Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by jeaton I think that when Amtrak was first set up, at least the T&E personnel, if not all other on-board personnel, were employees of the host railroad. That would have made train routing over different carriers somewhat dicey if shifts from one railroad to another didn't occure at normal crew terminal points. Jay [/quote] This statement is very true and describes a major problem that plagued ATK from its beginning until it got its own T&E crews. It still can rear its ugly head at times if the crew districts weren't set up right. A good example of this problem was the early San Joaquins, which switched between ATSF and SP between crew change points and which were required to carry both RR's crews on the train, on duty (one active-one effectively deadheading) over the northern end of the route, with a swap occurring onboard when the train switched RRs. So they got one for the price of two on every run--such a deal! I don't recall this being a problem with OBS crews, as they were ATK employees. In other cases, like the Inter-American/TX Eagle, they apportioned the MP/ATSF crew days by % of RR mileage between DAL and SAT, with the individual RR crew going all the way, and each RR supplying entire crews that were called according to the % mileage formula. This latter method tracks a common method by which railroads with joint pax (and some freight) through operations allocated the assigned motive power. As you can probably tell, this was a complicated and costly process--keeping the train on a single RR over the crew district avoided either scheme and was thus far more efficient. But, in some cases it resulted in a loss of market penetration unattributable to inherent ATK attitudes, biases, etc. [quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by bobwilcox The CNW did not want business that lost money. [/quote] RE: "business that lost money", while there are obviously some debatable issues that can be discussed elsewhere, Amtrak services have rarely, if ever, caused a host RR to lose money in any substantial quantity. An example: everybody I think knows of the historic SP negative position in this vein on claimed lack of financial return from Amtrak operations, which lasted until the early 1980's, when an astute member of the SP BOD took a close look at the books and determined that Amtrak was SP's 5th largest customer! Took them all by complete surprise. As has been noted on several other threads regarding various corporate and government financial mythologies and public positions, you can really get in trouble when you start believing your own "stuff" (substitute your own potentially more appropriate word here).
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag