WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials, says he is “extremely disappointed” with Amtrak’s explanation for the “human error” that caused a major service breakdown at Chicago Union Station on Feb. 28, causing grief for an estimated 100,000 Amtrak and Metra passengers.
The Illinois Democrat also says Amtrak has rejected his proposal that the passenger railroad reimburse Metra commuters who were forced to find alternate transportation that day. Uber and Lyft were reportedly charging as much as $125 to give Metra commuters rides home.
“It’s wrong that Amtrak has decided they will not compensate stranded commuters who were forced to spend money out of pocket to get home,” Lipinski said in a statement. The congressman said that Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson had told him in a meeting that that Amtrak would consider compensation because the railroad has a reimbursement policy for its own passengers.
“Compensating passengers for Amtrak’s preventable error would be a good way of showing leadership and accountability and would also serve as an incentive to avoid future failures,” Lipinski said.
Lipinski’s office released a letter from Stephen Gardner, Amtrak’s vice president for marketing, in response to a series of questions the congressman posed about the Feb. 28 incident. [See “Congressman wants answers from Amtrak on Chicago signal meltdown,” Trains News Wire, March 13, 2019.]
The signal problem at Union Station began around 8:30 a.m. and affected six of Metra’s lines, the BNSF, Metra’s busiest; Milwaukee West and Milwaukee North; the Heritage Corridor; North Central and SouthWest Service; as well as Amtrak service. [See “Amtrak CEO says ‘human error’ caused signal problems that snarled traffic at Chicago Union Station,” Trains News Wire, March 1, 2019.] Normally, Union Station serves 240 Metra trains and 58 Amtrak trains daily.
The system failure prevented Amtrak dispatchers from automatically controlling train movements. Amtrak had to manually operate the signal and switching points and allow only one train at a time to move, according to Metra.
Lipinski said that in his meeting with Anderson, he told the CEO that the system failure was “completely unacceptable” and asked him to account for the cause. Lipinski said the responses to his questions “seemed to conflict with what was originally said about the situation.”
Asked for a response to Lipinski’s comments, Amtrak said: “The letter is consistent with our earlier messaging and speaks for itself.”
According to Gardner’s letter, the system failure was caused by an Amtrak technician who accidentally shorted out equipment while installing new PTC hardware. That equipment handled communications between the Chicago control center and another center at 14th Street. The short disabled the primary and backup systems at 14th Street.
Gardner’s letter said even though personnel are trained not to perform signal-related maintenance or upgrades during rush hours, an “inexperienced manager authorized an experienced senior technician” to install the PTC hardware.
“Clearly, the disruption should not have taken place and the cause for the disruption should not have occurred,” the letter said. Gardner reiterated that Amtrak had apologized and accepted responsibility.
Nevertheless, Lipinski said that “nothing in Amtrak’s letter gives me confidence that anything has changed that will prevent another meltdown.”
Metra’s board members were not mollified by Amtrak’s apology either, as they made clear at a March 20 board meeting. [See “Metra anger boils over at Amtrak for Union Station snafu,” Trains News Wire, March 21, 2019.]
“Deep in my heart, I don’t think Amtrak cares,” director John Plante said at that meeting. “That’s the biggest problem we have. They are just collecting our money. That’s where they are at; it’s always where they have been at. Until we get better control of the situation, I don’t expect Amtrak to improve at all.”
Director Steve Palmer was more blunt: The apology offered by Amtrak “was a bunch of crap.”
“I am not satisfied, I am not happy,” Palmer said. “I want to know what we’re going to get out of this (from Amtrak) besides, ‘It won’t happen again.’”
Amtrak owns Union Station and controls operations, although Metra makes up more than 90 percent of the passenger traffic. This raises the question of whether Amtrak should give Metra operational control of the station, Lipinski said.
The BNSF line runs through Lipinski’s 3rd District, and the congressman said he was committed to pursuing the issues.
“Amtrak needs to build back the public’s confidence in our rail system and give commuters the reliable service they demand and deserve,” Lipinski said. “They have a lot of work to do.”
The Congressman’s comment: “It’s wrong for Amtrak to not compensate passengers …who had to spend money out of pocket to get home.” Was their ride free to begin with? Our local interstate was blocked for 7 hours in December. Where can I get compensation for those lost hours, and yes I got home eventually. Agree w Mr. Withorn, deal with it and move on. The Congressman was grandstanding for election.
The Congressman wants to have Amtrak build back the public’s confidence. This from a Congress that probably is viewed with less confidence than what Amtrak is.
Amazing how they want Amtrak to be as perfect as Congress is yet won’t fund them adequately. Maybe someone should give the Congressman a detailed tour to show him the complexity of the total operation and what age has done to the overall operations.
Sorry David V but I don’t think I’d want to put my trust in a Congressman throwing and lining switches properly.
It seems to me that Congressman Lipinski should put-up the money, and show a little forgiveness towards AMTRAK. Perhaps METRA should move into it’s own station—I try to avoid using Amtrak during the METRA rush times. Where were the bus substitutions? Perhaps the congress-people should have been there, assisting with the switches that needed to be hand thrown.
Robert Withorn: Definitely!! Too many snowflakes these days.
So, why must everyone get compensated for life?? Things happen and you move on.
@Robert McGuire: I will take Metra’s shortcomings over Amtraks anyday. And yes, Metra would probably compensate Amtrak for their fault, but how can Metra be held responsible for a train that was probably 2 hours late already? The number of Amtrak customers through CUS are a fraction of Metra’s.
As for Mr. Lipinski, Metra’s customers are voters too and he knows they will hold him responsible. He is already on the wick for the service meltdowns on BNSF in 2018. A line that also uses CUS.
Besides, it never hurts to put your elected officials on notice when service failures are directly related to 20 years of deferred investment and Amtrak indifference.
I wonder if Metra did gain control of the station switch and signal operations and something similar happened that was their fault if they would compensate Amtrak passengers and any others affected. I really doubt it. They are just another incompetent government operation like Amtrak. In the meantime this Lipinski guy needs to have his head candled.
Amtrak only cares about developing the surrounding real estate. Rail operations are secondary since it is a net expense.
Metra will do well to be patient and bide their time. Ever since the RTA was formed they have slowly and gradually taken over various towers and switching operations from their host railroads due to poor priorities, poor operating rules and really bad decisions.
It took Metra several years to get control of Tower A-2 and after they did, delays between the UP and former MILW stopped thereafter.
Metra is still fighting the good fight on the Southwest Service to Joliet where freight interference is common.
Freight interference off the IHB at the Fulton Street wye to get into Proviso Yard on the UP West Line was normal at one time, not anymore. Freights are held now at the switch until Metra finishes their AM rush. Thank you Metra.
Amtrak has lost the skills and nerve to run a 24×7 on time rail operation. Metra has for years.
Therefore hand over to Metra operational switch control of CUS.
They wont ever care, Its business and its govt, All Railroads are mum on stuff like this. Amtrak has no one to answer to, oh well. Id figure there would be a few responses by now to this article but We all know Amtrak is just spiraling down