Passenger Trains > Amtrak Chicago from the inside

Posted at the All Aboard Group
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This is from a former Amtrak executive.

No one mentions that several years ago Amtrak closed the RIP track at 14th Street on third shift. Then, last year, allegedly because of a shortage of mechanical personnel, they closed the RIP track on second trick also.

This was done, I was told, to force the employees into the yard to fill vacancies on running maintenance jobs. So the mechanical work forces have been cannibalized for several years in Chicago, I assume to cut costs so the perpetrators......um......I mean management, could reach their cost reduction goals so they could pad their salary with phony bonuses. Performance bonuses don't add anything to "performance" when they starve the ability to perform routine tasks.

This condition is totally the responsibility of upper management. Instead of using the Covid lull and service curtailments to perform overhauls and catch up with periodic maintenance, they retrenched, made little effort to determine the age of the workforce to plan for retirements and failed to continue to hire with the goal of having sufficient qualified personnel to be able to ramp back up after the pandemic was over. But, Amtrak wasn't the only company to utilize this business philosophy. Unemployment figures for last week were at something like 3.4%, the lowest since 1969. Jobs are available and workers are shopping around for better wages and benefits and they are getting them. Retention of employees is hard with the job market as it currently is and if you are going to survive and thrive you must be competitive. Amtrak can't figure this out and simply wrings its hands, quotes from the Amtrak "Big Book of Train Delay Excuses" and limps into another embarrassing operational day. I am ashamed of the "service" that they have operated since lessened Covid restrictions have allowed a return to normalcy. I don't see how they will recover as they are no longer a reliable form of travel. A four car "Capitol Limited" is not a service. It does nothing more than maintain a franchise.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/23 07:35 by GenePoon.

This former Amtrak executive is spot on. I’m not an executive, I’m a RR’er who’s given my lifeblood to NRPC for over 37 years, and it’s beyond sad, esp since the pandemic hit and how that’s still being used as an excuse for the constant everyday crisis that they cannot get a handle on.
Never, ever have I seen it in such a mess like it is now… Foremen in my yard routinely fill in as Car men, since they’re constantly short. Many employees work a double-shift now— yes, it’s overtime, but the workforce is exhausted and demoralized. A new-hire electrician just quit— said he’d find another job and had it after only a few months at NRPC.
And, the trains are pathetically short systemwide— The “Coast Stoplight” is down to 6 cars, similar to the “Capitol Extremely Limited’s” 4. The “California Service” ( not a Zephyr by any stretch) is a whopping 8 cars.
Thanks, Gene, for sharing the former Am-Exec’s thoughts— I’m sure they’re not missing NRPC one bit!

Don't know how Gardner, and the rest of AMmangement gets away with it. 

They must have magical powers,or something.  Even some train fans on here jump to 
their defence the second Gardner is criticized.

These guys have so downgraded trains, that it's a wonder anyone is riding Amtrak anymore --
especially the LD trains, which have become very unreliable.

 

Is Amtrak advertising jobs in the Chicago shops now?

Alderwoman Taylor was successful in getting NS to commit to 180 new hires at the yards in 2024. Maybe she could take on Amtrak next.

Posted from Android

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Is Amtrak advertising jobs in the Chicago shops
> now?
>
> Alderwoman Taylor was successful in getting NS to
> commit to 180 new hires at the yards in 2024.
> Maybe she could take on Amtrak next.
>
> Posted from Android

I heard she referred to NS repeatedly as "Norfolk Sutherland," an apparent relative of Donald Sutherland.

Alderwoman Taylor?? I know that name, she was just in the Chicago news...

https://chicago.suntimes.com/city-hall/2023/2/1/23582089/norfolk-southern-rail-yard-expansion-chicago-city-council-approval-ranked-choice-voting-resolution

Couple of her comments from the article follows: Norfolk Southern, "who got rich off of the backs of slaves", resisted “giving this community the little things that they’re asking for,” Taylor said, referring to her demand for an ironclad agreement of jobs and contracts for Englewood residents. More from Taylor: They did not make sure that the Black folks from the community get the contracts. What does that say about us? … I am tired of sitting in a space where I’m ignored and not listened to just because of the color of my skin,” Taylor said.

A good lesson in what modern day discrimination really looks like... with a railroad subject line.

Yes.  The blame can, to a point, can  be put on the back of covid.  The rebuilding of hydraulic cylinders used to take upwards to 10 days.  One company quit doing the overhauls due to no help.  Another company picked up the slack.  Now the rebuild takes a month to six weeks.  I found one set of drive tires (8) for a Peterbilt.  Other tire outlets could got guarantee delivery of  anything.  I do think that is better now but one pays accordingly.  I could go on. 

In my other life, I have to deal with 2 different state agencies here in Montana.  Before covid things functioned about as well as a government agency could.  Then covid hit and everybody got this wild idea (including the state folks) that we have to offer early retirements as a means of supposedly dealing with covid.  Why, I do not know.   Therein lies a significant amount of the problem.  All the experienced folks took the early retire offer and left town.  Now I deal with two types.  One group are the "little Hitlers" that have found themselves in a place of some  authority now that John Doe retired and I'm (me) going to have to do it their way.  The other group are the new hires (that they could find) that when you call to seek assistance with a new form the first group  has decided to put in place the second  new hire group has not a clue what you're talking about. And on it goes.  It has gone beyond sad.

One zinger is the registration of scales used for public commerce.  The scale owner has to pay a fee to register the scale so it can be inspected yearly by the state.  We finally called that Dept because our registration check never cleared the bank.  But we were good to go.  We are on the calendar for inspection services.  That has been 2 years ago now.  The check never did clear the bank.

Covid was one thing but this mindset to offer the early retirements sent the experience out the door.  It ain't just Amtrak!

It explains a lot sadly

Posted from Android

And remember,recently they finally went to Siemens to get the bugs fixed on their new locomotives, talk about dragging your feet and being as blind as a bat!

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/23 18:35 by ProAmtrak.