Rowland: I’ll recall laid-off workers
By Wayne Laepple
Published: November 22, 2011
POTTSTOWN, Pa. – Rail entrepreneur Ross Rowland said Wednesday he expects to recall the 21 workers laid off the week before from the Greenbrier Express renovation project just as soon as engineering work is approved by Amtrak officials.

In a telephone interview, Rowland called the layoffs “a temporary setback.” Contrary to his earlier statements, Rowland did not mention excessive regulation as a reason for the layoffs. In fact, federal crashworthiness regulations haven’t changed since the project started.

“Because we are converting sleepers into parlor cars, we have to change the window alignment on one side of the cars, which mean structural changes to the cars," he explained. “We got ahead of ourselves because the engineering has taken longer than we expected.”

Rowland said engineering firm STV Inc. has been preparing the necessary calculations and drawings, which must be certified and submitted to Amtrak for approval in order to meet FRA regulations for crashworthiness. “These drawings must be stamped by professional engineers to certify that the changes are not weakening the car’s integrity,” Rowland said.

About 20 people are still at work in the former Bethlehem Steel facility in Pottstown, Rowland said, and he expects the rest to be called back within a month.

If this article is accurate, I suppose we now have the answers to the questions that were asked on the previous thread regarding the GBX.

Wayne reported this for us at Trains magazine NewsWire, available at http://www.trainsmag.com to subscribers.

Incidentally, we now have print, digital and combination subscriptions available.

Jim Wrinn
Editor

Delta Airlines is accusing a West Virginia resort of failing to pay for flight services from Atlanta and New York City. A breach-of-contract lawsuit filed by the airline against The Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs seeks $4 million in damages.

This summer, [Greenbrier owner Jim Justice} plans to launch The Greenbrier Presidential Express, a luxury train service from Union Station in Washington, D.C., at a round-trip price of $650.

News of the lawsuit comes on the heels of an announcement last week of layoffs at the resort. More than 100 salaried employees and a number of hourly employees were laid off Friday, owner Jim Justice said.

Justice said he hopes to rehire the "overwhelming majority" of those employees by April 1. He said the employees were laid off in an effort to dig the resort out of a $13 million deficit caused by a slow winter season.