Passenger Trains > Bad start for Thanksgiving extra Michigan service

Train 356(21), Chicago-Ann Arbor, departed Chicago 25 mins. late at 945am.

Then it sat on Main Track 5 at 14th St. Chicago for 90 minutes with a bad order trail unit right out of the gate. No fix was forthcoming, so it had to be cut and left behind. Since this had to be a push-pull set for its return from Ann Arbor, it needed to pick up a replacement unit enroute. Might have come from Train 350(21), which lost time at Ann Arbor.

Final arrival of 356(21) at Ann Arbor: 2 hours and 49 minutes late.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/12 19:00 by GenePoon.

"Bad order right out of the gate"

and the Chicago winter hasn't begun in any serious way...

Great job, Amtrak! No wonder Illinois wants to find another operator to (properly) run their trains. Train 356's 251 paying passengers deserved better. Hopefully train 358, the 10pm added service to Kalamazoo with 72 ticked passengers will fair better.

The 72 ticketed passenger are already ticked...

VRE did find another operator for their trains. Amtrak carried on like John Belushi/Animal House for a few months, but lost the war. VRE is as happy as a pig in a pen of ****.

I think they should hire SBB-CFF for the job. :)

It'll be very painful, and the Swiss folks might get a collective stress breakdown or two, but in the end, it might be worth it!

Posted from Android

"bad order" cars and locomotives are as old as railroading itself. Sorry, but Amtrak didn't invent them.

We shouldn't pretend that VRE, or any other "private operator", doesn't have them. It's a common occurrence, even on the freight railroads as well.

Hopefully, Amtrak will set another record this Thanksgiving, but naturally, someone will say; yes, but they had a bad order car somewhere and somebody should take them over.

Joe

> "bad order" cars and locomotives are as old as railroading itself. Sorry, but Amtrak didn't invent them.

Such incidents are part of the industry, its how they are managed that matters. Amtrak's response over the past 40 years has been: "things are getting better" "we are doing the best we can" "things will get better when we get more money / new equipment." If you are a state funding this service, and want hard data to run your own numbers, you'll be told that's "proprietary" and off limits. But, you'll probably get a call from a Government Affairs employee with a blanke and a ba-ba to make you feel better.

At what point does one look for an alternative - especially when its public money that's being spent!

floridajoe2001 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "bad order" cars and locomotives are as old as
> railroading itself. Sorry, but Amtrak didn't
> invent them.
>
> We shouldn't pretend that VRE, or any other
> "private operator", doesn't have them. It's a
> common occurrence, even on the freight railroads
> as well.
>
> Hopefully, Amtrak will set another record this
> Thanksgiving, but naturally, someone will say;
> yes, but they had a bad order car somewhere and
> somebody should take them over.
>
> Joe

it strikes me as odd that an engine is bad ordered less than five miles into a trip. that suggests some part of the delivery process or service process or sign off didn't work as intended...

floridajoe2001 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "bad order" cars and locomotives are as old as
> railroading itself. Sorry, but Amtrak didn't
> invent them.

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

This incident involved not just one bad order engine.

Two failed trailing units caused the delay: the first one that went
lame right out of the gate, and a second one that they thought could be fixed.
But that didn't happen, did it?

The Amtrak engine failure and excessively late train made the TV news in the Detroit area.