Do the OBS crews on LD trains layover at the end of the line (CHI - LAX, for example), or do they immediately turn and go back to their base city? And, as a tag-on question, does each OBS crewmember get their own roomette during their trip? Or, does the COBS schedule each crewmember for some time off duty in a roomette?
OBS Crew Layovers?
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the_traveler
Engineer
I believe OBS crews get at least 1 night off in the destination city. And I think each crew member gets their own Roomette on the train. That's part of the reason why it's so hard to get a room on the Cardinal - there is only 1 sleeper on the train and some rooms are used by the crew!
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Swadian Hardcore
Engineer
I heard from a SCA that he gets one night off at the other end of the line from his base, and three nights off at home, usually close to his base. That's for two-night LDs.
It really depends on the train as to what happens. For example, the LSL crews that come in each morning to Chicago, get several hours in a hotel room in CHI, before returning to the station that night to take the LSL back to NYP/BOS.
Most crews do get 1 night in the away city, but not all. The number of nights off between round trip runs seems to be dependent on length of run, 1 night vs. 2 nights, and your seniority.
Each crew member gets their own room and does not share.
Most crews do get 1 night in the away city, but not all. The number of nights off between round trip runs seems to be dependent on length of run, 1 night vs. 2 nights, and your seniority.
Each crew member gets their own room and does not share.
Thanks, everyone, for the great info!
Swadian Hardcore
Engineer
That would be too expensive! The cheapest way would be by bus. How do they do it, free rides on the CONO?
edit: error
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Exactly. And their buddies will 'hook them up' with unsold sleepers when available....
I am also aware of some New York based crew working the Crescent that 'commute' from places like Jacksonville. Same deal as above. On Board crews take care of their own. It is similar to the airline world, where flight attendants 'commuting' sometimes from coast to coast, will get free upgrades to First Class when seats are vacant...
On my recent trip from Ft. Lauderdale to Spokane, our SCA on the CZ, Richard, who is nearing retirement, is based out of Chicago and has the 6 days on, 8 days off schedule. He commutes to Chicago from his home in New Hampshire.
That sounds like a great routing. I would like to hear about your WAS-FTL trip.
Well that explains somewhat why it's hard to get onboard upgrades to sleepers. If somebody has been hooked up with a sleeper, the conductor is not going to want to sell it out from underneath a colleague.
rrdude
Engineer
Amtrak should have considered adding "Crew Dorms" to the viewliner baggage cars. (or did they?) Anyway, back in the day, on the Chief, and other trains, we had "dorm cars", which were sections of some other cars that had community bunks, sometimes THREE HIGH. Sure, it sucked not having your own room, privacy and all, but it worked, Only staff who got thier own rooms was staff that was issued a "bank", or funds to make change. Hence LSA's and Stewards got their own rooms, as did the Chef and Train Manager (if there was one)
That was one of the main reasons I took and passed the LSA test. That, and to make more in tips! Like others have seen me post before. Never spent a spent a paycheck in three years, lived off tips and extra-board.
That was one of the main reasons I took and passed the LSA test. That, and to make more in tips! Like others have seen me post before. Never spent a spent a paycheck in three years, lived off tips and extra-board.
Ispolkom
Engineer
I don't think that explains the near-universal reluctance of conductors to sell onboard upgrades.
Not entirely, but certainly in some cases.
MattW
Conductor
They did, I believe 25 baggage-dorms are part of the Viewliner order.
John, here's my trip report of my recently completed trip. You may wonder why we (my uncle and I) chose to start at Ft. Lauderdale instead of Miami. For me, simply, it was because it was hundreds of $'s cheaper to fly into Ft. Lauderdale than Miami. This was a three-zone, bedroom all the way trip, I having redeemed the two-zone portion from Ft. Lauderdale to Denver and my uncle the 1 zone from Denver to Spokane.
Correct, there are 25 half baggage/half dorm cars on order as part of the Viewliner II order.
Swadian Hardcore
Engineer
Will they give Roomettes in the dorm cars to each crewmember or will it be community bunk beds?
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By contract agreement, each worker is entitled to their own room. The fact that presumably there will still be two beds in the room will not change things; everyone gets their own private room.
There will be 9 rooms in the dorm car, so other than on the Lake Shore Limited or vastly expanded Silver service trains, this should get all crew members out of revenue rooms in the regular sleepers.
EB_OBS
Conductor
Every OBS employee on any overnight train is provided a roomette of their own. Why anyone thinks it would be fair and ethical treatment to force someone to share a room and/or even share a bed with another employee just blows me away. This isn't the military. Heck, as far as I know, even in the military only submariners had to share a rack. Is that even still the case?
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Please forgive me if I play "Devil's Advocate" for a moment...
h34r: I'm not suggesting that OBS crews should be forced to share accommodations. But with a limited amount of sleeper accommodations on the average consist overall (especially on Viewliners), I'd think Amtrak would want to make most available for sales (and revenue) as opposed to incurring addl. costs (or lost revenue opportunity) by providing them to OBS crews (not *my* decision... theirs). I could see providing them to crews if the supply of sleepers outweighs the demand on a given train/route. If it doesn't, then perhaps they should consider adding additional "trans dorm" like cars (with roomettes) for crews. I do know that the SCAs on the AT all have their own roomette in the car in which they service. Do the other OBS staff (chefs, etc.) have accommodations in the lower area of the diner (assuming Superliner)?And, yes, I do think Submariners still "hot bunk..." at least enlisted do.
Right now because Amtrak retired the very old & troublesome Heritage dorm cars, on single level trains the dining car crews & coach attendants get what would normally be revenue rooms. This of course reduces capacity for sales. With the new Viewliner bag/dorm cars, this will be less of a problem.Please forgive me if I play "Devil's Advocate" for a moment...
On Superliner trains, like the AT, the crew gets rooms in the Trans/Dorm. On most trains, Amtrak sells a few roomettes in the Trans/Dorm to the public. On the AT, all rooms in that car are for the crew, because of the large crew. In fact, I think that the crew still requires a few revenue rooms because there are simply so many crew members.
Okay--so open dorm cars for crews are a thing of the past, right? Each crewmember is entitled to a private room, right? And current Viewliner Roomette design has two bunks, one of which would have to go unused, right? And the new Viewliner Baggage-Dorm cars may not have sufficient Roomettes for larger crews, right?
The solution: Design the baggage-dorm roomettes in the classic "duplex" design, with interlocking lower and upper roomettes, like the old Slumbercoaches had. The Viewliner certainly has more than sufficient height to permit such a design, that would result in several more roomettes in the same space.
The solution: Design the baggage-dorm roomettes in the classic "duplex" design, with interlocking lower and upper roomettes, like the old Slumbercoaches had. The Viewliner certainly has more than sufficient height to permit such a design, that would result in several more roomettes in the same space.
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