[PRCo] Re: Scheduling

[John Swindler]

Again, Fred, what does this have to do with PTM demonstration railway??

However, you do have a significant comment as it might pertain to public 
transportation.  "if you had a freight train breathing down your neck".

The example I gave was for late pm and night operation when headways were 
typically 30 minutes.  During peak hours, when there was a three min. or 
less headway, drivers would tend to have blinders on when the light turned 
green.  Then there was an emphasis on timekeeping.  Why?? Because I knew if 
I looked in the rear view mirror, there would be another bus 1-2 traffic 
lights behind.  So the need to cater to the customer was not as great.

Again, PTM is not in the transportation business.

John





>From: "Fred W. Schneider III" <fschnei at supernet.com>
>Reply-To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>Subject: [PRCo] Scheduling
>Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2001 11:59:26 -0500
>
>
>I think we are placing too much emphasis on one aspect of running the
>railroad over another aspect.  There needs to be some balance between
>schedule keeping and making customers happy.
>
>1.  Passengers are important.  If we don't have passengers, we don't
>need drivers or motorman or engineman or mechanics or office clerks.  If
>we can wait for customer, because there is enough slack in the schedule,
>by all means do so.
>
>2.  While it is important to wait for a passenger and show a little
>extra courtesy ... all ways of making them want to come back ... we also
>need to run on time.  We cannot be constantly waiting for people because
>it encourages people to be late and it discourages those who are on time
>at the stop.  If the schedule shows the bus will arrive at the stop at
>3:17 and it repeatedly arrives anywhere from 3:12 to 3:25 and once in a
>while as late as 3:40, I'm not going to wait for the bus.  I'll buy an
>automobile.
>
>3.  If we have a single track railroad with passing sidings, schedule
>keeping is absolutely essential.  If my car is off by 3 minutes, the
>opposing car may be off by 7 minutes.  And the customer is off in his
>car.  (Most schedules had enough cushion, however.)
>
>4.  While signals are great, if we get accustomed to meeting the same
>car at siding A day after day and today it is early and meets us at
>another siding, there is a damn good chance for a corn field meet,
>signals or no signals. A man with 30 years service is apt not to even
>look at a signal that he never before needed to observe.  (I have a
>hunch that is what happened that caused 13 people to be killed and 30
>some badly injured in the LVT 1003 / C14 accident in 1942 ... perhaps
>the motorman never before had to wait at Brush Siding for a box motor
>and never bothered to look at a signal.  But we'll never know, he
>removed himself from the gene pool.  So running on time can be
>tantamount to running safely.
>
>You might like an interesting example of breaking the rules to serve a
>customer.  I was riding a Pennsy schedule from Harrisburg into
>Philadelphia in 1969 and was surprised that we stopped at Irishtown road
>crossing in eastern Lancaster County to drop an Amish lad.  Because all
>the trainmen knew me as a Strasburg Rail Road employee (and a state
>employee) at that time (I was actually riding on a Strasburg pass that
>night), I could get away with a discrete inquiry about the stop.  Turns
>out the last Lancaster to Intercourse bus left Lancaster at 5 PM ... and
>this man left Harrisburg at 5:20 on the train.  He would have had to
>walk home 8 miles from Lancaster.  The trainman dropped him at Irishtown
>several nights each week.  What was the official policy of the
>railroad?  DO NOT STOP ... NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.  Was there an
>unofficial policy?  YES.  IF YOU DON'T HAVE A FREIGHT TRAIN BREATHING
>DOWN YOUR BUTT, MAKE THE STOP IN THE INTEREST OF KEEPING SOMEONE HAPPY.
>CREWS WERE ACTUALLY TOLD THIS OFF THE RECORD. The total elapsed time for
>the stop was less than 2 minutes, and there was enough padding in the
>timetable to make it up. Those Silverliners had hellish acceleration.
>
>Another example of keeping the schedule in spite of passengers ... and
>the engineman shall remain nameless.  (I've mentioned this on another
>list, so, Harold or Edson, bear with me if you're listening).  I was up
>in the cab the night it happened.  It was a Friday afternoon ... the
>4:20 departure from Harrisburg ... 37 minutes were allowed to get out
>out of Lancaster, 37 miles away.  There were three intermediate stops.
>Most of the mileposts are not 5,280 feet apart ... I think there are
>only two pairs between Philly and Harrisburg that are exact ... there
>are 107 of them squeezed in 103 miles.  But as we came out of
>Harrisburg, the engineman checked the speedometer against his watch on
>two valid mileposts.  "How's it reading?"  "Four fast."  We stopped at
>Middletown to drop two or three people.  Now this engineman knew which
>days he would have a fair number of people at stations ... he knew the
>pattern like the back of his hand ... and this was a Friday afternoon
>with a lot of college kids from E-town and F&M that would be getting
>on.  He stopped at Elizabethtown ... about a half dozen off, perhaps ten
>college kids on.  Then a stop at Mount Joy to drop one or two people.
>When we came up on the distant signal for CORK interlocking in
>Lancaster, the clock was reading 107 miles per hour.  (Speed limit was
>75 and he was actually plowing along at 103.) These were Jersey Arrows
>... married pairs were designed to do 100.  He stopped at Lancaster,
>having run off 37 miles in 33 minutes with three intermediate stops and
>at an average speed of 67 miles per hour.  At 4:57, he was moving out of
>Lancaster ... right on the money, after having dropped about 30 and
>picking up roughly 40.  By the way, management had high regard for this
>engineman because he knew when and where he could break the rules to
>keep the railroad fluid, and trains on time.  Sometimes I think
>management even told him when the road foreman of engines was out with a
>radar gun ... he always knew.  (By the way, he came back home running
>the Broadway Limited.) (One of these days I'll just have to go knock on
>his door..)
>


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