[:D]Just want to say good morning to all you lovely human beings out there! Latest news on the personal front is, I’m transferring out of high speed rail back to the conventional side of Amtrak. Also, I’m transferring out of the Washington, DC terminal and going to the Wilminton, De back shops. Although it will be a cut in pay, I’m perfectly happy with my decision. No more trying to meet an unrealistic schedule every morning[banghead]. From now on it’s, daylight with weekends and holidays off…[yeah]!!! Wish me luck and thank you to all you realistic railroaders out there!! Bless You!![angel]
Wilmington DE is a small city in the shadows of Philly. Credit cards rule here, as most of your major Credit Card banks live here.
The NEC and CSX (OLD BO Philly main) run thru Northern DE. NS has a branch line that runs south from Newark, DE (off the NEC) to Southern DE and into Maryland. Amtrak has shops in both Wilmington (Old GG1 shop ) and Bear (off the NS branch).
Real Estate if very hot, taxes are very low but creepy up. no sales tax. Traffic stinks. Trees are slowly disappearing and the population is booming.
[:D]Want to thank everyone for your replies. The high speed trainsets that I used to work on[:P] are part of Amtrak’s AECLA product line. They are doing 15 to 25 mph faster than what we’re currently running right now, although they are suppose to be geared for higher speeds than that[%-)]. The problem was not just with the equipment, but the unrealistic point of view of the supervisors[:o)][D)] that assumed that if the train rolled in, it should roll out without problems[X-)]. But, there were problems every night[banghead] that needed to be addressed. Not to mention that there were also uncorrected defects that were barely fixed at the New York[D)] or Boston[%-)] high speed rail shops. Plus also, our work force was dwindling due to these factors. Coworkers simply were fed up with the management’s[X-)] style of handling these issues[soapbox] when brought up at any meetings we had with them, so some returned to the conventional equipment side of Amtrak for the little piece of sanity left. Sadly though[V], many of the current foremen and managers (within the 11 years that I’ve worked there) were people who when hired on, weren’t that great[%-)][D)] in their respective crafts, yet somehow were allowed to apply for these supervisory position and were awarded them[?][?] Even their people skills are less than decent[sigh]. Anyway though, I’m extremely happy[^] with my decision and I’m going to make the best of it[tup]. May God’s Blessings Be Upon You All[angel]!!
Glenn,
I take it “the pressure is on” for all things Acela, touted as Amtrak’s financial savior when introduced.
I have enjoyed my occasional trips on it, but here are a couple of examples (from 2 different trips) of things not-quite-right:
(1) The “Departure” TV monitors at Stamford, CT did not even list the Acela train I was waiting for. After I showed my ticket to the agent he was able to verify the train’s schedule on his computer (it was running maybe 15 minutes late). The train never did get listed on the station monitors, but there was a P.A. announcement when it arrived…
(2) I was waiting at Philadelphia 30th Street station…at least the train was listed on the status board there. But it was a bit unnerving to see the sign change to “Arrived” and then “Now Boarding”, while I and the other passengers were still waiting behind the velvet rope. A few minutes later we were allowed to proceed downstairs to the platform…and train was not there yet! It did arrive shortly afterwards. I doubt that it had arrived earlier and then backed out of the station…more than likely someone was juicing the schedule numbers to give the appearance of an on-time arrival…