Where are Amtrak crews based?

Out of curiosity, does Amtrak organize its crews like airlines do, with crews based out of certain key stations, and can crew members live far away but travel on Amtrak to their crew base? Does Amtrak give lodging to crew members on layovers, and do they have "crash pads" in those cities like airline personnel do?

I've never seen an Amtrak crew member riding up to a crew base. It seems like it could be easier to have one of the Class Is provide some train personnel (such as locomotive crew for long-distance trains), since they'd have larger crew bases all along Amtrak routes, right?

One difference between the two is that airlines base their crews in their hubs, usually. Amtrak does, but also has midpoint crew bases, like Shelby, MT.

On the Cardinal the lounge attendant lived in Florida but I think bid out 2 back-to-back round trips on the Cardinal per week, basing out of NY and flying home between jobs. Presumably rooming overnight in NY between her trains. So my guess is that as long as you can get to your job you can live anywhere and work out of anywhere.

jcpatten wrote:On the Cardinal the lounge attendant lived in Florida but I think bid out 2 back-to-back round trips on the Cardinal per week, basing out of NY and flying home between jobs. Presumably rooming overnight in NY between her trains. So my guess is that as long as you can get to your job you can live anywhere and work out of anywhere.

Thanks (for both of the posts above).

Does Amtrak have a deal with airlines, like airlines seem to have with each other: Amtrak crews fly at no cost (to the crew member) to get to work, just like one airline's employees fly with whatever airline will get them to where they need to be for work?

I actually have had a question about crew bases, specifically New Haven, do some crews go from Boston to NYP or does every crew change out at New Haven? I know the Springfield crews change at New Haven but what about the crews coming from/to Boston?

I also have noticed the crews always change at NYP but sometimes also at Philly, why would this happen sometimes and not others?

This is my second attempt to answer this one, the first one did not go through and I did not think to save my work.
In the NEC engine crews are based in Washington, Philadelphia, New York, New Haven, Boston, Harrisburg and Springfield. No crews run past New York in regular operations. Crews run between New York and Boston out of both New York and Boston and in some cases crews change at New Haven. Crews are based in both New Haven and Springfield for trains between those points. Same thing between New York and Philadelphia, New York and Washington and between Philadelphia and Harrisburg. In these cases the runs are split generally fairly evenly between the various terminal points or crew bases. In the Empire Corridor it is a little bit different. All crews between Rensselaer and New York are based out of Rensselaer and turn at New York usually the same day although one or two spend the night in New York City. Between Rensselaer and Boston, Rutland and Montreal the crews are based in Rensselaer and spend the night in the away from home terminala to return the next day. Westbound out of Rensselaer engineers run to Syracuse and generally return the same day. Crews between Niagara Falls and Syracuse are based in Niagara Falls and run to Syracuse and return the same day.
CSX and CP crews report at their own facilities miles away from Amtrak facilities, I don't know of any place in the NEC where crews from Amtrak and the freight railroads involved use the same facilities.
I hope this helps answer your question.
Noel Weaver

Amtrak trains are run by Amtrak employees. No freight railroad personnel are involved, except for the occasional pilot on a detour route where Amtrak crews are not qualified. I thought Amtrak put up crews in hotels when they are away from their home base. I imagine crews can live anywhere are long as they can report to their respective crew bases when called.

Amtrak crews for the SW Chief are based at LA,ABQ,Kansas City,and Chicago.
This is the T+E crews,not the OBS crews
LA crews work as far as Kingman Az(away)ABQ crews work Kingman(away)to ABQ(home)and ABQ to Lajunta(away).
There's an engine crew works Lajunta-Dodge City(not sure which is away/home)
Kansas City T crew works Lajunta(away) to Kansas City(home),Kansas City E crew work Dodge City(away) to Kansas City(home)
Not sure of the eastern away for Kansas City T+E crews,or how far the Chicago crews work west.

They are qualified on their territories they work and the host RR's rule book,and maybe a little more to allow dog catching a crew
close to the turn point,but short on hours (Needles Ca-Kingman Az as an example)

Believe the OBS crews are based at LA and Chicago,LA is the away for Chicago crews,Chicago is the away for LA crews

Noel Weaver wrote:This is my second attempt to answer this one, the first one did not go through and I did not think to save my work.
In the NEC engine crews are based in Washington, Philadelphia, New York, New Haven, Boston, Harrisburg and Springfield. No crews run past New York in regular operations. Crews run between New York and Boston out of both New York and Boston and in some cases crews change at New Haven. Crews are based in both New Haven and Springfield for trains between those points. Same thing between New York and Philadelphia, New York and Washington and between Philadelphia and Harrisburg. In these cases the runs are split generally fairly evenly between the various terminal points or crew bases. In the Empire Corridor it is a little bit different. All crews between Rensselaer and New York are based out of Rensselaer and turn at New York usually the same day although one or two spend the night in New York City. Between Rensselaer and Boston, Rutland and Montreal the crews are based in Rensselaer and spend the night in the away from home terminala to return the next day. Westbound out of Rensselaer engineers run to Syracuse and generally return the same day. Crews between Niagara Falls and Syracuse are based in Niagara Falls and run to Syracuse and return the same day.
CSX and CP crews report at their own facilities miles away from Amtrak facilities, I don't know of any place in the NEC where crews from Amtrak and the freight railroads involved use the same facilities.
I hope this helps answer your question.
Noel Weaver

Noel

Almost right. Engineers that go to Syracuse out of Albany stay overnight except the engineer for Amtrak 63 they turn for Amtrak 64. Train crews going west will either stay in NFL or BUF depending on the train. Engine crews based out if BUF come as far east as SYR and west to TOL.

Stephen B. Carey wrote:I actually have had a question about crew bases, specifically New Haven, do some crews go from Boston to NYP or does every crew change out at New Haven? I know the Springfield crews change at New Haven but what about the crews coming from/to Boston?

Someone who actually works for Amtrak can obviously jump in and correct me, but it seems like regionals do a swap in New Haven, whereas Acelas run through NYP to BOS and vice versa.

Yes, usually regionals change crews in NHV (with a few exceptions) and Acela trains run through with no crew change.

Mr. Hogger, BOTH Train and Engine, or just Engine?

Both. Under normal circumstances both Train and Engine crews either run BOS-NYP or NHV and vice versa. A few of the exceptions Mr. Hogger is referencing are Regionals 95 and 171, which are BOS crews that run the whole trip to NYP.

It depends on the train. For example, train 195 on weekends has always had a Boston Crew to NHV and a NHV train Crew NHV-NYP, but Boston engineer works BOS-NYP. Other trains, such as 171 and 86 have always been a Boston train Crew and engineer together the entire trip between BOS&NYP.

The train crew on 195 works BOS-NYP along with the engineer.