Holding trains

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AKA

OBS Chief
Joined
Apr 17, 2004
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637
Location
Northern OHIO
Does Amtrak have a set rule about how long lt will hold a train, to wait for an arriving connecting train ?
 
No. It's very situational dependent.
Maybe and maybe not. Pre-Amtrak most railroads had very specific standards for holds, but if you did not have the standards in hand they might not look that way. Also, other problems such as availability of crews and equipment could result in variations from these set holds.

The holds could vary from as little as 10 minutes all the way up to "indefinitely" That last was usually reserved for a continuation of the same train off another division or railroad. the shorter times were usually for trains regarded as of more significance. The reason for hold could vary from none specific to "revenue passengers", "US Mail", variations by which train, etc. The "revenue passengers" statement was saying if you were a pass rider, you were out of luck.
 
As a general rule a once-a-day long-distance train is more likely to be held than corridor train.

In Chicago, where most east-west trains connect, they know exactly how many people are connecting and

roughly how long they'd need to hold the train for those people. Holding a train for 20 minutes so that

50 people can connect is a no-brainer. Holding a train for 2 hours so that 5 people can connect is probably

not going to happen.

On the other hand, I doubt Amtrak ever holds a w/b Keystone train for a single minute out of Philly for people

connecting from a north-bound Regional...in most cases they can simply catch the next Keystone an hour or

so later.
 
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