So if they do not checkin everyone, can they rescan the code to pull it up for the next person?
Yes. That is exactly the point.
That is indeed a very significant potential problem. As usual human ingenuity can undermine almost anything no matter how obscure. Afterall, no matter how godly a conductor might feel, computers are terribly unforgiving, something that we in the IT business learn very early on
Yes, that was established many, many post ago, but getting it through the skulls of the users of the technology (i.e. Amtrak employees), that this function exists may take a while. That was the point the conductor was making - almost as many posts ago. :lol:Yes. That is exactly the point.
However, I am sure we will need another 40 posts before this simple fact gets through everyone' skull
Sounds like a design problem to me. Even an ungodly conductor could miss a passenger, or some "glitch" occur. So why would the system do something as draconian as cancel the next segment?That is indeed a very significant potential problem. As usual human ingenuity can undermine almost anything no matter how obscure. Afterall, no matter how godly a conductor might feel, computers are terribly unforgiving, something that we in the IT business learn very early on
Revenue, my friend... revenue.Sounds like a design problem to me. Even an ungodly conductor could miss a passenger, or some "glitch" occur. So why would the system do something as draconian as cancel the next segment?That is indeed a very significant potential problem. As usual human ingenuity can undermine almost anything no matter how obscure. Afterall, no matter how godly a conductor might feel, computers are terribly unforgiving, something that we in the IT business learn very early on
Yes, it is a business policy design problem, that is exposed by the unforgiving nature of IT implementation of the same.Sounds like a design problem to me. Even an ungodly conductor could miss a passenger, or some "glitch" occur. So why would the system do something as draconian as cancel the next segment?That is indeed a very significant potential problem. As usual human ingenuity can undermine almost anything no matter how obscure. Afterall, no matter how godly a conductor might feel, computers are terribly unforgiving, something that we in the IT business learn very early on
Fortunately train staff or station will reauthorize your reservation without charge.Yes, it is a business policy design problem, that is exposed by the unforgiving nature of IT implementation of the same.Sounds like a design problem to me. Even an ungodly conductor could miss a passenger, or some "glitch" occur. So why would the system do something as draconian as cancel the next segment?That is indeed a very significant potential problem. As usual human ingenuity can undermine almost anything no matter how obscure. Afterall, no matter how godly a conductor might feel, computers are terribly unforgiving, something that we in the IT business learn very early on
It is a business policy copied from airlines, where it does not face any problems because no one can get onto a plane without checking in first. That critical invariant in the airline industry that makes the policy work there is not met at Amtrak, and therefore something has to give. But how this problem is to be addressed is not something that the IT system designer can handle unilaterally. It is a business process designer who has to decide the fix and give modification requirements to the IT system designer to incorporate.
I think a worst-case scenario would be a passenger on a corridor train connecting to a sleeper on a sold-out long distance train. It is not improbable that a missed or incorrect scan on a BFD-SAC San Joaquin could cancel a roomette on a sold-out Zephyr SAC-CHI . With the roomette now released, it could be resold EMY-CHI resulting in no way to reinstate the original reservation. The passenger arrives SAC and has nowhere to go.Fortunately train staff or station will reauthorize your reservation without charge.Yes, it is a business policy design problem, that is exposed by the unforgiving nature of IT implementation of the same.Sounds like a design problem to me. Even an ungodly conductor could miss a passenger, or some "glitch" occur. So why would the system do something as draconian as cancel the next segment?That is indeed a very significant potential problem. As usual human ingenuity can undermine almost anything no matter how obscure. Afterall, no matter how godly a conductor might feel, computers are terribly unforgiving, something that we in the IT business learn very early on
It is a business policy copied from airlines, where it does not face any problems because no one can get onto a plane without checking in first. That critical invariant in the airline industry that makes the policy work there is not met at Amtrak, and therefore something has to give. But how this problem is to be addressed is not something that the IT system designer can handle unilaterally. It is a business process designer who has to decide the fix and give modification requirements to the IT system designer to incorporate.
The confirmation barcode is not the e-ticket barcode. It is only used to pull-up your reservation if you use a Quik Trak kiosk. The conductor was able to access your e-ticket by manually entering your six-digit reservation code from your confirmation.
Yup
It is hard for me to imagine this issue did not come up in the testing phase. You would think somewhere while being implemented on test trains, something similar would have happened and hopefully Amtrak addressed it. Maybe not, but you would hope.I think a worst-case scenario would be a passenger on a corridor train connecting to a sleeper on a sold-out long distance train. It is not improbable that a missed or incorrect scan on a BFD-SAC San Joaquin could cancel a roomette on a sold-out Zephyr SAC-CHI . With the roomette now released, it could be resold EMY-CHI resulting in no way to reinstate the original reservation. The passenger arrives SAC and has nowhere to go.Fortunately train staff or station will reauthorize your reservation without charge.Yes, it is a business policy design problem, that is exposed by the unforgiving nature of IT implementation of the same.Sounds like a design problem to me. Even an ungodly conductor could miss a passenger, or some "glitch" occur. So why would the system do something as draconian as cancel the next segment?That is indeed a very significant potential problem. As usual human ingenuity can undermine almost anything no matter how obscure. Afterall, no matter how godly a conductor might feel, computers are terribly unforgiving, something that we in the IT business learn very early on
It is a business policy copied from airlines, where it does not face any problems because no one can get onto a plane without checking in first. That critical invariant in the airline industry that makes the policy work there is not met at Amtrak, and therefore something has to give. But how this problem is to be addressed is not something that the IT system designer can handle unilaterally. It is a business process designer who has to decide the fix and give modification requirements to the IT system designer to incorporate.
As jis said, Amtrak's ability to ensure that everyone on board was properly scanned-in is much more limited than an airline. They have to rethink this policy. It seems that in some ways Amtrak planners did not explore all the ramifications of the way e-ticketing was implemented.
One would think so. However, it should be noted that in the trial phase I don't think it was ever tested in a scenario presented by PRR above either.
No idea what is actually being done now. But I suspect the conductor will now be coming by. Especially when people only have their code on their phone.
could be kind of a pain if you are required to wait at your accomodation for the conductor. when we board the cs in pdx, the sca takes our ticket as we board, we throw our stuff in our roomette and head for the diner for lunch. if we have to wait we may well miss it. same thing nb out of la. the sca takes the tickets, we deposit our stuff and head for a good seat in the ppc.
Not anymore. A policy update just came out last week. Train attendants are not allowed to collect any e-ticket documents from passengers, even with the conductors permission. Basically the conductor can no longer even permit a train attendant to collect tickets.
I've got a trip coming up that involves six different trains. Suddenly I'm very glad that I booked seperate reservations whenever I'm boarding a sleeper, only making 'guaranteed' connections to coach. With 'no-scan cancel,' even if they screw up and cancel a segment, it will be a lot easier to get a seat than a room when I show up at the ticket window at my connecting station, because I did, in fact, board the train to that station.
