Amtrak – Gotta love it!

Amtrak – Gotta love it!

Aboard Amtrak NE Regional # 86 to NYC.  Train breaks down around Elkton. There’s a blown fuse. The engineer does not know how to open and close the circuit breaker box.

THE ENGINEER DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO OPEN OR CLOSE THE CIRCUIT BREAKER BOX!!!

The train sits idle. There’s no electricity. After about 45 minutes, another train comes along. The plan, we’re told, is to transfer the passengers from the stalled train to the working train. They have bridges for this. (who knew?)  The bridges are laid down between the two trains at the café car exit. We wait. Then the bridges are withdrawn. The electricity comes back on.

(In the midst of all this commotion, the funny-guy-wise-guy conductor who has been keeping us posted on all these developments is told by someone that he better put on his tie because there may be Amtrak brass on the othet train who would dock his pay for being out of uniform. This is a true story!).

The electricity is back on train 86 because an engineer on the other train actually knows how to open and close a circuit breaker box. He has transferred to our train and will accompany us as far as New York. Uncertainty lies ahead for passengers travelling from New York to Boston.

Now they’ve decided to change locomotives in Philadelphia, meaning more delay.

My question is: What happens to the lone engineer who knows how to open and close the circuit breaker box, and is he really the only guy left on the job today who has that particular expertise? Is this a hitherto unreported consequence of the sequester? Or is it that Amtrak has gone to hell in a handbag ever since Joe Biden stopped riding the rail?

Stay tuned.