Apr 6th, 2017: Lonely Railroad Stations

[Undertoad]

So, how much money does it take for an Amtrak flunky to decide this passenger service can be an hour and a half late for some private operation?

[xoxoxoBruce]

My buddy's wife in Texas tracks railroad cars, tells the owners where they are and who's using them so they can collect the rent. She makes a nice living from her bedroom.

[SPUCK]

LOL Clod; Looks like time for you to pen a SciFi novel.

Originally Posted by Undertoad

So, how much money does it take for an Amtrak flunky to decide this passenger service can be an hour and a half late for some private operation?

You have noooo idea. It actually costs nothing but this particular operation took almost 2 years of wrangling and worked thru both the Union Pacific chief consul and up to the president of Amtrak to get into effect. It was derailed by a Sacto Amtrak flunky who should be out on his ear but likely will continue giving Amtrak a bad name.

In Amtrak's defense I will say the crew that showed up was extremely professional to a military level that left me memorably impressed. I'd seen nothing like it in years.


A joke:
An engineer calls into rail control operations for a time check to synchronize his clock. The operations person sez, "what rail organization please?"

The engineer starts to answer but then asks, "what does that matter?!"

Operations responds, "We format our answer accordingly."

"Like how", the engineer asks.

"Well, if you work for the Burlington Northern it's 2 pm; if you work for the Union Pacific it is 1400; if you work for the Norfolk Southern the big hand is on the 12 and the little hand is on the 2; and if you work for Amtrak it's Tuesday!"

[xoxoxoBruce]

Boom-tish!