It's hard to like Amtrak when they keep messing up with delays

[jis]

In the context of the outfit called "Virgin" buying into any transport business, it does not matter what Branson is or is not. The outfit that runs the transportation business or owns parts of conglomerates that do is the Virgin Group, and Branson's relationship to it is just an emeritus status as the Founder. The guys with real executive authority are the CEO Josh Bayliss and Chairman of the Board Peter Norris.

Specifically on the Rail side of things Virgin Rail which is the primary rail transport related holding company, is 51% owned by Virgin Group and 49% by Stagecoach Group, which used to be a pure bus company but now owns a couple of UK Rail franchises on its own. Virgin Rail own the Intercity West Coast franchise in the UK. In addition it owns 10% or Virgin East Coast franchise, the remaining 90% owned by the Stagecoach Group.

So as you can see Branson is many steps removed and often his primary connection is with an outfit that is either a small minority owner and sometimes a bare majority owner of the relevant subsidiaries.

Even if any private outfit comes to run a part of Amtrak it at most may have a franchise use of the Virgin name, but the actual company will probably be mostly Stagecoach or First Group (another originally bus company) or some such. Even Virgin Atlantic Airline at present is operationally more dependent on Delta than it has ever been before, and is still in dire financial straits.

 

[Texan Eagle]

What Texan Eagle said, doubled. The problem is communications. This problem is entirely under the control of Amtrak. It's a difficult problem, to be sure, requiring a lot of planning and a lot of training, but right now it seems like management isn't paying any attention to it at all!

I wrote to Amtrak Customer Relations about this exact issue- crew being disinterested and shrugging off communications on 3 of my recent Amtrak rides, and this is a part of the response I got, and I quote verbatim- "All front line employees are trained to be apologetic, empathetic and to always assist the customer in a professional and respectful manner. We are sorry to hear that you don’t always experienced that." (typo theirs, not mine)

This makes me believe that the folks sitting out at Amtrak corporate are detached from the on-ground reality, happily believing that all staff is doing their job merrily.

 

[Reno89502]

This is one of the main reasons why I always bring a scanner with me on the long distance runs. Amtrak has always been notorious for not passing along information to their passengers.

On a sidenote, one time while I was sitting in the lounge car I was told by a coach attendant that listening to scanners at what the conductors and engineers were saying was illegal. I just basically laughed at him.

 

[Reno89502]

This is one of the main reasons why I always bring a scanner with me on the long distance runs. Amtrak has always been notorious for not passing along information to their passengers.

On a sidenote, one time while I was sitting in the lounge car listening to my scanner WITH headphones on, I was told by a coach attendant that listening to scanners at what the conductors and engineers were saying was illegal. I just basically laughed at him.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

On a sidenote, one time while I was sitting in the lounge car listening to my scanner WITH headphones on, I was told by a coach attendant that listening to scanners at what the conductors and engineers were saying was illegal. I just basically laughed at him.

Interesting topic. Several states ban using, or in some cases simply possessing, functional radio scanners while in a moving vehicle. If such a law were written broadly enough it might inadvertently be applicable to trains as well. Then there's the de facto vs. de jure consideration. If a conductor didn't like you listening in they could simply claim your presence made the journey unsafe and put you off the train. I'm not aware of anyone being removed for use of a scanner but if such a thing happened it's hard to see what sort of legal recourse you'd have. I've never had anyone on the train complain about my scanner, and if it was a coach attendant I'd probably ignore them just as you did, but if it was a conductor I'd probably turn it off.

 

[Reno89502]

I have never had a conductor say anything about me listening to the scanner. Once a conductor said "Are you listening to anything good?", and then the other time a conductor walk behind me, saw that I was listening to a scanner, and started keying his Mic over and over again. He then turned around and smiled at me.

 

[west point]

https://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=AM_Alert_C&pagename=am/AM_Alert_C/Alerts_Popup&cid=1251645702359[/URL]

 

[neroden]

Color me amazed. I'd rather that it said "an equipment problem on a locomotive" or "an equipment problem on a dining car", but still, great.

 

[Don Newcomb]

Interesting topic. Several states ban using, or in some cases simply possessing, functional radio scanners while in a moving vehicle. If such a law were written broadly enough it might inadvertently be applicable to trains as well.

Just pick up a ham license, those laws always exempt amateur radio licensees.