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.
