Passenger Trains > Crew shortage question

With the very small extra boards Amtrak maintains in numerous small bases the odds are that one of them will end up without enough crews to operate the long haul train that goes thru there.

Would it be possible to send out, say a corridor crew who is not needed there right now to operate the train with host railroad pilots. I'm thinking would be easier with northeast corridor crews on CSX and NS etc due to NORAC rules qualified while a crew off one of the California corridors operates over a UP or BNSF line.

Thoughts??

Posted from Android

My initial thought would be no as the crew needs to be qualified on the territory also. Theoretically they could have a freight crew pilot the corridor crew similar to what happens when they do a route detour.

Posted from iPhone

My thought would be no also, and I need to ask several questions.

1. If you knew you were going to have to patch a specific train, you call the non-qualified ATK crew, and a Freight RR Pilot.  But where do you get the non-qualified ATK crew from if you're Short?  Hours of service rules consider deadheading to an assignment as time on duty, so you are going to have to watch what time you start deadheading a freight pilot from another terminal.

2. ATK terminals and freight terminals are different, right?  What happens when you have an ATK crew that isn't qualified North, only South?  You call a South freight engineer, who only turns out to be qualified for the first 200 miles of the ATK engineer's 300 mile district.

3. What do you do the next day on the return trip?  Call two freight pilots for parts of the trip again?

4. Freight speed and passenger speed are different, the freight pilot will know where he or she is, but won't be up on the speed, regardless of the signs.  Nobody on this crew is going to know how many units to pull over the short platform to get both the sleepers and the coaches on the platform.
G

Could be wrong, but all bid assignments were canceled and every one to spare/extra board and called per your qualified territory.

Are Amtrak crew members required to be qualified on the safety features of the passenger cars? And operating the defibrillator? 

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> Are Amtrak crew members required to be qualified
> on the safety features of the passenger cars? And
> operating the defibrillator? 

When I retired from Amtrak back in 2013 all nonoperating emplyees attended one week of Block training that included the use of a defibrilator and cpr. Operating folks got another week that I believed involved the GCOR and airbrakes. Amtrak was serious about the training and I had to attend the one week class even though I had given my notice a month in advance, so off I went to LA for a  week on the company dime even though I would retire in a few weeks. 
The up side was, at least in LA, Amtrak had some good people doing the training. 

GettingShort Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Lackawanna484 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Are Amtrak crew members required to be
> qualified
> > on the safety features of the passenger cars?
> And
> > operating the defibrillator? 
>
> When I retired from Amtrak back in 2013 all
> nonoperating emplyees attended one week of Block
> training that included the use of a defibrilator
> and cpr. Operating folks got another week that I
> believed involved the GCOR and airbrakes. Amtrak
> was serious about the training and I had to attend
> the one week class even though I had given my
> notice a month in advance, so off I went to LA for
> a  week on the company dime even though I would
> retire in a few weeks. 
> The up side was, at least in LA, Amtrak had some
> good people doing the training. 

Thanks.  Good info.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> Are Amtrak crew members required to be qualified
> on the safety features of the passenger cars? And
> operating the defibrillator? 

AED, basic first aid, CPR, emergency procedures including how to remove emergency exit windows, etc. is taught to crew members in PTEPP training (PTEPP = Passenger Train Emergency Preparedness Plan).