About the Author J. D. Santucci (a.k.a. "Tuch") began his railroading career in 1978 as a trainman on the Missouri Pacific. After a round of lay-offs in 1985, Tuch embarked on a railroad odyssey, working in many different situations for different roads. This column tries to explain some of the nuts and bolts of the job and also demonstrates what we have to deal with on a regular basis within and without the industry. Tuch currently works through freights out of Chicago for Canadian National/Illinois Central. ©1999, 2003-2007 JD Santucci. Logo ©2002 The Railroad Network. By J.D. Santucci

July 18, 2005
As I mentioned in the first part of this lesson, the inspiration to this topic was passengers that are late for the train. The day in which the idea for this topic was drawn into the forefront, I was sitting at Homewood watching a slightly tardy Amtrak 391 work at the station. When finished boarding the passengers there 391 departed; doing so about three minutes late. As the last car of the train was rolling away from the platform, I spotted some guy charging up the stairs with a suitcase in tow. He was about four minutes late based on the scheduled departure time of 391. I suppose you could embrace the philosophy that he was early for 59 which would be there in another five hours and five minutes.

People are late for trains all the time. And when the train pulls out of the station without them, then it is the railroad's fault for departing without them. Whether the departure is on the advertised or twenty minutes down it is never the fault of the passenger for being late.

People complain all the time when the train is late. I got quite the earful of this when I worked at the South Shore. The South Shore had become a victim of its own success. Patronage had grown significantly in the middle 80's as the result of their acquiring the new, highly reliable coaches to replace those aged orange cars. Those old cars probably scared more people away than they attracted. They were highly unreliable and prone to breakdowns. The new coaches, delivered in 1982 contributed to turnaround in the fortunes of the South Shore.

Ridership began to grow dramatically. The result of the ridership growth was late trains. The schedule for the trains was based on lower patronage levels. Suddenly, there were significantly more people boarding and detraining at each stop. The dwell time, the time required for the trains to sit at each station and board or detrain passengers began to increase. Add two or three minutes of dwell time at each station and by the time you've worked five or six stations, you are now behind schedule anywhere from ten to fifteen minutes, or more. And there is virtually no way to make up this much lost time without resorting to major rule violations such as speeding. And even then, if you are too far behind schedule the added speed still might not make up all of the lost time. At one point the on time performance of the South Shore was down to 57%; just over half of all trains operating on the system.

The South Shore management and NICTD (the Northern Indiana Commuter Transit District) took the initiative and significantly reworked the train schedules to accommodate the additional dwell time at each station. Twenty or more minutes were added to the longer distance trains, those operating between Michigan City and Chicago. Additional time was also applied to those trains that between Michigan City and South Bend as well. On time performance improved dramatically. Passengers actually complained. They thought that instead of adding time, the railroad should have increased train speeds or added more trains. One train was added with the new schedules. However, there was not sufficient equipment to allow additional trains beyond what was now operating under the new schedule.

But the trains were on time, most of the time and that was what really mattered.

But when it came to on time performance, some of the passengers had issues. They whined and cried about late trains but had no problem demanding that train be late to accommodate them. It was not unusual to watch people pull into the parking lot and then run the 1000 meter dash in record time to catch the train before it pulled out of the station. The parking lots at several of the stations often resembled the start of the Boston Marathon as it seemed hundreds of passengers were making the race to the train.

I worked the very rear two cars of the train I was assigned to each morning. I made the call when it was time to depart based upon the absence of passengers on the platform. Note the phrase that pays; the absence of passengers on the platform. Once there was nobody left on the platform and nobody coming through the doorway at the top of the stairwell, I gave the sign to the Conductor or the Collector at the next set of open doors to highball. Doors were closed, the signal given to the Engineer and off we went. On numerous, almost regular occasion, you would hear somebody running up the stairs yelling and screaming for you to wait for them. It was my attitude that if you were not on the platform or at the top of the stairs leading to the platform, you missed out. And the company backed me and others on this policy. If it was time for us to depart and you weren't in position to board the train, you were early for the next one.

On many occasions, passengers would later complain to me about not holding the train for them. They crabbed about holding monthly passes and presumed that such a pass offered them privilege. I guess they believed this privilege meant delaying a train because they could not arrive at the station on time. I used to explain to them that if I held the train for them I would then have to hold it for everybody that was late at every station. If this were the case, the train would then be late arriving in Chicago. I would also suggest that if they really desire that I hold the train for them because they were late in arriving at the station, no matter how late, that perhaps I should make be allowed to make an announcement over the train public address system. This announcement would state something to the effect "we are late because passenger so and so could make it to the station on time. Being that this passenger is a monthly ticket holder this passenger is entitled to make everybody on the train late so they wouldn't miss their train."

The prospect of such an announcement would make some of them cringe. One lady said "You wouldn't really do that, would you?"

"Watch me, I'm likely to do about anything to avoid having the rest of the train whine and complain to me about the train arriving late."

Oh no, I never made such an announcement as I didn't hold the train for late passengers unless there was the unlikely event that we were a little early.

Now we'll shift gears and look at my punctuality.

As I mentioned in part one of this topic I promised to discuss my episodes of running late. We'll also look at a few co-workers and some of their excuses too.

I managed to only be late once with Metra. I somehow was never late with the South Shore whenever I worked passenger. Now I can't say the same with freight. While you are expected to arrive on time, the urgency is not quite the same magnitude as it is with passenger. While I always strive to arrive punctually, I don't sweat it as much if something happens in my journey to work that might cause me to be late. In freight you can get away with the statement "The job doesn't start without me" far more than with passenger.

In my younger days when I was rather wild and reckless, I used to have both the phone and alarm clock right next to the bed. Inevitably the phone would ring while I was sleeping. It was easy to roll over, grab the phone, take the call, hang up, then roll over and grab a few more minutes of sleep. Or, have the alarm go off and simply reach up, shut it off and roll over to grab a couple more winks. In many cases I could get away with this. In other cases; I couldn't. In those days I tended to burn the candle at both ends which resulted in self induced sleep deprivation. As a result of this lack of sleep pattern, sometimes those few extra winks turned into an entire boxcar load of them.

On a few occasions I would roll over, wake up and glance at the clock thinking that I had only dozed for a few moments. But alas, it was something like fifteen or twenty minutes before I needed to be at work. DOH! Now it was a mad dash to get up and going and then the race to work. How I didn't get more speeding tickets in those days is beyond me. Oh yah, a few times I was a few minutes late.

But the one that really stands out does so for several reasons. We go drift back in time to my days at the MoPac. I got the call for an extra job at 7:59 am at Yard Center. I guess I took the call but did not recall even getting it. I simply rolled over and went right back to sleep. Apparently it was a rather late night the night before which lead to a morning coming too early. Anyway, I quickly succumbed to the dire need to get more sleep and dropped back into a deep slumber.

The phone rang once again and yet again, I reached over and answered it. The voice of Chief Caller Sandy Ponton asked "Are you planning on coming to work today?" I questioned her and she told me of taking a call over two hours ago for an extra job.

"I did?" was my reply. "Oh yah, I guess I did. What time is it?"

When she told me it was about 8:30 I was like "Oh, oh." She also told me not to worry though as the FRA was there and had bad ordered every single engine in the yard so nothing was moving. I still did the mad dash to get to work. It actually turned out to be a no harm, no foul situation. My late arrival was never even noticed by the Trainmaster on duty as he was too preoccupied about all the jobs sitting around waiting for engines. Score one for me.

In this day and age with cell phones, if there is a situation that crops up while en route to work that would cause one to be late, you can simply phone it in. And this occurred right after I began with the IC in 1996. I was making my student trips to get qualified. I was on my way to work and should have been there in plenty of time. A tractor-trailer jackknifed on the interstate just a little ahead of me and pretty much took out the entire roadway. So I was stuck behind this mess. Being that I was brand new, I had none of the phone numbers to contact anybody; anybody except the secretary to the Superintendent.

I called her and told her of my plight. She was able to give me the number to Glenn Yard. I quickly called the Yardmaster there and filled him in on my situation. He understood and told me to get there as soon as I could. I was able to get there in time to catch the train just prior to it departing.

In this day and age, especially when located within a large metropolis like the Chicago/Northwest Indiana region, it not only pays to allow yourself sufficient time to get to work, it pays dividends to know which radio stations carry frequent traffic reports and what time they run them. It is routine for me to jump back and forth between several stations to assess the traffic situation to determine which route to take to work. I have several options in the routes in which to take so I listen carefully before committing to a specific route. However, sometimes these reports leave a few individual roadway segments out of an update and once in awhile I get burned and drive right into a huge back up.

Others have encountered the very same plight. And right now with all of the construction projects underway, it seems that all roads lead to traffic delays. Most of the interstate highways I use to reach Glenn Yard are presently under construction. At times this in itself can make getting to work on time not just a job, but an adventure. And then there are some that never even listen to the reports, they just drive into a back up and then wonder how and why this happened.

Of course sometimes these same traffic reports have steered me clear of such traffic nightmares. In any event, I still strive to arrive at work on time. I allow sufficient time to make the final decision on which route to follow. If circumstances beyond my control prevent me from arriving on time, I live with it. I don't get frustrated. I will simply call to alert them of my delay. I don't drive like a maniac to arrive on time these days; if I'm late, I'm late. It doesn't occur very often, rarely in fact.

In part three of this topic, we'll look at the excuses given by some for being late and what happens to those that seem to have issues with promptness.

And so it goes.

Tuch

Hot Times on the High Iron and the HTOTHI initials, ©2005 by JD Santucci.