For us, the "second line" (cash) was no problem at all. With paperwork in hand, that transaction took seconds. The queue was entirely the paperwork. Always a systems engineer, I timed the process - it took a minimum of five minutes to complete each passenger's voucher. There were possibly 200, maybe 250 from our train needing vouchers, although I did not compute how many were couples or families on the same ticket. Considering that each clerk could only manage 12 vouchers an hour at best and we started with only two clerks, you instantly see where the problem was. There were five, maybe six clerks working the crowd after about 90 minutes, so it was evident (at least to me) that the extra help was summoned only after the manager noticed he was in deep doo.
As frequently as trains are late into CHI especially from the West and that most customers are making connections, one would think they had a better system (i.e., automated) for handling the problem. And, like I said, they knew this train was going to have connection problems more than 24 hours in advance. At very least, the extra help should have been there waiting for the train.
We'll be doing this again, this time from #8, in three days. The train has been too late for our connection three times in the past month. Fingers are crossed.
