From another site a quote I have not been able to confirm. A Boardman comment – Seems that Amtrak had to provide a pilot engineer to BNSF crrew. I would suspect it was part or whole of the Raton pass route? Anyone got the transcrip of Boardman’s comment and post it here ?. If so what does this mean for BNSF renewing service over Raton ?
His comment. -----
Amtrak recently supplied an engineer to BNSF Railway because the freight railroad lacked sufficient qualified crews to operate a train over the route normally used only by the Chicago-Los Angeles passenger train. “We expect to continue operating the Chief on its present route and are in discussions with the states to keep it running there rather than moving it to the Transcon (in 2016),” Boardman said. “There is a new mine opening in the region and we’re hopeful that BNSF will be running more trains on the line, but we’re not expecting their needs will change.”
There may be an explanation supplied by someone with specific knowledge. In the meantime I will suggest that it was necessary for BNSF to dispatch a work train to repair a problem somewhere between Albuquerque and Raton, or perhaps to Trinidad.
My belief is that BNSF is not soliciting business between Jansen (near Trinidad) and Albuquerque.
It was apparently part of the Q&A at a press conf. per Trains Newswire. The upshot is that Boardman hasn’t given up on the Raton route yet. In fact, he said there is a new mine opening on the route somewhere that may shift the economics. Then he said he’s not counting on it. I’m not sure what conclusion to reach from all of this, except he’s leaving the door open for Kansas et. al. to pony up the money to keep the current route.
So what is the problem with this? I am sure the manpower swap was done above board with either Amtrak getting paid or their engineer getting compensated by BNSF, I don’t see anything illegal, suspicious, or wrong in anyway.
The FRA has specific time limits that apply to employee qualifications. If BNSF crews are not using the line, their qualifications would expire. Under such circumstance, AMTK employees would then be the only qualified employees.
My carrier has trouble on some lightly trafficked lines when additional manpower is required - the only qualified people are working on regular jobs and not available for additional service.
If the line has been out of service - You will need a MOW Road Foreman to Hi-Rail the line first, then another mgmt person with an engineer/conductor to travel over the line. You now have qualified people to train/qualify new crews.