by charlesriverbranch
Well, in addition to accommodating the train overnight, they'd also need to put the crew up at a Boston hotel.
Railroad Forums
Moderators: GirlOnTheTrain, mtuandrew, Tadman
Rockingham Racer wrote: ↑Mon Feb 03, 2020 8:39 am They sometimes run extras down from Maine and over to Southampton. Is there a cogent reason they couldn't do that with the euipment for an early morning departure?Can you explain this idea in more detail? Are you proposing a daily red-eye one-way equipment run with no passengers, straight from Maine to Southampton and then halfway back in the morning, all to have a train-set in place for a morning run from Boston to Maine? Or a revenue run to Southampton via Boston, timed mostly for Boston-Maine, but justified and paid in part by passengers on all portions of the routing?
charlesriverbranch wrote: ↑Mon Feb 03, 2020 2:08 pm Well, in addition to accommodating the train overnight, they'd also need to put the crew up at a Boston hotel.There aren’t crew quarters at South Station anymore? It’s a quick cab or T ride away.
Arborwayfan wrote: ↑Mon Feb 03, 2020 10:37 pm If there were an early morning northbound and a late night southbound, wouldn't it be possible to have one or two crews based in Boston instead of in Portland, such that everyone finished up at home at the end of their shift? Can Amtrak arbitrarily change where jobs are based or must that be negotiated with the union?Short answer is "no" they can't arbitrarily change crew basing. As noted in my immediate previous post the crew zone for the Downeaster is separate from the rest of the NEC. I would caution that my own understanding may not be up to date.
I understand there are many other obstacles. I'm just curious why the assumption of needing to put a crew up in Boston overnight.
Arborwayfan wrote: ↑Tue Feb 04, 2020 11:20 am Thanks, gokeefe! Interesting. Just to see if I understand this right, the Downeaster is in a separate zone from the NEC, which means that it has a different pool of engineers and conductors who work only on the Downeaster?Correct.
Arborwayfan wrote: ↑Tue Feb 04, 2020 11:20 amAnd engineers and conductors in that zone must start work at the Maine end of the line? That is, there couldn't be jobs in the Downeaster zone that required/allowed crews to start in Boston, even if those crews were part of that separate Downeaster pool of engineers and conductors? Or perhaps such jobs could theoretically exist but Amtrak can't make current Maine-based crews up stakes and move to Boston (which would be a big and expensive change for the employees, for sure)?Not quite. The issue, as best I understand it, is that a scheduled crew start in Boston has to come from the NEC zone. Could be totally wrong on this but that's my understanding.
Arborwayfan wrote: ↑Tue Feb 04, 2020 11:20 amThere are so many jurisdictions, parties to negotiations, and physical constraints along this one route that I can totally believe that things that seem like logical arrangements, and that might be easy if it was all in one state that also owned the railroad, are next to impossible. I do often wonder why "we want to add another round trip, with the extra jobs that will require, but you need to let us make this this change to the work rules that won't make anyone's job harder or reduce anyone's hours or wages," isn't an easy sell. I believe you when you say that it this case it isn't, but it often puzzles me why it isn't, in this case another cases. And I am about as pro-union as they come, in general.The physical disconnect between North and South station is primarily responsible for a lot of the problem here. The labor issues are secondary to that.
The Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority (NNEPRA) announced today that the Amtrak Downeaster achieved record-breaking ridership of 574,404 passengers in 2019, a 7.8% yearly increase. The previous ridership record of 546,056 passengers was set in 2017.
The Amtrak Downeaster experienced record ridership growth in 9 of 12 months, according to NNEPRA Marketing Director Natalie Bogart, who added that August 2019 was not only the highest ridership month in Downeaster history (60,944 passengers), but also the first time Downeaster ridership surpassed 60,000 passengers in a month.
NNEPRA attributes the ridership surge to increased frequency to Freeport and Brunswick, improved reliability, as well as repeat riders.
“Amtrak’s Customer Satisfaction score of 91% suggests that people are not only riding the Downeaster, but are finding it to be enjoyable as well,” Amtrak noted in a press release. “When compared to Amtrak services throughout the country, passengers rank the Downeaster among the top services for friendliness, overall satisfaction and quality of on-board food service.”
...