Passenger Trains > Politico: Amtrak Failed Derailment Survivors

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/05/amtrak-188-survivor-118123.html?hp=lc2_4#.VVxfqK7ZGdU

Like this or not, but it gets read by a lot of Congrssional staffers who influence their bosses, and the author has some experience (see bottom) which will give this credibiliity. 
He liked the first responders, but here is what he said about Amtrak:

“Be (un)prepared.” Unlike the airlines, Amtrak appeared totally unprepared for the disaster. Amtrak appeared to have no plans or procedures for responding to the emergency, much less training of its employees and practice implementing them.I didn’t meet anyone from Amtrak until I was discharged from the hospital almost six hours after the crash. That person, from Amtrak “Customer Service,” would answer no questions. She said her job was only to get us to 30th Street Station.
(snip)

TLC vs. CYA. Whatever instinct the victims, the first responders and the doctors in Philadelphia had to band together and to care for those injured, Amtrak lacked. The railroad’s guiding principles seemed to be “Put nothing in writing” and CYA (cover your, er, “anatomy”).Amtrak’s CEO published a letter claiming the railroad “took full responsibility” for the tragedy and implying that Amtrak was doing everything it possibly could to help its passengers. Such a public relations tactic might have been plausible were there any evidence that Amtrak’s management actually took responsibility.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/05/amtrak-188-survivor-118123_Page2.html#ixzz3afrojqeW

Author's background/experience:
I’ve worked with disasters for a long time, but I have more experience being the help than the helped. In 2001, I was founding CEO of The September 11th Fund, a $500 million-plus charity dedicated to helping the people and communities affected by the deadly attacks. After that, I ran Hawaiian Airlines and successfully brought it out of bankruptcy. Then President Barack Obama appointed me to run the government’s Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., which helps people when their companies are bankrupt and their pensions disappear.

 



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/15 07:09 by hazegray.

Seems to me Politico is absolutely right about Amtrak's Customer Disservice. We all write or hear about it happening every day in more trivial settings.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/15 05:18 by joemvcnj.

Ya mean a government agency that is run by bureaucrats lacks a plan and has poor interaction with the people they supposedly serve and are funded by?  Shocking, unbelievable, unfathomable!!!

And I suppose next you'll tell me there is gambling in the backroom at Rick's Cafe American in Casablanca.

Railfool03 Wrote:
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> Ya mean a government agency that is run by bureaucrats lacks a plan and has poor interaction
> with the people they supposedly serve and are funded by?  Shocking, unbelievable, unfathomable!!!
>
From the article (he already addressed your comment):

"Some will again argue that Amtrak shouldn’t be operated by government, that it should be privatized. Such arguments seem to confuse ideology with quality of service. Many of the highest-quality passenger rail operations in the world are operated by governments. Within the U.S. government, when I joined the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., it already did a great job: PBGC had the highest customer satisfaction scores of any federal benefits agency—higher even than the Social Security Administration. Nonetheless, over four years we improved them substantially.

I’ve been privileged to work with many organizations that provide excellent service—whether it be the way Hawaiian Airlines shows passengers the Aloha Spirit or the way that the PBGC makes sure no one ever misses a pension check. They do it with compassion and dedication, by going the extra mile, and by putting their customers first."

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/05/amtrak-188-survivor-118123_Page2.html#ixzz3agItuNja

a very well thought out well written article from a person who works for customer service company himself who first handedly experienced the deficiencies in Amtrak and sees what needs to be done and how to go about it ...

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/15 05:56 by Out_Of_Service.

PBGC (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation) is a superb federal agency, exceptionally well run.  If only the Department of Labor required similar clarity from pension plan sponsors in clear, simple English about the adequacy of their pensions and the insurance companies which sometimes administer them.

Sounds like the author would be a good leader for Amtrak, although I doubt he would want that job.

He's complaining about not meeting someone from Amtrak until 6 hours after the crash at the hospital??

What was he expecting, Joe Boardman to pull him out of the wreckage and drive him to the hospital?  Good grief.   If it was 6 hours after the crash, having been rescued and transported from the scene, treated and released from the hospital, I would say having an Amtrak representative meet him at that time ( which would be somewhere around 2am) is more than reasonable.


 

how long was it before boardman was publicly visible after the wreck?  sometime late the next day wasn't it?  and his cute little "message from amtrak" we all got.  about the only action i saw in it was setting up a phone line.  i'm just a railfan and amtrak rider(120k+ miles).  my question is not how amtrak survives with its inadequate and uncertain subsidy but how it survives with such incompotent leadership

P Wrote:
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> He's complaining about not meeting someone from Amtrak until 6 hours after the crash at the
> hospital??
>
> What was he expecting, Joe Boardman to pull him out of the wreckage and drive him to the> hospital?  Good grief.  
> If it was 6 hours after the crash, having been rescued and transported from the scene, treated and released from the
> hospital, I would say having an Amtrak representative meet him at that time ( which would be somewhere around 2am) is
>  more than reasonable.

Besides being on the train, it sounds like he's pretty well qualified in "being the help" to have some expectations of his own (see below).  
" I have more experience being the help than the helped. In 2001, I was founding CEO of The September 11th Fund, a $500 million-plus charity dedicated to helping the people and communities affected by the deadly attacks. After that, I ran Hawaiian Airlines and successfully brought it out of bankruptcy." 

What qualifications do you base your "more than reasonable" opinion on? 

hazegray Wrote:
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> What qualifications do you base your "more than
> reasonable" opinion on? 

I would certainly expect someone who was more than a glorified taxi driver taking me to 30th St. Station.

I would certainly expect more from Amtrak than "... they’d just developed the form (to report injuries
and losses) that night. Unfortunately, the Amtrak form didn’t even ask what we needed or what we’d lost on the
train. When we pointed out that most of us had lost luggage, she suggested we list it at the bottom."



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/15 08:40 by GenePoon.

Just an FYI; Joe Boardman was in Chicago when the accident happened.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

MaryMcPherson Wrote:
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> Just an FYI; Joe Boardman was in Chicago when the
> accident happened.

Call American Airlines or United Airlines.

A flight from Chicago to Philadelphia takes under two hours:

6:00a - 8:59a
American Airlines 1758   1h 59m
ORD - PHL Nonstop

He could have been on scene before noon Wednesday.



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/15 09:36 by GenePoon.

He wasn't the only one in Chicago. I saw System Road Foreman of Engines John Hines with Chief Transportation Officer Dave Nichols just a few hours before it happened...

PC1974 Wrote:
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> He wasn't the only one in Chicago. I saw System
> Road Foreman of Engines John Hines with Chief
> Transportation Officer Dave Nichols just a few
> hours before it happened...

i remember working with Dave when he was the opr at Holmes tower back in late 70s early 80s ... good times back then ... nice guy ... knows his job well in his present position ...

when he was associated with the rules office in Philly he got me out of a pickle in a situation where everyone and their brother had me as blame guy ... Dave came out took one look at the situation and said " I know exactly what happened i just have to listen to the tapes to see if everyting was done right on the radio" ...

my boss who was adamant i was guilty of the infraction was seething and foaming at the mouth to yank me out of service but Dave had me cleared in a matter of about 10 minutes saying the radio transmission shows i did everything by the book and the tower oprs were responsible and subsequently yanked from service ...

thankX again Dave ...

Posted from Android



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/15 10:09 by Out_Of_Service.

Politico grinds political axes in a manner hostile to Amtrak.  They and all other media are not unbiased observers.

MEKoch, I don't agree with that.  In looking back through articles that Politico has published on Amtrak, they tend to be overwhelmingly positive, especially when the articles involve the politicians' fair-haired child, the Northeast Corridor.  Politico caters to the politicians and self-style power brokers, and the NEC is part of that.  Look through the archives, and you'll see that Politico has been overwhelmingly supportive of the NEC, including repeating the mantra that "The NEC makes money."

I've found Politico to be pretty fair in its overall presentation, unless it's a piece written by a columnist, and then you can expect whatever bent, liberal or conservative, that that writer has.  That's the difference between "columns" (or opinion pieces) and "news."  I believe that Politico does a pretty fair job with news stories.  In its opinion pieces, it leans very favorably toward increased spending in the NEC.

Amtrak has never been particularly good about responding to crisis situations, in part because its network is extensive and limited its staff is in far-flung locations.

Airlines tend to have larger operations with concentration of people at fewer locations.

Here, however, the main need for a response was getting to the hospital, which was handled quite adequately by first responders.  How one gets a ticket or a refund seems sort of a minor concern.

reindeerflame Wrote:
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> Amtrak has never been particularly good about
> responding to crisis situations, in part because
> its network is extensive and limited its staff is
> in far-flung locations.
>
> Airlines tend to have larger operations with
> concentration of people at fewer locations.

===============================================

Non sequitur.   Philadelphia is a main hub for Amtrak with lots of management personnel there,
and the National Operations Center is only thirty minutes away in Wilmington, DE.

The major airlines have plans...protocols to meet emergent situations.  Amtrak didn't.

GenePoon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> MaryMcPherson Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Just an FYI; Joe Boardman was in Chicago when
> the
> > accident happened.
>
> Call American Airlines or United Airlines.
>
> A flight from Chicago to Philadelphia takes under
> two hours:
>
> 6:00a - 8:59a
> American Airlines 1758   1h 59m
> ORD - PHL Nonstop
>
> He could have been on scene before noon Wednesday.

He normally doesn't fly....