Communication problem?

Last night my train got to Waldwick and stayed (It was a train to Suffern.) A crew member got on the PA and announced, "...We've lost power to the traction motors. The engineer is trying to fix it. Don't worry, if he can't, there is a train right behind us that will shove us to Suffern..."
A few minutes later the express passes on the adjacent track. I figure there is some other train that will rescue us, though I thought he was referring to the express. Some time later, he announces, "...Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats. The other train has arrived and will couple on to us and push us to Suffern, making all stops..."
Our train pulled out, making all stops to Suffern.
The only thing is....there was no other train. The train we were on got fixed and got to Suffern under its own power.

I'm surprised nobody replied to this, I thought it was pretty funny.

Yeah it is. Some crewmembers will just make things up to please passengers. NJT since last August's derailment has been making a real effort to keep passengers informed. But, not always are passengers informed with accurate information.

"Uh, passengers, we are waiting for a train to pass us. As soon as it does, we'll be on our way." The only problem is, there is only one track. (And yes, I just made this situation up, but announcements like this one are made from time to time.)

Im guilty of "making things up" sometimes, because often times dispatch doesn't tell us a thing, and I have to say something. so I will make an announcement with my best guess of what is going on. Slow signals because of congestion ahead. Sitting at the mouth of the tunnel in NYP and "waiting for track space to open up" Sitting on A track west of Elmora "waiting for a train to pass" They are all plausable senarios that are my best guess at whats happening.

I personally can't stand the "were waiting at a stop signal, once we get a more favorable signal, we will be on the move" annoucement" - Where in all honestly, thats exactly what we are doing, we might not have any idea why we are sitting at a stop signal, but we are, and we are waiting for a more favorable signal so we can move!!!! Thats eveyrthing!!!!

^Well, I personally don't mind the:

"Ladies and Gentlemen- I don't know why we are stopped, but we are. As soon as the problem is resolved, we'll be on our way." Yes, the passengers hate it ("Why are we stopped? I demand to know. Why don't you know...." etc. etc.), but I realize communication is not a constant.

And the stop signal and favorable signal announcement is getting old for me too.

I wonder if what occurs in the dispatch office has any effect on train announcements. From my experience as a NJT train dispatcher trainee on the ML/BC/PVL/ST desk during most of 2002 whenever anything more than a minor incident occured we would have the chief dispatcher, as well as 1 or 2 management-level supervisors, come out to our desk to assess the situation and offer a solution. In theory this sounds good....in reality it almost never worked. The chief usually had his solution and each of the managers would have their own solution and there were times, depending on whose egos were involved, where no one could (or would) agree on whose solution to go with. In some instances they wouldn't listen to the dispatchers, who usually had the best solution, and would argue amongst themselves while the train(s) got further delayed. Because of that, the train crews and passengers would always be the last to know. Please understand this doesn't happen everytime there is a problem but it happened enough over my time there to be one of the factors in my leaving (very reluctantly) my dream job.

Joe P :D
Long Live The EL
www.geocities.com/jmpwpd29

Couldn't you just hang a transistor radio next to the IC and let the passengers listen to soothing music? or better yet, tune it to AirAmerica radio, 1190 AM...