This topic came up on another forum: Back in the day did the private railroads ever sponsor or train passenger crews on the niceties of dealing with the riding public??? One gent says never, no way. I seem to recall reading about it quite a few times. Possibly right here in this forum in fact.
Which roads exactly or when? I dunno. [:)]
Can anyone shed any light on this topic??
We used to refer to the PC trainmen on the corridor in the early days of Amtrak as having graduated from PC “charm school”. No one could possibly have been as grumpy and nasty on the whole as that bunch without instruction![;)]
Pullman had manuals on the subject.
Have seen many N&W booklets at NWHS archives re: keeping transactions with passengers positive at all times.
B&O, C&O, UP, Southern and DRGW must have had some sort of training based on my somewhat limited, but very positive experience with them pre-Amtrak.
While I’m sure there have always been exceptions, methinks that manners were just plain better ‘back in the day.’ As FH points out Pullman had definite expectations of their employees in the area, and I’m sure that most railroads expected their employees to be courteous to the customers. Even without a “charm school,” new employees probably got it drilled into them.
Sante Fe had some training with a partnership with Fred Harvey and his Harvey houses.
stay safe
joe
Our employees in commuter service attended (maybe still do) classroom sessions on dealing with passengers. Courtesy was expected, and customer complaints would get one into trouble as quickly as anything. However, I’m pretty sure that these classroom sessions delt more with crew’s dealings with unruly passengers than the other way around.
I have noticed over many years of riding trains that on board crew members working passenger trains have to face and deal with a lot of jerks. Both Amtrak and Metra face problems.Last time I rode Amtrak some woman had three seats tied up with shopping bags.The conductor asked her to move them and she created a ruckus. Metra crews told me about how people try to stiff Metra by handing them 50 or 100 dollar bills for fares. I have also noticed train crews remove unruly passengers. However, as a passenger I FEEL THAT DO NOT TAKE A BAD DAY OUT ON ME. I’ve had to deal with rude on board crew but fortunatly it is few and far between. MY big complaint is that some dining car waitstaff have one way they deal with coach passengers and another way of dealing with slepping car passengers and they DON’T guess right a lot of the time
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Our contemporary experiences with Amtrak has really been hit or miss. The onboard crews are very nice two out of three times, with the rare surly employee experience. We have more issues with the station ticket agents who really could use some additional customer service training and Basic Skills 101. You basically have to pry information out of them.
The former Northern Pacific and AT&SF Railways were very good with the latter being quite businesslike, but in fairness the staffing levels were better in the old days. A lot of pride.
Amtrak’s continued existence depends on a lack of complaints to congressional funding authorities who write the checks for their federal operating subsidies.
Yes indeed, and I have read many times that Mr. Harvey was a real stickler for superior service to the train riding public in every way possible, so such training as Joe mentions was likely the very best a railroad employee could expect to receive.
Searching various news archives has offered up one example of passenger crews getting training in handling passengers. Guess who? The Pennsy!! In a news story (actually about the UA Turboliner) dated Jan. 31, 1971 the New York Times reported that, “The Metroliner was conceived as a test of the entire ‘travel experience’…and 300 of the Pennsylvania’s clerks and trainmen were sent to ‘charm school’.”
I’m sorry that this thread about hospitality training for train crews is also attracting posts about people’s bad on-board experiences, but as long as it is… [:)]
One thing I appreciate about Amtrak or commuter agency crews, if they get obnoxious and you bark back they’re usually willing to go toe-to-toe with you without any recriminations.
These days you try that with an airline employee and you’re apt to be taken off the flight if not arrested! Like you’re just supposed to take any crap they wanna dish out because of 9/11.
I think I have read articles in “Amtrak Ink” about various programs aimed at improving employee interaction with customers.
Anybody who has ever worked a job involving direct contact with the general public for more than a short time will have encounter unreasonable customer complaints or behavior. I have had that kind of job both as an employee and with my own business, and I don’t think I have ever lost my temper with the customer. On the other hand, I know that I have later, and away from customers, described a customer to co-workers, friends or families in terms that could never be repeated on this forum. Having walked in the shoes, I give a great deal of credit to Amtrak unboard employees who manage to keep smiling even after dealing with complaints arizing from problems over which they have absolutely no control.
Amtrak actually has station agents?Real live ones?Well that must be nice.I guess it’s location,location,location.