Passenger Trains > Amtrak Conductor Screams at NJT Riders: Shut Up, Keep Walking

Amtrak Conductor Screams at NJ Transit Riders Amid Commute Chaos: 'Shut
Up, Keep Walking'

WNBC
by Michelle Kim

> An Amtrak conductor rushing to get his customers onto a waiting train
> at Penn Station "bullied" and "antagonized" the crowds of New Jersey
> Transit commuters trying to get off after a long, delayed ride into
> the city Friday morning, passengers claim.
>
> "Keep walking and shut up," he reportedly told the masses of harried
> NJ Transit customers as they poured out of their train and squeezed
> up the escalators and staircases from the platform.
>
> Riders on the Morristown line train were already frustrated from
> having been delayed nearly an hour; an Amtrak switch problem near
> Newark jammed up many NJ Transit lines Friday morning, and the 6318
> train that was supposed to arrive at Penn Station at 8:38 p.m. ended
> up rolling into Track 8 by 9:25 p.m., according to commuter Aston
> Smith.
>
> "We came off onto the platform as Amtrak was calling a Track 7
> departure," Smith told News 4. "As Amtrak passengers were funneling
> down escalators in the down direction, they're hitting a mosh pit of
> debarking NJ Transit customers."
>
> Fanning the tension was the conductor, who stood on the platform
> screaming at NJ Transit customers, according to Smith.
>
> "I don't care about you. You're not my customer," he reportedly
> yelled at NJ Transit riders. "Move, move, make an aisle, let my
> passengers on."
>
> Smith said it went on and on, "he was just ripping into everybody."
>
> Smith spoke to an Amtrak worker at their office in Penn Station about
> the conductor, and then tweeted the company about what she saw.
> Amtrak made a brief Twitter blunder by replying "Enjoy," but quickly
> followed up with another tweet to clarify that it had responded to
> the wrong customer message.
>
> Meanwhile, a fellow NJ Transit customer on Twitter said he also saw
> the Amtrak conductor railing at people.
>
> "Fellow @NJTransit commuter here who also witnessed this absurd
> Amtrak behavior. 'I don't give a damn about you people.'

> #UnitedIsHiring," tweeted Brad Barton.

LINK:

Amtrak Conductor Screams at NJ Transit Riders Amid Commute Chaos: 'Shut Up, Keep Walking'



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/17 21:59 by GenePoon.

I'd have yelled right back at him, as I did to an Amtrak Gate Dragon in Philly a couple of years ago. Adults who behave as 9 year old brats should be spoken down to as 9 year old brats, regardless of their uniform, rank, or income.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/17 05:08 by joemvcnj.

I'm surprised they didn't hold the already delayed NJT train outside the platform until Amtrak was loaded.

Amtrak is often careful about not opening gates etc on an already full platform.

Posted from Android

The unidentified Amtrak conductor reminds me of the very argumentative conductor out of NYP on the Vermonter about 6-8 months ago. She was yelling at the top of her lungs at an inebriated passenger who refused to get off the train at New Rochelle. She held the train there until he finally got off...about a 15 minute delay.

Give the delays, they were not about to hold up NJT any longer. The Gate Dragons and the Amtrak conductor could have waited until that NJT unloaded. If Amtrak allowed boarding through all stairs, rather than engage in Security Theatre in one stairway, this would not have happened. They're all just as dumb here as they are in Chicago.

http://nypost.com/2017/04/22/american-airlines-flight-attendant-accused-of-whacking-mom-with-stroller/

It is a disgrace that anyone in a public-contact position
ever yells at or is rude to people. And there was an easy
way to prevent the crowding -- just don't let the passengers
on two trains, one departing and one arriving, use the same
platform. And the long-distance or medium-distance passenger
traoin should always be held for any commuter train, as minutes
matter a lot to commuter-train passengers, but not to the
passengers on long-distance or medium-distance Amtrak trains.

And why, oh, why does anyone ever call PASSENGERS "customers"?
Or "guests"? People riding in a public conveyance are PASSENGERS,
NOT "customers", and they most certainly are NOT anyone's "guests",
as they are not private individuals invited to be in a private
residence.

{Off my soapbox]

Margaret_SP_fan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
And there was
> an easy
> way to prevent the crowding -- just don't let the
> passengers
> on two trains, one departing and one arriving, use
> the same
> platform.

I'm not making any excuses for an employee yelling at customers. But, as a possible defense, I'll offer the suggestion that the Station Service personnel had turned the escalator down and started boarding the Amtrak passengers on Track 7. Then an NJT train arrived and disgorged 700 or 800 passengers onto a small, narrow platform. All of a sudden, in the blink of an eye, the passengers coming down the escalator couldn't move, were stalled, and more passengers were coming down the escalator. I suspect that the Conductor was trying to open a path for the boarding passengers so that the passengers coming down the escalator had a place to go. I can see him asking the NJT passengers to clear a path, and there really isn't a good way to do that in the very tight confines of a Penn Station platform, and the escalator kept sending people down, and the crowd got thicker, and people yelled, and the Conductor was trying prevent injuries and clear a path, and he yelled something inappropriate. Again, I'm not excusing the Conductor yelling at NJT passengers, but I suspect strongly that he was placed into an untenable situation trying to prevent several injuries by people piling up at the bottom of an escalator with nowhere to go.

The problem of having a departing and arriving train on the same platform has long been a problem at Penn Station, but no one, absolutely no one, has been able to figure out how to avoid it. There are just too many trains, too many passengers wanting to use the station and not enough platforms. Do the math. 21 tracks, 1,200 trains per day. It happens at Grand Central, too, and it happens at South Station in Boston, with an Amtrak train boarding and an inbound MBTA commuter train arriving. It's just that the volume of both trains and passengers is exponentially greater at Penn Station.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/17 12:28 by knotch8.

Did I hear this was Track 7? Track 6/7 is usually reserved for Empire trains. Have to wonder if this was the once a day Adirondack that was leaving NYP via the Empire Corridor and then on up to Montreal.

Its not too uncommon that you have people trying to go up the stairs to de-board and then run into people coming down the stairs to board.

I agree that people shouldn't be yelled at like this and treated basically like a piece of garbage, but that seems to happens in too many sectors as well.

A new way to winning the lottery........sue the carrier for anything . The slightest miss-step by a crew member, the smallest phrase uttered, a cross look. There is something really wrong in America. I am not insinuating that workers here and there don't manage to piss off someone. But there are many, many passengers nowadays just looking for anything at all to complain (and sue) over. You see it everyday on airplanes, and, I suppose, on trains. You can argue that it is a 'which came first' situation. Did on-board personnel get ruder and cruder or was it the travelling public that got ruder first. Either way, it has greatly reduced the joy of travelling. Maybe there is no joy in travelling anymore. Whose fault is that? Most flight attendants I ever knew wanted to deliver decent service, but their companies won't support them at all. When confronted by a rude person or when getting into an argument with passengers (they never used to argue, how do you handle that?) they are no longer acting appropriately. Not enough training for less than qualified persons is leading to a workforce that is unprepared for the future of transportation. For god's sake, people don't even look out the windows anymore! And they seldom speak to the person next to them. If you are in the middle seat and would like to look out that window? Forget it.

It can be a chicken and egg situation, but in this case, the Amtrak conductor could simply have just shut his mouth, as could have the Philly Gate Dragon I encountered 2 years ago. I do my transfers from NJT to Amtrak at Trenton rather than with a Keystone at Philly now to avoid these cantankerous SOB's.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/17 14:22 by joemvcnj.

I worked at a company which had a very good customer service rating and many staff were high school/college students for the summer, and paid about $8 an hour with no meaningful benefits, not even overtime pay. The expectations for customer contact and communication were very clear, even in crowd control situations. Rudeness and profanity in front of customers or toward other employees was not permitted.

This highly-paid conductor should be dismissed immediately for speaking to paying customers and potential customers in that manner. His behaviour was a disgrace and not professional at all. I would have the highest expectations of such a professional position.

Had I been present he would have been instructed to mind his manners and act properly in front of everyone. Management would have been notified immediately.

I have ridden a few amtrak trains and have not met a person like this. Some may be disinterested but none have been rude. Its time for some "undercover shoppers" to weed out the few rotten apples spoiling the barrel. I would be the first to apply.

Michael

emd_mrs1 says:

>>Had I been present he would have been instructed to mind his manners and act properly in front of everyone. Management would have been notified immediately.


Had you been the conductor and people we piling down the escalator and no where to go with hundreds of NJT passengers on the platform, what would you have done?

It is not the conductor's roll to do anything - he does not answer to Gate Ushers, nor manage the escalators and platforms. You have 1,200 hour-late, irate NJT passengers trying to go up and a couple of hundred Amtrak passengers trying to get down. Who do you think is going to win that battle ?

The gravity of the situation notwithstanding, I was ROTFLMBO When I saw this in Geen's post:

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com


>
> > #UnitedIsHiring," tweeted Brad Barton.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/17 17:55 by wabash2800.

Camera's everywhere and the viral Internet to instantly spread it across the globe. Brave New World. Some of us are lucky enough to remember how it used to be. Some of the old SP anti-passenger antics would make these Amtrak/airline people blush. But in those days it was dealt with locally. Like the conductor that snapped at DJ Russell's sister. Legend has it he never to work as a conductor again

Sphogger

Margaret_SP_fan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> And why, oh, why does anyone ever call PASSENGERS
> "customers"? Or "guests"?

It adds a perspective as to why those people are present.
They are customers ... they are paying to be on that platform and to ride the train that they were on. They may not have been the Amtrak conductor's customers (and that was made clear in the rant) but they were customers who deserved to be treated better. And the conductor's customers deserved to be treated better as well than to be put through a stressful boarding experience (and then spend more time with that conductor on their train).

I'll blame "guest" on Disney ... but the Disney model of customer service is spreading throughout the world of customer service. Treat people as if they were guests in one's own home - not like cattle that need to be herded. I am not in a direct "customer service" role where I work, but I have been given "Disney" training (directly from a person working for Disney) and consider those times when I go out of my way to help someone "moments of Disney". If a visitor to my building looks lost I walk them to their destination (or as far as needed to make them comfortable). If there is trash on the floor I pick it up. I want my work environment to be as pleasant as a Disney park - without the $95 gate fee.

Sure - there are horror stories involving Disney, but those come from employees not following the standards or poorly set expectations. Not from routine acceptable operations.

And yes, it is hard to treat a "mob" of over 1000 people as guests in one's own home. But it comes down to attitude. Do the best that you can instead of giving up and reaching for the cattle prod.

knotch8 --
Thank you very, very much for politely explaining the
context for what happened. I had no idea that Penn
Station was very often very overcrowded. Is is really
impossible to schedule arriving and departing trains
so their passengers never have to use the same platform
at the same time? I hope not! Even 5 minutes delay to
one train should keep the passengers from an arriving
train from running full-tilt into the passengers for a
departing train -- right? I hope so!

I now understand why that conductor yelled at people,

Is there any way to control a crowd that large -- +1,200
people? TIA!

Margaret_SP_fan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I now understand why that conductor yelled at people,

The cattle prod is never the right answer.

It's okay, you are correct. Stay on that soap box with the rest of us!!