What is a "train manager"?

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G

Golden grrl

Service Attendant
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A couple of times since Oct., I've been waiting in a lounge when someone identified him or herself as the train manager - CS and CL were the two trains involved. What duties does such a position involve?
 
Others will know more but basically a train manager is the manager in charge of the train your are on. Each route has one, they are not OBS but they do ride the trains on occasion to do inspections and when riding (the good ones at least) usually try and perform a "cruise director" type function and encourage passangers to enjoy their trip (sometimes they encourage passangers to play music in the lounge) or ask passangers for feedback and try to present Amtrak management's public face. Their duties are varied as they can be in charge of routes that cross multiple state lines, deal in millions of dollars in revenue and equipment, and so on and so forth.

Amtrak used to have On Board Services Managers on trains who oversaw the OBS staff, but they were eliminated some time before I started riding in 2007.
 
The train manager on the CL actually led sleeper passengers out to board; the one for the CS was walking around the new LAX lounge back in October before the official opening of the lounge. He was chatting with pax and asking if any of us had questions. I did not see either manager on the train itself - that is why I wondered about their duties
 
As said, they are the "front office" manager of the train. (Just like a location manager of a power company or hotel or such. You usually do not see them.) They may or may not ride the train, and usually not often. But they are still there.
 
IIRC, back when they had a "Chief of Onboard Services" on each long haul train (basically ended when Amtrak took over direct employment of Conductor's and AC's), these were union agreement covered supervisor's. They supervised the sleeper, chair car, lounge, and diner employees, traveled the whole route, and they were under the authority of the railroad conductor's. In addition, they reported to a Train Manager, who divided their time between the crew base, riding the train, and occasionally headquarters, etc...Not sure of the position, as it may exist now, but probably similar.

When Amtrak took over direct employment of the operating crews from their host railroads, they were assured of a passenger service familiar crew, dedicated to the interests of Amtrak, and were able to eliminate the 'Chief' position at a nice savings....
 
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ALC Rail Writer said:
railiner said:
... They supervised the sleeper, chair car, lounge...
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So you're telling me that trains, which are basically metal boxes filled with rows of chairs, actually used to carry dedicated cars for chairs? :lol:
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You need to supervise those chairs while they're lounging around and sleeping - or they get in trouble! :p
 
I don't know if she's still there, but there was one train manager out of LAX, an African-American female of about 50 years of age, who I saw several times on the Coast Starlight (and I think on the SWC, once or twice) who was absolutely phenomenal. She took charge of things that the onboard staff didn't apparently have the authority to do, solved various issues, and took a great deal of time talking to passengers about what they liked or disliked about the trip, and solicited ideas for solutions to procedural problems. She is, unfortunately, a rare exception among Amtrak management.
 
I believe that under the new management structure there are specific individuals assigned to specific long distance trains. I also believe that they are reporting to the new Operations group, so they will have direct responsibility for on-train employees and will be expected to spend considerable,time on their trains. I will try to,find out more, but if anyone from Amtrak can clarify this,it would be appreciated.
 
Just curious, what would the "career path" be for a Train Manager. Would they come from the ranks of OBS crews or be hired into that job from outside of Amtrak. Sounds like a job I would love to have, especially as halorider wrote of the expectation to spend a significant amount of time on their train.
 
Big Iron said:
Just curious, what would the "career path" be for a Train Manager. Would they come from the ranks of OBS crews or be hired into that job from outside of Amtrak. Sounds like a job I would love to have, especially as halorider wrote of the expectation to spend a significant amount of time on their train.
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Here is the linkedin resume of Cynthia Winslow. Looks like she started as a ticket agent then worked her way up relatively fast to Train Manager and then far beyond

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/cynthia-winslow/63/b7/7a6
 
lurker46 said:
Big Iron said:
Just curious, what would the "career path" be for a Train Manager. Would they come from the ranks of OBS crews or be hired into that job from outside of Amtrak. Sounds like a job I would love to have, especially as halorider wrote of the expectation to spend a significant amount of time on their train.
Click to expand...
Here is the linkedin resume of Cynthia Winslow. Looks like she started as a ticket agent then worked her way up relatively fast to Train Manager and then far beyond

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/cynthia-winslow/63/b7/7a6
Click to expand...
This is the new position I had mentioned in a previous post. The position has P&L responsibility, so there is major job responsibility involved. Most people in this new position have many years of Amtrak experience,involving operations and other front line jobs. It should be interesting to see how they interface with OBS and the Operations staff.
 
railiner said:
IIRC, back when they had a "Chief of Onboard Services" on each long haul train (basically ended when Amtrak took over direct employment of Conductor's and AC's), these were union agreement covered supervisor's. They supervised the sleeper, chair car, lounge, and diner employees, traveled the whole route, and they were under the authority of the railroad conductor's. In addition, they reported to a Train Manager, who devided their time between the crew base, riding the train, and occasionally headquarters, etc...Not sure of the position, as it may exist now, but probably similar.

When Amtrak took over direct employment of the operating crews from their host railroads, they were assured of a passenger service familiar crew, dedicated to the interests of Amtrak, and were able to eliminate the 'Chief' position at a nice savings....
Click to expand...
I don't recall exactly when Amtrak took over direct employment of Conductors, but I'm quite sure that it was long before 2000; maybe in the 1980's. The Chief of OnBoard Services position still existed back in the early 2000's. I'm thinking maybe around 2003 or 2004 was when Amtrak eliminated the COB position.

And they eliminated it largely because the program wasn't as successful as they had hoped. Part of the problem was the fact that this was a union position. Some who were promoted took the job seriously and did a wonderful job; I personally encountered several who were excellent. But there were also enough, if not too many, who didn't have the backbone to boss around their former colleagues and therefore did not do the job that they were tasked to do. I found several of them too. And there were a few who never left their room at all, except to eat meals and disembark at the bumper post. Saw a few of them too, or rather, I never saw them except at meals.

Amtrak tired to bring back the position a few years ago as a non-union position, but the union fought back against that and won forcing Amtrak to stop that attempt.
 
AlanB said:
railiner said:
IIRC, back when they had a "Chief of Onboard Services" on each long haul train (basically ended when Amtrak took over direct employment of Conductor's and AC's), these were union agreement covered supervisor's. They supervised the sleeper, chair car, lounge, and diner employees, traveled the whole route, and they were under the authority of the railroad conductor's. In addition, they reported to a Train Manager, who devided their time between the crew base, riding the train, and occasionally headquarters, etc...Not sure of the position, as it may exist now, but probably similar.

When Amtrak took over direct employment of the operating crews from their host railroads, they were assured of a passenger service familiar crew, dedicated to the interests of Amtrak, and were able to eliminate the 'Chief' position at a nice savings....
Click to expand...
I don't recall exactly when Amtrak took over direct employment of Conductors, but I'm quite sure that it was long before 2000; maybe in the 1980's. The Chief of OnBoard Services position still existed back in the early 2000's. I'm thinking maybe around 2003 or 2004 was when Amtrak eliminated the COB position.

And they eliminated it largely because the program wasn't as successful as they had hoped. Part of the problem was the fact that this was a union position. Some who were promoted took the job seriously and did a wonderful job; I personally encountered several who were excellent. But there were also enough, if not too many, who didn't have the backbone to boss around their former colleagues and therefore did not do the job that they were tasked to do. I found several of them too. And there were a few who never left their room at all, except to eat meals and disembark at the bumper post. Saw a few of them too, or rather, I never saw them except at meals.

Amtrak tired to bring back the position a few years ago as a non-union position, but the union fought back against that and won forcing Amtrak to stop that attempt.
Click to expand...
The takeover started on the Northeast Corridor I believe in the late seventies...even though Amtrak owned the NEC beginning in 1976, all the operating personnel were still railroad (Conrail) employees for a few years. The takeover of other lines did occur in the early eighties, route by route, so you are correct.

I don't know why union employees managing other union employees should have been an issue. After all, there is a heirarchy of authority withing the operating crew on a train, and has been since the beginning....conductor, engineer, head brakeman, brakeman, flagman, I believe it was. Not sure where the fireman stood in the pecking order....

And on board, the dining car steward supervised the head chef, the waiters, etc. On overnight trains, the Pullman Conductor was in charge of the Pullman Porter's, and any Pullman operated parlor or food service cars. Certain feature trains had a Passenger Service Agent or Representative that oversaw chair car, err. make that coach attendants, as well as stewardess-nurses, on the few trains that had those and other rare features like barbers and stenographers. Of course the train conductor was still in command of all.

So I would attribute the management problem in the 'Chief' program more to Amtrak's corporate culture at the time. And having a well passenger oriented operating crew, made it redundant to have the Chief's. Back in the late seventies and the eighties, there were fewer and fewer of passenger oriented crews coming from the freight host carriers. Oftentimes there were crew that never had been on a passenger train until catching an open assignment 'off the extra board'....
 
On corridor was 1983. Off corridor was August 1986. Amtrak lastly took over operations of the Cardinal from CSX in 2001.
 
CREW DORM #2524 said:
On corridor was 1983. Off corridor was August 1986. Amtrak lastly took over operations of the Cardinal from CSX in 2001.
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Okay...that's more like I remember it....it went on for several years. I forgot that it started so late in the NEC. I suppose NJT took over from Conrail crews around the same time as Amtrak in the NEC--1983?
 
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