My experience on Amtrak LD trains was that they don't stock food for the entire LD trip, but take on food at per-designated stops. IOW, Amtrak, (in the past) used to take advantage of local food available, IE in Ft. Worth Texas, on the way to San Antonio, we picked up steaks.
In the case of the Coast Starlight, it passes through EMY, which is the endpoint of the CZ, and the crew there would certainly be capable of loading food items onto the Starlight during its station stop. Whether that's actually done, I have no idea. But it's a bit different than having a commissary at some non-terminal station midway along a route.
Isn't the Commissary actually located in the Oakland Amtrak maintenance facility, and not at Emeryville station?
Every LD route with full meal service has the same menu, and all the food is prepared by Aramark. The days of serving regional offerings are long gone.
We had the same exact experience on our derailed Silver Meteor (which I won’t shut up about) last year. The crew kept on timing out, we kept on having to wait hours for new crews to arrive, and we kept on getting more and more out of sync with the freights in the process. It did seem like they just weren’t planning ahead, and it kept on feeding this endless cycle of accumulating delays.
Do you two realize the moment you call the relief crew and tell the to report to the scene, you've started their hours of service, right? So, if it takes them six hours to get to the scene, due to weather or the fact that you need to find a crew from another crew base, by the time the crew arrives, they only have 6 hours left to perform service.
They stocked the dining car at Jack London when I took the CS in December of 2017.
Does the clock run, if the relief crew are themselves not working (simply are passengers on the helicopter heading to the stranded train)?
Yes. Deadheading to the train counts as hours of service under federal law. When they arrive at the train, the clock ticks even if they aren't performing service since they are subject to duty and not in place of respite. Even if they are in limbo time, (not resting, not performing service), the clock pauses...but will commingle with any future or past service since it is not rest. In the case of future service, the limbo time actual goes towards service.
I can't speak for everyone but one would have to wonder if the potential of $1m cash bonus is worth it if you violate the hours of service law and heaven forbid, something goes wrong.
The law is enforced with safety in mind. There are certain exceptions and the railroad can willingly violate it if they wish (and pay the fines) ...but again, if your "common sense" solution ends up causing another Spuyten Duyvil or Hoboken, would you still say it was a good idea? Are you willing to take that chance?
Actually, it doesn't count as service time. It counts as limbo time. However, without rest, limbo time commingles with service.There are definitions for places of rest and what counts and they were put in place because railroads were basically using shortcuts like that to bypass the regulations. (Well, we've had you deadheading for 5 hours, standing by for 4 hours but you technically weren't controlling the movement, so now you can work 12 hours.) This naturally assumes that you are actually being driven by some else. You quite often deadhead to disruptions in via your own personal automobile, which is another layer.
A telemarketing company that I worked for in the 1980's required us to log into several screens and a telephone keypad, to be able to take calls from multiple clients, all to be completed before our shift started. This literally took 5-10 minutes. Eventually someone filed a Class Action lawsuit for the lost wages.
I did not realize that. :blush: How come the entire crew's hours start at that point (genuinely asking)? It's not like they're doing "crew work" in a van on their way to the train...
It’s because while your not “working” you’re also not “resting”. Nearly all federal duty regulations (aviation included) are really only based around “rest” time. There can be other classifications for say deadheading, on duty time, etc. but you have to have the correct number of consecutive hours of off duty or rest time in the previous 24 hours.
There is a very fine line that comes into play. In an emergency, a crew that hasn't reached their designated terminal can receive a 4 hour respite providing there is suitable food and lodging. Suitable lodging typically means providing sleeping quarters. Otherwise, the railroads could tell a freight crew to sleep on the engine on a siding and that would count as rest. The problem is sleeping quarters typically must be free from interruptions caused by noise under the control of the railroad. Typically, a train in transit wouldn't fit that bill.
If you want to have some fun, head spinning reading that you can misquote later, have at the Cliff Notes of the 300+ page (and growing) manual the rest of us have to deal with. Emphasis is mine.
