Passenger Trains > Longer Surfliners for the next week

To handle the heavy loadings for Thanksgiving, extra cars will be placed on the Surfliners, next week. Several 7 car sets, 1 9 car set. A couple of them will have two business class.

As they get the bottom of the pile, watch for the Great dome next week on 798-799.

Remember Trains are reserved from 11/25 to 12/1.

Chris

Of course they will only have one conductor & one A.C. for those 7-9 car trains. But that's OK, with standing room only, the conductors will just stand in one position the whole trip. <G>

BNSFCajon Wrote:
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> ...the conductors will just stand in one position the whole trip.


I don't even think they'll get a chance to stop moving... Good luck JAF, have fun. ;-)

BNSFCajon Wrote:
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> Of course they will only have one conductor & one
> A.C. for those 7-9 car trains. But that's OK, with
> standing room only, the conductors will just stand
> in one position the whole trip.


That's probably the most efficient way to handle things.

Otherwise, it just costs too much.

BNSFCajon Wrote:
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> Of course they will only have one conductor & one
> A.C. for those 7-9 car trains. But that's OK, with
> standing room only, the conductors will just stand
> in one position the whole trip.



Trains have only one conductor.

Standing room only on a turkey week Surfliner means just that. All the conductors will be able to do is get on & off at their door. They will NOT have ANY room to move around in their car period!
ATSF449 - since when has it been one conductor on Surfliners? Metrolink yes but Amtraks have 2.

BNSFCajon Wrote:
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> Standing room only on a turkey week Surfliner
> means just that. All the conductors will be able
> to do is get on & off at their door. They will NOT
> have ANY room to move around in their car period!
> ATSF449 - since when has it been one conductor on
> Surfliners? Metrolink yes but Amtraks have 2.


Remember, there is never more than one conductor. Assitant conductors, yes, but only one offical conductor.

They both do the same job essentially as conductors. One just has more authority than the other. So what's the point of saying there's ONLY one? Besides w/in a year or so they'll be a full conductor. Been both myself and always acted like a conductor w/ the passengers.

BNSFCajon Wrote:
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> Of course they will only have one conductor & one
> A.C. for those 7-9 car trains. But that's OK, with
> standing room only, the conductors will just stand
> in one position the whole trip.


That's a Del Mar Train... fortunately on the heavy Del Mar trains we generally have one Conductor per car so it's easier to collect as many tickets as possible as they board.

Thanksgiving week you wander aimlessly up and down the aisles and accept a ticket when a passenger hands it to you, as long as you notice it through the warrents you're staring at religeously. (Holiday week is when the freight roads seem to do the most trackwork, it's when their carloads are at the lightest so it's easier to get things done)

/887 passengers on a 7-car 700-series Surfliner train last year, only two Trainmen working it *Shudders*

Jaanfo
Forgot you guys work turkey trains w/ "reserved" seating. But then Amtrak w/ its "finite" wisdom manages to oversell it leaving standing room only. If San Diego conductor Larry hasn't retired, ask him about the good old days. Worked one w/ him off extra board one time LAX-SAN. He told me to find a spot by a door & just stand there. Worked all the way to SAN in same spot & collected one ticket just because the guy gave it to me. Larry got a big laugh over it!

BNSFCajon Wrote:
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> Jaanfo
> Forgot you guys work turkey trains w/ "reserved"
> seating. But then Amtrak w/ its "finite" wisdom
> manages to oversell it leaving standing room only.
> If San Diego conductor Larry hasn't retired, ask
> him about the good old days. Worked one w/ him off
> extra board one time LAX-SAN. He told me to find a
> spot by a door & just stand there. Worked all the
> way to SAN in same spot & collected one ticket
> just because the guy gave it to me. Larry got a
> big laugh over it!


That's why we call him Laughing Larry ;)

Wow, so all these pax with uncollected tickets can turn them in for either refunds (less 10%) or exchange vouchers (100% of the value) good for future travel!

Well, ticket collection is an obsolete practice that should be abolished.

sfericsf Wrote:
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> Wow, so all these pax with uncollected tickets can
> turn them in for either refunds (less 10%) or
> exchange vouchers (100% of the value) good for
> future travel!

Simply put: Yes

More Complicated: We still got 886 tickets last year... Considering that most of us figure the average Conductor can collect about 250 tickets on an average trip that was a superhuman effort... It's not like the crews just say "screw it"

BNSFCajon Wrote:
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> Standing room only on a turkey week Surfliner
> means just that. All the conductors will be able
> to do is get on & off at their door. They will NOT
> have ANY room to move around in their car period!
> ATSF449 - since when has it been one conductor on
> Surfliners? Metrolink yes but Amtraks have 2.

By definition the conductor is in charge of train therefore you can have only one. The other may be an assistant conductor. Have you ever tried running something with two people in charge?

Mudrock Wrote:
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> Remember Trains are reserved from 11/21 to 11/30.
>
> Chris


I though it was the 24th to the 30th. Did they add more days to this peak travel time?

Only two crewmen?
On the Capitol Corridor, Amtrak adds a third conductor's position a couple of times each week (at least between Sacramento and Oakland), and that's for trainsets with a seating capacity that never tops 400
.
Jaanfo Wrote:
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> BNSFCajon Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Of course they will only have one conductor &
> one
> > A.C. for those 7-9 car trains. But that's OK,
> with
> > standing room only, the conductors will just
> stand
> > in one position the whole trip.
>
>
> That's a Del Mar Train... fortunately on the
> heavy Del Mar trains we generally have one
> Conductor per car so it's easier to collect as
> many tickets as possible as they board.
>
> Thanksgiving week you wander aimlessly up and down
> the aisles and accept a ticket when a passenger
> hands it to you, as long as you notice it through
> the warrents you're staring at religeously.
> (Holiday week is when the freight roads seem to do
> the most trackwork, it's when their carloads are
> at the lightest so it's easier to get things
> done)
>
> /887 passengers on a 7-car 700-series Surfliner
> train last year, only two Trainmen working it
> *Shudders*

MarinCommuter Wrote:
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> Only two crewmen?
> On the Capitol Corridor, Amtrak adds a third
> conductor's position a couple of times each week
> (at least between Sacramento and Oakland), and
> that's for trainsets with a seating capacity that
> never tops 400

The busier trains normally have three or more crewmembers, but on a day like the day before Thanksgiving all bets are off.... They fill in wherever the manpower is needed most, but only when it's available. It's difficult at best to hire enough people for one really busy week, generally the staffing levels will be sufficient for just a bit more then an average week, If they hired enough to equip all trains with four crewmembers for one week they'd be paying guarantee out the nose the rest of the time.

An update

Remember Trains are reserved from 11/25 to 12/1.

Chris