RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Amtrak will close its Southern California reservation call center, eliminating 550 jobs, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported.
The closure was announced in a Wednesday email to employees. Operations will end on Jan. 18, with sale of the building to follow. The message to employees said operations would be consolidated with those at Amtrak’s other reservation center in Philadelphia, but the leader of a union representing Riverside employees says Amtrak has contracted with a third-party operator in Florida where employees are paid less.
The email from Tim Griffin, Amtrak’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer, said that about 90 percent of Amtrak’s bookings now come online, and that calls to the reservation centers have declined by almost three million over the last five years.
Sal Rodriguez, president of Local 2511 of the Transportation and Communication Union, said he believes workers were misled about the outsourced operation in Florida, having been told it was just to handle overflow work at the call centers.
In June, an Amtrak spokesman told the newspaper that the outsourcing was to “better meet variable service demands and lower our costs. … No employee will be laid off as the result of outsourcing.” Amtrak declined to comment Wednesday.
What I don’t understand is why 550 are being laid off all at once. If reservations at the call center have been dropping off over time as the use of the internet increased, why weren’t occasional layoffs done so as to thin the employee numbers as needed. Much less of an impact than 550 jobs lost at one time.
“No employee will be laid off as a result of outsourcing”, only 550 of them. I knew when I saw that statement a few months ago, it was a lie and just a matter of time before the layoffs started. Now, I know sometimes companies and corporations need to cut back, but why do you have to lie about it? Were any of the 550 offered jobs at the outsourced center or other jobs at Amtrak? I don’t know, but probably not. This seems like it was all cost-cutting.
Oh well, maybe when he gets done destroying our American Rail Passenger network, Ol’ Slash and Burn Anderson can get appointed by President Dingleberry to run the Justice Department.
I also like to talk to a real person for anything. Easier to deal with and no misunderstandings. Have noticed the last couple of times I sent a complimentary comment about a Amtrak staff person like sleeper attendants or conductors, I have had a problem getting the comment submitted. I have been doing it by e-mail. Maybe that is intentional as I used to never have a problem.
I still use a real person for my travels. Every time I talk to “Julie” she’ll put me on hold or transfer me to a real person because she can’t hear me. And, I have a big mouth. Several years ago, my wife and I were going to Florida for a UTU regional meeting, when I got a call from my brother who told me that our mother had died. So, my wife and I had to cancel reservations. Only Amtrak’s agent sent condolences. We were so taken by this act of kindness that we sent a letter to Amtrak commenting the agent. We got a reply from Amtrak saying that they were pleased with the agent and placed the letter in her file. I was a ticket agent for Adirondack Trailways and if I found out that they were going to a funeral, I always said that I’m sorry to hear that. I call that the human touch. Let’s see if “Julie” can do that!
Ho Ho Ho! Merrrrry Christmas. Now, get off the property!
Some people commenting here seem unable to leave politics out of the equation. The fact is that the railfan community is not a political entity. We come from all walks of life, have all sorts of opinions, are from a variety of cultural, ethnic, religious and political backgrounds, and so forth. It is apparent that many of the political comments are little more than snide references to politicians we don’t care for and they rarely include specific details of what the writer thinks any specific politician did wrong. It’s time to think before we speak.
Anna’s has commented for awhile and shown she knows what she is talking about. I hope she keeps commenting.
But I agree about the disclaimer. Nobody is going to take a comment to be legal advice, even knowing she is a lawyer. It’s unnecessary and off-putting.
@ Howard. So true. Makes one wonder if it is phones & why he/she/it waste their time reading an article & posting
Domestic air traffic I have been booking on-line for myself for years. Anything outside of North America I always have – and still do – used a travel agent (yes, they still exist).
I suppose if all I want is a garden variety Amtrak booking their website will suffice – although it exhibits a certain lack of coordination if I want anything complicated. Perhaps it can do with a better rules-based booking algorithm. Now, if I want something complicated out of Amtrak I’ll have to go to the travel agent. But to tell you the truth, it is worth it to pay the fee to get what I want.
The above comments are general in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. Find your own damn mouthpiece.
Of course the union doesn’t want to lose any jobs. That doesn’t mean that Amtrak shouldn’t eliminate them. To me its similar to the USPS eliminating mail sorting positions because they no longer need what they used to.
Teresa Boze: This is the first time I ever heard someone use the term “intercontinental high speed rail” when speaking of the USA. Its obviously not going to happen for financial reasons.
“as always are general and don’t mean a thing ” .If you are like me reading oldest to newer posts, as soon as you see the disclaimer delete its lawyer crap. If you cannot stand by what you write stop wasting ever ones time. I am not and never will post something I cannot stand by. This poster could be PHONY.
This makes a whole lot of sense. I can see if you have a complicated trip or a special situation calling would be the preferred method of making the reservation. But, most reservations are simple and can be done on line. Much cheaper to outsource too. Unions are their own worst enemies sometimes. I am old enough to remember when if you wanted a reservation on a railroad other than the one in your city you had to go down to the depot, give the agent the info and then wait a until he found the time to call a central reservation bureau for his railroad and then wait until they called him back and then he would call you back. Might take a week or so. Now, with a few clicks you can do the whole thing in a matter of minutes right from the comfort of your own home. Certainly change for the better.
Can’t see the forest for the trees. Amtrak is part of the government. As such, they are not expected to make a profit and never do. Their mission is to build power and preserve or increase their pay. The relation between unions and government is very different than that between unions and private enterprise. Eventually, the entire government enterprise will fail or complete the process of becoming a totalitarian regime.
It would be nice if we could an executive running Amtrak, who was pro passenger trains, and really wanted to give customers the service they deserve, instead of cutting service and employees, until Amtrak dies on the vine. I never understood when they do get a good person running Amtrak, they never stay very long. I guess its as much about politics as it is profits
an option available on-line. We also had 2 other parties traveling with us and we all wanted to be in the same sleeping car. Add to that a stop-over and the only way to book what we wanted was through a reservation agent. I can see for a simple trip that on-line would be the way to go. I also wish we could edit comments or update them when system hangs in the middle of typing.
What is your basis for disputing Amtrak’s claim that 90 percent of its riders book online, Mr. McFarlane? Do you have any verifiable data to support your contention?
I have been booking online for more than 10 years. I never had problem one with Amtrak’s online booking.
We should be happy that the AMTRAK call center is still in the USA. Most of the time when I call my cable vendor, I’m talking to someone in the Philippines.
The outsourcing (and Amtrak’s possible prevarication about same) is a story, for all the reasons earlier commenters have cited. I hope Trains has the will to follow up on this with its own reporting, as opposed to “journalism by press release and/or scraping Google News alerts.”
I dispute the 90% number(it would behoove Amtrak to lie about this number to justify the layoffs), just based on the people that travel on Amtrak I’d say that the number of online reservations is probably closer to 75%(say between 70 – 80%. The other function of the reservation center is dealing with changes and issues with your trip. Outsourcing is against the current Administrations desires, so how did they get away with this one…and if they really wanted to be smart and consolidate you’d look at a central location to do so(even if the facility is open 24/7).
I find Amtrak’s website to be very easy to use and I am far from computer literate. I don’t need interconnectivity whatever that is. I have dealt with agents on the phone who have been very helpful and friendly. In fact I would say that getting a ticket is the best part of the Amtrak experience. the trouble only starts when you get to the station.
I book two Auto Train round trips every year via the website, using either points or payment, and have never had a problem. If my room pre-assignment seems less than idea location-wise, I call an agent, who will give me all available options to choose from. No complaints.
The tech Amtrak uses is not so much better, as the public is so capable of using avialable technology and expects it to work as most tech is obiquitously up to speed. Amtrak is not. The tech does not provide the more necessary access to options and information that allow people to be self functioning. The tech does not empower the public. The tech does not translate into platforms that attract partnering business dollars.
The tech does not create the base for a intercontinental high-speed rail. it barely provides for stretches down the Atlantic Coast. Or fail safes automatically engaging to create safe high-speed rails for even short hops. You know – like the Amtrak Cascade las winter. It ran off the rails on a low-speed curve and off an overpass onto the expressway, as recoded by the black box. turns out there was a safety feature that would have prevented that, but apparently wasn’t considered a necessity to budget at that time. The feature was simply turned off. That is how Amtrak manages their tech.
Hear, hear!
The biggest issue this creates for Amtrak riders is that the website is poorly designed. it is obvious that Amtrak did not, and does not use for updates and modifications, developers and designers that reflect the needs bridge between the customer and the service.
Examples include the method of seamless scheduling when booking; listing of stations that have not been in service for years, not even as whistle stops; seamless linking to common ubiquitously used mapping; poor mapping of site; constant, complete, accurate, and current content. They did about two years ago manage to automatically – sort of – link trip booking to the Rewards account.
Much of the issues are around the platform the website uses, it would appear. very little has been done to bring this up to speed. This chases off potential partnering and with it the increase in revenue from partnered business dollars. Compatability is required for the newest backend and customer-facing interfaces, and it you don’t spend to make money, you quickly lose out. Similar issues plagued the air traffic controllers’ system we noticed in the Reagon administration.
Here’s the good and the bad news. It is the same news. Amtrak was given the billions of dollars appropriated to create a cross country high-speed rail. That was during Obama’s first term. Ray LaHood, a Republican from Illinois that even a staunch Dem ike me could get along with, was made Secretary of Transportation. Inpart as a concilliaton, but mostly because Ray has vision that this country requires for global competition in the markets and good common sense. He could have built that railroad, except the GOP was so busy being sore loses that they cut their throats, getting greedy and dividing up the high-speed rail project into pork barrel. in the end, the gave the money to Amtrak.
Consistency was lost in the project. the vision became at most a few hundred miles at a stretch. There is no coast to coast plan now. Just a few chunks along the east coast, with most the rest creating stand alones locally.
There is no transparency in policy, either. That is what we are seeing in the way this transition of process is being handled. Like was in the 1990’s again, where workers are treated like second class citizens, not allowed to know about and contribute like the knowledgeable experts they are in their own areas of work. That is foolhardy and pound foolish.
When planning a trip, I call Amtrak, give my itinerary, pay for the ticket(s), and receive the necessary authorization by email.
Fifty years ago, I lived near Tuscaloosa, and would go to the station in Tuscaloosa, give my itinerary to the ticket agent there, come back a few days later and get my ticket. For one trip, I planned to take the C&O from Detroit to Washington–and the first response had me going down to the B&O and thence to Washington–I made it clear that that was not what I asked for, and after a few days more I got what I had originally requested.
One of the things that are now gone was the use of competitive fares–if two roads served the same points the fare was the same on both roads. For example, the fare between Chicago and Washington was the same on the PRR as it was on the B&O–and the fare between Washington and Chicago and the fare between Baltimore and Washington were the same.