Passenger Trains > What does LSA on Amtrak trains mean?

I see this acronym occasionally onTrainOrders and cannot figure out what it stands for.

Thanks in advance

Lead Service Attendant.  The person who handles the money.  Others can elaborate......

Lead Service Attendant supervises diner and lounge attendants.

I thought it meant "Late from Schedule Again!"
SR2

Thanks, very helpful.  I finally won an argument!

The acronym LSA gets tossed around here more often than insults about Anderson.

Some (all?) of Amtrak's innovative terms for personnel, like "sleeping car attendant" vs. "porter", or "LSA" vs. "Steward", have to do with job descriptions. If you want to change the duties of an employee, it's generally easier to rename the position that has the revised job description than to haggle with the union(s) over the details. The job-description of "steward", for instance, exempted a steward from performing any function of a waiter—serving food (even refilling a coffee cup), bussing tables, etc. LSAs are expected to do any or all of those things that seem to be necessary. 


Of course, the snag is that employees hired under the ancien régime continue to work under the earlier job descriptions; you can't really tell a "steward" from an "LSA" except by observing what they do (or rather, don't do). There aren't many actual stewards on Amtrak trains, maybe by now there are none. There still were a few, a couple of years ago.

Paging Boiling Man....   Steve you want explain this?

Rerailed Wrote:
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> Lead Service Attendant supervises diner and lounge
> attendants.

Do you know of any loung cars that operate with more than one person?

DevalDragon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Rerailed Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Lead Service Attendant supervises diner and
> lounge
> > attendants.
>
> Do you know of any loung cars that operate with
> more than one person?

Not presently with the tiny train consists that Amtrak puts together. No need. Back in the day, however, the Starlight had the upper bar open pretty much all summer long trying to cope with the demand of six full coaches plus sleepers of hungry and thirsty passengers. The LSA on that job would work #14 up to wherever he could comfortably meet #11 the next day and work back. Those were very busy and hectic times on the Starlight. If I remember correctly, the Builder also had an upstairs attendant for a time during the busy season.

With the new Viewliner dining scheme it stands for Lonely Service Attendant, as there’s only one employee left in the car.

Dave

DavidP Wrote:
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> With the new Viewliner dining scheme it stands for
> Lonely Service Attendant, as there’s only one
> employee left in the car.
>
> Dave

I LOVE IT--SO TRUE!!!

Okay, okay
An LSA is responsible for the revenue in a food/drink situation.
An LSA might work alone (cafe) or with others (full diner). There are no work rules that separate an LSA from any of the tasks involved in these services- the only real distinction is the responsibility for revenue.
However- there are slight pay distinctions among LSA’s. An LSA in a full diner, with a staff, makes a bit more per hour than an LSA working alone in a cafe. An LSA in a parlor is paid a rate between those two.
SR

Retired (& living happily ever after) LSA, 32yrs service.

DevalDragon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Rerailed Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Lead Service Attendant supervises diner and
> lounge
> > attendants.
>
> Do you know of any loung cars that operate with
> more than one person?

On the Pacific Surfliner the Attendant in the Business Class is not an LSA. Any revenue they collect (alcohol) is the responsibility of the only LSA on the train: the LSA in the Cafe Car.
SR

badgerexpat Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Some (all?) of Amtrak's innovative terms for
> personnel, like "sleeping car attendant" vs.
> "porter", or "LSA" vs. "Steward", have to do with
> job descriptions. If you want to change the duties
> of an employee, it's generally easier to rename
> the position that has the revised job description
> than to haggle with the union(s) over the details.
> The job-description of "steward", for instance,
> exempted a steward from performing any function of
> a waiter—serving food (even refilling a coffee
> cup), bussing tables, etc. LSAs are expected to do
> any or all of those things that seem to be
> necessary. 

Stewards are long gone- about 20yrs gone on the West Coast (I cant swear it’s been that long in the East- but probably)
Stewards were members of the same unions as the operating trainmen, and not the same union as the rest of the On Board staff. So technically Stewards were eliminated, not simply re-tasked and renamed.
They were then replaced with LSA’s, a newly created OBS position.
SR

BoilingMan Wrote:

> Stewards are long gone- about 20yrs gone on the
> West Coast (I cant swear it’s been that long in
> the East- but probably)
> Stewards were members of the same unions as the
> operating trainmen, and not the same union as the
> rest of the On Board staff. So technically
> Stewards were eliminated, not simply re-tasked and
> renamed.
> They were then replaced with LSA’s, a newly
> created OBS position.
> SR

All absolutely correct; thanks SR.  Just to add a further bit of Amtk history, there was another term
that predated the "LSA" moniker.  And that term was EIC.  It stood for Employee In Charge. That term
covered any money handling position on the trains, short of the full Dining Car Steward. Those elite employes
belonged to the Trainman/Conductors Union = UTU. If you were asked to run as EIC, in say a staffing
emergency, two things would have happened. You would have been issued a Bank (then $100) in order to make
Change, and the other necessary paperwork, which I think was called the "896 Form" back then. And- if you worked
the assignment, you could have established a Seniority Date as EIC/ LSA-- allowing you to bid and run in those various
positions. This was in the early 1980s. It happened to me on New Years Eve, 1982- where I was asked to fill a no show
Snack Bar Attendant on the Spirit of CA (night train to Sacramento from LA.) I worked that position RT, but later declined the
seniority slot, preferring to just keep my original quickly rising seniority, as a coach and sleeping car TA.

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/19 15:57 by OldPorter.

Yep. I actually hired out as a Train Attendant, but on the first day of training someone with a clip board walked in with a list. My name was on the list. I was snatched from the class, and while I was still a TA on paper (seniority roster), I was pushed through a crash course and sent out on the road as an LSA! LSA’s were in short supply, I guess, because I never once worked as a TA in my 1st year even though I wasn’t officially an LSA, just a TA in a kind of weird LSA limbo!
Today LSA’s are hired directly and receive an LSA seniority date straight away. (As it worked out, the delay in getting a date didn’t hurt me too much- I held #1 in Oakland for about 15yrs- Jeez!)
The term EIC was being fazed out when I started. I was really only addressed as an EIC in Chicago, where the title seemed to live on a bit longer than LA or Seattle.
SR

Steve- pls check your PM Box-- Im getting msgs saying = undeliverable- Box Is full.  Tried to send u some info a few minutes ago, about UTU Stewards.  It was a no -go.
OK thanks!
OP