Passenger Trains > What Happened to 381/382 Today

It was a gorgeous fall morning in Chicagoland so I made my way over to Western Springs to catch 381, the wb Carl Sandburg to Quincy IL. After waiting 20 minutes, I checked the status map and found nothing shown for 381. This evening I do not see the eb counterpart 382 show either. Did they cancel today’s round trip?

Also noticed the 383, the wb Illinois Zephyr is already an hour plus late out of Chicago.

Posted from iPhone



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/26/24 17:42 by kevink.

No engineer for 381 resulted in that train's cancellation, which resulted in no equipment in Quincy to run 382. 383 delayed for engineer rest.

Amtrak doesn't believe in hiring a sufficient amount of crews and staffing the extra boards. However they have plenty of management at all levels. Just try to get a decision out of the layers of management about an operation issue.

Posted from Android

Another example of a lack of state supervision.

Going to be interesting when Metra starts running Rockford service.  

I'm looking forward to seeing if Metra is going to use unmodified regular commuter coaches for that service and what if anything they're going to do for food service.

NPRocky Wrote:
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> I'm looking forward to seeing if Metra is going to
> use unmodified regular commuter coaches for that
> service and what if anything they're going to do
> for food service.

I am sure Metra will use normal equipment for this service. Harvard to Chicago is nearly a 2 hour ride with no food service. Rockford won't be different.

Thanks 4552 for the details.

At the risk of further thread drift, Metra issued an RFP a few months ago for proposals to provide snack bar service using the center vestibule of a gallery car. This would be similar to the bar cars that ran on some Metra lines into the 1990’s where the doors were blocked off and a full-width floor installed. There have been at least two iterations of this RFP, not sure what that means.

Posted from iPhone

4552 Wrote:
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> No engineer for 381 resulted in that train's
> cancellation, which resulted in no equipment in
> Quincy to run 382. 383 delayed for engineer rest.

If 383's Engineer is Chicago based why did they have to delay it for crew rest? Did they turn the poor guy off 4 or 6?

Posted from Android

He was supposed to be the engineer on 382 the day it was cancelled, so they deadhead him home on 380. Eventually someone realized there would be no engineer in Quincy to work 380 the next day because 381 was cancelled, so they deadheaded him back on 383 and needed to be fully rested to take a 4 hour cut in Quincy to work 380 on Sunday.


CubsFanJohn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 4552 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > No engineer for 381 resulted in that train's
> > cancellation, which resulted in no equipment in
> > Quincy to run 382. 383 delayed for engineer
> rest.
>
> If 383's Engineer is Chicago based why did they
> have to delay it for crew rest? Did they turn the
> poor guy off 4 or 6?
>
> Posted from Android

cabsignaldrop Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Amtrak doesn't believe in hiring a sufficient
> amount of crews and staffing the extra boards.
> However they have plenty of management at all
> levels. Just try to get a decision out of the
> layers of management about an operation issue.
>
> Posted from Android

That and people wonder why Amtrak hasn't gotten much better these days!