This Week at Amtrak 2006-03-06
Volume 3 Number 12
- Last week, TWA chronicled the story of California San Joaquin corridor train No. 704, and its 12 hour late delivery of 31 fifth grade students and their chaperones to their homes in Corcoran, California.There were quotes in the story from “one California wag with knowledge of the situation,” which provided many insider details of the events of the 12 hour late train. The most pressing issue was that train No. 704 was dispatched south from Stockton, California on its way to Corcoran and Bakersfield with an operating crew that had an hour or less of lawful time remaining on their shift to operate the train, on a route that had a running time of over four hours. As a result of this, the train was put on a siding in Turlock (Denair), and waited for over six hours during the night for a fresh engineer and conductor to come and rescue the trains and its passengers, and take the train to its terminal in Bakersfield.