Amtrak Service Manual

[The Davy Crockett]

After a brief look at the manual, one has to wonder if the people who write this stuff EVER step aboard a train! hboy: For just one example, look at 6-76... In reality, if the bathrooms were cleaned even half of the time as prescribed, things overall would be a whole lot nicer. As the manual is written, the duties of the TACs (Train Attendant - Coach - as prescribed by the manual) and the TASCs (Train Attendant - Sleeping Car - yep per the manual again, so that 'I' am in compliance :lol: ) seems pretty onerous, so no wonder it gets ignored. I've worked in a number of places where the official policies and reality are wildly divergent. IMHO management needs to actually work WITH the employees so that policy and reality are not so far apart. The places I've worked at that do so have much better employee morale, and have higher customer satisfaction! :excl:

 

[yarrow]

After a brief look at the manual, one has to wonder if the people who write this stuff EVER step aboard a train! hboy: For just one example, look at 6-76... In reality, if the bathrooms were cleaned even half of the time as prescribed, things overall would be a whole lot nicer. As the manual is written, the duties of the TACs (Train Attendant - Coach - as prescribed by the manual) and the TASCs (Train Attendant - Sleeping Car - yep per the manual again, so that 'I' am in compliance :lol: ) seems pretty onerous, so no wonder it gets ignored. I've worked in a number of places where the official policies and reality are wildly divergent. IMHO management needs to actually work WITH the employees so that policy and reality are not so far apart. The places I've worked at that do so have much better employee morale, and have higher customer satisfaction! :excl:

my thoughts exactly. thanks for writing them out for me

 

[me_little_me]

After a brief look at the manual, one has to wonder if the people who write this stuff EVER step aboard a train! hboy: For just one example, look at 6-76... In reality, if the bathrooms were cleaned even half of the time as prescribed, things overall would be a whole lot nicer. As the manual is written, the duties of the TACs (Train Attendant - Coach - as prescribed by the manual) and the TASCs (Train Attendant - Sleeping Car - yep per the manual again, so that 'I' am in compliance :lol: ) seems pretty onerous, so no wonder it gets ignored. I've worked in a number of places where the official policies and reality are wildly divergent. IMHO management needs to actually work WITH the employees so that policy and reality are not so far apart. The places I've worked at that do so have much better employee morale, and have higher customer satisfaction! :excl:

On the other hand, sometimes the toilets never get cleaned. One could ask the attendant nicely to do so. If they won't, one could nicely remind them of the rule and/or contact customer service regarding their failure to do so.

I have only written customer service twice and both times it was to praise employees (three different ones) for outstanding service. Now, by pointing out the rule, it might get management to be realistic as well as to require that the few lazy attendants actually do clean the toilets.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

I'm happy to see that have a section on assisting passengers with disabilities and not just mobility disabilities. I printed off the page with the instructions for Assisting Passengers Who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing to put with my travel papers. I've already planned to let the attendants know of my hearing difficulties and that I'm deaf without my hearing aids, which I will not be wearing when sleeping. Of course, I'll also be traveling with my "second pair of ears"... my daughter, which helps. :giggle:

 

[TraneMan]

I'm happy to see that have a section on assisting passengers with disabilities and not just mobility disabilities. I printed off the page with the instructions for Assisting Passengers Who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing to put with my travel papers. I've already planned to let the attendants know of my hearing difficulties and that I'm deaf without my hearing aids, which I will not be wearing when sleeping. Of course, I'll also be traveling with my "second pair of ears"... my daughter, which helps. :giggle:

I have to look for that now.. I'm going with my partner, so he'll tell me what's going on here and there.

 

[railiner]

The airline that I worked for required ALL employees in all departments to periodically sign a confidentiality and business ethics agreement. I was in passenger services, and our company which was in intense and fierce competition with other carriers considered things that outsiders might consider mundane, to be confidential.

Any procedure that we had developed was after long and careful analysis, and if it resulted in even a slight advantage over the way others did things, was a 'trade secret'. We had a very well developed computer reservations system and other computer systems that were considered trade secrets as well. And that definitely included operations manuals issued to employees...

I agree. But, very little that goes on inside the cabin is considered confidential information. The comment that all employees are now required to sign confidentiality agreements I guess doesn’t surprise me, as I see how flight crews can be routinely exposed to “trade secrets” doing ground work . A reservation system, route planning, fare structure, maintenance schedules, supply control and distribution, and other resource management procedures are proprietary, but how the flight crew operates the aircraft, or how the cabin crew attends to their responsibilities are not confidential. I can get a flight manual for every aircraft an airline operates, and each airline does write their own flight manuals. Aircraft operating procedures have to be on file with the FAA.

To tie this all in and keep it on topic, it is the same with Amtrak. Many of the things in that handbook are based upon Federal or State regulations. Things that are not defined by regulations still can’t really be trade secrets, or proprietary information in a government operation. Public records is an area where I have quite a few years of experience, and there isn’t much that you can keep from the public if a reasonable request is made for the information. In most cases, as with requests from the media, the government is obliged to demonstrate why release of information would compromise an investigation, interfere with due process in criminal justice operations, bring unnecessary harm to someone, or compromise national security.

Okay, perhaps you can obtain these manuals. But that shouldn't be so. There is too much sensitive operational information contained in them that could be useful for a terrorist or other person with ill intentions. Even little things like arming or disarming cabin escape chutes, or procedures for when pilots need to leave the flight deck, etc. The public does not need to know these things, nor should Amtrak have to reveal theirs. Rules for tickets, fares, enroute policies for service, ot other relevant information should be okay.

 

[Anderson]

My intention is never to "flog" the crew with the letter of the book...however, I do want to know what sort of ground I'm on if I walk into the diner on the Silver Meteor, see that it is half-empty (not simply with a stray empty table), am denied a seat outright, there is no ensuing call to dinner, and want to fire off a letter. I have never had this happen, but there are some things that I do want to know policies on this as best I can because if something does go haywire, I want to know what policy was violated.

 

[Guest]

There is a great Acela Locomotive Manual but Amtrak wouldn't release that, at least they wouldn't release it a couple of years ago.

 

[trainman74]

Check out pages 8-27 and 8-28 (427 and 428 of the PDF) to see what the passenger name is on the sample California Rail Pass tickets. :giggle:

 

[The Davy Crockett]

Check out pages 8-27 and 8-28 (427 and 428 of the PDF) to see what the passenger name is on the sample California Rail Pass tickets. :giggle:

Nice to see someone has a sense of humor. Good Catch!