Passenger Trains > Amtrak shutting down all PVs on LOSSAN corridor

I got word this morning that my several upcoming moves to SBA and SLO have been turned down by Amtrak under the guise of insufficient dwell time in various places. This was after LArail had a meeting at Amtrak in L.A. this past Tuesday, during which we were told that although LAX-SAN was closed temporarily, LAX-SLO would remain open to us. I will let you all guess the level at which I am boiling right now, but let's just say it's not good for my health.

Once again, I ask all of you who have enjoyed riding our cars (or any others for that matter) to please contact your political representatives, both state and federal, to complain. Also, the LOSSAN corridor folks need to hear from you as well -- www.lossan.org.

The thought of all these nice cars just sitting in museums is hard to bear.

Thank you,

-John

jcaestecker Wrote:
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> I got word this morning that my several upcoming
> moves to SBA and SLO have been turned down by
> Amtrak under the guise of insufficient dwell time
> in various places. This was after LArail had a
> meeting at Amtrak in L.A. this past Tuesday,
> during which we were told that although LAX-SAN
> was closed temporarily, LAX-SLO would remain open
> to us. I will let you all guess the level at
> which I am boiling right now, but let's just say
> it's not good for my health.
>
> Once again, I ask all of you who have enjoyed
> riding our cars (or any others for that matter) to
> please contact your political representatives,
> both state and federal, to complain. Also, the
> LOSSAN corridor folks need to hear from you as
> well -- www.lossan.org.
>
> The thought of all these nice cars just sitting in
> museums is hard to bear.
>
> Thank you,
>
> -John

As a state supported service this is definitely something that can find its way into an operating agreement.

maybe you can lobby to start hooking up on commuter trains?

i just put this elsewhere;

this too shall pass i hope remember the edict that all cars have to be red white and blue, perhaps we will have to wait these leaders out?

best of luck John, you may not have this option for a few years, but i believe it will come back, just wait for regime change.

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This whole rejecttion of charter and PV business is terrible for our community of railfans, railroad advocates, and maybe more importantly for advocates of American culture, historical studies, and folklore.
Now you probably know how conservation and wildlife advocates feel about the Trump policies on Dept. of Interior.
Now you probably know how public health people feel about environmental protections, funding for research and prevention, etc.
Killing off Amtrak is small potatoes compared to the damage he is doing in many other fields.
Back to railroads; we have to have hope that democracy is not dead so contact your representatives and state your case. Even if they are entrenched fans of Trump, their job is to represent you and to listen to you.
I am doing just that.

"Just wait for regime change."

That can't happen soon enough. This guy is seemingly hell bent on destroying the railroad one stupid move at a time.

Anytime a PV is added, it will undoubtedly delay the paying customers. This is why Delta, i mean Amtrak made the policy change. Many on this board have complained about this in the past. Now Amtrak is putting its customers first, but we're still outraged. Make up your minds.. oh yeah this is trainorders, nevermind.

irhoghead Wrote:
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> "Just wait for regime change."
>
> That can't happen soon enough. This guy is
> seemingly hell bent on destroying the railroad one
> stupid move at a time.

We had regime change last year.

Our American-born President just signed a spending bill giving Amtrak the biggest budget its ever seen to date. Trump has too much on his plate to micro-manage Amtrak. I guess this is the thanks he gets for signing this whopping spending bill!

thetuck Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Anytime a PV is added, it will undoubtedly delay
> the paying customers. This is why Delta, i mean
> Amtrak made the policy change. Many on this board
> have complained about this in the past. Now
> Amtrak is putting its customers first, but we're
> still outraged. Make up your minds.. oh yeah this
> is trainorders, nevermind.


PV's ARE paying customers. It's a class about first class even. Honestly the way to handle this is through free market mechanisms. If a PV wants to be set out at a non-layover station then charge them more. Or charge them per minute of delay.

Anybody notice in photo one that it appears that nobody
on that open platform is holding onto anything in case of
sudden movement?

May have been a 45 min wait at Las Vegas for #4 so many passing tracks out of service down there.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/18 18:34 by dan.

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This has nothing to do with President Trump. Take your anti capitalism tripe elsewhere.

This is about the Amtrak CEO making what seems to be a foolish move. I'm not sure what the best move forward is, but it certainly does not involve the President.

Posted from Android

This whole debacle is nothing more than weapons grade autism. Y'all need to stop thinking like the foamers you are and look at this from a mature and logical standpoint, then you'll begin to understand this.

M5R24 Wrote:
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> This whole debacle is nothing more than weapons
> grade autism. Y'all need to stop thinking like the
> foamers you are and look at this from a mature and
> logical standpoint, then you'll begin to
> understand this.

A logical announcement would be "Amtrak raises cost of charters to fully cover its costs."

"Mature and logical" and "Amtrak" are oxymorons.

irhoghead Wrote:
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> "Mature and logical" and "Amtrak" are oxymorons.

Unfortunately that statement would be true even if the word "Amtrak" were replaced by the word "Railfans" :(

We can hope that cooler heads will prevail so that private cars can be handled on most trains. Having said that, schedules on short haul services such as the Surfliiners should not be disrupted to add or remove private cars from the train. These trains are used by people expecting to get to their destination close to the scheduled time. Unforeseen delays are already a problem, as cited here numerous time, and deliberately delaying a train to add private cars does not seem appropriate. Charging a higher fee to over the cost of a delay is not really the point; service to regular customers is the issue.

Please tell us the times that LOSSAN trains have been delayed switching private cars.

Everyone needs to calm down and carefully read the post by PDT yesterday. Then calmly think about the points he is making very carefully. Maybe some will start to understand.

 

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In 33 years of working for Amtrak I don't think I can ever recall a time when switching in or out PVs anywhere but at a trains endpoints didn't result in substantial delays. The Sunset was always delayed when cars were cut in and out at the Port of Tucson storage tracks outside Tucson. Even with a track layout set up for switching the train crew did the setout themselves, there were multiple permissions required from the Dispatcher, orders given, reread, confirmed, the confirmation counter confirmed, wait for the switch, more orders and time requested for the next move and on and on. in the end the delays ranged from 45 to 90 minutes or longer all the while the train might be sitting without HEP. And thats if nothing went wrong, like the HEP not wanting to come back on. Another issue is how skilled are todays generation of railroaders who didn't come up working freight at this sort of thing? Probably not very, even many of the freight railroads people seemed more than a little lost when they have to set out a bad order car. The railroads simply aren't set up to do the sort of switching that was done as matter of corse in the 1960s and earlier.

railstiesballast Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This whole rejecttion of charter and PV business
> is terrible for our community of railfans,
> railroad advocates, and maybe more importantly for
> advocates of American culture, historical studies,
> and folklore.
> Now you probably know how conservation and
> wildlife advocates feel about the Trump policies
> on Dept. of Interior.
> Now you probably know how public health people
> feel about environmental protections, funding for
> research and prevention, etc.
> Killing off Amtrak is small potatoes compared to
> the damage he is doing in many other fields.
> Back to railroads; we have to have hope that
> democracy is not dead so contact your
> representatives and state your case. Even if they
> are entrenched fans of Trump, their job is to
> represent you and to listen to you.
> I am doing just that.

You go, rtb!!!