Good ole news media…title makes it sound HORRIBLE…THOUSANDS…and it was a whole…2 thousand…my God…I’m still sickened!
Hmmm… Maybe i found myself a new job [:p]
“But despite those reports, Amtrak 98 passengers said at 6 o’clock last night that they still had not been offered…a rest stop of more than five minutes to stretch their legs.”
Stretch their legs??? Their on a TRAIN, not a pinto! I was 10 hours late once on the Texas Eagle, but fortunately I was already in first class so I just got a couple of extra free meals. 
Not sure how the other guys fared.
BRING BACK DAVID GUNN
THIS FAILURE IS MINETA’S FAULT AND NO ONE ELSES.
…Mineta probably has been preforming very well…for his boss, that is…But as far as being the steward of good passenger rail in this country I believe we pretty much agree he has not promoted that cause much at all. If in fact he did want to move the effort along for our passenger system he has failed to stand up to the Administration to do anything. I believe the Amtrak board has been a sorry bunch as well, but perhaps their hands have been rather tied or…they are just political appointees there to mimic the effort going on above them…Now we see some results of that kind of management…As stated above, bring back the real manager and RUN the Co. like a real railroad should…and one that has the purpose of the passengers in mind…
Mineta is just an empty suit. He probably does not have anything to do with anything. At the Congressional Hearing on Amtrak Governance, Amtrak Chairman Laney stated that he is keeping the WhiteHouse “posted”.
Laney had generated a completely legal $100,000 contribution to the Bush 2000 campaign. It has been reported that he hoped be appointed Secretary of Transportation, but the job went to the token Democrat, I do not know if Laneystill has an interest in a more important assignment with the Bush administration, but I do know this for sure: If he wants something more, he better not cross the likes of Andy Card and Carl Rove. To say the least, those guys will but a serious hurt on anybody who is not with the program.
As for this incident, there certainly could have been better options. As some suggested, even just holding at Jax may have been prefered. Now it would seem that like the old arrow logo, Amtrak is itself is headless. Shortly after Gunn took the job, I asked him if he liked all the stress of the job. He replied that he wasn’t stressed, rather he was the one that put out the stress.
Jay
I don’t see many people laying the responsibility for some of this disaster where it belongs, namly CSX and its dispatching- that train didn’t leave JAX without the approval of CSX and its dispatchers who should have known the time it was going to take to clear the wreck. (Unless they were being BS’d too by those on site- I have seen that happen, also). I can only assume that there were a dozen or more freights backing up behine #98, too. Mr. Ward has sure been quiet about all of this. He is the one that should be out front apologizing.
I know it was dumb to keep people on a train for up to 20 hours but if the train crew knew there was a problem up ahead couldn’t they have stopped and then reversed the train to go back to the nearest station and unload the passengers and put them up in hotels or onto a bus and as soon as the problem was clear dead head the train to meet up with those passengers at the next station and continue with the trip.
…As a post indicates above…CSX must carry some of the blame…The trains should have been held at an appropiate place that options would have been available for the trains involved.
It did not take that much to drive me off[:(!]! Had I been on that train, I would have found a way to get off, then use my cell phone (Hang the extra charges[}:)]) and gotten some thing arranged right there and then. I know a bunch of railfans who are of the same mindset.[:-,] When I was stranded on an NS steam trip way back when, I stuck it out, but one enterprising employee of a now-gone carrier, got out his radio, called the dispatcher on his employers railroad, and caught a freight home! To top it all off-[:-,]HE GOT PAID!!!(what a racket[;)])[wow][yeah]
Good Luck! They cut back the staff several years ago from 2 to 1. I think the guy that did nights got laid off and the guy that did days was moved to nights and therefore daytime hours were also eliminated. Now operates 12am-8am (whether the train comes in this time frame or not, I think, don’t quote me on that for sure). It’s too bad though, they have a nice station and had a good crew, real friendly.
[#dots]
… And by the way, I knew there was another Kansan on these here forums, but couldn’t remember who. I won’t be back online until at least May. I’ll be in Missouri (ugh! [xx(]) during that time. Let me know if that old Frisco line in east Wichita ever gets developed into something, bike trail or otherwise. I see it’s back in news again.
I was on the northbound 92 train stuck right beside the 98. Amtraks response to this was a bad joke. We were stuck in the Jacksonville station for 6 hours and then moved to the middle of a swamp in Georgia for another 10 hours. No one allowed off the train, no food, no explanation.
I do have to say, the wreck site was pretty spectacular. There were mangled rails, splintered ties and wrecked cars all over the place.
Then after finally making it through the wreck site we were stopped again because the crew ran out of time and we had to wait for another 3 1/2 hours for a relief crew. Now why couldn’t Amtrak management calculate that the crew was running out of time and have a relief crew ready when we got there? They only had 16 hours to get this accomplished. Then we ran out of water which meant the bathrooms stopped working. We had 1 working bathroom for 250 people for a 5 hour period. We were not allowed off the train at any of the station stops, yelled at very nastily by Amtrak conductors who became nastier as the trip went on. The “dinner” they provided was a joke, two thin slices of lunch meat on a small sub roll with a small bag of chips. By the time we got to 30th st station in Philly they had been without food on the train for almost 24 hours. Apparently Amtrak is also incapable of re-supplying the lounge and dining cars en route.
I can’t believe I paid to be mistreated like this. Amtrak has no regard for the welfare of its passengers and crew. It was a definite attitude of “We got you money so screw you!”. This is definitely my last experience with long distance passenger rail!
…It is beyond me why some provisions can’t be make regarding contractual agreements regarding crew…during the times of emergency…Re: {The 3 1/2 hr. delay after having had a major delay before…for new crew}…
First, thanks for the post and don’t be a stranger in the forums.
The more I read about this in various sources the more obvious it becomes that like it or not, Amtrak is indeed in free fall and unless something happens soon those who want to eliminate it will be able to have their way with little or no opposition.
My wife and I came south through Savannah, GA on New Years Eve morning, about two hours late. The derailment was just south of the station in Savannah and may have originally damaged the switches going into the station and the track from there south to Jacksonville is single track and out in the woods. The only way to have moved the train would have been to back it up oddles of miles to Jacksonville or have CSX send a rescue unit to pull it back. I would expect that was probably not possible because of CSX freights backed up behind the Silver Meteor with no place to go as well.
Why is this Secretary Minetta’s Fault? Please explain!
Re Amtrak Union Opposses Subway
Remember a Subway is generally underground. Not a good way to describe your service.
Ian G.Narita
Now here’s a question for those of you who know the routes in North Florida and Georgia better than I do. For the 6 hours we were stuck in Jacksonville BNSF freights kept rolling by the whole time. Where did they go? They weren’t in front of us at the derailment site. Did they take a turnoff before Savannah?
This sounds very plausible to me. If I were Amtrak, I’d defer comment on these matters to CSX and let that speak for itself.
There really weren’t any good detour possibilities, but CSX and Amtrak’s coordination of effort during this event was appalling.
that is interesting becuase i go to the eastern center for arts and technology in willow grove, pa and one person told me that this is outragous and crazy if you ask me. I say that amtrak should have used diesel locomotives to keep the trains on time if you ask me. why couldn’t they do that?