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Transit agency wants answers for misrouted commuter train
At least some fans got some new mileage out of the snafu.
Reminds me of “Charlie on the M.T.A.”, who’s “riding forever 'neath the streets of Boston - He’s the man who never returned !”
(See: http://www.mit.edu/~jdreed/t/charlie.html )
- Paul North.
I would like to be afly on the wall at the investigation/hearing as the dispatcher better have some good excuse…maybe he wanted the slower commuter train to go into the clear so that the Acela could buzz on by at high speed. Hmm now that is a good argument for the union to use.
Oop’s…
I thought the engineer just pointed his locomotive in the direction he wanted to go and just headed off to anywhere…(That is how the truckers do it on the very nice taxpayer provided roads), oh, back to reality. Almost sounds like the dispatcher just wanted to get the commuter train out of the way of the Acela but they were headed in opposite directions? That does not sound too good…
Having spent probably way too many hours with the Train Dispatcher simulation software, I can attest that dispatching a line with lots of commuter, Amtrak and freight traffic and keeping it all straight is a challenge. The difference here is that this Amtrak dispatcher stands to lose a lot more than game points.