Empire Commuter: Reach Amtrak Executive Customer Service

The Consumerist website has these tips on effective complaints to Amtrak:

The corporate email address for Amtrak appears to lastnamefirstletteroffirstname@amtrak.com.

So, just by way of example, president and CEO Alexander Kummant would be kummanta@amtrak.com.

The only phone number we could find was 202-906-3000. You can reach the employee directory by saying "employee," try to pronounce "Alexander Kummant" correctly (or any of the other officers listed here), and then use the tips in How To Interact With Executive Customer Service to escalate your claim.

Empire Commuter: Don't Bother Calling Your Office, Mr. Fort

This morning I was chatting with an Amtrak conductor as the train was stuck in the tunnel right outside the platform in Penn Station. He described a disturbing premonition he had.

"On Saturday I was walking down Sixth Avenue past 47th Street when I saw a man wearing black boots, a black hood and a black cape chasing a taxi. If the Batmobile has been repossessed then we're all in serious trouble."

On Saturday the Albany Times Union reported that protective netting would be installed on the underside of a Broadway bridge to guard against the possibility of concrete falling on Amtrak trains and employees.

But this is not the sort of thing Charles Fort, who devoted his life to investigating strange phenomena in the skies, would have been interested in.

State Department of Transportation spokesman Peter Van Keuren said Friday that those chunks were likely knocked loose intentionally by inspectors who examined the bridge on Wednesday and issued a safety flag to notify the city, which owns the bridge.

"It's structurally sound," Albany Public Works Commissioner Tom Capuano said of the bridge. "This [netting] should take care of it."

If it doesn't, maybe Batman can hold his cape under it.

Empire Commuter: U.K. railroad replaces service with style

The U.K. Times Online reports that a passenger rail service with one of the worst records for on-time performance has decided that style is more important than punctuality. First Great Western, which operates services from Paddington to South Wales and the West Country, has engaged Sally Crabtree, a Cornish poet, to perform at selected stations.

Crabtree, known in artistic circles as "the pink-wigged pocket Venus from Cornwall",  travels with a copper tree hung with a variety of objects. Customers are invited to pick one, and she will read or compose a poem appropriate to what they have chosen.

She will take up her stance outside rush hours, so that poetry readings do not further interfere with an already vexed travelling environment.

Sounds like a good idea -- I'm not sure how I'd react to a "pink-wigged Venus" when vexed by a late train.

Empire Commuter: Another Pork Rind Party and Business as Usual

Bigwigs in New York State government have been using the prospect of a high speed rail service to justify big contacts to politically connected engineering consultants for over twenty years.

Last January Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno joined the pork rind party with an announcement of a "New York High Speed Rail Task Force Action Program", which would immediately receive $22 million in state funds. New York pols were no doubt drooling over his prediction that $10 billion would go into the project by 2025.

One of the first steps in the "Action Program" was to be a commuter rail demonstration between Albany and Saratoga Springs.

Unfortunately the demonstration could not take place because the single-car diesel unit that was to be used was too tall to go under one of the bridges on the route. Possession of a yardstick or any other instrument for measuring distance does not appear to be a requirement for politically connected engineering consultants hard at work on the "Action Program".

John Egan, who has spent many years in senior state government positions and has overseen many New York Capital Region construction projects, originally headed the "Action Program" but has since gone on to greener pastures as the head of the state Office of General Services.

It appears that few legislators in Albany have any real understanding or concern about what's needed for a modern intercity rail system. If you've ever driven around the streets of Albany (or over the Dunn Memorial Bridge which suffered a partial collapse a while back after passing inspection) it's pretty clear that there's not much understanding or concern about any aspect of the transportation infrastructure.

In other news, the sun rose again yesterday, but Hell has not yet frozen over.

Much info for this post came from a recent article in the Schenectady Gazette.

Empire Commuter: Money is not the problem or a solution

Amtrak is hustling for their annual appropriation of taxpayer dollars and the prospects are looking good. A U.S. Senate panel yesterday voted to allocate $1.47 billion to Amtrak in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. That's $176 million more than the agency received in the previous budget, according to the Senate Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies.

Bill Richardson at the United Rail Passenger Alliance has a few things to say about Amtrak's claim that service is lousy because they're broke:

That is only a myth that has been perpetuated by Amtrak management and the National Association of Railroad Passengers and other organizations of that ilk which believe in the illogical concept that government is good, and private industry is bad.

As we have discussed before, Amtrak onboard employees and station employees, as well as those in back office functions like reservations and accounting are de-motivated and self-demonized by their employment and work atmosphere. Too many unresolved union contracts for too long, too much negative discipline instead of positive discipline, and the allowance of too many people to stay in jobs for too long they are not suited for have made a complete mess of Amtrak passenger service.

Empire Commuter: It can always be worse

Reuters reports that France's renowned rail system is having a problem with bed bugs:

France's national rail company said on Friday it had taken several sleeper carriages out of service to deal with an infestation of bed bugs.

"Some passengers told us they were bitten," an SNCF official said, adding the parasites had been found on a night train going from the Mediterranean city of Nice to eastern Metz last week.

"We took the affected carriages out to treat them."

To prevent capacity problems, SNCF was not taking any new reservations for night trains from Nice to Paris this week. The affected carriages had already been disinfected and services would be back to normal next week, the official said.

Bed bugs were a rare occurrence, she added.

"It's the kind of little animal that unfortunately you'll only notice when they bite. There's no other way to detect them. They are so small."

Of course the Amtrak solution would be the give the passengers enough free booze so they wouldn't notice.

By the way, has anyone else noticed the maniacal little mouse in the Acela Lounge?

Empire Commuter: Everybody gets something but us

Passengers on Amtrak's high-end overnight trips will get a $100 credit towards purchases at the bar while the union representing many of Amtrak's engineers may get their first contract in almost eight years.

And the Albany Times-Union breathlessly reports that "state agricultural officials ... gathered at the Rensselaer Rail Station to celebrate a new initiative promoting 'agritourism' to Amtrak passengers .... A 16-page Pride of New York supplement included in Amtrak's annual New York By Rail magazine was funded by a $50,000 state grant .... [which] comes from a pot of $1 million for agritourism promotion included for the first time in the 2006-07 state budget. The money helps Amtrak encourage more leisure travel within New York, said railroad spokesman Clifford Cole."

What about people who want to have a drink and then go home at a reasonable hour?