awful delays

[shane sessions]

I've ridden amtrak four times, from minot to fargo, and minot to minneapolis. every single trip, my train has been a minimum of four hours late to arrive in minot, my starting point. i have limited time with my relatives in minneapolis, and i'm sick of paying two hundred dollars to cut my time in half with them,b ecause the trains are soo late. this is an awful service. the public transportation in our country is mightily lacking, and an embarassment.

 

[TraneMan]

I've ridden amtrak four times, from minot to fargo, and minot to minneapolis. every single trip, my train has been a minimum of four hours late to arrive in minot, my starting point. i have limited time with my relatives in minneapolis, and i'm sick of paying two hundred dollars to cut my time in half with them,b ecause the trains are soo late. this is an awful service. the public transportation in our country is mightily lacking, and an embarassment.

It's not Amtrak's fault about the delay in ND due to the flooding, and slow train speed.

 

[the_traveler]

As said it due to the flooding. You could always drive and be stuck on a detour route for many hours, or fly and be stuck at the closed airport (due to storms) for many days!

I myself would still rather take the train, and be "only a few hours late" and let somebody else "do the driving"!

 

[the_traveler]

And BTW - This site has no affiliation with Amtrak!

 

[Tracktwentynine]

Sorry for your bad luck with the Builder. It's unfortunate that the route is so susceptible to delay.

In almost 6 years of regularly taking the train, and over 12,000 miles on Amtrak, I've never been more than 2 hours late (fingers crossed). I cannot say the same for flying or for driving. In fact, back in March, I got stuck in the Cleveland airport for 5 hours, and I almost got stuck there overnight; we barely made it out. If I'm going to be stuck somewhere, I think I'd rather it be on Amtrak.

 

[D.P. Roberts]

This reminds me of an article I saw yesterday: The "no-vacation nation". As the article says, the US is the only developed nation that doesn't guarantee vacation time - most advanced nations have government-guaranteed 4 weeks, many offer 6 weeks. The fact that so few Americans take vacations- and when they do, they often take only a few days - undoubtedly affects train travel. For example, Germans usually have 3 weeks off in a row during the summer- there's no reason NOT to take the train. To the OP's point, if you're counting the hours with your family, maybe train travel isn't for you. If you have a week or more, maybe 1-2 days doesn't make a difference.

 

[Ryan]

Two things.

1. On the vacation time, a picture is worth a thousand words:

Mr. Roberts is exactly right, the US is so far behind anyone else it's amazing.

2. Here's what happens when there is flooding. You'll note that the rails remain intact, so there would be no indication from the outside that there were any issues with this track until a train came along. With slow orders in place, the engineer would have time to stop the train when he sees something like this. Of course, you also get delays. There are some f-bombs in the audio, so turn the volume down if you're at work or easily offended. (h/t to Rafi - he posted this on FB this morning)

 

[TraneMan]

Two things.

1. On the vacation time, a picture is worth a thousand words:

It's sad that we are SO behind! you wonder why people are burnt out, and other things here in the states. Sad to see lot of retails are now open on holidays. My place of work, we are only closed on Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Easter is not even a paid holiday!

 

[the_traveler]

And some states are so far behind the times too!

The main one I'm thinking of is Rhode Island (surprised?

). Just after I moved to RI in 2000, I took the bus to my (federal) job. Just by chance in late July, I saw a sign in the bus stating when it would operate on holiday schedules. I say January (New Years), Feb (President's Day), May (Memorial Day), July (July 4), etc.. There was one for August also. I thought "What is that?

"

I had to ask my co-workers. It is "Victory Day"! Victory over what?

In the past, it was known as V-J Day, or for those who don't know Victory over Japan Day (from WWII)!

RI is the only state of the 50 US states that still has a holiday for V-J Day!

(It's "only" 65+ years since WWII ended!

) All state offices are closed, but it is one of the biggest shopping days!

BTW - Because I had a federal job, and the bus operated on a holiday schedule, I had to drive the 40 miles to work that day, because the 1st run on the "holiday schedule" did not arrive until almost noon!

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I agree with Dave completely. We'd better return those ancient 65 year old holidays to standard workdays again before the rest of the industrialized world starts laughing at us for having too much time off from work.

 

[Grandpa D]

As the article says, the US is the only developed nation that doesn't guarantee vacation time - most advanced nations have government-guaranteed 4 weeks, many offer 6 weeks.

Ah yes, advanced nations like Spain, Portugal, Greece, Germany... how's it working out for them financially?

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Ah yes, advanced nations like Spain, Portugal, Greece, Germany... how's it working out for them financially?

Yeah, it must suck to be a country that couldn't recover from the global recession that America dumped upon the entire world's economy. What losers those guys are.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Not to sound like Forrest Gump but my Late Grandfather, a 40 yr. SP Union Employee, taught me a Saying that seems Appropriate here: "No-one Ever says on their Death Bed that they Wished they'd Spent MORE Time @ Work!" People that bash other Civilized Countries probably haven't been there but read about it on the Internet or Fixed News or listend to such Intellects as Rush Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, Sister Sarah etc. (Multi-Millionaires All! Wonder if they ever had a Real Job?? :wacko: ) :help:

 

[stntylr]

I'm a federal employee. I work the night shift. I get holiday whether or not I actually work on the holiday. Plus a ten percent night shift pay and 25 percent Sunday bonus.

I also get 208 paid vacation hours a year. That's 26 days a year but since I don't have to take vacation on my days off I get over a month of vacation a year.

This all means I have plenty of time to ride trains.

 

[Ryan]

Good for you?

The vast majority of Americans aren't that lucky.

 

[JayPea]

What I don't understand is that there are some people, (my co-workers amongst them) who, when they have vacation time coming, and don't take it. Where I work, after a year, employees get one week's paid vacation and two personal days. After two years, it goes up to two weeks + two personal days. Six years, it's three weeks and after 15 years, four weeks. A couple of co-workers never take vacations. They thus lose that time. I can understand it if they can't afford to go somewhere, but I'd take the time off anyway. Right now, I'm at the three weeks stage. With the two personal days, that's 17 days. We get six paid holidays a year, but only on Christmas do we take the day off. That I don't mind; it's double time if we work holidays. By wrapping my two weekends off around my week's vacation, and adding my two personal days in at that same time, I get much more than a week off when I take my once-a-year long Amtrak trip. In fact, this coming July and August, since I changed my days off, I end up with 12 days off in a row, more than ample enough time to fly to my aunt and uncle's in Illinois, visit a few days, take the CONO from Champaign to Chicago, the CZ from Chicago to Sacramento, the CS from Sacramento to Seattle, spend a couple of days visiting relatives in Seattle, and come back home and rest up a day or two, refreshed and ready to go back to work.

I just got back, in fact, from a six-day vacation, four paid days and two normal days off. Very relaxing, as I took a road trip to Hood River, OR, to ride the Mount Hood Scenic Railroad (highly recommended for anyone finding themselves with a day or two in Portland and nothing to do; it's only an hour or so from Portland to Hood River and the scenery is spectacular.).

All that to say while we here in the US are lagging behind other countries in paid vacations, I don't understand people who don't take them when they have the opportunity to do so. Even if I couldn't afford to take a vacation, I'd at least stay home and do nothing. Anything to not work for a week or even a few days.

 

[D.P. Roberts]

As the article says, the US is the only developed nation that doesn't guarantee vacation time - most advanced nations have government-guaranteed 4 weeks, many offer 6 weeks.

Ah yes, advanced nations like Spain, Portugal, Greece, Germany... how's it working out for them financially?

The article brings up several interesting points in that regard. You would think that since we work so much more often than other countries, we must be more productive than others, and have an economic "competitive advantage" over other countries. Not so. The US is the 4th most productive country, but the country in 2nd place, Sweden, requires 5 weeks of paid vacation per year. And Germany, according to those productivity rankings, is right behind us. Here's the list (I couldn't get the PDF in the CNN article to work). Note that Switzerland, the most economically competitive country, offers 25 paid vacation days.

The problem, as mentioned in the article, is that we Americans are certain that working a few extra days a year makes a huge difference to our jobs and our lives. Over a few days, maybe. Over the course of a year, a decade or a career? Not so much. And how many opportunities (like taking a train trip across the country) do we miss by working so much?

 

[Ryan]

What I don't understand is that there are some people, (my co-workers amongst them) who, when they have vacation time coming, and don't take it. Where I work, after a year, employees get one week's paid vacation and two personal days. After two years, it goes up to two weeks + two personal days. Six years, it's three weeks and after 15 years, four weeks. A couple of co-workers never take vacations. They thus lose that time.

Are you not allowed to carry over that time? I try to carry as much vacation time on the books as possible - you never know when you might need it, and if you don't use it it turns into a nice little windfall when you change jobs. I switched companies about a year ago, left the old job on a Friday, started the new job on a Monday, but with the 3 weeks of vacation that I got paid out, I essentially worked for 4 weeks that month and got paid for 7. Not a bad little bonus!

 

[the_traveler]

And how many opportunities (like taking a train trip across the country) do we miss by working so much?

Say it ain't so!

 

[TraneMan]

Are you not allowed to carry over that time? I try to carry as much vacation time on the books as possible - you never know when you might need it,

Where I work, you use or lose it. Lot of places now days don't allow you to carry over your vacation, sick or personal time over.

 

[D.P. Roberts]

What I don't understand is that there are some people, (my co-workers amongst them) who, when they have vacation time coming, and don't take it. Where I work, after a year, employees get one week's paid vacation and two personal days. After two years, it goes up to two weeks + two personal days. Six years, it's three weeks and after 15 years, four weeks. A couple of co-workers never take vacations. They thus lose that time.

Are you not allowed to carry over that time?

I'm in a similar boat where I work, you get 4 weeks after working for 10 years, and they don't carry over. Many of my coworkers haven't taken a vacation in years, or only take a few days. They have easily lost MONTHS of vacation time.

The sad part of it is that many of them are struggling at their jobs because they can't figure out how to train & delegate to their subordinates, which means they have to do everything themselves. This makes them indispensable in day-to-day operations, and makes them feel it's impossible to take a vacation. This makes them more stressed & frazzled, making it harder to manage what they're doing, and harder to train & delegate. It's a sad and vicious cycle. This isn't true of everybody, of course, but I'll bet it's true for a large portion of the American work force.

 

[the_traveler]

Are you not allowed to carry over that time? I try to carry as much vacation time on the books as possible - you never know when you might need it

I can't speak for all jobs, but when I was a federal employee, our annual (vacation) time was "Use or Lose"! Whatever was not used by January 1 was lost. That's why see many federal employees having vacations in November & December. We could carry over personal (sick) time, but not annual time.

 

[Grandpa D]

When I worked I got 4 weeks a year plus 8 holiday. And I took every minute of it. (I'm now retired.) If you didn't take it you lost it. December was a busy month for vacations. More power to those that can get that kind of a situation. What bothers me is having the government mandate vacation time.

 

[JayPea]

What I don't understand is that there are some people, (my co-workers amongst them) who, when they have vacation time coming, and don't take it. Where I work, after a year, employees get one week's paid vacation and two personal days. After two years, it goes up to two weeks + two personal days. Six years, it's three weeks and after 15 years, four weeks. A couple of co-workers never take vacations. They thus lose that time.

Are you not allowed to carry over that time? I try to carry as much vacation time on the books as possible - you never know when you might need it, and if you don't use it it turns into a nice little windfall when you change jobs. I switched companies about a year ago, left the old job on a Friday, started the new job on a Monday, but with the 3 weeks of vacation that I got paid out, I essentially worked for 4 weeks that month and got paid for 7. Not a bad little bonus!

You can't carry over vacation time from one year to the next, no. If you don't use it within the year and switch jobs, as you did, you can do that. For instance, my annversary date at work is July 1st. I have one week of vacation to take before then. If I quit jobs and begin another, I can take that week of pay as vacation and get paid while I'm starting my other job. If, on the other hand, I decide not to use that week at all between now and July 1st, I lose it altogether. (No chance, by the way, of either happening. As of July 1st I will have been with my current employer 10 years. I'm like an annoying brother-in-law; they can't get rid of me no matter how hard they try. :lol: And I have big plans for my last week of vacation; Spokane-Seattle via the EB, a few days in Seattle, down to Portland via the CS, and back to Spokane via the EB; I'm not about to give up my vacation!) However, after July 1st, while I have three weeks of vacation, I could do like you, work four weeks and get paid for seven if I didn't use up any time prior to that.

Hope that's clear as mud now! :lol:

One of my co-workers has never taken a vacation though he's been there 2 1/2 years. Another has been there almost five years; he has taken two weeks total of vacation and didn't like that, because he was afraid he'd lose his job because he took vacation. He doesn't have to worry about that this year as he had to spend a lot of time in the hospital and used his "vacation" that way. Not me! I in fact have bunched my vacation time up. I took this past week, and will take my last week next month. I begin my next year's three weeks of vacation beginning July 1st. At the end of July into August, I'm using a week of vacation plus my two personal days. And I'm taking four days for vacation for the October gathering. That's four vacations in 4 1/2 months. And I can hardly wait to take the other three!

 

[TransitGeek]

My wife is a teacher, I'm in grad school and heading for academia. 2 months in the summer, a month in the winter, and a week in the spring. I'm overworked and underpaid, but I still love my job!