Amtrak service is disrupted due to a different transportation service. Since I have relied on Amtrak for about 4 years now, I would be worried if I lived in the New York/Boston area. While Amtrak is more of a long distance passenger service for commuters, many still rely on the service on a weekly basis. Now, because of a collision between two Metro trains in the New York/Boston area, Amtrak service through out this route is limited for an unknown amount of time. Amtrak offers transportation to areas that many other public transportation does not. Therefore, this collision has created a conflict for Amtrak that is currently out of the company’s control at this time.

Through reading Business Week’s article, “Connecticut Commuter Crash With 700 Passengers Curbs Amtrak (2),” readers are able to see that the reasoning of this crash remains unknown. While the service disruption of train transportation was of course not caused by Amtrak, the demand of their customers may stray beyond the halt of the rail line. Since the investigators of this situation are still deciding the reason for this crash, many customers may be worried that this rail line is an unsafe one to travel on. While Amtrak offers alternate routes, their service alert page mentions that those customers who feel uncomfortable to use the services are available for a refund. Therefore, the lack of demand for Amtrak goes beyond the disruption of their services. Is Amtrak under a threat due to safety of their customers?

Focusing on how the collision affected Amtrak as a company required me to think about the bottleneck in project management situations, as the term was even mentioned in the article! The Metro train accident served as a bottleneck in Amtrak being able to operate between two different locations. As discussed in class, when there is a bottleneck situation, there is a backup in the process of creating a product or continuing a service. In the case of the Metro train collision, Amtrak is currently not able to operate between New York and New Haven. Therefore, not only is the business affected financially, continuous customers of Amtrak are required to reroute their trips and may find a new means of train service. While the situation was out of Amtrak’s control, this bottleneck brings Amtrak’s quantity and efficiency to a lower level. While the train company and its customers have already been greatly affected, the article also mentions that investigations similar to this train accident take several months to come to a close. Do you think Amtrak will be affected until investigation is over? Will customers be hesitant to take this route through Amtrak until investigations are over?

As mentioned earlier, more information on this collision and its affect on Amtrak can be found here.