WASHINGTON — Private-car owners and guests on cars with observation platforms would no longer be able to ride those platforms on any Amtrak-operated train under rules proposed in a new safety manual for private car operators.
The 14-page document contains a long list of safety items outlining how private car operators should behave, dress, and communicate in order to maintain a positive relationship between Amtrak and their host railroads. Amtrak is reminding private car operators to comply with the same safety guidelines as railroad employees.
But among the proposed safety-related criteria is a new guideline that concerns open-platform riding. In the section on private car operations, Amtrak states:
“It is not permissible at any time for Private Car Owners and their guest to be on the Observation Deck of any Private Car attached to an Amtrak Revenue Train or Amtrak Charter Train while the train is in motion. Failure to adhere to this safety rule could result in the private car owner being suspended or revoked from operation on any Amtrak Train or Charter Train.” [Note: capitalization in the original.]
The proposed changes have not yet gone into effect, but passenger car groups such as the Railroad Passenger Car Alliance are calling on their members to provide feedback.
The rules would be the latest in a series of changes that have dramatically reshaped and limited use of private cars on Amtrak trains. [See “New Amtrak guidelines add details on private-car, special-train moves,” Trains News Wire, April 19, 2018.]
Also, private car groups learned this week that effective June 11, Amtrak’s mechanical facilities will no longer allow private car operators to pay for some contracted inspection services. Instead, private car operators will go through the railroad’s approved list of contractors for annual, 10-year, and 40-year inspections. The railroad will coordinate these efforts with private car operators through its consolidated national operations center in Wilmington, Del.
Well, one thing’s for sure, while I think Amtrak is splitting hairs, all it would take is someone having an accident on the rear that my friends will be the end of PV, as the old saying goes, whatever can go wrong will.
Before LIRR retired its rust bucket fleet, I used to ride either in the vestibule of the last car or front car – right behind one or 2 GP38-2’s. Both were calm and relaxing, and windblown, a nice break in the usual commuting discomfort. The diesels were nice to listen to, unlike today’s DE and DM junk. Amtrak wants to take all joy out of railroading. And a dress code?
Seems if you’re paying Amtrak to pull YOUR car on their train they really should mind their own business about what you do in YOUR car, assuming you’re not shooting out their signals or mooning people. Besides, how are they going to enforce it anyway? Have a hi-rail truck follow a train?
And how many passengers have been killed riding the observation platforms of private cars in the last 100 years? I rode all over Mexico on the observation platform of a private car in the late 60s and never suffered a scratch. Even had a couple of gin & tonics and managed not to fall overboard. What kind of nannys are “running” Anthrax? )-:
Joseph Markfelder: I guess that you don’t remember when Amtrak had the owners of private varnish paint their cars in the Amtrak colors.
Next Amtrak will ban the use of open dutch doors.
Amtrak already does not want people to stand in vestibules while the train is moving.
Alaska Railroad allows one to be in the vestibule and at the open dutch door….
Too many places are using “safety” and “security” as a pretext for pushing an unrelated agenda.
“Observation deck”??? Who is minding the Amtrak asylum? Certainly no one of ever rode an American train much less get a Lionel for Christmas! PS – if concerned with dress codes, how about reminding Conductors to doff their hats when traversing dining cars (or perhaps that’s why the Diner was eliminated on the Cap & L. Shore; no need to remove hats! Brilliant stroke of genius by the inmates!).
Amtrak brings back the ever-fashionable death by regulation. Ludicrous!
I guess the so called new dress code requires private railroad car operators and their passengers to wear only Amtrak garb with the Amtrak logo on them Only Amtrak authorized merchandise will be allowed such as baseball caps, tee shirts, sweatshirts etc. and while we are at it maybe Amtrak should require the private car
owners to put an Amtrak logo on the sides of their cars and quite possilbly this could be an added source of revenue for Amtrak which needs every penny and dollar they can get their hands on.
Since when did the hobby of being a railfan get to be such a hassle and something of a nuisance to others and with all these draconian rules and regulations being piled the railfan and train lovers fraternity ?
@ Paul, the supposed “new” trains won’t serve more people.
The NEC & state trains have lower load factors, which means the LD trains are more full than those other trains you seem to worship.
The LDs’ load factors are 61%, NEC, 60% and state, 40%.
Please try to read-up on a topic before spouting off.
That’s a rule created by lawyers. They think they know everything and the rest of us are just a bunch of rubes.
This is what happens when you have an airline guy running a railroad. Next, he’ll have the gendarmes, um, “customer service reps,” the ones with firearms and tasers, threatening to arrest policy violators. I can see legitimate safety issues here, as some others have noted. On the other hand, I can recall riding the rear platform on LIRR east end trains in the 70’s where there were a half dozen commuters hanging out, tossing the empty Bud cans out the back at 65 MPH, and to my knowledge, either personally, by rumor, or seeing a news report, no one ever had an issue. The trainmen largely ignored us, and we as riders had enough sense to not do anything patently stupid and ruin it for everyone.
I’m sure many reading this will recall riding Dutch doors on many trains prior to Amtrak, and in its early years before Amfleet and Superliners became common. Never had a problem there either.
Dress code??? Sheesh!!!
And just when was the last time a passenger was thrown or fell from the rear deck of an observation car, except in the movies? Come on now – let’s have specific dates and times. We’re waiting! . . . . . . . . . STILL Waiting ! ! !
Can’t these same Dumb-Asses be launched from the side doors of “regular” passenger cars. Where does com-
mon sense and taking responsibility for ones own actions end, for God”s sake? Get a life and give me a break!
Hey, lets also make them separate the kids from their parents and put the kids in cages!
So much for my dream of buying and restoring a private car, then sitting on the observation platform with a scotch and cigar watching the world slide by. The simple fact is, this makes sense from a safety standpoint. Amtrak is getting a fresh look across the board, which is sorely needed in these changing times.
I have an idea. People will have to wear seat belts!! LOL!!
It amazes me how many people on Trains.com get upset about common sense restrictions on private cars, and are opposed to new trains that would serve more people (see the endless protests about replacing LD trains with useful trains.) It’s almost as if there’s a cliquey elite here who wants train travel that’s only available for the super rich.
Name any pleasure the public has riding and Amtrak will outlaw it. Damn shame we have crap like this.
So, if the President at some point decided to use a campaign train, would Mr Anderson tell him he couldn’t step out on the platform while the train was pulling in or out of a stop?
Are the rules for guests on a private car the same as or more restrictive than for Amtrak passengers?
Its probably bcuz of insurance coverage, So F Amtrak and their insurance, Oh wait, they are a govt entity right? No wait, they were ruled a non govt entity right? Oh sh….. I forgot already
I’m fairly sure the open observation cars on the Milwaukee Road were used only in the electrified section through the mountains of Montana and Idaho (probably in the 1920s and/or 30s), so no 100 mph or cinders there. However, when the Olympian Hi was inaugurated, the Skytop sleepers (along with some of the other cars) weren’t quite ready, and so for a while the markers were carried by 3-2 open platform observations. As Jim Scribbins wrote in “The Hiawatha Story,” “… first-class passengers could avail themselves of what must have been the fastest open-platform observation car ever operated.”
Mr. Clopton, nice catch! I went back and re-read the quote in the article, and as you wrote, “Let’s hear it for sloppy writing.” I’m no lawyer nor ever had any formal legal training (my full disclosure/disclaimer/whatever), but I suspect this wording could make for some interesting legal challenges. I seem to recall reading about some case that made it fairly high up through the legal system a few years ago, because of ambiguity in the way some law had been written having to do with a missing comma.
If I were a Private Car owner, my reaction would be, “Why should AMTRAK give a rat’s azz on how I’m dressed? & “Why in the Hell do I/others have to get dressed to the nines or a three piece suit just to please a Dipschitt!tt CEO?”” Since when does what/how I’m dressed factor into the “safe operations” of the train? I’d wear shorts, short sleeve shirt w/ the shirttail out & tennis shoes w/ no socks w/ a beer in my hand & Amtrak would like it.
Here’s an historical howler, appropo or not: years ago the Milwaukee ran an open observation car on the Olympian, basically a flat car with seats. There were stretches of fast running, like the dash from Chicago Union to Milwaukee, or across Wisconsin. Wind in your face, cinders in your eye at 100 mph?
Anderson reminds me of Mr. Grinch.
I guess if you want to ride in the open on a platform, they way to go now is ride the Rocky Mountaineer, Goldleaf Service. Wife and I just completed a journey from Vancouver to Jasper, then Banff back to Vancouver. We spent many miles on the large outdoor platform. You may not always be on the rear of the train, but you’re outside with the wind, smells and view. Fantastic trip and experience.