Tell me if you think this would be a good idea. Someone who has worked for a long time (on the Empire Builder) recently told me that before COVID, long distance trains like the Coast Starlight or the Southwest Chief would have up to 500 people on the train every day (sometimes more) including staff. That’s more than the entire population of my elementary school back when I was there. Most ordinary public elementary schools have an average of 450+ students enrolled, and there’s a school nurse at every school (not surprised). Since long distance trains pre-COVID had at or around the same number of passengers on the train, I think it would be a good idea for Amtrak to hire registered nurses to ride long distance train on rotating shifts. They could switch out at various point along the route just like conductor and engineers do, so that those nurses would always be awake during the trip in case a passenger has a medical issue. As I mentioned before, there was a case where a pregnant woman ended up going into labor and giving birth on the California Zephyr while the train was traveling through a remote area where it would take a long time for an ambulance (or a helicopter) to show up. I was told that this happens a lot more often than people think, about 4-6 times a year is what I was told, and apart from that, I’m sure there are so many other medical issues that have occurred within passengers and crew while trains are en route. Amtrak nurses could not only be required to have an RN degree as a condition of hiring, but have the training to intervene in the most extreme situations, such as when a woman goes into labor, when someone has a heart attack, or stroke, anaphylactic shock, etc….. and be prepared to administer meds. The lower level of the Transition Sleeper has one handicap bedroom, but in the future, if new Superliner equipment was acquired or if Transition Sleepers went through a full overhaul at the Beech Grove shops, the handicap room could become an infirmary (nurse’s office) with one flexible bed, a chair for the nurse, a sink, as well as a cabinet filled with supplies such as wipes, bandages, and of course, vaccine doses ready for emergency administering (that infirmary would be off limits to passenger unless an Amtrak nurse or a conductor escorted them there). That nurse could also be trained to help in psychiatric emergencies as well, like when a passenger is having an anxiety attack, mental breakdown, or having suicidal thoughts, etc…..thus relieving the conductors of their current obligation to focus on those passengers. Even though Amtrak nurses could swap out at crew change points, unlike the conductor/engineer, those nurses would not be responsible for controlling the train’s movement, so their union contracts could be different in terms of maximum hours and shifts. For instance, on the California Zephyr, there’s a T&E crew that goes from Reno to Winnemucca (Reno based) then another going from Winnemucca to Salt Lake City (SLC based). The Amtrak nurse could go from Salt Lake City, all the way to Reno (10-hour run), which would spare the cost of hiring a third nurse to work a shift that’s less than 6 hours. I understand that the SLC crew that goes west to Winnemucca used to go all the way to Reno, but due to frequent UP delays on that section of the route, very often they wouldn’t reach their end point in time for the 12-hour limit. Nurses would not be under FRA hours of service, so the scheduled shift would not be too much of an issue unless they ended up working for more than 12 hours on a single run. The uniforms could consist of a light blue Amtrak jacket, as well as Amtrak-style scrubs (regular hospital scrubs with the Amtrak colors on them). They, likewise could be required to wear a lanyard as well with their employee ID. Do you think any of this would be a good idea for long distance trains? (except in the Northeast Corridor)
