Passenger Trains > Cafe car on Carolinian

I took the Carolinian from Newark to Durham Thursday. The cafe car closed after leavingn Petersburg in order to change attendants at Rocky Mount. I need not point out that Petersburg is over an hour from Rocky Mount. Then then new attendant boarded but the car did not open again until Selma, over an hour later. In other words, it was closed for over two hours to change crews. Is this really necessary? I'll be northbound in a day or two so will see how that works. There were nearly 300 people on board, without any food or refreshment service these two hours.

This reminds me of the looooong change-over between US and Canadian/Canadien crews at Niagara Falls and Sarnia/Port Huron in the food service car. But, that is between states (O wait, Petersburg is in a Commonwealth) with Constitutional rights - full faith and credit - across state lines . . . so if it is not about rights, it must be about money (all struggle is class (money) struggle)of who pays whom for what.

In other words, the public be damned, North Carolina will not pay for a National employee to serve food and a National employee will not work on a state sponsored train in which the agreement requires local workers.

Oy, vey!

RevRandy, I enjoy most of your posts but I believe you're off-base on this one.

The Carolinian's cafe attendant used to work out of New York, down to Charlotte, rest overnight, and work all day home to New York the next day. Long, long days, but the attendants could take a couple of short breaks, at Washington, and usually would step outside at Richmond and Raleigh.

Sometime in the late 1990s, North Carolina expressed interest in having an on-board services crew base in North Carolina, perhaps at Charlotte. That would have made some sense, since Charlotte was the end of the line for the Carolinian. The only problem was that the layover in New York was even shorter northbound than it was southbound in Charlotte. But since NCDOT was headquartered in Raleigh, Amtrak itself decided to establish a crew base in Raleigh, so that there would be a step-on/step-off arrangement for attendants. The attendants on Train 79 would work from Raleigh to Charlotte, stay overnight then work Train 80 from Charlotte to New York, stay overnight, then return home to Raleigh on Train 79 the following day. The turnover in stock was done in the 35 minutes between Selma and Raleigh. A degradation in service from the through attendant in pre-Raleigh crew base days, but still not a bad cessation of service.

Closed between Petersburg-Rocky Mount? Rocky Mount-Selma? That's horrible. That's the attendants taking their sweet time, and the managers not paying attention, or not caring.

But it wasn't North Carolina that pushed for the crew base; it was Amtrak, trying to look good to North Carolina. Private railroads managed step-on/step-off arrangements pretty well, but that was also in the days before every single item had to be counted, as they are in these days of accountability. Everyone involved when Raleigh crew base was established knew that the step-on/step-off would lead to a degradation in service to the passengers, but Amtrak was trying to look good to North Carolina, so it went ahead with the change. Of course, North Carolina didn't say no; it was happy to have local jobs. But it was Amtrak that enacted it. That's the story that I've heard.

The attendants could be stretching their time slightly, but the main reason is the archaic accounting system Amtrak uses for food service. The inventory process for LSA's is a long, tedious one. Also, the LSA's working the cafe's are financially responsible for every item there, and thats at the retail price! By rushing through the counting process, they could make a costly mistake. Some Amtrak routes are now using POS computer systems for the cafe cars, which help speed up these processes. Amtrak wants the POS on all trains by the end of this year. Sounds like the Carolinian needs to be next in line!

The "tedious inventory" has been around for the past 40 years.
, along with the 2 hr. dinner break. Has Amtrak heard of the
bar code scanner, keeping a running inventory, etc.? Two hours
so a bag of chips doesn't get snagged? Go to plastic only
like the airlines; sell debit cards in station.

In the NW on the Cascades All Aboard Washinton has complained about this for years to WashDOT.
State supported trains with Amtrak crews making up their own rules when to close the Bistro Cars.
From PDX to SEA they are now staying open until Tukwila. (We hope this is true).
In Calif. reportedly Gene S. had Capitols food service open 100% of the trip.

Like I've said, it is obvious complaining isn't going to change anything. Management doesn't ever show up on
the trains, at least not in any official capacity. Wouldn't matter everybody is in the same "brotherhood"
meaning you don't rat or make anyone work harder, and you cover each others butt.

Sure there are lots of people at Amtrak that do a great job. These are the people who will always take
pride in themselves and their work no matter if the job is Amtrak attendant or army private shoveling
s--t in Louisiana. Unfortunately, Amtrak hasn't shown any talent for attracting these people. It seems
more important to brag about your workplace diversity.

OBSC is paid when they are on the train, whether sleeping, eating, on break, or working. The LCA probably
has the toughest job if he works like he should. I've been on some foamer PV trips, 4 cars, 60 pax, and only
5 crew who shared duties as waiters, bar tenders, sleeping car attendants, cook's helper, dishwasher, window washer,
laundry washer,grocery/booze shopping, and car cleaners. Cook didn't share duties, but was responsible for
commissary during layovers.

Actually, the on-board attendants aren't paid for their rest periods, when they're sleeping. The "breaks" during the day are paid, but the overnight rest periods are not.

knotch8 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Actually, the on-board attendants aren't paid for
> their rest periods, when they're sleeping. The
> "breaks" during the day are paid, but the
> overnight rest periods are not.


OK. I stand corrected, and thank you. They should then be entitled to a
minimum number of hours for sleep? When trains are late, are crew paid
overtime at their normal wage rate? What if really late? I believe there is
a minimum rest period between runs?

jbaker wrote:

>
> OK. I stand corrected, and thank you. They
> should then be entitled to a
> minimum number of hours for sleep? When trains
> are late, are crew paid
> overtime at their normal wage rate? What if
> really late? I believe there is
> a minimum rest period between runs?


OBS employees are entitled to 6 hrs down time per day. Lost down time and late trains pay at normal hourly rate. Overtime is only on a monthly basis. Extra board is guaranteed 48 hrs rest after a trip whereas regular jobs vary from train to train.