KnightRail
Lead Service Attendant
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2015
- Messages
- 493
Caretaker will open/close around train time. The trend continues.
Probably generate enough revenue to justify keeping someone on the payroll for a couple of hour window every day.What is the business model to keep a station staffed? It would be good to know so we know what the future Amtrak will look like.
Nope, just a tag with the station code of the destination of the bag.Aren't all checked bags tagged with a computer barcode like the airlines? If so, it's all trackable.
At least for the time being, no checked baggage.Any word on whether baggage will be checked trainside at GRV?
There are plenty of reasons, #1 being my back.Train-side baggage check needs to be implemented, and without delay, on every train with a baggage car. There is no reason this cannot be done at virtually every station. And to better streamline this, having the ability to declare the number of bags being checked when making a reservation so as to expect the number of bags to be taken aboard as well as their intended destinations seems a no-brainer.
And yet, here we are.
There are plenty of ways to address that concern. You would advocate the elimination of checked baggage completely, then? Saving oneself from injury is absolutely not what I am against, but in realistic terms, is moving baggage/heavy items not part of the job in the first place? In my line of work I routinely wear 50+ pounds of gear, then carry awkward and very heavy things like ladders (80-100+ lbs) and charged fire hoses hoses, all while moving through uneven terrain and/or tight areas as well as stairs. I expect someone to point out "That is your job, you signed up for it." Which would be my point.There are plenty of reasons, #1 being my back.Train-side baggage check needs to be implemented, and without delay, on every train with a baggage car. There is no reason this cannot be done at virtually every station. And to better streamline this, having the ability to declare the number of bags being checked when making a reservation so as to expect the number of bags to be taken aboard as well as their intended destinations seems a no-brainer.
And yet, here we are.
It sounds so simple to "just put the bag on the train". Well, exactly where do you want to put those bags? We could certainly add checked baggage service at every unstaffed station by lengthening dwell times an extra 5-10 minutes. It'll "only" add an hour running time between MIA-NYP.There are plenty of ways to address that concern. You would advocate the elimination of checked baggage completely, then? Saving oneself from injury is absolutely not what I am against, but in realistic terms, is moving baggage/heavy items not part of the job in the first place? In my line of work I routinely wear 50+ pounds of gear, then carry awkward and very heavy things like ladders (80-100+ lbs) and charged fire hoses hoses, all while moving through uneven terrain and/or tight areas as well as stairs. I expect someone to point out "That is your job, you signed up for it." Which would be my point.There are plenty of reasons, #1 being my back.Train-side baggage check needs to be implemented, and without delay, on every train with a baggage car. There is no reason this cannot be done at virtually every station. And to better streamline this, having the ability to declare the number of bags being checked when making a reservation so as to expect the number of bags to be taken aboard as well as their intended destinations seems a no-brainer.
And yet, here we are.
Amtrak, and its employees, exists to move people -and- their belongings. Safely, efficiently, and in comfort. Providing a means, at every opportunity, includes the ability to check larger pieces of luggage. Unstaffing stations appears to be the new normal, but service like checked luggage must remain or else whats the point?
Why does Amtrak have baggage cars then? Heck, they're just now taking delivery on NEW baggage cars for Viewliners, presumably including this route. If it's impossible to use them, why have them?It sounds so simple to "just put the bag on the train". Well, exactly where do you want to put those bags? We could certainly add checked baggage service at every unstaffed station by lengthening dwell times an extra 5-10 minutes. It'll "only" add an hour running time between MIA-NYP.There are plenty of ways to address that concern. You would advocate the elimination of checked baggage completely, then? Saving oneself from injury is absolutely not what I am against, but in realistic terms, is moving baggage/heavy items not part of the job in the first place? In my line of work I routinely wear 50+ pounds of gear, then carry awkward and very heavy things like ladders (80-100+ lbs) and charged fire hoses hoses, all while moving through uneven terrain and/or tight areas as well as stairs. I expect someone to point out "That is your job, you signed up for it." Which would be my point.There are plenty of reasons, #1 being my back.Train-side baggage check needs to be implemented, and without delay, on every train with a baggage car. There is no reason this cannot be done at virtually every station. And to better streamline this, having the ability to declare the number of bags being checked when making a reservation so as to expect the number of bags to be taken aboard as well as their intended destinations seems a no-brainer.
And yet, here we are.
Amtrak, and its employees, exists to move people -and- their belongings. Safely, efficiently, and in comfort. Providing a means, at every opportunity, includes the ability to check larger pieces of luggage. Unstaffing stations appears to be the new normal, but service like checked luggage must remain or else whats the point?
I assume you want the bags in the baggage car so they aren't taking up your valuable carry-on space, but the baggage car is usually not conveniently located to the coach boarding locations. How do you get passengers to be in the correct place for self-checked baggage? If you put signs up, 80% of the passengers will not comply with the signage. So now you have passengers being sent from the coaches to the baggage car, sometimes 4, 5, 6 cars away. Now they get down there but can't lift the bags up to the conductor, the bag weighs more than 50lbs, they didn't tag the bags, don't have identification on the bags, etc.
Once the baggage is tagged and in the baggage car, the passengers now have to walk all the way back down the platform to board. This is taking up lots and lots of time.
There are stations where the platform condition is marginal at best. Sebring, FL is the perfect example. The platform is low and uneven and the baggage car doors are at the height of my head. I didn't sign up for that, our job description says nothing about lifting 50lbs over our head. What if the bag is 54 lbs and I get hurt? Them I'm at fault because I picked up a bag over 50lbs even though accurate and reliable scales won't be available at unstaffed stations.
The platform also floods at Sebring, but we'll still do self-checked baggage and make passengers walk through the long/deep puddle to get to/from the baggage car during driving rain storms.
And they used to pay a baggageman to ride with the train 24/7 to handle luggage and to keep it sorted by destination throughout the run. Now they dump this task on the conductors and the station agent...who obviously don't have enough to do as is.And I'll finish with the fact that train-side baggage checking is not a new concept. Our neighbors to the north do it on a daily basis, without too much trouble. And it used to be a very common practice with the railroads pre-Amtrak. Just my $0.02.
Any one looking for the answer should visit Mount Pleasant or Fort Madison at train time on weekends. Or they could read the instructions at the station telling passengers how to do it.... Another question would be how could checked baggage get aboard the train quickly at short stops? How many checked bags might be involved? ...
Viewliner baggage car deliveries are complete. Amtrak's sole purpose for baggage cars is to create fodder for online discussions such as this. They certainly aren't being used to handled checked baggage and express as all the remaining staffed stations.Why does Amtrak have baggage cars then? Heck, they're just now taking delivery on NEW baggage cars for Viewliners, presumably including this route. If it's impossible to use them, why have them?
I'm with Blackwolf on this. It's really NOT unreasonable for customers of any long-distance transportation service to expect to be able to check baggage. At some level, Amtrak realizes this (long history of carrying checked baggage, new baggage cars....) At other levels, they don't seem to get it (more and more stations losing baggage service, and perhaps staff resistance to providing this service).
And the flip side of the injury issue, Amtrak KL, is that in order to save your own back you're expecting roomette customers, regardless of physical condition, to hoist their bags up overhead and into the awkwardly placed cubby above the sleeper hallway. At least the baggage cars have presumably been designed with ergonomics in mind. Those cubbys certainly weren't. I don't remember whether the Viewliner coaches have the same problem, but the Viewliner sleepers certainly don't have any other place to stow baggage.
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