Trapped on train at CUS?

[Metra Electric Rider]

For those of you who don't have a high opinion of the Chicago staff this will only reinforce it...

Came across this strange story this morning - and not exactly sure what happened here, but this was on the local news...

https://wgntv.com/news/college-stud...trapped-after-falling-asleep-on-amtrak-train/

 

[JamesWhitcombRiley]

Crimminy, the customer service reps should have this taped to their cubicles. Hope they brought the dog and it was friendly. Would be better if the station manager had acted, assuming they were asked to.

 

[alpha3]

I read that story too on the news this morning. What the heck -?? Doesn't the conductor, or someone, have to walk thru the train cars so that something like this doesn't happen?? It's easy to blame the student, but I can easily see stuff like this happening, young people can get in these deep sleeps where it's really hard to wake them up.

 

[Rasputin]

Query (because I have failed to pay attention to it): How long after a long distance train arrives at Chicago Union Station, does the train normally remain at the station before being moved to the yard?

This problem in this case seems to be the result of Amtrak not wanting to pay overtime and to get its OBS employees off the clock as quickly as possible so we have a situation where the cafe closes hours before arrival and employees vacate the train very soon after arrival.

 

[Bostontoallpoints]

Query (because I have failed to pay attention to it): How long after a long distance train arrives at Chicago Union Station, does the train normally remain at the station before being moved to the yard?

This problem in this case seems to be the result of Amtrak not wanting to pay overtime and to get its OBS employees off the clock as quickly as possible so we have a situation where the cafe closes hours before arrival and employees vacate the train very soon after arrival.

How many conductors were on the train when it was moved to the yard?

 

[Steve4031]

I suspect that a car attendant and possible conductor or assistant conductor are supposed to walk through each car to ensure no one is still on board. The coach car attendant would have been responsible for more than one car, and the operating crew would also be responsible for the entire train. IMHO multiple oversites on this occasion.

It should have been a no-brainer for the customer service agent to call Amtrak police who could easily have gotten out to the yard and picked up the passenger.

 

[JamesWhitcombRiley]

That's the crazy thing, every railroad in the world has to do this.

The NYC Subway has many rules that are enforced. It has a new thing to check possibly homeless/unhoused/railfan passengers who don't get off at the end of the line, even if the train's not going to the yard. https://www.nyc.gov/assets/home/downloads/pdf/press-releases/2022/the-subway-safety-plan.pdf Page 6, Holistic Support: "End of the Line" teams.

Maybe it's enforced on Amtrak and we don't know the full story, like someone decided to quit that day at the end of the run. The staffing level is skeletal, so there's less redundancy and resilience to bad situations. "Belts and suspenders."

 

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

Query (because I have failed to pay attention to it): How long after a long distance train arrives at Chicago Union Station, does the train normally remain at the station before being moved to the yard?

This problem in this case seems to be the result of Amtrak not wanting to pay overtime and to get its OBS employees off the clock as quickly as possible so we have a situation where the cafe closes hours before arrival and employees vacate the train very soon after arrival.

I am sure it is different at every station of this size but I asked that last summer about how long we had to exit the roomette at NYP and the SCA mentioned we had about 15 minutes before the train was heading to the yard in Queens or maybe he mentioned the yard in Bronx. I am not sure where the yard is that is used by NYP.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

For those of you who don't have a high opinion of the Chicago staff this will only reinforce it.

Hopefully it's just a one-off event because this is not a good look. I can imagine this sort of thing being laughed off back in the early days but leaving people to their own devices in a rail yard does not fly today and risks some very expensive liabilities.

I read that story too on the news this morning. What the heck -?? Doesn't the conductor, or someone, have to walk thru the train cars so that something like this doesn't happen?? It's easy to blame the student, but I can easily see stuff like this happening, young people can get in these deep sleeps where it's really hard to wake them up.

Agreed. It's tempting to question her carelessness but honestly it should have never gotten to this point in the first place.

This problem in this case seems to be the result of Amtrak not wanting to pay overtime and to get its OBS employees off the clock as quickly as possible so we have a situation where the cafe closes hours before arrival and employees vacate the train very soon after arrival.

The current situation is presumably fine with OBS and Amtrak since they both had seats at the CBA. The only people who did not have a seat were the customers, so we get hours of suspended services and in-revenue cabin cleaning whether we want it or not.

 

[Old MM]

Not a great look, agreed, but I tend to be a little skeptical sometimes of how people run to the press to air minor grievances. Moreover it's hard to tell how traumatic of an incident this might have been, since the story is so incredibly poorly written. I am more disappointed at what passes for journalism these days, than at this gaffe by Amtrak. It was dark and cold, no doubt, but how much time elapsed from when the student woke up and her mother picked her up? How did she exit the train and get to the station?

 

[MARC Rider]

Seems to me that if she had a phone, all she'd need to do is dial 911 and let the dispatcher get a hold of whoever at the yard would let her out and take her to the station.

Oh, I reread the article. She did call her mom, who told Amtrak customer service, who didn't seem to know what to do. Maybe she should have called the cops, they might have contacted someone at Amtrak who knew how to handle it.

 

[Steve4031]

On trainorders there is a thread about this incident. Most of the posts blame the passenger for not paying attention. One even suggested they get off the train in the yard and call an Uber.
IMHO, considering these were college students they did the best they could in calling their parents for assistance. The parent contacted Amtrak, and then Amtrak dropped the ball.

The reason I have a hard to blaming the college students is that there are two occasions where I could have been in the same situation. Once, I was on 48 going into NYP. I knew I was going to be doing some walking, and having a sore back, I took pain medication around Croton Harmon to make sure I would not be too uncomfortable once I got off at NYP. I fell asleep. I remembered Croton Harmon, and the next thing I knew the SCA was asking me up. He was irritated because I had missed the announcements. I was embarrassed. If he had not done his job I would have been in Sunnyside.

The second occasion occurred on the Starlight. We took an 8-hour daily around Salem and Portland. I put the seats down to sleep. We left Portland and I slept in Seattle. I woke up and we were stopped at the station. I got up and hurried to get off the train. I am not sure if the SCA attempted to wake me or not. There were other passengers around so it was not that long after arrival.

 

[MikefromCrete]

There are a lot of holes in this story. Obviously she got off the train, so somebody (Amtrak police, yard workers) must have found her after the call (from her? from her mother?). The train was not properly searched after arrival. She was on the CONO, so it was daylight by the time it got to Chicago. I'm surprised no fellow passenger gave her a nudge as they were exiting the train. Over all , not a very well done story.

 

[Rasputin]

This event could have been quite tragic if this person had had a medical emergency either at their seat or in a restroom. I wonder how long it would have been before they would have been found.

 

[PaTrainFan]

Bottom line, it's hard to imagine train staff overlooking someone sleeping at the final stop. It's also hard to believe that someone could sleep through the hustle and bustle and noise of announcements and other passengers gathering their "stuff" and detraining. I'm skeptical. But, if the story is true, huge incompetence on staff to not notice her.

 

[UserNameRequired]

Ha, reminded me of the story from Montreal this past summer:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/montreal-rem-lrt-traps-passengers-1.6925814

 

[crescent-zephyr]

When I was a Conductor on a tourist railroad this same thing happened to me. We had finished up the last train of the day, and were about to shove the consist into the yard but I happened to walk through the car that the person was sitting in and had fallen asleep. If we had gotten to the yard I probably would have seen them when walking through the cars to set handbrakes but maybe not?

 

[MsCarolyn]

I agree that Amtrak customer service didn’t handle it well, but I also think that individuals need to take some responsibility for their own actions. She‘s a college student; she has a phone. Set an alarm on your phone to wake you up before your stop. Heck, she could have called 911; they could have gotten her to the right people to help her. College is where you’re supposed to learn how to live on your own, and Mom’s not always going to be there to take care of your problems.

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

I agree that Amtrak customer service didn’t handle it well, but I also think that individuals need to take some responsibility for their own actions. She‘s a college student; she has a phone. Set an alarm on your phone to wake you up before your stop. Heck, she could have called 911; they could have gotten her to the right people to help her. College is where you’re supposed to learn how to live on your own, and Mom’s not always going to be there to take care of your problems.

Not sure today students are prepared for college or life on their own. Some must be, but for others a deadline is a mystical thing.

Stuff happens, nobody was injured, moving on now.

 

[railiner]

It's been a while, but aren't there emergency escape instructions posted somewhere in the cars?
In Superliner's, I'd say it's pretty intuitive on how to open the doors, simply by turning the handle, and pulling the door open. Not sure about the new Venture cars, never having been in them.

 

[JamesWhitcombRiley]

Bottom line, you don't want passengers in your yard, for any number of reasons.

 

[Steve4031]

I agree that Amtrak customer service didn’t handle it well, but I also think that individuals need to take some responsibility for their own actions. She‘s a college student; she has a phone. Set an alarm on your phone to wake you up before your stop. Heck, she could have called 911; they could have gotten her to the right people to help her. College is where you’re supposed to learn how to live on your own, and Mom’s not always going to be there to take care of your problems.

Calling Mom made perfect sense in this situation since she was waiting for the passenger. This mindset of everyone being responsible for themselves is somewhat offensive. Everyone has probably had a moment where they needed help. Telling people to anticipate every potential mishap is ridiculous.

 

[MsCarolyn]

Calling Mom made perfect sense in this situation since she was waiting for the passenger. This mindset of everyone being responsible for themselves is somewhat offensive. Everyone has probably had a moment where they needed help. Telling people to anticipate every potential mishap is ridiculous.

Yes, but teaching your kids to call 911 in an emergency is a pretty basic thing to do, and everyone needs to know how to do that by the time they're in college, don't you think? Then you call Mom.

 

[Steve4031]

Yes, but teaching your kids to call 911 in an emergency is a pretty basic thing to do, and everyone needs to know how to do that by the time they're in college, don't you think? THEN you call Mom.

You are barking up the wrong tree here. The mother was waiting. This was not necessarily an emergency. This should have been easily resolved by Amtrak's customer service.

 

[Qapla]

I don't rely on others to let me know when to get off the train. Since the girl had a cell phone, if she had simply just set an alarm so she wouldn't oversleep her stop, this whole matter could have been avoided. This should be basic thinking and would have precluded the need to call Mom or 911.