Yes, Jay, and a company that is attempting to rebuild after a previously disasterous operator should be looking for competent help from wherever it is offered, even if it is from a person who single-handedly set up non-directed (I hesitate to use censored) web site.
I mean, what the hell would you know about the flow of information and how to properly direct it?
I'm a computer dummy and even I could come up with a basic computer reservation system. Hell, just set up so many coaches with so many blanks and fill them in. But... to do it right, the tickets mst be printed at the time that the reservation is made (You might need to create a form for this) and validated when the money for them is paid. The waste of paper with cancelled reservations would be more than offset with the time saved... AND the fact that the Customer would have his or her reservation CONFIRMED!! Another need might be an automatic alphabetizing of customers for each train for each day (to speed finding names).
And this is just on the Customer end, with a little finesse, the computer could keep track of all of the accounting work, also.
And what about this "Not on Sundays" B.S.?? This is one of the busiest days of the week for th tourist business. Anybody who would shut off money making operations is shooting themselves in the foot. This Tourist Railroad doesn't have the time or wherewithall to to bow to the theological implications implied with staying open on Sunday. This is a fight for survival, not for the blessings of Pat Robertson. If you want to give the FO people a day off, then stagger them so that they are on the deadest days of the week, Monday and Tuesday. The other option is to give out rest days, grouped in days of two and have the FO people bid on them (smacks of Unionism, doesn't it?), but under NO circumstances leave the reservations office unmanned, PERIOD.
But as I said, I am a computer dummy... Just some old railroader, with over 30 years on Tourists and Class 1's. I guess that don't know his ass from third base when it comes to running a REAL Rayroad.
Rick Steele
