Crew Dispatching

[nostalgia]

Before 9/11, I was able to meet my Amtrak friends in the crew lounge at Union Station, Washington, DC. I was able to "go shopping" for employee timetables, etc. The most amazing find was the job advertisement bulletin for the Spring and Fall timetable changes. It listed every Zone 2 (Washington-New York and Philadelphia-Harrisburg) job and showed how they were strung together.

 

I was never able to get the bulletin for Zone 1. Before electrification, a train crew worked between Boston and New Haven, New Haven and New York, and New Haven and Springfield. (I travelled between Washington, DC and New Haven and could see the crew change.) With electrification, an Acela Express can run from New York to Boston without a crew change in New Haven. Northeast Regional trains, which make more stops, still change crews.

 

Does anybody know how the jobs are strung together for Amtrak Zone 1?

[Myrtle Local]

They're basically still the same as you mentioned. New York and Boston crews work the Acelas through. The regionals are all split up. New York crews work to New Haven, Boston crews work to New Haven, New Haven crews have jobs that work in either direction. There are some Boston brakemen jobs that do work the regionals through from Boston to New York and back a few days a week.