Vol. 2, No. 7 - April 13, 2005
- This Week at Amtrak is back, after an enforced absence due to some annoying and inconvenient health problems. Many thanks to those who inquired about the author’s status.
- Here we go, again. This is an abridged story (the local angles are omitted) from the Camden, South Carolina Chronicle Independent, along the route of Amtrak’s Silver Star. Many readers of this will clearly remember last December, when the Red Cross was called in to assist stranded passengers on the Coast Starlight (sigh). This story is about the unhappy plight of passengers on the northbound Silver Star. For all of the unhappiness by the passengers, one can only wonder how thrilled CSX was to have its main line blocked by an errant Amtrak train for this long.
Amtrak train stalls in Bethune (South Carolina) Camden Chronicle Independent By MARTIN CAHN, C-I staff reporter April 11, 2005 A 10-car Amtrak passenger train broke down in Bethune between 4 and 5 A.M. Tuesday, leaving about 270 travelers from up and down the East Coast stranded for approximately six hours in the small, rural Kershaw County town. Despite the timing of the early morning breakdown, several local officials said they didn’t know anything was wrong until nearly 9 A.M. when Kershaw County Central Dispatch began receiving cell phone calls from passengers on board. One of those calls seemed to indicate there was a pregnant woman on board who had gone into labor. However, Kershaw County Deputy Fire Marshal Keith Ray and Kershaw County Medical Center EMS Assistant Director Robert Johnson said, at most, the woman had suffered a panic attack. That didn’t mean they found happy passengers when they arrived on the scene. Most passengers voiced one complaint or another regarding the conditions on board once the train stopped and a lack of communication from Amtrak officials and employees on board.
Alisha Pio, of Ocala, Fla., and her 2-year-old son were heading for North Carolina in the rear-most car when the train broke down. “There was no electricity, no water, the bathrooms were nasty, and they didn’t say anything to us,“ said Pio. “We couldn’t drink, and they didn’t give us anything to eat.“
Pio said she and her fellow passengers were alternately told to sit down, get off the train, sit back down and, finally, to get off the train to wait for buses to take them north.
A broken fuel pump was to blame, said Amtrak`s Atlantic Coast Business Group customer service manager Darin Stoick who was on the scene. “Once that happened, there was no power,“ said Stoick.
Nearly everyone was off the train by 9:30 A.M. “We`re still trying to get some wheelchair-bound passengers off the train,“ said Kershaw County Fire Marshal Gene Faulkenberry. “We`ve heard buses and the American Red Cross are en route, but we don`t know the ETA on the buses.“
Another Amtrak official on the scene, Trainmaster Doug Sloop, said seven buses were on the way. It wasn’t until 10:30 A.M. that the first of those buses arrived to start loading passengers. “I don`t know what happened,“ said Stoick. “We had them lined up to be here at 9 A.M.“
Gary Manning, of Bernardsville, N.J., said Amtrak employees on board didn’t communicate with passengers well enough. “If they had, people wouldn’t be panicking,“ he said.
KCMC`s Johnson said conditions on the train were stable and that no one had really required medical attention. “We had the one pregnant woman, and we assisted her in getting comfortable,“ said Johnson. “We also dealt with a man with chest pains, who`s fine, and a young man whose family said he`s probably had a stress attack.“
Lila Hicho and Dennis Mortensen, wearing leather motorcycle clothes, were trying to keep cool as the temperatures outside rose. They were trying to reach Mortensen`s mother in Hamlet, N.Y. “It`s crazy,“ said Hicho, from Ft. Pierce, Fla. “There`s no water, no breakfast, no bathrooms, no anything.“ “It`s very disorganized,“ added Mortensen, from Okeechobee, Fla.
Dorothy Teasley was also heading back to New York after a trip to Florida. She said she believed the problems on the train were a result of cutbacks in the government`s Amtrak funding. “I love Amtrak, and I love riding the trains, but the government obviously doesn’t. Our government can afford smart bombs and dumb trains,“ she said.
Flora Lovely, from Orlando, Fla., was trying to reach Hamlet, N.C., the train`s next official stop. Standing next to her was Gilda Kennedy. “I live in Columbia, so I didn’t get very far,“ Kennedy noted. …. “It`s a long time to be without water and toilets,“ said Johnson of the crowd`s uneasiness.
All the buses had arrived by 10:45 A.M., and the passengers began to load up. Even then, Stoick and local officials had to help passengers figure out which bus to get on in order to reach their destinations — or at least way points where they could transfer to other trains.
The biggest complaint was how long it had taken Amtrak to officially ask for local assistance and start arranging for the buses to come to Bethune in the first place. “The delay was due to figuring out the logistics for the busses and to see if we could either get the fuel pump fixed or get another engine to pull the train,“ said Stoick.
Stoick and Sloop referred all other questions about the incident, including passenger complaints, to Amtrak`s headquarters. No one answered at the number they provided and there appeared to be no way to leave a message.
Another delay came after nearly everyone was on the buses. Several passengers started asking if they could retrieve some of their luggage from the baggage car. Stoick initially said all the baggage would go on to their final destinations, but passengers were concerned about medications and baby seats. Quickly, a small crowd formed below one of the baggage car`s doors, and Stoick began checking baggage stubs.
Christopher Walters, who had been in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and was returning home to Cleveland, Ohio, via Washington, D.C., was one of those trying to get his bags. “We just got told that if we don`t get back on the bus, they`re going to leave without us,“ said Walters.
At 11:15 A.M., more than six hours after the train had broken down, Johnson joined Ray and several others on a sweep of the passenger cars. A little while earlier, the sound of the train`s motor had started up, but officials had said it was unlikely the train was going anywhere.
As Johnson and the others passed through the train, they found the power back on and air-conditioning beginning to cool the cars. “They might not want to move this train now while the buses are still here; the passengers would probably kill them,“ said Johnson.
Even with their baggage in tow and the somewhat cooler conditions on the buses, passengers still weren`t happy, and they let local officials know it.
The American Red Cross` Teresa Seay said several passengers told her Amtrak tried to sell them what snacks they had left.
Seay said she was able to obtain some 250 to 300 bottles of water, some of which was donated by the local gasoline station. …. Around 11:30 A.M., another engine arrived on the scene to help take away the train. Bethune Police Chief Larry Davis said that second engine caused a temporary traffic jam, blocking both Main (S.C. 341) and Blackmon streets. By then, all the passengers were off the train and boarding the buses.
Despite the hard feelings, Davis said things didn’t get too bad. “We did have three fights break out,“ he said. …. Just before noon Tuesday, the buses rolled out of Bethune, heading for points north. Only three passengers were left in Bethune for Amtrak to deal with.
Barbara Zook, who said she has been wheelchair-bound for 24 years, and two family members would have to find another way back to their Gordonville, Pa., home.
Johnson explained the buses had no means to accommodate Zook in her wheelchair and that most likely Amtrak would either place her back on the train or get her and her family home some other way. Seay came over and handed the trio bottles of water. “Thank you so much for showing you care,“ the Amish woman said, she and her companions dressed in their traditional dark clothing. “We`ve been sitting here and sitting here and sitting here.“ Zook said her doctors have told her moving to Florida would be good for her health. Instead, she said, she makes trips to Florida. This was her fourth trip to the Sunshine State. “We go to Sarasota. It`s cheaper than a hospital and more fun. This is the first time we`ve had a problem with the trains,“ she said.
A few minutes later, the buses gone, Sloop guided the second engineer into coupling with the disabled train. A short time later, the train was gone.
- So, the lessons from the above news story seem to be: a) Amtrak can’t be counted on to provide reliable transportation, particularly if you’re elderly, on the edge of poor health, or unable to go without food, water, and restroom facilities for long periods of time; b) This is representative of the total breakdown of management and resources allocation, from the cause of the locomotive failure, to the lack of back-up (redundant systems), the absence of a standard response matrix, incompetence on-site, and overarching contempt for the welfare of paying and highly dependent customers.
One of the best things to come out of the stewardship of for President and CEO Tom Downs, the first of the Transit Trio of Downs/Warrington/Gunn, was the creation of product line managers. These were individuals who “owned” trains, and were responsible for their proper operation 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There were also service managers all along the train routes to make sure things went smoothly.
When current President and CEO David Gunn reorganized Amtrak (yet, again), he did away with these critical individuals in the name of “making Amtrak more like a real railroad.” This silliness has led to constant inconveniences of passengers, and passengers often placed in what could be dangerous situations.
Today, division mangers have responsibility for trains in their divisions, along with Amtrak’s Consolidated National Operations Center in Wilmington, Delaware. These division mangers, who have no personal stake in the operation of any given train, often treat problems of a train the way conductors do - when the shift is over, it’s the next guy’s problem. There is no personal reward or penalty for the handling of problems.
CNOC constantly demonstrates its disdain for trains outside of the NEC, treating the needs of national system trains like those of an unwanted stepchild. If a problem doesn’t occur east of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, or north of Washington, DC, it can’t be worth spending a lot of time and effort on, is the perception that is given out by CNOC. Service recovery, another relic of the Warrington era, was a good idea with success, but, again, has been discarded by today’s Amtrak. The concept of service recovery was that when Amtrak sinned, and passengers were inconvenienced in any way, somebody tried to immediately correct the situation, or at least address the situation later, if an immediate solution was not available. This included free food in situations such as those outlined in the article above, always making a strong attempt at keeping passengers advised of anything extraordinary going on, and putting the needs of passengers above those of Amtrak’s operating department personnel.
Amtrak apologists and cultists, along with Amtrak’s various attendant wholly owned lapdog organizations, will try to slough this incident off as yet another example of Amtrak’s alleged chronic under-funding. That is a false argument. This incident is a direct result of allocation of resources choices made by Amtrak management, not under-funding.
Amtrak used to be an all-weather operator of trains, but that also seems to be coming to an end. Winter seems to constantly catch Amtrak by surprise (even though Amtrak’s cousin to the north, VIA Rail Canada, always seems to be not only ready for Winter, but anxious to take on the challenge), and summer heat kinks in continuously welded rail on the roadbeds cause huge potential danger in the hot summer months. Perhaps Amtrak should only operate in the Spring and Fall, when conditions are optimal …
Who ever thought anyone would be nostalgic for the “good old days” of Tom Downs and George Warrington?
- During the past few months, there has been a healthy and refreshing debate about the future of Amtrak. Opinions and options from every side have been heard; seldom in the history of Amtrak has so much attention been focused on the company’s future.
One argument that has been made against Amtrak national system is that the route structure is an antiquated conglomeration of routes dating back to World War II and before.
Take just a moment and compare Amtrak’s national system route structure with today’s federal interstate highway system, considered to be the gold standard in intercity transportation. It’s amazing how many of those allegedly antiquated Amtrak routes follow the same paths (in many instances within visual sight of each other) as busy and bustling interstate highways.
Next argument, please.