The Texas Eagle departs from San Antonio at 7:00 am daily. At what time would the engineer and conductor be required to sign-on for duty?
What about the engineer and conductor for a freight train that is scheduled to depart at 7:00 am?
What happens if the engineer(s) and conductor(s) cannot get to their departure point on time because of a massive wreck on the roadway? They are daily occurences on I-35, especially between Austin and San Antonio.
I have no knowledge about Amtrak’s operations at San Antonio.
The On Duty time for passenger operations is nominally set by what work the crew has to perform to be ready for the On Time departure. At a Origin location like Washington DC, the crew will likely go On Duty a hour or potentially more ahead of the scheduled departure as the crew must get the power from the Ivy City engine maintenance facility and move it to Washington Union Station to couple to the train (through trains change from electric to diesel or vice versa depending on direction) Northboud Originating trains take their motors to couple to the train at the station.
At wayside crew change locations, crews will go On Duty nominally 30 minutes prior to the scheduled departure time. For regularly assigned crews they are expected to ‘show up’ at the scheduled On Duty time, unless notified otherwise. Extra Board crewmen will be called to be notified of their On Duty time and location (which - if they have to travel may be well in advance of the On Duty time - the travel time will count against their Hours of Service time. Amtrak does their own crew calling for their personnel - MOST of their jobs outside of the NEC are show up jobs based on scheduled departures.
Assigned freight cre
BaltACD,
Thanks for the insightful information regarding On Duty Time. Having grown up in Altoona, I remember the Altoona Mirror published a daily “standing of the crews” for Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, but I never understood exactly when they went on duty.