Passenger Trains > SEPTA - how not to operate

So tonight I encounter again an all too familiar situation.

Two car train, three man crew. Only one car is open, and only one door of two on the car opens for boarding. Station times are of course interminable, helped along by the bossy, over-controlling, female conductor, who even takes it upon herself to verbally push people around on the platform waiting to board because she feels they are too close to her one precious door she can be bothered to open. The Asst Conductor, of course, just stands around blocking the vestibule to the closed car, which is functioning as an employee lounge. It's too much for him to actually work.

Does this type of controlling, anti-rider behavior come out on other smaller commuter lines off-peak, or is this a special treat reserved for us in Philly?

And transit advocates wonder why more people won't give up their car!

Posted from iPhone

I've had a few opposite experiences where there were 4 car trains with only a conductor and engineer. That one conductor worked 3 cars which provided the seats necessary to accomodate the crowd. If your experience is all too often I suggest you notify Customer Service and give them the location and train ID. This way it can be investigated and likely corrected. 

abyler Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So tonight I encounter again an all too familiar
> situation.
>
> Two car train, three man crew. Only one car is
> open, and only one door of two on the car opens
> for boarding. Station times are of course
> interminable, helped along by the bossy,
> over-controlling, female conductor, who even takes
> it upon herself to verbally push people around on
> the platform waiting to board because she feels
> they are too close to her one precious door she
> can be bothered to open. The Asst Conductor, of
> course, just stands around blocking the vestibule
> to the closed car, which is functioning as an
> employee lounge. It's too much for him to
> actually work.
>
> Does this type of controlling, anti-rider behavior
> come out on other smaller commuter lines off-peak,
> or is this a special treat reserved for us in
> Philly?
>
> And transit advocates wonder why more people won't
> give up their car!
>
> Posted from iPhone

​names are on the unis Andrew ... you have the train # ... file off an email to the president .... i'm sure he'd be interested in knowing how his railroad operated since he probably never does spot checks on his own

abyler Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So tonight I encounter again an all too familiar
> situation.
>
> Two car train, three man crew. Only one car is
> open, and only one door of two on the car opens
> for boarding. Station times are of course
> interminable, helped along by the bossy,
> over-controlling, female conductor, who even takes
> it upon herself to verbally push people around on
> the platform waiting to board because she feels
> they are too close to her one precious door she
> can be bothered to open. The Asst Conductor, of
> course, just stands around blocking the vestibule
> to the closed car, which is functioning as an
> employee lounge. It's too much for him to
> actually work.
>
> Does this type of controlling, anti-rider behavior
> come out on other smaller commuter lines off-peak,
> or is this a special treat reserved for us in
> Philly?
>
> And transit advocates wonder why more people won't
> give up their car!
>
> Posted from iPhone

Same stuff was going on 10 years ago when I left Philly (and yet I still miss it greatly). Now I live in Frankfurt am Main, where the S-Bahn (regional rail) runs with one-man crews (just the engineer) and there are 12 sets of automated double doors per 220-foot-long EMU (which also include 16 1st class seats per unit). Quite the difference.

While the ICE is nice James - you know you miss riding the Silverliners!

Posted from iPhone

I too would encourage you to report this to customer service with as many specifics ( train #, date/time, stations etc.) as possible as they do pay attention to customer input.

   The bad news is that if this female conductor is also an ethnic minority in addition to being a woman she's nearly bullet proof ( and knows it) and next to impossible to discipline in any meaningful way.  

    When I served on the Amtrak BOD I experienced personally a female, minority OBS crew woman who had a surly, rude attitude towards all she came in contact with. She didn't have the well known chip on her shoulder ........she had a boulder !!  I wrote her up and discovered that she had a thick file of customer complaints going back 5 years and that the company had held 2 hearings on her but due to strong union support no actions were taken. I pursued it and it took us 9 months and 3 additional hearings but we finally got her fired and despite the unions best efforts it stuck. 

    When it's next to impossible to use meaningful discipline ( and everyone knows it ) this is the kind of behavior that thrives.

    Sad but true, Ross Rowland 

The same thing happened to me riding the Springfield -> New Haven shuttle train a couple weeks ago on a slow day.  Fortunately, they opened up the rear car at Hartford.  But for the miniscule number of passengers up to that point. it certainly would not have been much trouble to lift tickets from both cars, as it, too, had two conductors!

co614 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I too would encourage you to report this to
> customer service with as many specifics ( train #,
> date/time, stations etc.) as possible as they do
> pay attention to customer input.
>
>    The bad news is that if this female conductor
> is also an ethnic minority in addition to being a
> woman she's nearly bullet proof ( and knows it)
> and next to impossible to discipline in any
> meaningful way.  
>
>     When I served on the Amtrak BOD I
> experienced personally a female, minority OBS crew
> woman who had a surly, rude attitude towards all
> she came in contact with. She didn't have the well
> known chip on her shoulder ........she had a
> boulder !!  I wrote her up and discovered that
> she had a thick file of customer complaints going
> back 5 years and that the company had held 2
> hearings on her but due to strong union support no
> actions were taken. I pursued it and it took us 9
> months and 3 additional hearings but we finally
> got her fired and despite the unions best efforts
> it stuck. 
>
>     When it's next to impossible to use
> meaningful discipline ( and everyone knows it )
> this is the kind of behavior that thrives.
>
>     Sad but true, Ross Rowland 


I worked Amtrak my whole career in Philly saved the 10 years on the A.C. Line ... while most trainman Amtrak and Septa were job oriented, ya did get a few who were like Ross explained ... if it wasn't for the free ride I would've blasted them ... the ACL NJT people were no problem since I was their pilot on their qualifying runs ....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/16 10:54 by Out_Of_Service.

Any time a business has a monopoly, and has strong government control, it becomes very difficult to create meaningful incentives to reward good performance. And, get people who need help, help.

There's no reward for superior performance, and no real penalty for poor work. Difficult to manage.

In Septa's case, making superior customer service worth two years of seniority in bidding rights might make a difference. As if that would ever happen...

Posted from Android