Passenger Trains > Quote of F. Frailey: "Amtrak has a Chicago problem"

"There was a Fourteenth Street Coach Yard 45 years ago, a primitive slum of a place compared to today’s palatial infrastructure. Yet Penn Central’s demoralized workforce still got the trains out on time, in all seasons. And don’t tell me it’s cold. It’s always cold in Chicago this time of year. Friday, there was no snow or gusty winds, and the temperature reached the mid-teens."

http://cs.trains.com/trn/b/fred-frailey/archive/2014/02/09/the-39-city-of-broad-shoulders-39-gets-a-whippin-39.aspx



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/14 05:12 by joemvcnj.

Disgraceful. Most people ride Pullman fr the experience...not the destination. I'm surprised anyone would go coach instead.

The thing is - Amtrak appears to have a Chicago problem not just in the winter and not just this year either. It has been an ongoing thing for at least a decade now.

I wonder about the comment of working with GE on the locomotives reliability. Kind of late in the game for that?

Do they still waste two on the Pseudo HSR 5 car trains to St. Louis?

Bob

I'm glad he wrote that up. I've sort of explained before about the issue with RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance) that was supposed to begin in Chicago with the P-42 fleet. It had already been done in DC on the entire Acela fleet, and it had exceptional results. The next step in the plan was Chicago and just the P42s. After that, it was to roll out system-wide on every piece of rolling stock that Amtrak operates (locomotives, sleepers, coaches, diners, etc, etc). But an enormous stumbling block appeared in Chicago. I wish I could give my true opinion on this, but I'd be pummeled and attacked by the usual suspects. So I'll just say that Chicago doesn't give a cr*p about the equipment, and their goal is a paycheck and how long until quitting time. Seriously. They need to fire just about everyone and start from scratch.

This new Pullman is nothing like the old Pullman. The old Pullman at least had a union and a place to work on their equipment. They didn't need to utilize another companies yard back in the day. I think that Amtrak needs to get rid of this Pullman off their trains because their company is trying to compete with Amtrak in other corridors. Go get your own engines, pay for all the expenses on the road (T&E crews,track usage,etc...) and then we can judge you properly on this board because the love fest for them here and at Train Magazine makes me sick. Oh and the night in question, the City of New Orleans came in northbound at 6:05 pm, had to bad order two cars, clean the train, empty the toilets, restock food, etc..... Of course, nothing in the article about that.
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,3318860
andersonb109 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Disgraceful. Most people ride Pullman fr the
> experience...not the destination. I'm surprised
> anyone would go coach instead.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/14 06:25 by ep75.

---

This issue is not Eliss's cars, but Amtrak's victim mentality. Switch engine breaks down ===> throw their hands up in the air, don't couple the cars, and behave like this is all an amusement park ride that broke down today. If Amtrak won't implement RCM, then outsource terminal operations to an outfit that will.

Here we go with the outsource thing again. They need to get rid of the managers that are overseeing them and do what Metra does; works 10 pm to 6 am on their equipment to get it ready for the next day. Have a checklist and a supervisor making sure no one is sleeping instead of starting work and making up outbound trains at 6 am the day of departure like they do now. But since the article is about wanting to ride Pullman and how their cars were the issue, then Pullman should run their own train to New Orleans like I said. A railroad boxing match; Amtrak vs former employee with Willie Nelson singing the City of New Orleans.LOL
joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This issue is not Eliss's cars, but Amtrak's
> victim mentality. Switch engine breaks down ===>
> throw their hands up in the air, don't couple the
> cars, and behave like this is all an amusement
> park ride that broke down today. If Amtrak won't
> implement RCM, then outsource terminal operations
> to an outfit that will.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/14 06:22 by ep75.

Yes, here we go again. The article goes far beyond Pullman cars into Amtrak's collapse of operations. Stuffed shirts in DC aren't going to do anything about it, so there is no point of wishing they should do this or do that. The matter needs to be forcefully taken away from them.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/14 06:31 by joemvcnj.

The Pullman cars *SHOULD* be a win-win for everyone involved - Amtrak has long had a capacity issue (mostly self-imposed). Most times, the sleepers are sold out. Obviously, there is a void there. I wish there was an option too, for coaches.

But, I think, this really puts a light on Amtrak's management (or lack thereof) and the morale inherent in an organization that is always in limbo, always a political toy to play with when a congressman needs a sound-bite, always currying political favors, always begging for your next meal or sheer existence. I wonder how many of us would even work in those conditions, let alone improve things?

There is no way you are going to improve Amtrak as it stands. It is a broken organization with hamstrung management who are managers, and not leaders. I've worked in a company like Amtrak - quasi-government, always at Congress's beck and call, never sure of longevity, existence or support. Rather than being told "thank you" they are always told "you waste money and will go away". Hard to work well in those conditions.

Does it have to be like that? No - emphatically no. It has been shown before that it can work, and that management can lead and take on Congress. You need an outsized person, one known and trusted by the industry and able to handle the pettiness that is Congress. There aren't many around, and damned fewer who would jump into this quagmire.

So why do they - since inception - hire airline people? Airlines are doing so well, right? Not.

Chicago has its issues. Has since before Amtrak (ask any SP man how the Golden State arrived - how parts (including whole A/C units) were missing, how maintenance wasn't done, etc.). They send out locomotives that don't work, that have dead animals on the anti climbers, take parts from recently renovated cars to fix other cars, because it's easier (or use duct tape because that is even easier), they send things out because it will no longer be THEIR problem. But, is that a work force problem? It is endemic, that is a management problem. Which is actually a good thing, it means, in theory, one person can change it. Just don't send an airline person there, ot someone who doesn't know what's happening.

Someone said on here once that the most Superliner equipment is around 30 years old. So with all the budget issues during this time frame when Amtrak ran on a shoe string budget, did these cars get internally damaged by overuse? I know they had a lot of duct tape in use during the "your ride is free if not satisfied"/Mail & Express debacle days (loads east/empties west) because the company was bleeding money. My buddy who use to work in OBS said they got a T&E person to run the OBS and one of the guys behind the Cross Country Café concept to oversee long distance trains in Chicago. That is some funny stuff there. If Pullman is win win in terms of competition, then like I said, start their own service with their own equipment. We will see who is the best City of New Orleans. They are trying to compete with the Heartland Flyer for Tulsa already.



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/14 07:01 by ep75.

joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes, here we go again. The article goes far beyond
> Pullman cars into Amtrak's collapse of operations.
> Stuffed shirts in DC aren't going to do anything
> about it, so there is no point of wishing they
> should do this or do that. The matter needs to be
> forcefully taken away from them.

So WHO? You? I expect you're more than welcome to give it a try. If it were a viable business model the railroads would still be running passenger trains.

RailNet802, owevaaaah

"Viable business model" model is completely irrelevant. It is the mismanagement, and you know it.
If you think it can be done no better, then shut it down 6 months of the year.

This is the first positive thing I have seen about this mess. Rather than impotent ravings, we have a publicizing of the problem by someone who can maybe wield some influence.

The harshest words in Fred Frailey's column:

> This is an indictment of Amtrak. You cannot blame Amtrak for all the
> late arrivals (yes, almost all trains were late arriving) but you can
> hold it accountable for late initial departures, and this is
> pathetic. You can’t just blame the weather. It has been a cold, wet
> winter on the Northeast Corridor, too, and the NEC may have bent at
> times, but it never broke. And you can’t say the freight railroads
> aren’t running well, either, because the freight railroads don’t run
> Fourteenth Street Coach Yard.
>
> One other thing: Screw me once, and I may say it’s happenstance.
> Screw me twice, and I smell a rat...


Before some apologist bellyaches that Fred is just a magazine-writer
enemy of Amtrak using the soapbox that his publisher provides, consider
that he afforded Amtrak an opportunity to reply, and promised to publish
that reply. VP-Operations D.J. Stadler concluded Amtrak's response with:


> ...at then end of the day when you (and others) see a train board
> that says DELAYED virtually top to bottom, we have not done our jobs,
> and that is all that matters...We need to do better and we know it,
> and we are committed to turning things around quickly.”


"We have not done our jobs" says more than most of the apologists
will admit. Hopefully the commitment will be equal to the need.

GenePoon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The harshest words in Fred Frailey's column:
>
> > This is an indictment of Amtrak. You cannot
> blame Amtrak for all the
> > late arrivals (yes, almost all trains were late
> arriving) but you can
> > hold it accountable for late initial departures,
> and this is
> > pathetic. You can’t just blame the weather. It
> has been a cold, wet
> > winter on the Northeast Corridor, too, and the
> NEC may have bent at
> > times, but it never broke. And you can’t say
> the freight railroads
> > aren’t running well, either, because the
> freight railroads don’t run
> > Fourteenth Street Coach Yard.
> >
> > One other thing: Screw me once, and I may say
> it’s happenstance.
> > Screw me twice, and I smell a rat...
>
>
> Before some apologist bellyaches that Fred is just
> a magazine-writer
> enemy of Amtrak using the soapbox that his
> publisher provides, consider
> that he afforded Amtrak an opportunity to reply,
> and promised to publish
> that reply. VP-Operations D.J. Stadler concluded
> Amtrak's response with:
>
>
> > ...at then end of the day when you (and others)
> see a train board
> > that says DELAYED virtually top to bottom, we
> have not done our jobs,
> > and that is all that matters...We need to do
> better and we know it,
> > and we are committed to turning things around
> quickly.”
>
>
> "We have not done our jobs" says more than most of
> the apologists
> will admit. Hopefully the commitment will be
> equal to the need.


Did you think our reading skills were so limited that you had to repeat the harshest things in the article, lest we not realize that it is an indictment of Amtrak? This must make you very happy.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/14 08:30 by Ptolemy.

gunn showed up unannounced, did what he could

ep75 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Here we go with the outsource thing again. They
> need to get rid of the managers that are
> overseeing them and do what Metra does; works 10
> pm to 6 am on their equipment to get it ready for
> the next day.

They (Amtrak) need to do what Metra does: let their managers manage the workforce.

And on the topic of outsourcing. The state of Indiana outsourced the Tollway a few years back. Now the roads are worse than they ever have been in terms of snow removal and the machines that replaced the attendants are constantly breaking down. The only Amtrak example of outsourcing that I can think of is when the movies onboard were outsourced with those rentable DVD players. It lasted 6 months.

Does everyone think that these problems don't exist in the airlines business as well?