Product Line Supervisors

[Super Chief]

Is it true that all the Product Line Supervisors (the old Chiefs )are now out of work as of Oct 1st ?

 

[Amfleet]

Yep, there gone. They're a waist of and employee and money. Leave the people on the train to run the train. Also going is middle management and express shipping.

 

[Guest]

What exactly is/was the function of the product line supervisor and what may replace them?

 

[Steve4031]

Some of the OBSC's were pretty good. Verica Brisbane was a good one. However, the many bad ones were deadweight. They just sat around and socialized. Also, on the Pennsylvanian, the coach attendant was deadweight on both trips that I took on that train. She never cleaned the bathrooms, and denied passengers access to the bathrooms in the lounge car because they were "for employees only." I hope the got that position too.

 

[Amfleet]

Amtrak employees are under a union in which they can do anything they please without being fired except for stealing money. An attendent can deni access to a restroom or beating a passenger to a bloody pulp. However, if this were to happen the employee would be sent to rehabiltation and the issue could be taken up leagally. So this is why most employees just shut there selves in the crew car, never come out, make money, and no one can do a thing about it.

 

[battalion51]

It is true that all PLS' were given their pink slips. All of the PLS' down here did a very good job, and made their presence felt throughout the train. One of my favorites (Kevin) was in the process of ordering 120 meals for passengers on P097 last month when it was annulled. Kevin did everything in his power to make sure every passenger walked away from our train happy. I'm sorry to see them go.

 

[Amfleet]

Shouldn't the employees be the ones making the passengers leaving happy. Product Line Manager was just another money soaker that had to go.

 

[Allen Dee]

Shouldn't the employees be the ones making the passengers leaving happy. Product Line Manager was just another money soaker that had to go.

I was told by several conductors in the area that Chief OBS was a "monkey-in-a-tie" position. Any private company trying to cut corners to save money would have eliminated those positions years ago.

 

[Viewliner]

Shouldn't the employees be the ones making the passengers leaving happy. Product Line Manager was just another money soaker that had to go.

I was told by several conductors in the area that Chief OBS was a "monkey-in-a-tie" position. Any private company trying to cut corners to save money would have eliminated those positions years ago.

So the move was in our best intrests, although the Chief might disagree, its better than losing (more) services and/or routes. You know what they say, better late than never.

 

[AlanB]

In all my travels, I've seen two really good OBSC's. One was on the Capital Limited about two years and she was always visible, making announcements, and moving about the train. The other was on the Silver Palm about three years ago. In that case I was boarding at the Hollywood Florida station, at a point when it was being rebuilt to better accommodate TRI-Rail. They were supposed to double spot the train, since the whole train couldn't hit the shortened platform.

The normal conductor was sick, so the assistant conductor who found himself in charged screwed up. So after running back to the rear of the train when the sleeper passed me by, I then had to haul my suitcase and my laptop thru the train. I walked through two coaches, the cafe car, and the diner to reach my sleeper.

Anyway the OBSC was at my room before we even hit the next station, addressed me by name and apologized for the mistake. He explained to me that they had even rehearsed the double spot before they left Miami, but the acting Conductor forget about that when he got there and screwed up. I could tell that's what had happened as the engineer had slowed the train waiting for the conductor to tell him when to stop. He pulled thru the station so slowly for so long that he must have been wondering himself when the conductor was going to stop him.

Needless to say I was quite impressed that the OBSC immediately came to my room to apologize for the mistake. I was even more impressed when later that night he saw me in the diner having wine with my dinner. Just before I left, he brought me another bottle of wine on the house to bring back to my room. Now I was really impressed.

On this same trip, I also got to see him in action quite a bit. He had to deal with an A/C problem in the diner the following morning, and he managed to get it running again. Then he was faced with an even bigger problem. Shortly after leaving Fayetteville NC, I thought that I saw some rather dark smoke coming out of the second of our two engines. About a minute later we lost the HEP. It wasn't until we could stop about an hour later at Wilson, that the engineer was able to reconfigure the engines that we got HEP back. I'm assuming that he had to physically go back to the second engine, cut out something there and then turn on the HEP generator on the lead engine in order to get us power back.

Well the OBSC kept making announcements, telling us that they were working on the problem and apologizing. He also kept asking people to please refrain from using the bathrooms, unless absolutely necessary and that there would be no way to flush them. He was the absolute best OBSC I've ever seen.

Then I've been on plenty of other trains were I never even saw the OBSC, so it's just like any other job. There are people who not only do their job, but they take pride in doing there job. Then there are the freeloaders. If Amtrak can hire the right type of people, and check up on them from time to time, then I think that the OBSC is a valuable and needed position. If Amtrak isn't going to monitor the OBSC's, then lets save the money.

 

[Amfleet]

If there should be a need for someone to watch over the train why not the LSA in the Dining Car. Between meals they can check on passengers in the Sleepers, take a walk through the coaches, and make sure every thing is in order in the Lounge.

 

[Viewliner]

Alan hearing what you said, makes me think that the good ones, like the one you mentioned, should be placed in a different position in the company, maybe one where someone wasn't doing their job. I know that this doesn't seem likely, and is unfair that some good employees, not just the OBSC, lose their jobs for the reason that we're not funded enough, and I think that is an important point to make to congress.

Amfleet, aren't there two conductors for the train, one for the sleepers, one for the coaches. What you're saying does make sense, maybe you just combine two positions, and give the one guy a slightly higher paycheck with the added responsabilities. I do not like the sound of the LSA being put there though. There are indeed quite a few who are pretty "mean", not that they all are, and I wouldn't like to see some of them walking through the train, its bad enough in the diner.

 

[battalion51]

This is kind of off the topic but you know what a real money drain is? On board movies. Each one of those casettes costs $200! I think that if they are going to buy tapes they should do what the airlines do, PUT IN COMMERCIALS. This way rather than five minutes of black screen, you get what you are watching paid for.

 

[Amfleet]

How can they cost $200??? I always thought Amtrak just ran down to a video store and bought one for $20.

 

[AlanB]

Because you have two first run movies, a cartoon, and at least one comedy show per tape. So these tapes have to be specially made, plus you've got to pay for the right to show those movies.

 

[Amfleet]

But I don't pay $200 dollars for a movie that I show to a group of freinds. Also if a teacher at school shows a movie to 100 students they're not paying $200 either. I do see your point about putting everything on one tape, but doesn't that just apply to Viewliners. Superliner Lounges only show one or two movies throughout the whole trip. With this whole entertainment thing I would like to see how the N-Communication works on the Keystone service.

 

[AlanB]

But I don't pay $200 dollars for a movie that I show to a group of freinds. Also if a teacher at school shows a movie to 100 students they're not paying $200 either. I do see your point about putting everything on one tape, but doesn't that just apply to Viewliners. Superliner Lounges only show one or two movies throughout the whole trip. With this whole entertainment thing I would like to see how the N-Communication works on the Keystone service.

Amfleet,

You’re running down to the video store to rent a movie is vastly different than Amtrak’s circumstances. First of all, you are only one of many people who will rent that movie from the video store. Secondly, only the really popular movies, one’s that will sell millions of copies, cost 29.99 if you buy it. Many movies in the store cost 70 or 80 bucks per tape to buy. Finally, you are only getting one movie on the tape.

Also in the case of your school they are typically only getting one movie on a tape, plus education often gets discounts and copyright breaks.

In Amtrak’s case, at least for the Viewliners, they are making only 50 copies of each tape. Yes they are making two different tapes for a total of 100 copies, but that’s still a small number. Therefore the company making the tape must charge more money from Amtrak to pay for making the tapes. A regular movie release to video tape that you would rent probably has a minimum of 500,000 copies, so that makes the cost of those tapes go down.

Amtrak is also paying more because they are placing two different movies, cartoons, and comedies on the tapes. Amtrak is also not returning the tapes to the video store the next day. They probably replace them no more than once a month, maybe even every other month. These are custom made tapes from a small dubbing company, they are not coming from the major movie companies like the tapes you rent for home use.

Finally no one else can rent these tapes, once they are made for Amtrak that’s it. By the time Amtrak puts new tapes on board, they’ve already worn out the prior tapes. Let me tell you I’ve caught a few that were real bad.

Now moving over to the Keystone idea that’s going to be paid for by advertising, and I promise you that N-Communications will be having lots of ad’s.

 

[chefrhodes81]

hello

amtrak is paying the movie company for a license to show the movie to passengers.

Have you ever priced movies that include the "educational license" they cost at least 3 times as much as the same movie for "home viewing"

amtrak maybe overpaying a little but not to much maybe $50.

john

 

[chefrhodes81]

hello

back to the OBS chiefs. They could have been useful if they had been given more authority, firing, etc. instead of run by a disconnected manager.

This type of structure would be different than what happens now.

The OBSC could have been made similar to a General Manager at a hotel who is the top man. Can fire people, etc. This might not carry over well to trains from the hotel biz but it might.

John

 

[Super Chief]

The PLS positions have been cut to 77 nation wide. the new name for them is Crew base Asst. It is unclear what the new positions will do, but they wont be on the trains. The OBS crew are on there own...Question: are these people now going to supervise The Tand E crews? if so how is that going to work?

 

[Amfleet]

The CBA (Crew Base Assistant) will probably just make sure that food is stocked, amenties are on-baord, and the cars are clen before the train leves its origin.