Amtrak and Transit Discussion

03/01/01 17:12 Letter to Employees from Ed Walker,
Intercity Pres - GenePoon

03/01/01 17:12
Letter to Employees from Ed Walker, Intercity Pres
GenePoon

January 3, 2001

Dear Amtrak Intercity Colleagues:

Amtrak is taking action to serve our guests with the best
possible service despite
the severe winter weather affecting most of the country. Indeed,
last month was
one of the coldest Decembers in Chicago in over 100 years!
Employees at every
level throughout Amtrak Intercity have done a remarkable job
over the past 30
days in the face of extraordinary conditions.

I have been continually impressed by the dedication, hard work
and perseverance
displayed by my colleagues here at Amtrak Intercity. You have
my sincere thanks
and appreciation for your extra efforts and my personal
assurance of continued
support from the entire management team.

We have a lot of experience in dealing with difficult weather
conditions and we are
putting that experience to work for us. Amtrak Intercity
managers have developed
and implemented a series of actions to help you serve our
guests in the face of
what is promising to be a record-breaking winter for severe
weather. Those
actions include:

· Being prepared by winterizing our equipment and facilities, and
readying our
employees by implementing a winter safety plan

· Redeploying equipment in order to have the best performing
equipment available
throughout the system, for example, by replacing Horizon with
Superliner
equipment on some routes

· Temporarily suspending the Lake Country Limited, the Twilight
Limited and the
Lake Cities services through January to provide high-quality
service and increase
reliability throughout the system

· Rescheduling select managers to provide 24-hour management
oversight and
support

· Arranging to provide employees with hotels and meals where
necessary

Communication lines are being kept open through daily
conference calls with all
facilities to coordinate equipment repairs. Several times over the
past month we
have staffed and utilized a 24-hour emergency operation desk,
which can be
quickly re-activated as the situation demands.

We remain in close communication with the National Operations
Center and the
Reservation Service Call Centers, and are developing additional
communication
tools to ensure that employees and guests have accurate and
timely information
on weather-impacted services.

I recognize that in spite of all our efforts the results have not
always been positive
and I understand that the continued bad weather and service
failures cause great
stress for both employees and guests. I also know that the
personal effort,
attention and care provided by Amtrak employees have been the
most helpful to
our guests facing weather-related delays and service disruptions.

I pledge that the senior management team will continue to look
for ways to
manage our operations in a manner that supports you and your
fellow employees
and allows you to keep your focus on delivering high-quality
service to our guests.
Please share your ideas on steps we can take to make it easier
for you to care for
our guests with your supervisor.

Thank you again for the extraordinary effort you have shown over
the past month
and please stay focused on working safely and providing
excellent service to our
guests.