I was taking this southbound Cascades train from the All Aboard Washington meeting in Centralia to Portland for a points run last night. We were close to being on time, as the freight delays from earlier in the day had mostly cleared up. But then we came to a stop near Woodland, WA, and the conductors told us that there had been an "incident" with a freight train ahead of us. We learned later that it was an equipment problem, not a trespasser problem.
The conductors were good about keeping the passengers up to date, although they didn't know much. A friend and I were sitting in the bistro car, so we heard the sparse radio traffic. But it became evident that the crew was going to run out of hours shortly, and they were frantically calling people to arrange for a replacement crew. But seeing as how it was a Saturday night, they couldn't reach anyone, and were leaving voicemails for all and sundry. Eventually they did manage to arrange for a replacement crew, and at about the same time, the dispatcher gave the go-ahead to resume our journey south.
We got to Vancouver, WA, where the replacements were waiting at 7:18pm, just two minutes before the crew would have "died on hours" at 7:20. Phew! From there, it was smooth sailing, and we pulled into PDX 1:45 late.
But as my friend said: why couldn't the crew reach anyone? It's a railroad, for heaven's sake! And why didn't they even know who to call? It seemed like sloppy operations to us. And we heard the conductor say that the same thing had happened just two weeks ago, so the problem can't be that rare. I think that they need to evaluate some aspects of the operation.
The conductors were good about keeping the passengers up to date, although they didn't know much. A friend and I were sitting in the bistro car, so we heard the sparse radio traffic. But it became evident that the crew was going to run out of hours shortly, and they were frantically calling people to arrange for a replacement crew. But seeing as how it was a Saturday night, they couldn't reach anyone, and were leaving voicemails for all and sundry. Eventually they did manage to arrange for a replacement crew, and at about the same time, the dispatcher gave the go-ahead to resume our journey south.
We got to Vancouver, WA, where the replacements were waiting at 7:18pm, just two minutes before the crew would have "died on hours" at 7:20. Phew! From there, it was smooth sailing, and we pulled into PDX 1:45 late.
But as my friend said: why couldn't the crew reach anyone? It's a railroad, for heaven's sake! And why didn't they even know who to call? It seemed like sloppy operations to us. And we heard the conductor say that the same thing had happened just two weeks ago, so the problem can't be that rare. I think that they need to evaluate some aspects of the operation.
