Amtrak Employees Claimed to Work 40 Hours Per Day

Timesheets for employees of Amtrak are riddled with abuse, according to a recent audit report, with cases of workers claiming over 40 hours of work in a single day.

The audit released by Amtrak’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) Thursday found examples of abuse in the overtime system, which totaled nearly $200 million in overtime pay last year.

“[Calendar Year] CY 2014 timesheet data revealed trends and patterns that indicate potential fraud, waste, and abuse in the reporting of overtime and regular time,” the audit said. “Some of these trends and patterns may be justified because of the complexity of union agreement rules, the nature of jobs, and the functions employees perform.”

“However, our prior investigative work has shown instances in which employees have fraudulently reported hours not worked,” the OIG said. “We believe that these trends and patterns merit further analysis and, if appropriate, action by management.”

One such trend was employees claiming the impossible feat of working 48 hours in a single day.

“Employees reported 1,357 days in which they worked more than 24 regular and overtime hours,” the OIG said. “Ten employees reported working at least 40 hours in a day.”

Of those 10 employees, a serving attendant in the Café Car, who earns an average of $23 an hour, recorded 47.95 hours in one day, 31.01 of which were recoded as overtime.

Numerous employees also claimed to work 20-hour days. There were 1,891 timesheets that recorded a range of 22 to 24 hours in a single day, and 7,145 that listed between 20 and 22 hours in one day.

Another troubling finding that likely indicates abuse of Amtrak’s payroll system was the high number of employees claiming overtime. Some employees reported over 74 hours of overtime on top of a normal 40-hour week. Amtrak’s overtime is paid at either 1.5 or 2 times the hourly rate.

One employee, a locomotive technician, claimed to have worked 130 hours in a single week, with 90 hours of overtime on top of 40 hours of regular time. There are 168 hours in a week.

Via: WFB

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Making Amtrak Compete Would Benefit All

The recent Amtrak derailment outside of Philadelphia, which killed eight people and injured over 200, is a somber reminder that quick action by Congress is necessary to prevent another passenger rail catastrophe. Amtrak is the sole operator of trains on the Northeast corridor between Washington, D.C., and Boston, and thus bears responsibility for providing safe passenger train travel. Yet, despite a posted 50-mph speed limit on that section of track, the train was traveling at 106 mph around a very tight turn. Amtrak’s contract to operate trains on the Northeast corridor should be terminated immediately. 

But wait. No such contract exists. Amtrak has an uncontested, indefinite monopoly on intercity train operations in the United States. The problem lies therein: Amtrak is unconstrained by the fear of losing its operational rights, and thus its revenue, regardless of safety or on-time performance. 

The corridor includes stops in such major population centers as Baltimore, Philadelphia, Newark, N.J., and New York. It is highly profitable, with the tight population densities, moderate distances, and concentrated central business districts that are critical for successful passenger rail. The NEC should be a showcase for how the United States can deliver a self-sustaining, reliable, safe, and affordable high-speed passenger rail. The barrier is not geography or insufficient taxpayer spending but appalling, outdated federal rail policy. 

We can do better. One appealing solution is a public-private operating partnership, or PPOP. Under this approach, the NEC would be separated from the rest of Amtrak’s routes. The NEC already differs fundamentally from the rest of the passenger rail system. Amtrak owns most of the tracks and rights of way on the NEC, but utilizes freight train tracks in the rest of the country. 

A 2013 report from the Brookings Institution notes that the NEC routes, which carry some 11.4 million people each year, earn an operating profit of about $205 million annually. The rest of Amtrak’s nationwide network, however, hemorrhages cash. 

Under a PPOP, the right to maintain and operate NEC trains would be bid out at regular intervals of, say, 10 to 15 years. A PPOP concession contract would specify key aspects of service, such as rates, service frequency, and safety standards. Bidding would occur on the basis of the largest upfront concession payment an operator is willing to make for an exclusive operational right subject to the pre-set terms of service.  

Via: Real Clear Politics

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Obama official once said train-safety cost outweighed benefit

WASHINGTON -- When a Republican lawmaker in 2011 asked an Obama administration Office of Management and Budget official to name regulations where costs were not justified by benefits, the official had a ready answer.

"There is only one big one that comes to mind," said Cass Sunstein, then administrator of the White House OMB's Office of Information & Regulatory Affairs. "It is called Positive Train Control.''

Even though the regulations for the $13.2 billion rail-safety system were mandated by Congress, "monetizable benefits are lower than the monetizable costs," Sunstein told then Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., at a House Energy & Commerce subcommittee hearing. "There aren't a lot like that.''

Four years later, those words may come back to haunt the Barack Obama White House and Sunstein, who has since returned to teaching law at Harvard. Safety investigators are still trying to piece together how an Amtrak train went off the track in Philadelphia last week, killing eight. It was a crash that a National Transportation Safety Board member, Robert Sumwalt, said might have been prevented had PTC been fully operational.

Sunstein's pooh-poohing of PTC in 2011 is all the more remarkable because the Obama administration's efforts to push forward regulations in a variety of areas -- notably air pollution and climate change -- against Republican accusations that they would cripple the economy.

Via: CTPost

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HURT: Postal Service misses address by a whole continent

NEW YORK CITY — Did you hear the one about the U.S. Post Office and the Statue of Liberty?

So the Postal Service decides to issue a stamp commemorating perhaps the single most iconic image around the world representing the United States of America, the country that the post office serves so faithfully — rain, snow or shine.

They get a nice picture of Lady Liberty, her greenish copper gaze across New York Harbor welcoming the masses to a new land of hope and promise and opportunity. They print it up First Class at the rate of “forever,” as in a timeless promise that will never expire. Much like the Lady’s beckoning call to freedom.

But there was just one slight little problem. The majestic image turned out not to be a stamp commemorating our nation’s beloved Statue of Liberty. Rather, the postage stamp commemorates a cheap schlocky knock-off statue that graces, naturally, the strip in Las Vegas.

Now don’t get me wrong. Vegas is a monumental American achievement. Only in America could you find such an oasis of glittering debauchery in a massive barren desert that summons every social, economic and gender class that you can think of.

By private jet, first class, steerage, Amtrak or Greyhound Bus, boozy risk-takers and silicone bimbos roll in to gamble all they have worked for — or perhaps stolen — on the outside chance that they alone hold the magic luck to beat the house.

Via: Washington TImes

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After Obamacare, ObamaCar Insurance?

The rollout of ObamaCare is, once again, displaying the federal government's adeptness at managing complexity -- a capability already illustrated by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Amtrak (FUBAR), and the United States Postal Service (USPS).  Given the extraordinary rollout of ObamaCare, it's time to start moving toward single-payer auto insurance.

Here are two reasons why.

First, auto insurance companies offer a mind-boggling array of pricing options. Their nationwide, indecipherable rate structure cries out for the keen, coordinating skills of the Washington D.C. central planners. 

Second, the spread of telematics applied to vehicle tracking will offer the federal government new surveillance and revenue enhancement opportunities.    

Between 1989 and 2010, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) reported a national average increase of 43.3% in auto insurance rates. (By the way, the new NAIC CEO -- essentially a lobbyist job -- is former Nebraska Senator Ben "Cornhusker Kickback" Nelson.)

Sure, 43.3% is less than the CPI 76% inflation rate increase over those same years, but it's still unfair because the increased costs were not equitably shared. The costs need to be redistributed and, when necessary, supplemented by federal subsidies for those living in high-premium urban areas who can't afford auto insurance. 

Via: American Thinker

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Amtrak loses $72M, while free booze flows

If Amtrak wants to stop losing $72 million per year on food service, a federal auditor has a suggestion: Stop pouring free booze for riders and serving gratis meals to the help.

The taxpayer-subsidized rail line found its food service operation deep in red ink, even as it served the free wine, champagne and cheese to long distance riders and fed employees for free, according to Inspector General Ted Alves.

"Amtrak’s operating losses on food and beverage services have been a long-standing issue, and they contribute directly to the need for federal subsidies to support operations," Alves told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, according to Bloomberg.

Alves said customers traveling on Amtrak's Auto Train from Virginia to Florida enjoy complimentary wine and cheese and that sleeper-car passengers on three long-distance routes get free wine and champagne -- freebies Alves said cost the company a whopping $428,000 in 2012.

The handouts go beyond free booze. Thursday's testimony revealed that passengers riding on the 43-hour Chicago-Los Angeles Southwest Chief can dine on a $23.25 Mahi-Mahi dinner with a vegetable medley and three-grain rice pilaf. And last year's figures are piled atop years of losses, noted one lawmaker.

Via: Fox News

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Ryan’s Impossible Debate Challenge

In a rational world, Paul Ryan should have a fairly easy time in the upcoming debate against Vice President Joe Biden. Ryan is a man who has mastered the intricacies of legislation and the federal budget while Biden has shown scant interest in anything in his senatorial career other than the AMTRAK schedule from Washington, DC to Delaware.

Unfortunately, we don’t live in a rational world. We live in one where Barack Obama is president AND Joe Biden is vice president. To win a debate against Joe Biden one must be prepared to engage with a man who has hardly more than a nodding acquaintance with the truth.

Most of us are familiar with Biden’s ill-starred run for the Demcocrat nomination in 1988 as part of the Seven Dwarfs. He was forced out when it was revealed that he’d not only plagiarized a speech by British Labor Party leader Neal Kinnock, he’s actually gone so far as to steal Kinnock’s biography, claiming to be the son of an impoverished coal miner. (Though to his credit, when Gary Hart was dropped out due to his marital infidelities Biden remarked, “We’ve lost Horny.”) To this day, Biden claims he was “raised in Scranton (PA)” though he left when he was 10 years old.

This should be a danger sign.

The fact is that when Biden gets put in a tough position he will simply make stuff up. For instance,Jonah Goldberg relates this tale:

The most notorious comes from Biden’s 1988 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. He had been hounded about his law-school record and plagiarism problems (among other things, he copied five pages from a law journal for a 15-page paper and then claimed it was a footnoting error), and he was asked a question about his academic record by a resident of New Hampshire.

He responded: “I think I have a much higher IQ than you do, I suspect.” He went on:

I went to law school on a full academic scholarship, the only one in my class to have a full academic scholarship. In the first year in the law, I decided I didn’t want to be in law school and ended up in the bottom two-thirds of my class and then decided I wanted to stay, went back to law school, and, in fact, ended up in the top half of my class. I won the international moot-court competition. I was the outstanding student in the political-science department at the end of my year. I graduated with three degrees from undergraduate school and 165 credits — only needed 123 credits. And I would be delighted to sit down and compare my IQ to yours.

Most of these statements were outright lies.

Via: Red State

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