No caretaker for Huntington, WV on 8/22

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Sorry, what's a caretaker in this context? Someone who maintains the building? A station agent?
 
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There are a bunch of buildings that don't have agents for ticketing or baggage, so they have someone open and close the building at the required times. Most places like that, if closed, you would just walk around to the track side, but it likely means no restroom or vending machines, and place to sit. Huntington is a 3 day a week Cardinal station.
 
Apparently by putting out a memo they acknowledge the importantance of having someone there. They just dont want to pay for said person. Talk about mixed messages.
Since the notice is only for one day, I assume the caretaker is unable to work that day and they have no one to replace him. What's so mixed about that?
 
My understanding is that they are part time contract employees who do not work directly for Amtrak, such as the lady I spoke to last year at Brattleboro, Vt. Probably nobody was available at Huntington.
 
Apparently by putting out a memo they acknowledge the importantance of having someone there. They just dont want to pay for said person. Talk about mixed messages.
Who ever heard of an airport not having employees at the gates and terminals?

Another of a long line of lame-brained decisions by Amtrak management.
 
Apparently by putting out a memo they acknowledge the importantance of having someone there. They just dont want to pay for said person. Talk about mixed messages.
Since the notice is only for one day, I assume the caretaker is unable to work that day and they have no one to replace him. What's so mixed about that?
That's they way I understood it.
 
Historically railroads have had thousands of unstaffed stations. But those were in little remote little places. Some that aren't even towns anymore on the map.

I'm not excusing Anderson. As stations like Huntington need their agent.
 
Apparently by putting out a memo they acknowledge the importantance of having someone there. They just dont want to pay for said person. Talk about mixed messages.
Who ever heard of an airport not having employees at the gates and terminals?Another of a long line of lame-brained decisions by Amtrak management.
I recently took a bus for a 50 mile trip. It was on Trailways. Of the 5 stops while I was on, only 1 was staffed.
Is this a lame-brained decision by Trailways management also?
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Apparently by putting out a memo they acknowledge the importantance of having someone there. They just dont want to pay for said person. Talk about mixed messages.
Who ever heard of an airport not having employees at the gates and terminals?Another of a long line of lame-brained decisions by Amtrak management.
I recently took a bus for a 50 mile trip. It was on Trailways. Of the 5 stops while I was on, only 1 was staffed.
Is this a lame-brained decision by Trailways management also?
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Yes, wrongheaded.

No NEC station is ever de-staffed.

Buses are different. Amtrak may make only one stop in 50 miles.

Amtrak agents do more than sell tickets.

They help the elderly and disabled board and help with baggage.

It is criminal that Cincinnati, one of the nation's Top 30 metropolitan areas, doesn't have station staff.

It is very hard to defend this wrongheaded CEO's changes, which will forever set-back U.S. passenger rail.
 
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Oh, because some piddly bus route doesn't have stations, Amtrak should follow suit?

Same with the airlines? De-staff all operations?

Makes a lot of sense. Not.
 
Buses aren't trains. Just like trains aren't planes.

Different expectations.
 
Oh, because some piddly bus route doesn't have stations, Amtrak should follow suit?

Same with the airlines? De-staff all operations?

Makes a lot of sense. Not.
No one here said that Amtrak should "de-staff all operations". You just pulled that out of thin air.

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It is criminal that Cincinnati, one of the nation's Top 30 metropolitan areas, doesn't have station staff.
What's criminal is that Cincinnati, one of the nation's top 30 metropolitan areas, only has six trains a week. It's hard to justify paying for agent staffing for six trains a week.

Get more trains (maybe the 3-C corridor that Ohio's government turned down money for) and station staffing suddenly becomes a lot easier to justify.
 
The Cardinal should've gone daily DECADES ago.

Another in a long line of Amtrak blunders.
 
It is criminal that Cincinnati, one of the nation's Top 30 metropolitan areas, doesn't have station staff.
What's criminal is that Cincinnati, one of the nation's top 30 metropolitan areas, only has six trains a week. It's hard to justify paying for agent staffing for six trains a week.

Get more trains (maybe the 3-C corridor that Ohio's government turned down money for) and station staffing suddenly becomes a lot easier to justify.
And Columbus is now the 14th-largest city in the United States and doesn't even have a single passenger train! We will have a new governor inaugurated in January, hopefully that could facilitate more service in Ohio.
 
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