Passenger Trains > The President delays Amtrak for 2 hours

The President Will Delay You Now

The Cardinal, Amtrak's Chicago-to-New York passenger train, was a tad late getting into D.C. on Friday afternoon. Seems there was a delay in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., because President Bush was lunching with House Republicans at their retreat at the Greenbrier Resort.

On instructions from the Secret Service, which stopped all traffic on the CSX freight line, Amtrak says it held the train -- and its 74 passengers -- not just while Bush's motorcade went by the sprawling resort's entrance, which is near the station, but also throughout his visit. That would be two hours and 10 minutes in all.

The station, according to hotel folks, is 339 yards from the hotel's front desk.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/29/AR2008012903154_2.html

Pretty standard stuff when the POTUS travels. Streets get shut down, airspace at public airports get shuts down, etc......Not just President Bush---all presidents.

smitty195 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Pretty standard stuff when the POTUS travels.
> Streets get shut down, airspace at public airports
> get shuts down, etc......Not just President
> Bush---all presidents.


exactly...I wonder how long LAX sat still when Slick Willy got his 450 dollar hair cut on air force one...

csxt5014 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> smitty195 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Pretty standard stuff when the POTUS travels.
> > Streets get shut down, airspace at public
> airports
> > get shuts down, etc......Not just President
> > Bush---all presidents.
>
>
> exactly...I wonder how long LAX sat still when
> Slick Willy got his 450 dollar hair cut on air
> force one...

Slick Willy getting a haircut is fine with me. Hell, he could delay the entire system and I would be ok with him doing it. I miss him.

In Phoenix and SF I've only seen them block a area while a president traveled through and then opened it back up as soon as they were a few blocks past. 300 yards away and 2 hours seams a litte extreme.

AlwaysLate Wrote:

> Slick Willy getting a haircut is fine with me.
> Hell, he could delay the entire system and I would
> be ok with him doing it. I miss him.

I miss Darryl Hammond on SNL doing Bill Clinton impressions. Classic stuff.

The people who ride Amtrak apparently don't care about time - or so the President believes.

John Gezelius
Tustin, CA

I bet the crews on those trains were pissed off because of that!

I'm more concerned that virtually no passengers were on board.

Clinton's hair cut at LAX lasted about a hour. I was waiting to see Air Force One take off over the ocean.

Happens all the time in NJ.

John Kerry decided to make a campaign visit in NJ in 2004, and shut down the NJ Turnpike IN RUSH HOUR for an hour as he motorcaded from the airport to New Brunswick. Probably stalled a hundred thousand people.

Bush did the same thing a few weeks later, and his staff made a point of only blocking the Turnpike for about ten minutes, and then put out press releases noting the difference with Kerry. Secret Service does what the candidate / president wants. In 2000, Al Gore shut down the Parkway in rush hour when he motorcaded to a fund raiser with Springsteen, etc

You want mess? Try NYC in the first week of October when the UN opens. The president of Lower Slobovia makes a two car motorcade, and they shut down three miles of the city. Vlad Putin shows up and they shut down the whole F*&^% island for two hours. Every one of the 180 potentates demands the city clear the streets for HIS motorcade.

From the NY Times Feb 2007.

According to Federal Aviation Administration records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, the May 18 haircut caused no significant delays of regularly scheduled passenger flights - no circling planes, no traffic jams on the runways.

Commuter airlines that fly routes reportedly affected by the president's haircut confirmed they have no record of delays that day.

The FAA records, generated by the regional Air Route Traffic Control Center, show that an unscheduled air taxi flight had the only delay attributed to the closure of two runways for an hour in anticipation of Air Force One's departure. The air taxi took off 17 minutes after leaving the gate -- two minutes late, by FAA accounting.

"If you understand the air traffic system, you'd find that statement [that planes were circling] ludicrous," said Fred O'Donnell, an FAA spokesman at the agency's Western-Pacific regional office, which responded to New York Newsday's May 21 request under the freedom of information law.

O'Donnell said that although two runways were closed, traffic was light that afternoon and arriving flights were simply diverted to the two other runways. "It did not cause any problems," he said.

Jimmy B

Two observations -

- The VIP security thing has really gotten out of hand.

- The passenger count kind of lays waste to the oft-repeated (on TO) myth that the Cardinal is always full. Seventy-four pax is a load factor of about a 35% load factor.

Dave

Hey, this is nothing! Doesn't matter who is president, what party, etc. When whomever is President or VP and his family are going anywhere for whatever reasons, some really incredible things happen--I was adminstrator of a hospital when Walter Mondale was VP and running for pres. As part of his campaign he was coming down to Morgan Hill CA to check out a Hispanic farm operation. His motorcade or car was going to pass my medical center by 2 miles. About a month before this trip we had 3 secret service guys arrive to check out the physical set up of the medical center. Where he would be placed in which ICU or floor, how many light poles would have to be removed from the parking lot so that the media/security control trailer could be placed etc. etc. etc. ad nauseam. I spent an entire day with these guys. Hey, we were just one place on a trip where Mondale would "pass by"--he wasn't staying anywhere near here etc. I was fascinated and appalled. All our taxpayers money being used for this. Now granted, this was after the Kennedy assassination but long before 9/11.
Later on, we hired a plant manager who had been at the Gresham Or medical center who said that whenever Joan Mondale wanted to ski at Mount Hood,they went through the whole same exercise.
I also was good friends with the now deceased guy with Amtrak who honchoed the Clinton train ride from wherever up to the Chicago convention (It must have been 1996//) the president of Conrail at the time told the Clintons that no way were they going to mess up (that isn't the word he used) his railroad in the INdiana etc. area so that's why the Clinton train ride ended somewhere on the east side of Lake Michigan and he was helicoptered into the convention-------------
And of course to any of you who listen to a scanner when a UP officers special is coming through, the dispatchers have their shorts in total knots and their hysteria levels of voices and etc. to make sure that the suits get through, regardless of whatever else is on the tracks-----------
C.

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA

Every time that Cheney goes quail hunting in Dutchess County (NY) {which is far too frequently in the opinion of some residents there), the roads are closed for:
- Trip from Stewart airport to hotel;
- Trip from hotel to Rod & Gun Club;
- Trip from Rod & Gun Club to hotel;
- Trip from hotel to Stewart airport.

Apparently he does not like to fly in a helicopter.

Ray

Ray_Murphy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Every time that Cheney goes quail hunting in
> Dutchess County (NY) {which is far too frequently
> in the opinion of some residents there), the roads
> are closed for:
> - Trip from Stewart airport to hotel;
> - Trip from hotel to Rod & Gun Club;
> - Trip from Rod & Gun Club to hotel;
> - Trip from hotel to Stewart airport.
>
> Apparently he does not like to fly in a
> helicopter.
>
> Ray

......and don't forget the Trip for the ambulance carrying away his wounded hunting pals!

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out

(the not ready for stand-up guy)

I have heard that BNSF has to close down their main line between Fort Worth and Temple (also used by Amtrak Texas Eagle) for an hour or two when President Bush goes to or from his Crawford, TX ranch. Apparently the main line lays between the airfield where Air Force 1 lands and the ranch, so the motorcade has to cross the tracks. I don't know if they do this all the time, or if he uses a helicopter at times.

"POTUS" travel also affects narrow gauge* railways: back in the 90's I was heading back to my hotel in San Francisco and found all the California St. cable cars stopped. I asked one of the conductors what was happening, and he pointed up the hill and said "Presidential motorcade". Just then, lots of flashing red and blue lights appeared, and when the last SUV cleared, we finally got "two bells". It's unfortunate that we have to take precautions with our government leaders (whatever we may think of current, past or future White House residents) that resemble the sort of caravans than Josef Stalin use to ride between the Kremlin and his country estate back in the 40's and early 50's.

*cable cars run on 42" gauge tracks

Shortly before the 1996 primaries President Clinton visited Delaware via New Castle County Airport. Clinton's staff asked the nearby Lone Star Cafe management to close the cafe for President Clinton's exclusive use that day. Lone Star said "no way", we will not inconvenience our customers. Clinton and crew ate elsewhere. I ate at the Lone Star, made me feel like the King of Delaware.

Lurch_in_ABQ Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Shortly before the 1996 primaries President
> Clinton visited Delaware via New Castle County
> Airport. Clinton's staff asked the nearby Lone
> Star Cafe management to close the cafe for
> President Clinton's exclusive use that day. Lone
> Star said "no way", we will not inconvenience our
> customers. Clinton and crew ate elsewhere. I ate
> at the Lone Star, made me feel like the King of
> Delaware.

Clinton (Bill, not Hill) is very touchy about security, much more so than any recent president. Westchester County airport was told to adjust its landing patterns to avoid planes coming near his home. The end of his street is secured with a checkpoint and gate 24/7.