Late train questions

[Dan O]

Hey,

On a late train, how many hours does the crew have to have worked before they have to stop?

What is the normal shift for them?

Do sleeper car passengers get another meal if the train is several hours late and a meal would normally be consumed during the late time?

Do the car attendants, etc get paid more for a late train? Is it by the trip/hour/etc?

This forum is very helpful but I wish I had known a bit more about Amtrak before my trip. Is there any kind of book like Amtrak for Dummies that tells all the basics? I don't mean detailed history or anything like that. Just simple things like getting tickets online/phone/in person, cancelling reservations, things to bring along, how dinner reservations work, carryon vs checked baggage, info on how the cars work, lateness and how it is handled and several other things I probably would not think to consider until I had to.

Thanks,

DanO

 

[puck71]

This forum is very helpful but I wish I had known a bit more about Amtrak before my trip. Is there any kind of book like Amtrak for Dummies that tells all the basics? I don't mean detailed history or anything like that. Just simple things like getting tickets online/phone/in person, cancelling reservations, things to bring along, how dinner reservations work, carryon vs checked baggage, info on how the cars work, lateness and how it is handled and several other things I probably would not think to consider until I had to.

If there's not a FAQ section or something for all this, there should be! Those are the same sort of things I'm wondering about...

 

[Dan O]

If there's not a FAQ section or something for all this, there should be! Those are the same sort of things I'm wondering about...

I learned quite a bit here just reading stories and posts. But some things crop up that you don't read about or didn't expect.

Dan

 

[Tony]

Being on a northboard Silver that was 24 hours late, I can mention..

Yes, you still get fed. To my surprise, the dining car did not run out of food. So, the Sleeper passengers kept getting fed. Now, the people in coach who didn't plan on buying any meals, or didn't bring any additional money, has the worse time. On our train, the dining car manager, did walk thru the sleepers, going from compartment to compartment, making sure we all did indeed get fed.

Yes, the crew hit the max allowed hours, and when it happen, the train just coasted to a stop in the middle of a swap. Now, that really upset me. First, we were already WAY WAY late (about 20 hours). Sitting on the siding going no where did NOT help, and of course, only added more hours to our delay. One would have expected that some jerk (aka executive) at Amtrak should have figured this out, and had a replacement crew already waiting to swap in at our previous station stop, even if Amtrak had to charter a helicopter or plane to get them there. But no.

However, our sleeper car attendant kept working. He constantly tried to keep all of us as comfortable as possible. I gave him an extra $20 for his efforts.

 

[Joel N. Weber II]

how dinner reservations work,

I think the answer to that one is that you talk to the crew and see how that particular crew is handling it. When I boarded the westbound Lake Shore Limited at ALB in May 2008, the sleeper attendant told me to just go back to the dining car (actually a pretend dining car that just reheats food in a convection oven) whenever I was ready, and I ended up being seated pretty much immediately. I'd been expecting the dining car to be more crowded, but maybe that was based upon what I'd read from people who'd been on trains with real dining cars which perhaps do a better job of persuading coach passengers that spending money is worthwhile. Also, I think the subtraction of the kitchen probably leads to more space for passengers to sit, but I've never been on a real dining car on Amtrak, so I don't really have a good sense of the layout.

 

[jackal]

Hey,
On a late train, how many hours does the crew have to have worked before they have to stop?

What is the normal shift for them?

Do sleeper car passengers get another meal if the train is several hours late and a meal would normally be consumed during the late time?

Do the car attendants, etc get paid more for a late train? Is it by the trip/hour/etc?

This forum is very helpful but I wish I had known a bit more about Amtrak before my trip. Is there any kind of book like Amtrak for Dummies that tells all the basics? I don't mean detailed history or anything like that. Just simple things like getting tickets online/phone/in person, cancelling reservations, things to bring along, how dinner reservations work, carryon vs checked baggage, info on how the cars work, lateness and how it is handled and several other things I probably would not think to consider until I had to.

Thanks,

DanO

Train crews (conductors and engineers) are limited by federal law to 12 hours on duty with mandatory eight or 10 hour rest periods between shifts. From my observations, Amtrak typically schedules them for 6-8 hours at a time, although due to train delays, they often work more.

Onboard Services (OBS) staffers usually work a train from start to finish. They are on duty for the entire run of the train, although they do get to sleep at night (and are paid to do so!). I do not know how their pay and overtime works--there is a former OBS employee that posts here who could probably answer your questions about that much better.

Sleeper passengers will continue to receive meals at normal mealtimes in the event of a delayed train, unless the train looks like it will arrive in the middle of or shortly after the meal period. If the diner runs out of food, they have some canned goods they can serve, or sometimes they cater food from a restaurant at one of the stops (like KFC or Subway).

There is a FAQ that some people have put together on Amtrak travel. It covers most (but not all, so stick around!) of what is commonly asked in these forums. Check it out at:

http://www.on-track-on-line.com/amtrak-tips.shtml

 

[Johnny]

<snipped>

http://www.on-track-on-line.com/amtrak-tips.shtml

would be nice to have a wiki for this kinda thing, instead of relying on other folks to update the pages

would the folks maintaining amtraktrains.com set one up?

if they can't/won't . I would host it

 

[AlanB]

<snipped>http://www.on-track-on-line.com/amtrak-tips.shtml

would be nice to have a wiki for this kinda thing, instead of relying on other folks to update the pages

Problem with Wiki's is that you also end up with a lot of false or erroneous info, not to mention unrelated info. Just saw a news report on Educators' thoughts on students using Wikipedia for research and reports, and just how many times they find themselves having to reteach their students because Wikipedia is wrong.

By the way, I'm one of those other folks. I helped rewrite those OTOL tips a while back and will probably be freshening them up again this fall when I get some time.

 

[Johnny]

<snipped>http://www.on-track-on-line.com/amtrak-tips.shtml

would be nice to have a wiki for this kinda thing, instead of relying on other folks to update the pages

Problem with Wiki's is that you also end up with a lot of false or erroneous info, not to mention unrelated info. Just saw a news report on Educators' thoughts on students using Wikipedia for research and reports, and just how many times they find themselves having to reteach their students because Wikipedia is wrong.

By the way, I'm one of those other folks. I helped rewrite those OTOL tips a while back and will probably be freshening them up again this fall when I get some time.

All the neat amtrak info i've found seems stuck in a time warp webwise.. it is kinda sad. Would be nice to have more of it aggregated together. I'd say the current tips don't cover even a 1/10 of the useful information i have found by browsing this and OTOL's forum, as well as rail pasenger USA, etc

A normal anonymous wiki might not be the best solution to be relied upon by everybody, so a hybrid solution could be created. This is always a tough one... I run into this all the time on free/libre software channels/wikis, still not really democratic solution that can take into account lack of knowledge by all the possible contributors. UGGH.. now that's a

much tougher problem than anything else

 

[AlanB]

We also created the "Faqs" section here on this website in an effort to build up some info in one place, and that does permit people to contribute things. It's also why I know that we also get unreleated things though too.

Unfortunately I just haven't had time to get some other topic together and started, as well as to go through some of the older posts in this forum that probably should be moved to the Faqs section.

 

[Joel N. Weber II]

Just saw a news report on Educators' thoughts on students using Wikipedia for research and reports, and just how many times they find themselves having to reteach their students because Wikipedia is wrong.

I think any source of information is going to sometimes have errors, though.

Why aren't those educators getting excited about the opportunity to teach their students to compare information in multiple sources, and using upates to wikipedia as an opportunity for their students to practice writing, though? Those educators are doing a fine job of preparing their students to work on an assembly line in a factory, which might be great if there were actually any of those jobs left in America.

 

[sjstarkey]

Hey,
On a late train, how many hours does the crew have to have worked before they have to stop?

What is the normal shift for them?

Do sleeper car passengers get another meal if the train is several hours late and a meal would normally be consumed during the late time?

Do the car attendants, etc get paid more for a late train? Is it by the trip/hour/etc?

This forum is very helpful but I wish I had known a bit more about Amtrak before my trip. Is there any kind of book like Amtrak for Dummies that tells all the basics? I don't mean detailed history or anything like that. Just simple things like getting tickets online/phone/in person, cancelling reservations, things to bring along, how dinner reservations work, carryon vs checked baggage, info on how the cars work, lateness and how it is handled and several other things I probably would not think to consider until I had to.

Thanks,

DanO

Train crews (conductors and engineers) are limited by federal law to 12 hours on duty with mandatory eight or 10 hour rest periods between shifts. From my observations, Amtrak typically schedules them for 6-8 hours at a time, although due to train delays, they often work more.

Onboard Services (OBS) staffers usually work a train from start to finish. They are on duty for the entire run of the train, although they do get to sleep at night (and are paid to do so!). I do not know how their pay and overtime works--there is a former OBS employee that posts here who could probably answer your questions about that much better.

Sleeper passengers will continue to receive meals at normal mealtimes in the event of a delayed train, unless the train looks like it will arrive in the middle of or shortly after the meal period. If the diner runs out of food, they have some canned goods they can serve, or sometimes they cater food from a restaurant at one of the stops (like KFC or Subway).

There is a FAQ that some people have put together on Amtrak travel. It covers most (but not all, so stick around!) of what is commonly asked in these forums. Check it out at:

http://www.on-track-on-line.com/amtrak-tips.shtml

We were on the TE and it was supposed to arrive in CHI at 2:15pm. They served us lunch and then nothing served after that. The train arrived in CHI at 9:15pm. If I am reading the above coment correctly, Amtrak should have made sure the sleeper passengers were fed a dinner. Is this correct?

 

[Dan O]

<snipped>http://www.on-track-on-line.com/amtrak-tips.shtml

would be nice to have a wiki for this kinda thing, instead of relying on other folks to update the pages

Problem with Wiki's is that you also end up with a lot of false or erroneous info, not to mention unrelated info. Just saw a news report on Educators' thoughts on students using Wikipedia for research and reports, and just how many times they find themselves having to reteach their students because Wikipedia is wrong.

By the way, I'm one of those other folks. I helped rewrite those OTOL tips a while back and will probably be freshening them up again this fall when I get some time.

Thanks for the info. I did read those tips, probably because someone here mentioned them earlier. While helpful, they don't have quite all the info I was considering. Things like the hours a crew can work before having to stop, that the conductor and engineer are only X hrs while some others are for the whole trip, etc are interesting tidbits. I know there are a jillion others as I have read several on this forum. It would just be nice to have them all in a dummies type book so I could buy it before my next train trip. Here's something I didn't know re the bathrooms==the car I was on had tiny ones..all of them were miniscule. I didn't know that other cars had larger ones until I went there because I was in the lounge and had to use a restroom. Handicapped or bigger restrooms were not that hard to find but the first half day or so I didn't know there was any other choice. There was a bathroom/dressing room in our car but it was always occupied.

I did learn a lot at this forum and am very thankful for the information provided here--directly to me at times and just mentioned in other threads at other times. Just wish that it could all be in one spot.

Thanks again,

Dan

 

[Dan O]

Train crews (conductors and engineers) are limited by federal law to 12 hours on duty with mandatory eight or 10 hour rest periods between shifts. From my observations, Amtrak typically schedules them for 6-8 hours at a time, although due to train delays, they often work more.
Onboard Services (OBS) staffers usually work a train from start to finish. They are on duty for the entire run of the train, although they do get to sleep at night (and are paid to do so!). I do not know how their pay and overtime works--there is a former OBS employee that posts here who could probably answer your questions about that much better.

Thanks for this information.

So on a trip say from LAX to CHI which is expected to take about 42 hrs or so, one would expect to have about 5-6 train crews? If so, I am guessing they get on at some minor stops as well as the longer ones.

Dan

 

[Walt]

We were on the TE and it was supposed to arrive in CHI at 2:15pm. They served us lunch and then nothing served after that. The train arrived in CHI at 9:15pm. If I am reading the above coment correctly, Amtrak should have made sure the sleeper passengers were fed a dinner. Is this correct?

Just out of curiosity, did you happen to wonder down to the dining car around 6pm? Was it empty?

At least for me, the 91 is suppose to get into Orlando just before lunch. If it is running late, the arrival becomes after lunch. So, when it is running late, we get an extra lunch. However, the dining car would be serving lunch regardless for the people continuing onto Miami. Just more lunches.

I wonder who makes the decision to serve another meal, when there would otherwise not have been one? And when do they make the decision? In your example, if the 2:15pm arrival was projected to be at 5:15pm, I can see someone deciding to not to an extra dinner service. But by, say, 6:15pm, it might be too late to change their minds.

Just thinking out loud...

 

[the_traveler]

So on a trip say from LAX to CHI which is expected to take about 42 hrs or so, one would expect to have about 5-6 train crews? If so, I am guessing they get on at some minor stops as well as the longer ones.

If you look on the schedule and see a stop of (say) 30 minute or more, part of that may be schedule padding, but you can usually assume that is a crew change point.

Again that is where the engineer and conductor change. The sleeping car or coach car attendants and dining crew stay with the train from the origination to destination points.

 

[spot1181]

For detailed information on all long distance routes and beyond, check out USA By Rail by John Pitt. It will cover every city, town, village and highlight at which you will stop or see in passing. The book also gives you distance and time between stops and or sights along the way. A new edition has recently been released. Enjoy. Spot

 

[Steven B]

For detailed information on all long distance routes and beyond, check out USA By Rail by John Pitt. It will cover every city, town, village and highlight at which you will stop or see in passing. The book also gives you distance and time between stops and or sights along the way. A new edition has recently been released. Enjoy. Spot

I have USA By Rail, and it's a great resource to bring along on a train trip. However, the 6th Edition is a few years old now and a lot of the general Amtrak information is out of date. According to Amazon.com, the 7th Edition will be released in October, so you might want to wait for that.

 

[sjstarkey]

We were on the TE and it was supposed to arrive in CHI at 2:15pm. They served us lunch and then nothing served after that. The train arrived in CHI at 9:15pm. If I am reading the above coment correctly, Amtrak should have made sure the sleeper passengers were fed a dinner. Is this correct?

Just out of curiosity, did you happen to wonder down to the dining car around 6pm? Was it empty?

At least for me, the 91 is suppose to get into Orlando just before lunch. If it is running late, the arrival becomes after lunch. So, when it is running late, we get an extra lunch. However, the dining car would be serving lunch regardless for the people continuing onto Miami. Just more lunches.

I wonder who makes the decision to serve another meal, when there would otherwise not have been one? And when do they make the decision? In your example, if the 2:15pm arrival was projected to be at 5:15pm, I can see someone deciding to not to an extra dinner service. But by, say, 6:15pm, it might be too late to change their minds.

Just thinking out loud...

The TE was running 5 hours late by 9am in the morning. It just kept getting later as the day progressed. The dining car had only employees counting receipts in it after the lunch meal was served. When we arrived in CHI, most people had missed their connections, except for the LSL people. We had to race to the lounge to board the train.

I thought I read somewhere that after 4 hours Amtrak is supposed to fed people. If we had enough time to eat in CHI, it wouln't have been such a big deal. But the wine/cheese reception only made my 12 year old hungrier. I also know other people on the TE missed their connection and were going to be bused to Michigan and still no dinner on the train. Some people had a 3pm connection on a bus and they missed taht by enough that they were told they were going to CHI for the night and then put on a train or bus in the morning.

 

[Guest]

But the wine/cheese reception only made my 12 year old hungrier.

Tell your 12yo to have another glass of wine, and they'll stop complaining that they are hungry. h34r:

 

[sjstarkey]

But the wine/cheese reception only made my 12 year old hungrier.

Tell your 12yo to have another glass of wine, and they'll stop complaining that they are hungry. h34r:

At 12 she would probably do it, if I said okay