Problem Boarding Train

[buddy559]

Nope, the door has to be manually opened by a crew member.Especially at a smaller station like that one, there will probably be only one door. Maybe two, if someone in the sleeping car is getting on/off.As soon as the train stops and she sees a door open, she needs to head for it as fast as she can and make sure that she's seen.

Thank you. I will give her this advice.

If your brother is with her again, maybe he can head towards the train to let the crew know, and she can follow him out at a slower pace.

 

[June the Coach Rider]

If she is riding in coach, the best thing to do is wait a little ways away from the actual station on the platform because they usually have the baggage cars and/or sleepers at the station door and the coach further away from there.

 

[SW]

Their plan is to take my nephew and someone stand near the front of the platform, someone in the middle, and someone at the end.

 

[camachinist]

There appears to be two different forms of lighting, as I note conventional 'street lights' as well as metal halide/HPS parking lot downlighting. Note the square light pole in the foreground at near end of platform. Very odd that the area would be unlighted, save for a power failure. Lots of power on those lines up above; it's going somewhere.

Hope everything works out tomorrow and good tip on having a flashlight available. I still carry a small LED flash when flying; never know.

 

[chakk]

That's a great idea! He can wave it like one of those conductor lanterns.

Just don't wave that lantern straight up and down -- the engineer might think that you are giving him the highball to "blow and go".

 

[Ryan]

It's the moment of truth, looks like 50 was 9 minutes late at South Portsmouth, so SW's mom and brother should have just boarded in Ashland. I hope they made it!

 

[SW]

Good morning everyone.

Mom made it on board today! Not sure of their "strategy" but I expect to meet her in about 14 hrs.

Thanks a lot for all your tips. I passed them on to her and I'm sure they helped.

 

[Ryan]

Good news!!!

Thanks for the followup, hope she has a great trip.

 

[Guest]

She spoke to them yesterday and they told her the conductor must have not seen her.

I am still confused by this.

It should not matter if the conductor sees a passenger on the platform or not!!! Since the conductor knows there is a passenger to board at that station, the train should stop, the doors should open, and if the passenger isn't on their own, stepping into the train, some crew member (the conductor?) should step out of the train and onto the platform to look for them (they could be at some unopened door to the wrong car).

 

[Nathanael]

What Guest_Guest said.

At an unattended station with a waiting room (which Ashland is), then if there's a ticketed, reserved passenger, the conductor really needs to not only search the platform, but even send someone into the waiting room to find them.

 

[Ryan]

I think there are 3 possible options (in descending order of probability):

1. The conductor was in a rush and/or distracted (he was 30 minutes behind), didn't see anyone and assumed a no-show and got out of there.

2. The conductor took the time to search, but they were in the wrong place (in their car/wrong side of the tracks) and weren't found.

3. They weren't on the manifest, either because the tickets were for the wrong day or bought late or some other screwup.

I'm just glad there was a satisfactory resolution this time. Missing a 3x a week train is the worst train to miss.