Acela II (Alstom Avelia Liberty): Design, Production, Delivery, Acceptance

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Wed Dec 04, 2024 7:47 am So long as we are addressing bag handling at this topic, here's an excerpt from a Times interview with outgoing SecTrans Pete Buttigieg:

How many states and cities did you visit while in this role? How did you fly?
All 50 states and 199 cities in the United States, and then nine countries: Canada, Mexico, Ukraine, Poland, Japan, Scotland/U.K., Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

And I flew mostly commercially and in economy. As an airline regulator, I think it’s important to eat where you cook.

This is really good advice on a corporate level for Amtrak senior management and I've long though that they don't ride the trains west of Harrisburg, becuase it looks like nobody is minding the store.

As Eoleson mentioned from his professional experience at American and United, you have to deploy policy built by a team and then travel to the out stations and see how employeese implement and execute. Sometimes you coach them on improvement, sometimes you see how things aren't as good as you thought and iterate the policy.

My last employer got bought by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the inventor of leverage buyouts. The new CEO (who was an east coast elitist if there ever was one) went to every factory and building they owned and talked to each factory worker about what they do and how they do it. The man knew that their success hinged on the team knowing that (a) someone is watching and (b) they can change things if it makes the work better.

As Railjunkie pointed out from his professional experience, that hasn't happened at Amtrak since Boardman retired. That's not good.

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Wed Dec 04, 2024 7:47 am SecTrans Pete Buttigieg:

As a frequent flier, what’s your best travel advice?
Don’t check a bag if you can help it.

Naw, I check a bag when flying most of the time as I have connections every time since we moved out of the big city. I don't want to drag a bag across Chicago or Atlanta. I've had one lost airline bag, on AA in Phoenix, and it was just on the flight behind me. I got it back in an hour.

I've checked bags on Amtrak 2-4 times and they lost one bag permanently. It was Crescent WAS-NOL. I remember watchnig the baggage cart drive past my sleeper cabin and me thinking "gee I didn't see my bag, it must be under another one". Wrong, it was on its way to Mexico. Amtrak gave me $200 to buy clothes.

Checking a bag is not the evil some decry it to be, after hundreds of bag checks. That said, Delta has a 20 minute guarantee that is awesome, much better than the others.

Tadman wrote: ↑Wed Dec 04, 2024 9:05 am

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Wed Dec 04, 2024 7:47 am SecTrans Pete Buttigieg:

As a frequent flier, what’s your best travel advice?
Don’t check a bag if you can help it.

Naw, I check a bag when flying most of the time as I have connections every time since we moved out of the big city. I don't want to drag a bag across Chicago or Atlanta. I've had one lost airline bag, on AA in Phoenix, and it was just on the flight behind me. I got it back in an hour.

I've checked bags on Amtrak 2-4 times and they lost one bag permanently. It was Crescent WAS-NOL. I remember watchnig the baggage cart drive past my sleeper cabin and me thinking "gee I didn't see my bag, it must be under another one". Wrong, it was on its way to Mexico. Amtrak gave me $200 to buy clothes.

Checking a bag is not the evil some decry it to be, after hundreds of bag checks. That said, Delta has a 20 minute guarantee that is awesome, much better than the others.

Don't fly often and while my pass would allow my family and I to travel at reduced rates Amtrak does not always fit the bill. I have however checked bags on Amtrak a couple of days ahead and had them sent to wherever and picked them up when I arrived there. Nice taking the train and having to hump the families bags along with us.

As for checked baggage on airlines I tend not to when traveling alone except this last time on AA in front of the curtain with my normal carry on it had to be gate checked. Puzzled I asked why when I fly SWA never an issue with this bag they just staring quoting baggage policy.

Speaking of SWA they have lost bag and golf clubs once it took most of the day to get them back, what a trip they had. But I think the worst experience was the family vacation and the fish. But this is not Airline.net and would be far far off topic. All I will say was a very stinky situation was had by all four of us.

Tadman wrote: ↑Wed Dec 04, 2024 9:01 am As Railjunkie pointed out from his professional experience, that hasn't happened at Amtrak since Boardman retired. That's not good.

I think the value in C suite types going out to the field is more an employee morale booster and to give the CEO perspective on the customer and employee experience. I think they should do it but I think there's very little benefit as far as compliance in service standards by front line employees. When the C suites are on board the crew are going to be on their best behavior. For compliance or catching employees in the act you need sufficient front line local management that rides the trains - long distance trains also used to have the on board service chiefs, but front line management ranks and service chiefs have been widdled down by cost cutting - so it's not a zero dollar fix. Also useful are "mystery shoppers" - you reach out to random ticketed passengers and offer them a discount if they do a detailed survey and report of their experience with photographs etc. Whether they do mystery shoppers or not I do not know, but if they don't it would certainly be something I'd suggest.

Having C suite types going into the field without a lot of notice tends to keep the D-Suite execs and E-suite directors on their toes, especially if you don't know when or where they'll show up.

Since COVID, I've noticed that a number of execs at my airline are no longer living full time in our headquarters city. Our CEO has always lived out of state in a non-hub city, while two of the people in my upper management chain also live in non-hub cities. We've got a few executives from other organizations who regularly commute between hub cities and the headquarters city. With that many C and D suite people flying on a regular basis, you eventually start to get a representative sample of experiences from them. And with that many, it's not easy to predict when and where they'll show up.

If Amtrak had each VP and director riding one train a quarter outside the NEC, you'd start to see improvements. Have them riding once a month, and you'd see heads rolling.

Acela 2 specific information from a press release:

Completed qualification testing on the NextGen Acela with Alstom and will submit results to the Federal Railroad Administration soon
Successfully conducted more than 900 test runs and clocked over 90,000 miles of testing on the Northeast Corridor

https://media.amtrak.com/2024/12/amtrak ... year-2024/

lordsigma12345 wrote: ↑Wed Dec 04, 2024 11:43 am

Tadman wrote: ↑Wed Dec 04, 2024 9:01 am As Railjunkie pointed out from his professional experience, that hasn't happened at Amtrak since Boardman retired. That's not good.

I think the value in C suite types going out to the field is more an employee morale booster and to give the CEO perspective on the customer and employee experience. I think they should do it but I think there's very little benefit as far as compliance in service standards by front line employees. When the C suites are on board the crew are going to be on their best behavior. For compliance or catching employees in the act you need sufficient front line local management that rides the trains - long distance trains also used to have the on board service chiefs, but front line management ranks and service chiefs have been widdled down by cost cutting - so it's not a zero dollar fix. Also useful are "mystery shoppers" - you reach out to random ticketed passengers and offer them a discount if they do a detailed survey and report of their experience with photographs etc. Whether they do mystery shoppers or not I do not know, but if they don't it would certainly be something I'd suggest.

Spotters we used to call them. They were mostly out there for revenue, watching how conductors handled tickets and cutting cash. I'm sure they I was watched in my LSA days too. I know for a fact NYS has people riding and keeping an eye on things, they generally ride between ALB and NYP with the occasional trip out west. The chiefs back in the day were not always the greatest either. I dealt with some who liked to hide as much as possible and they were good at it to.
Rules state how often trainmasters have to get out and ride trains, they normally don't make a big deal about it they just show up.

Railjunkie wrote: ↑Wed Dec 04, 2024 11:38 pm
Rules state how often trainmasters have to get out and ride trains, they normally don't make a big deal about it they just show up.

Correct me if I understand wrong, but trainmasters are mostly there for train handling issues, not customer-facing issues, correct?

Tadman wrote: ↑Thu Dec 05, 2024 8:42 am

Railjunkie wrote: ↑Wed Dec 04, 2024 11:38 pm
Rules state how often trainmasters have to get out and ride trains, they normally don't make a big deal about it they just show up.

Correct me if I understand wrong, but trainmasters are mostly there for train handling issues, not customer-facing issues, correct?

We have station services, customer services, MTO, and OBS management on staff. Some ride trains some do not, most however do not deal with T&E. In dealing with train handling issues, if you are talking about ride quality such as smooth braking and acceleration that would be my direct boss, one of four Road Foreman. Issues within the body of the train when the letter is written it goes to the direct supervisor of that person in question, who may very well be a trainmaster. In ALB you get a letter as a conductor, it is going to one of three trainmasters. As they are the direct supervisors of the conductor craft.

Didn't get a photo, but side by side Acela 2 Test Trains in Penn Station today. A crew dropped one off and picked one up to take back to Philly.

Folks, this thread is about the next gen Acela. I don't really follow how C suite riding west of harrisburg is relevant. Is Acela going to be serving Chicago anytime soon? Folks have email subscriptions set up to find out when there's news on the Acela, not when there's an unrelated discussion around your favorite pet peeve about how much Amtrak sucks.

Came here to post that my Vermonter pulled up alongside an Acela set this morning. Actually did a double take because the pattern looked familiar and I was like wait is this right? Thanks CNJ for the additional info.

eolesen wrote: ↑Wed Dec 04, 2024 6:27 pm If Amtrak had each VP and director riding one train a quarter outside the NEC, you'd start to see improvements. Have them riding once a month, and you'd see heads rolling.

I don’t disagree in the concept. The caveat is the nature of Amtrak’s mode and with most of upper management being in the DC, Philadelphia, or Wilmington metro areas there’s the logistics of that which is a bit different than it would be for airline management where you’ve got your own flights to get these guys around in an expedient manner.

Realistically while id love to imagine the D and E suiters using the Amtrak network to get around on every trip with peoples’ schedules you’re not going to be able to efficiently send someone on the Cap and Zephyr every time you want them out riding the Capitol Corridor for instance. Realistically to get folks out there riding the more distant trains from HQ at a rate that would make a difference means a lot of airline tickets and hotels and I’m sure what often happens at Amtrak is the travel budget is one of the first things to get the axe when it’s time to make numbers.

While I don’t want to make excuses for them as it is something that a customer oriented business should do, the realist in me knows that management travel is an area that’s frequently going to get cut. With that in mind use of “spotters” as Railjunkie referred to them is another way you can get eyes out there without needing to put someone on a plane and hotel.