak PPE, and even then if I needed to get within 25 feet of an active track, I needed an Amtrak safety person with me. I'm not sure how all that applies to a pizza delivery guy fulfilling an order.
I've been thinking the same thing every time I see a post about this on FB. I've even seen it on DelawareOnline and 6ABC. No mention, that I've seen, saying "don't do this at home". *SMH*
 
The passenger and pizza guy were both wrong. The passenger has no idea how long the train will be stopped and endangered the pizza delivery person's life by enticing him to enter the railroad right of way.

What strikes me as strange is that most people would be unable to give a precise location for the train. Also, those are amfleet cars. Iirc the doors on those can only be opened by crew members. So imho an Amtrak employee or somebody with the correct key opened the door to receive the pizza.
 
I just took a look at some of the news stories. The article below shows a picture of the door being open and the steps being lowered. Even if this is an amfleet II I am pretty sure that a key needs to be used open the doors and drop the traps.

http://www.nydailynews.com/amp/newswires/new-york/pizza-delivery-man-takes-pie-stalled-amtrak-train-article-1.3167250
Amtrak apologized that its passengers were inconvenienced but said it was "extremely dangerous" for the deliveryman to approach a train on the tracks to deliver pizza.

"We are glad no one was hurt and hope this is not tried again in the future," the company said Monday in a statement.
 
I just saw this story on "Inside Edition". It showed the delivery person climbing down an embankment to reach the tracks.

That,eans he had to (I assume) climb thru a fence to even get to the ROW! Either he had to find a hole where the fence was cut, or he had to cut it himself. Is that really worth the $32 tip? :huh:
 
I just saw this story on "Inside Edition". It showed the delivery person climbing down an embankment to reach the tracks.

That,eans he had to (I assume) climb thru a fence to even get to the ROW! Either he had to find a hole where the fence was cut, or he had to cut it himself. Is that really worth the $32 tip? :huh:
Looks like just backyard fences, so he probably found a yard w/o a fence or one that was easy to climb, crawl through or whatever. You want me to go find the spot? :D
 
I just took a look at some of the news stories. The article below shows a picture of the door being open and the steps being lowered. Even if this is an amfleet II I am pretty sure that a key needs to be used open the doors and drop the traps.

http://www.nydailynews.com/amp/newswires/new-york/pizza-delivery-man-takes-pie-stalled-amtrak-train-article-1.3167250
That is a stock photo....

Amfleet II's are manual doors. Amfleet I's require a key. BUT.. There is a way to open the door without the key. I won't go into how to do it. But it is possible.

Now IF a train crew member did open the door for this pizza guy, I would imagine that crew member is Out of Service, or will be.
 
Not an issue in some places... (Don't try this at home, or Rome).

120731025849-india-power-outage-railroad-horizontal-large-gallery.jpg
 
What strikes me as strange is that most people would be unable to give a precise location for the train.
It's easy to find your precise location with a smartphone.

Now IF a train crew member did open the door for this pizza guy, I would imagine that crew member is Out of Service, or will be.
They should have left everything closed and locked in order to force the pizza delivery guy to spend even more time walking around the ROW and risk ending up on the other side of the train while trying to make his delivery. That'd show him.

Just cause I'm curious. Since the driver clearly trespassed on RR property. I just asked Amtrak on twitter if APD will attempt to go after to driver for trespassing.
You don't sound like a curious bystander. Instead you sound like some sort of fanatical authoritarian. If Amtrak PD does go after the pizza delivery guy I'll be happy to pitch in toward his legal fund. That ought to drag out the conclusion and help keep Amtrak in the news as the company that pressed charges for the crime of delivering food to their own broken down trains. Considering all the recent bad press and frayed nerves relating to passenger transportation it would probably be best for Amtrak to avoid direct legal confrontation and to use this event to simply remind passengers and delivery services that entering the ROW is potentially harmful or even fatal.
 
What's the difference between the railroad right of way and the tarmac at an airport and planes sitting there delayed. Anybody who gets into a restricted areas at an airport is probably going to jail. Same should apply here. What if the pizza guy fell and hurt himself on railroad property.
 
I've been thinking the same thing every time I see a post about this on FB. I've even seen it on DelawareOnline and 6ABC. No mention, that I've seen, saying "don't do this at home". *SMH*

Hmmm....and where were YOU while all of this was going on? ;)

What strikes me as strange is that most people would be unable to give a precise location for the train.
It's easy to find your precise location with a smartphone.

Now IF a train crew member did open the door for this pizza guy, I would imagine that crew member is Out of Service, or will be.
They should have left everything closed and locked in order to force the pizza delivery guy to spend even more time walking around the ROW and risk ending up on the other side of the train while trying to make his delivery. That'd show him.

Just cause I'm curious. Since the driver clearly trespassed on RR property. I just asked Amtrak on twitter if APD will attempt to go after to driver for trespassing.
You don't sound like a curious bystander. Instead you sound like some sort of fanatical authoritarian. If Amtrak PD does go after the pizza delivery guy I'll be happy to pitch in toward his legal fund. That ought to drag out the conclusion and help keep Amtrak in the news as the company that pressed charges for the crime of delivering food to their own broken down trains. Considering all the recent bad press and frayed nerves relating to passenger transportation it would probably be best for Amtrak to avoid direct legal confrontation and to use this event to simply remind passengers and delivery services that entering the ROW is potentially harmful or even fatal.

I have to firmly agree with Devil's Advocate on this one. Even without the recent bad press, it's YOUR stranded train that made someone take this action. Going after the delivery person would seem vindictive and petty. This should be a teaching moment and a reminder.

Additionally, They were in the throes of a transfer and possibly walking the trains, which would lead to open doors. I'm breaking ranks and saying if a member of the train participated and helped him, that only fault I find is that there wasn't enough pizza for everyone! I remember when conductors were AUTHORIZED to use service recovery in this manner. Granted, if you have a to climb a fence and hop a stream, you're not in an ideal location. Years ago, crews tried to make it to certain areas if they knew there were in trouble. It was TRUE qualification if you knew where the food (and back in the old days, bars) were near your territory. ^_^

PS: Attention powers that be!! It's not too late!! There are still some AEM-7s left. Instead of cutting up units that are paid for and everyone can run, pull them out of mothball and strategically place them along the corridor for emergency use. This is similar to the diesels that were in key locations. Bring back the WIL protect!! Be proactive!!!
 
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I've been thinking the same thing every time I see a post about this on FB. I've even seen it on DelawareOnline and 6ABC. No mention, that I've seen, saying "don't do this at home". *SMH*

Hmmm....and where were YOU while all of this was going on? ;)

What strikes me as strange is that most people would be unable to give a precise location for the train.
It's easy to find your precise location with a smartphone.

Now IF a train crew member did open the door for this pizza guy, I would imagine that crew member is Out of Service, or will be.
They should have left everything closed and locked in order to force the pizza delivery guy to spend even more time walking around the ROW and risk ending up on the other side of the train while trying to make his delivery. That'd show him.

Just cause I'm curious. Since the driver clearly trespassed on RR property. I just asked Amtrak on twitter if APD will attempt to go after to driver for trespassing.
You don't sound like a curious bystander. Instead you sound like some sort of fanatical authoritarian. If Amtrak PD does go after the pizza delivery guy I'll be happy to pitch in toward his legal fund. That ought to drag out the conclusion and help keep Amtrak in the news as the company that pressed charges for the crime of delivering food to their own broken down trains. Considering all the recent bad press and frayed nerves relating to passenger transportation it would probably be best for Amtrak to avoid direct legal confrontation and to use this event to simply remind passengers and delivery services that entering the ROW is potentially harmful or even fatal.

I have to firmly agree with Devil's Advocate on this one. Even without the recent bad press, it's YOUR stranded train that made someone take this action. Going after the delivery person would seem vindictive and petty. This should be a teaching moment and a reminder.
Fair enough. I do see where both of you come from. I can agree with it. Since I clearly wasn't on the train. If the train still had HEP, which a guess says no, it makes one wonder why this fellow didn't head to the Yum Yum Car.
 
I'm breaking ranks and saying if a member of the train participated and helped him, that only fault I find is that there wasn't enough pizza for everyone! I remember when conductors were AUTHORIZED to use service recovery in this manner.
Since some of you here seem to be overly eager to throw Amtrak employees under the bus, I won't go into details but on a recent trip my train was stuck for multiple hours in one spot, and after 2 hours of waiting, the conductor opened the door and let passengers out for fresh air to hang out on active* railroad track.

I enjoyed that unique opportunity, and instead of framing the staff, I contacted Customer Relations and put in a hearty appreciation for the staff (of course without mentioning what they did specifically!)

*"active" but not really active track because it was a passing siding and our train was blocking the switch that would allow any train to enter that track.
 
I'm breaking ranks and saying if a member of the train participated and helped him, that only fault I find is that there wasn't enough pizza for everyone! I remember when conductors were AUTHORIZED to use service recovery in this manner.
Since some of you here seem to be overly eager to throw Amtrak employees under the bus, I won't go into details but on a recent trip my train was stuck for multiple hours in one spot, and after 2 hours of waiting, the conductor opened the door and let passengers out for fresh air to hang out on active* railroad track.

I enjoyed that unique opportunity, and instead of framing the staff, I contacted Customer Relations and put in a hearty appreciation for the staff (of course without mentioning what they did specifically!)

*"active" but not really active track because it was a passing siding and our train was blocking the switch that would allow any train to enter that track.
** Acela150 was quoted, not me. The forum software sometimes attributes quotes to the wrong person**
 
If you go to Youtube and search Pizza Delivery to Amtrak Train you will find multiple news reports showing the actual delivery, with the pizza guy running down the side of the train to find the customer. He is interviewed and is quite an engaging fellow. No one is picking up on the danger involved or the trespass aspect. It is purely a human interest feature.
 
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