Seaboard92
Engineer
Well a lesser known fact is Amtrak charter train contracts come literally at the last minute. It's not on heard of for the contract to be signed the day of. And this is the standard Amtrak MO that myself, and several other industry insiders have been fighting with for over a decade.
So if they were working under the provisional yes from Amtrak pending contract to be signed day of or the few days before. I can see where Amtrak can get away legally Without penalty. It's messed up because when contracting private cars we have to put out non refundable discounts in advance to hold the car for use.
Knowing that I would say the event organizers for the special canceled with the E units are probably losing in the neighborhood of 10k. While Amtrak loses no money, and can get away with it. Amtrak also can then say we denied it for "safety, or to focus on our core mission" and spin that so people believe it.
In all honesty the last several years Amtrak has had all the cards and they are majorly stacked against us. The new tariff that came out a few days ago includes a clause that "Amtrak can modify the tariff at anytime at Amtrak's discretion" which previously wasn't there. Which in fact means they can raise their price at any time forcing us to cancel trains.
If the price they raise it to isn't profitable for us to run we have to cancel and lose face. And deal with disgruntled passengers again Amtrak gets away with it. There are several of us worrying that Amtrak is going to try a massive increase days before a large charter involving 30 private cars, and 6,000 paying passengers forcing it to be cancelled last minute.
And who looks bad in that Amtrak or the charter operator? Hence the entire industry is majorly on edge right now and we are all trying to find back up plans. Their could possibly be some unlikely saviors this fall of Amtrak does what I predict they will.
For example my boss Tom who tried to run the Susquehanna Trip was running a trip back in the early 2000s. Amtrak had set out a reasonable price at the beginning. Two weeks out when the contract came due Amtrak doubled the price and they barely broke even in fact I think they lost a few thousand once all was said in done. But they had already spent the money to line up cars so they were in a bind. And one of my other masters who wishes to remain nameless has stated all of his charters the contract comes at the last possible minute including while rolling down the track once.
I've already seen proof that Amtrak is trying to run off an established charter operator on the west coast by pricing them out of business. Either by charging an obscene amount for equipment, or prohibiting Sunday trains due to "lack of ability to turn the train." Henceforth Amtrak is successfully running off a very successful operator who has chartered a train every winter for the last two decades.
And the thing is charter operators don't have an effective regulatory body to hold Amtrak accountable to provisional agreements and to manage contracting.
In addition at the same time Amtrak announced cutbacks to food service which then took the advocacy community away from us charter people. Which is a fantastic way to get people off the issue so they don't see how they are running small businesses out of business.
The sad thing is everything I've said is true but no one believes it because it's not how normal businesses run. If I charter a bus I sign an agreement months before I need it, same with hotel rooms. Amtrak doesn't fall in this category. The truth is we need education from the main charter players to be sent out to the masses for the truth to spread.
Instead there is a massive amount of infighting I've seen happening between operators (standard everyday things) and not a lot of action.
The sad thing is if I were advising Amtrak how to minimize Public Relations fallout on charters I would coach them into doing what they've been doing because it's effective and puts the blame completely on the host railroad or the operator. Now potentially a freight railroad in dire need of good PR might pick up a long time operator as a token of good will. That wouldn't surprise me later this year.
Unfortunately amazing people like Bill Hatrick and a lot of my other friends are getting hurt by this.
So if they were working under the provisional yes from Amtrak pending contract to be signed day of or the few days before. I can see where Amtrak can get away legally Without penalty. It's messed up because when contracting private cars we have to put out non refundable discounts in advance to hold the car for use.
Knowing that I would say the event organizers for the special canceled with the E units are probably losing in the neighborhood of 10k. While Amtrak loses no money, and can get away with it. Amtrak also can then say we denied it for "safety, or to focus on our core mission" and spin that so people believe it.
In all honesty the last several years Amtrak has had all the cards and they are majorly stacked against us. The new tariff that came out a few days ago includes a clause that "Amtrak can modify the tariff at anytime at Amtrak's discretion" which previously wasn't there. Which in fact means they can raise their price at any time forcing us to cancel trains.
If the price they raise it to isn't profitable for us to run we have to cancel and lose face. And deal with disgruntled passengers again Amtrak gets away with it. There are several of us worrying that Amtrak is going to try a massive increase days before a large charter involving 30 private cars, and 6,000 paying passengers forcing it to be cancelled last minute.
And who looks bad in that Amtrak or the charter operator? Hence the entire industry is majorly on edge right now and we are all trying to find back up plans. Their could possibly be some unlikely saviors this fall of Amtrak does what I predict they will.
For example my boss Tom who tried to run the Susquehanna Trip was running a trip back in the early 2000s. Amtrak had set out a reasonable price at the beginning. Two weeks out when the contract came due Amtrak doubled the price and they barely broke even in fact I think they lost a few thousand once all was said in done. But they had already spent the money to line up cars so they were in a bind. And one of my other masters who wishes to remain nameless has stated all of his charters the contract comes at the last possible minute including while rolling down the track once.
I've already seen proof that Amtrak is trying to run off an established charter operator on the west coast by pricing them out of business. Either by charging an obscene amount for equipment, or prohibiting Sunday trains due to "lack of ability to turn the train." Henceforth Amtrak is successfully running off a very successful operator who has chartered a train every winter for the last two decades.
And the thing is charter operators don't have an effective regulatory body to hold Amtrak accountable to provisional agreements and to manage contracting.
In addition at the same time Amtrak announced cutbacks to food service which then took the advocacy community away from us charter people. Which is a fantastic way to get people off the issue so they don't see how they are running small businesses out of business.
The sad thing is everything I've said is true but no one believes it because it's not how normal businesses run. If I charter a bus I sign an agreement months before I need it, same with hotel rooms. Amtrak doesn't fall in this category. The truth is we need education from the main charter players to be sent out to the masses for the truth to spread.
Instead there is a massive amount of infighting I've seen happening between operators (standard everyday things) and not a lot of action.
The sad thing is if I were advising Amtrak how to minimize Public Relations fallout on charters I would coach them into doing what they've been doing because it's effective and puts the blame completely on the host railroad or the operator. Now potentially a freight railroad in dire need of good PR might pick up a long time operator as a token of good will. That wouldn't surprise me later this year.
Unfortunately amazing people like Bill Hatrick and a lot of my other friends are getting hurt by this.
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