Passenger Trains > After Job Cuts, Amtrak RFE Now Operating Trains

See following link for background..

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,4223257

This morning Amtrak 51(23) is being operated by RFE A. Lee out of Indianapolis. All open x-bd positions were cut less than two months ago at Indianapolis.

Audio link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_RhlGA18gfd09Kd3VKYTIta3M/view?usp=sharing

This mirror's recent concerns in Canada of Supervisors on the CP Railway operating trains. It's causing a stir there, will see if there's any backlash by the unhappy stateside.

Is the RFE doing a check ride or is someone check riding the RFE? RFEs have to have a check ride to maintain their qualifications. If it is one of these, there is nothing wrong.

Unreal. Amtrak cuts boards to the bone yet hires (mis) management left and right.

A crew base on the east coast 25 years ago staffed trains with 2 engineers, a baggageman, brakeman, and conductor. Often a 2nd brakeman. One foreman ran it all.

Today, trains go out with one engineer, one brakeman and one conductor. Now there is management tripping all over each other and there are never enough rested crews...amazing.

Posted from Android

This is a symptom of what happened to Amtrak during the eight years of a
dogmatic leadership which has resulted in a deep-set poisonous workplace
and administrative environment. One can only hope that Wick Moorman has
the guts, stamina and staying power to root out what the prior autocrat
has sown.

There's more...a lot more.

GenePoon Wrote:
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> This is a symptom of what happened to Amtrak during the eight years of a dogmatic leadership which has resulted in a deep-set poisonous workplace and administrative environment. One can only hope that Wick Moorman has the guts, stamina and staying power to root out what the prior autocrat has sown.

But it sounds like the changes referred to by the OP were made by the Moorman regime.

CPR_4000 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> GenePoon Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > This is a symptom of what happened to Amtrak
> during the eight years of a dogmatic leadership
> which has resulted in a deep-set poisonous
> workplace and administrative environment. One can
> only hope that Wick Moorman has the guts, stamina
> and staying power to root out what the prior
> autocrat has sown.
>
> But it sounds like the changes referred to by the
> OP were made by the Moorman regime.

Changing practices in a big company is like chopping down a tree. It takes the top quite a while to realize that the tree is dead. I have seen it in action at BN. No matter the change made at the top, the bottom stays loyal to the previous administration. It takes a long time to get all of it, if it can be done at all.

TAW

TAW Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Changing practices in a big company is like chopping down a tree. It takes the top quite a
> while to realize that the tree is dead. I have seen it in action at BN. No matter the change made
> at the top, the bottom stays loyal to the previous administration. It takes a long time to get all of
> it, if it can be done at all.

So at what level is it decided to cut the extra boards? Division?

PC1974 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> As for the RFE getting a check ride.. I sure hope
> not! She didn't tone the DS to contact him, and
> when explained by the trainman over the radio what
> to do listen closely.. First time, she hit the
> tones in reverse.. (It's on that audio link)

What is her background in regards to being an engineer?

CPR_4000 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> But it sounds like the changes referred to by the
> OP were made by the Moorman regime.

===========================================================
TAW Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Changing practices in a big company is like
> chopping down a tree. It takes the top quite a
> while to realize that the tree is dead. I have
> seen it in action at BN. No matter the change made
> at the top, the bottom stays loyal to the previous
> administration. It takes a long time to get all of
> it, if it can be done at all.

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

When the organization is an autocracy...and most railroads are...it is doubly or
triply necessary to have the right autocrat at the top. Appointments and policies
set into place have their effects for years after the autocrat is in his rocking
chair and no longer cares about his former company...if indeed that was his
real motivation all along, and not self-aggrandizement or the advancement
of part of the company at the expense of the rest.

If the autocrat has installed policies, procedures and personnel who are
well intentioned, well suited and well qualified for the job at hand, this
can be a good thing while his successor gets his feet on the ground. I'm
not saying this was a better or a worse example, but at Southern Pacific,
D.J. Russell, a strong leader, was succeeded at his retirement by B.F. Biaggini,
who was comparatively weak. SP continued on course for quite some time
after Biaggini took over in 1964. Finally, of course, shifts in the business and
some poor management decisions by Biaggini and those eventually empowered by
him brought the company down, but without having Russell at the helm
before, it all probably would have come down faster.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/17 10:36 by GenePoon.

ts1457 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> PC1974 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > As for the RFE getting a check ride.. I sure
> hope
> > not! She didn't tone the DS to contact him,
> and
> > when explained by the trainman over the radio
> what
> > to do listen closely.. First time, she hit the
> > tones in reverse.. (It's on that audio link)
>
> What is her background in regards to being an
> engineer?

If A. Lee is who I think, she was an engineer on the CSX?????

There is a Los Angeles RFE that blatantly disregards the collective bargaining agreement in spite of a fully rested extra board. Always has an excuse to run trains claiming it is an emergency situation. Hope the BLE checks his ego at the door.

bmarti7 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ts1457 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > PC1974 Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > As for the RFE getting a check ride.. I sure
> > hope
> > > not! She didn't tone the DS to contact him,
> > and
> > > when explained by the trainman over the radio
> > what
> > > to do listen closely.. First time, she hit
> the
> > > tones in reverse.. (It's on that audio link)
> >
> > What is her background in regards to being an
> > engineer?
>
> If A. Lee is who I think, she was an engineer on
> the CSX?????

I don't know anything about her background or qualifications, but A. Lee has an Amtrak seniority date of January 2009.

Read through all the posts and having worked for Amtrak and been involved in the BLE there, there has been quite a misunderstanding of the situation develop.

First off, there is nothing to prevent an RFE from running a train when the engineer is present. Whether he/she does this with no engineer present is another matter, not impossible but there would be claims involved because there is a procedure for calling regular engineers when the extraboard has been exhausted.

The "job cuts" are "open positions", which means "vacancies which went no bid". Thus abolisihing them puts no one out of work (although it hampers engineers from outside the crew base trying to bid into it).

>There is a Los Angeles RFE that blatantly disregards the collective bargaining agreement in spite of a fully rested extra board. Always has an excuse to run trains claiming it is an emergency situation. Hope the BLE checks his ego at the door.

Having known the BLE-Amtrak LA local chairman for years, I seriously doubt this has been going on. It's probably a case of the story being distotred by the telephone game.

>So at what level is it decided to cut the extra boards? Division?

It's been a while, but ISTR it's done by CMS in Wilmington in cooperation with, sometimes in spite of, the local Big Cheese (recently my spies informed me that the Queen of Denial is still in payroll).

>A crew base on the east coast 25 years ago staffed trains with 2 engineers, a baggageman, brakeman, and conductor. Often a 2nd brakeman. One foreman ran it all.
>Today, trains go out with one engineer, one brakeman and one conductor. Now there is management tripping all over each other and there are never enough rested crews...amazing.

One engineer and One fireman, not "two engineers", and I more than agree with you on the rest. 20+ years ago, We had an RFE in Oakland who was so dense, he was known as the Road Foreman of Paper Clips.

-------------------

Edited to add: I must qualify the "two engineers" comment: originally Atk had engineers and firemen. These titles became changed into "first" and "second" engineer when the former fireman's position attained the same pay rate as the engineer.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/17 10:25 by EtoinShrdlu.