This Week at Amtrak; February 28, 2008

A weekly digest of events, opinions, and forecasts from
United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.
1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203
Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA
Telephone 904-636-7739, Electronic Mail info@unitedrail.org
http://www.unitedrail.org



Volume 5, Number 8



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1) This came floating over the This Week at Amtrak transom from an Amtrak employee, and it’s too important to ignore. This message clearly demonstrates how very dedicated so many Amtrak workers are to their jobs and good passenger service, but are unable to perform because their own company – which demands much from them – will not provide them with the right tools and environment to do their jobs.

[Begin quote]

I was asked to give my thoughts and ideas on the new Cross Country Café [Operating on the City of New Orleans between New Orleans and Chicago, train nos. 58 and 59]. So keep in mind these are my personal views on this, but I'm sure if you talked with some of the other employees, you will find most have the same concerns as I do. While I think the idea and menu changes are very good, I believe the actual planning and execution for the new diner/lounge car was not done properly and still is not to this day even after being redesigned. I will talk about this more later. So here are some of my concerns and a few ideas that will hopefully be considered and looked into are at the very least talked about.

First, the positives of the new Cross Country Cafe.
– Nice menu selection. I feel we have a very good selection of food items now, with some changes needed.

– Good food item pricing. With the lower pricing more customers are eating from the coach cars, and that's good. After all, our goal is to sell more.

– Nice looking new diner/lounge car. The new cars are nice looking, but they are not practical for what they are design to do. This will be explained in the negatives.

Now, the negatives of the new Cross Country Cafe.

– New diner/lounge car not big enough. With this diner/lounge car, we do not have enough room for the customers to come in and enjoy their dinner or appetizers and snacks, and no room for overflow passengers. Case in point – we've had customers come in from the coach car and order over $40 worth of food, and did not have room for them to sit in the Cross Country Cafe. Now, I ask you, who wants to pay that much or more for food and have to go back to their seat and eat? And, this happens more often then you might think. Also our overflow passengers used to be able to sit in the sightseeing lounge car when no other seats were available, but now there is nowhere for them to go if the Cross Country Cafe is being used.

– Too many items downstairs [in the kitchen] for one person to handle safely by themselves, when the passenger counts are high. The chef has to run from the freezers back to the grill and ovens, over 25 feet, almost constantly in order to get the appetizers and main dishes out. And, then, in the middle of the meal period while preparing entrees, the chef has to start running to the freezer to get ice cream for desserts. This takes a toll on the chef and to me is a safety issue. Sooner or later someone is going to hurt themselves running back and forth like this. ...

– Not enough help in diner/lounge car. When we are busy, and with just one lead service attendant (LSA) serving, ... sometimes ... food [is] setting on the elevator for longer periods of time then it should, and this causes the food to cool down some. Because the dining car LSA is busy giving service to other customers, they cannot at times get to the food fast enough. I myself want to give the customers the best service and the hottest and freshest food possible, but we can't always do that with this setup. And, customer service suffers because of having just one LSA trying to do everything in the diner during these busy meal periods.

– Too hard to get extra help when needed. This should be a no brainier, even when the passenger counts call for it, it's like pulling hens teeth to get help on our trains when needed. There is always a shortage on the extra board, or at least that's what we hear. But, in order for us to do our part in trying to make this new car work in a safe and efficiency manner, we sometimes need help. And, it should not be so hard getting it. And, not just an SA [service attendant/waiter], as this does nothing for the chef; it needs to be both, waiter (SA) and chef assistant (formerly food specialist). Help is really needed.

To expand on this extra help point for a second: During the first month or so when these cars first started running, we had onboard managers riding with us to see how this would work. During this time every manager that rode with us had to help out either in the dining car, lounge or kitchen at some point of the trip. So, it was clear from the very beginning help was needed with this new car set up. Even the onboard managers said help was needed and they would state that fact in their report at the end of the trip. But, nothing happened, no help. What happened to the reports? Did they really report this? Something does not add up here. I think this needs to be looked into further.

I know there are slow trips and it's really not a problem at these times. But, the thing is, the passenger count can change anytime. Like coming back from Chicago, our passenger counts can go up to where we need help, but no one is available. Also, since there is only one elevator in the new diner car now, if it breaks, (and it happens frequently) we have to carry the trays of food up the steps. Having an extra person to help would be a blessing when something like this happens. Even if we had a permanent Memphis turn job put into service, this would help the crews out tremendously.

At this time I would like to talk about a few things I think should have been done from the beginning. Not to hurt anyone’s feelings, but, to me the training class we had for this new diner/lounge was nothing short of a glorified pep rally. I've been in the food service industry for over 24 years, and whenever you make a change as big as this, there should have been hands on training with everyone actually doing their jobs as to the new car procedure. This way everyone would have known what – and how – to do their part.

I get the feeling this was not fully thought out, and the onboard service crew (OBS) was put out here in order to find a way to make this new car work. Now, the problem with this is you have all the crews doing something different, and, because no one in management wants to be accountable for anything, as I see it. No one seems to have the backbone to make a decision, document that decision, and then stand by that decision. We get new rules and procedures all the time, but nothing in writing. You know it's very easy to say, “Oh, I don't recall telling you that,” but not so easy to do when it's documented.

So we have one crew doing things one way, and another crew doing things another way. So, later, if it is said we are doing something wrong, we have no recourse, no one we can hold accountable. We need procedures in writing. We need to know in writing what each of our jobs consists of with this new Cross Country Cafe car. And, no blanket statements such as, “just do the best you can.” That's not enough. Because, it seems these days OBS crews are the only ones being held accountable for anything. We need accountability from management, too, on what is being said to us about how to do our jobs. Give it to us in writing!

I always get the gut feeling something underhanded is being pulled on us (OBS) from talks I sometimes have with upper management. Especially with something new like this Cross Country Cafe. And, I'm hearing things now, if it's true, proves this point once again. Such as when this car started out, it was said there would be no more debits, that Amtrak was going to run this like a restaurant would run. And this was a big selling point at the training meeting. But, now I hear the debits or coming back. So, was this done under handed just to get the new car running and all the while knowing that the debits was coming back? Is this how Amtrak gains trust in its employees?

This brings up another case in point about trust, back when the food specialist job was abolished. It was said we would not be doing items on the grill; no steaks, and a lot of other things would be cut out because just one person was in the kitchen, to reduce the work load. Well, guys, guess what, we now do more items then before, the steaks are back, and we have a larger menu than before, but still just one person in the kitchen, no food specialist. Everything slowly worked it's way back, except the help. Do you think this was an underhanded deal? I feel it was! And it's things like this, that make the employee's have a natural distrust for what is said to us. I'm sure you can see why.

Now, in our safety meetings, management talks about the Customer Service Index (CSI) scores. To be 100% truthful, I do not worry myself with this number, and I know a lot of others who don't, either. I just do the best job I can while trying to work as safe as I can. How does Amtrak expect us (OBS) to raise our CSI scores when the company itself is making it harder for us (OBS) to give good service to our customers? By having us do more and more work with less help, which directly affects the level of service that we can give to our customers? And, the thing is, most of us (OBS) want – and try – to give excellent service, but [management is] making it impossible for us to do.

I would like to talk a little here about staffing on our train. Okay, hypothetically for a moment, let’s say we have a derailment or other accident on the train. And, let’s say the sleeping car attended has a lower level handicap person on board. How is he/she supposed to assist the passengers off the train if he/she has two sleepers to take care of? This goes for the coach attendant also, with two – and sometimes three – coach cars to attend to. There would be no way possible for our passengers to get the help needed in this hypothetical situation. And, therein lies a huge safety issue to me. Has anyone even thought of this situation? And, what would we do? At least with one attendant per car the passengers would have a better chance of getting help. Not to mention better service.

For a quick comparison, lets just look at the staffing crew from the time I was hired to now. Which is just over four years. Then, we had in the dinning car, an LSA, chef, food specialist, SA No. 1, SA No. 2, and sometimes a second food specialist to help out when numbers were high. Now, we have a chef, and two LSA's – and keep in mind one of the LSA's in the dining car now, use to be in the lounge car. From a five man crew to three, and the third person is from the other lounge car. And, the only difference is, we don't use real china anymore. Now, how can we be expected to give A+ customer service with a staff reduction like that?

Also, we had one coach attendant per coach car, now we have one attendant per two – sometimes three – coach cars. Same for the sleeper attendant – we used to have an attendant per sleeper, now we have one sleeper attendant for two sleepers. As anyone can plainly see, there is no way we can be expected to be able to give A+ service to our passengers under these conditions.

Therefore the CSI scores are meaningless to many of the workers. All we can do as Amtrak employees is give the best service we possibly can in a safe manner, and hope the customers accept this, and don't put in a bad report on us at the end of the trip.

I can't tell you how many times the OBS crew have left the station with a heavy train, and management telling us they know it's hard on us, but just do what you can, as there is only so much each person can do. That sounds all fine and good, but we are the ones out on the rail that have to deal with the passengers; they see US when they don't get the attention or service they need, they see US when they have no place to sit in the dinning car or we have to rush them out to make room for the next seating. We, the onboard service crews, are the face of Amtrak to them. We don't need blanket statements. We need solutions.

Our customers really miss the observation [lounge] car. On just about every trip since this new diner/lounge car has be on, we get passengers telling us they want the observation car back, and ask us why Amtrak took it off. A lot don't like the layout of the new diner/lounge car. This sentiment can be confirmed just by asking the workers and conductors of this train.

I really like my job ... with Amtrak, and my work history and standards with Amtrak speak for themselves. I want Amtrak to be the best that it can be, and my hope is everyone that rides with us has a very enjoyable and memorable experience, and our customers receive the best service possible while doing so. This is my number one concern. I want the customer to want to use us (Amtrak) again and again.

Now I know a lot of times people complain, but never have any solutions or ideas. Well, I would like to suggest a few things here.

1. Evaluate the new menu items to see what's selling and what's not, and make changes accordingly. Such as the shrimp, a high dollar cost item that does not sell well.

2. Check dollar savings/cost to see if it would be feasible to put the Sightseeing observation car back on – no staff – just to have a place for overflow passengers, and others wishing to use computers, phones, eat snack foods, etc, as this would take a lot of pressure off the seating situation in the diner/lounge.

3. Set standard procedures (documented), as to what food items are serve out of the kitchen and what is served upstairs.

4. Look into setting up regular Memphis turn positions. Chef assistant and SA. This would enable us to handle high passenger counts and help in case of equipment failure. Plus, enable us to give far better service to our customer.

5. Maybe putting help on the trains Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Well that's my thoughts and ideas, Thank you very much for your time .

[End quote]

2) It is important to note Amtrak has been in the passenger train business since 1971, and has had diners, lounges, sleepers, and coaches since Day One. What has Amtrak management learned, and discarded, and learned again, and discarded again, and tried to learn yet again about the management and operation of these various types of cars and providing good passenger service? Why does Amtrak seem to have no institutional memory, and is always reinventing the wheel, often ending up with a square wheel?




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J. Bruce Richardson
President
United Rail Passenger Alliance, Inc.
1526 University Boulevard, West, PMB 203
Jacksonville, Florida 32217-2006 USA
Telephone 904-636-7739
brucerichardson@unitedrail.org
http://www.unitedrail.org