21 Delayed Today... Will 22?

[DonR]

Hi Folks,

The 21 has been delayed several hours today. I'm on the 22 just leaving Longview TX now.

Does anyone know why the 21 was delayed and will it delay us? I thought the flooding issues were farther south.

By the way we left Ft Worth a little late and stopped in Dallas for a mechanical issue. We're about 1.5 hours behind right now.

Thanks,

Don

 

[donsammons]

I have train 21 Joliet to Austin on May 16. I just got an E-Mail telling me I have to get on in CHI. What's the deal with that???

 

[GlobalistPotato]

Hi Folks,

The 21 has been delayed several hours today. I'm on the 22 just leaving Longview TX now.

Does anyone know why the 21 was delayed and will it delay us? I thought the flooding issues were farther south.

By the way we left Ft Worth a little late and stopped in Dallas for a mechanical issue. We're about 1.5 hours behind right now.

Thanks,

Don

GOSH. I called up Julie at around the time you posted this. She said that train 21 will be 7 HOURS behind schedule! (It's currently 10 hours late now).

Geez Louise! I guess Amtrak tried starting up the Texas Eagle again too soon.

Thankfully this isn't one of the days when the Texas Eagle has to connect with the Sunset Limited.

If Amtrak is going to have a daily Sunset and have shorter layover in SAS, then they have to do something to prevent such HUGE delays from happening in AR and MO, even it's just a seasonal issue.

And this gives more reason for extending the Heartland Flyer to Kansas City-Chicago, or Texas having a second SAS-DAL train each day.

 

[AlanB]

I have train 21 Joliet to Austin on May 16. I just got an E-Mail telling me I have to get on in CHI. What's the deal with that???

The train must be running on a different route, taking a detour around the track work on the current route. So it won't go via Joliet and you'd miss the train totally if you don't get to Chicago.

 

[DonR]

Just left walnut ridge ar. We are 6 hrs late.... Just woke up... Must have been traffic issues...

I surely won't make my connection to the 50....

Don

 

[DonR]

They just announced that we had a 5hr delay due to a freight train derailment at Little Rock last night.

No wonder I slept so well...

Don

 

[donsammons]

I have train 21 Joliet to Austin on May 16. I just got an E-Mail telling me I have to get on in CHI. What's the deal with that???

The train must be running on a different route, taking a detour around the track work on the current route. So it won't go via Joliet and you'd miss the train totally if you don't get to Chicago.

Seems like the TE will be running normal sched. We leave on T22 from Austin on Mon May 9. Our trip got delayed. We are so looking forward to seeing the Grandkids. We took a train the first time a couple of years ago, enjoyed it!!!!

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

I've got the Texas Eagle booked between FTW-DAL as part of a Points Run on 17-19 May. But if it scrubs, I'm not too worried as the Trinity Rail Express is always there as a backup. Of course if that happens and a bus ride is offered as Alternate Transportation, I can stiff that out for 45 minutes to get 300 Points each way

 

[GlobalistPotato]

I feel like telling Amtrak to stop running the Texas Eagle through the flooded area, as its causing the Texas Eagle to run extremely late and now they've had to dispatch an extra trainset for today's 21.

So until the flooding stops, or when UP stops having derailments in Arkansas, they should just run two of the trainsets between SAS and TXA, and the other between STL and CHI.

This is seriously bad. And I don't care if this is just a seasonal thing. :help: :help: :help:

Well, at least the passengers aboard 22(6) got to see pretty Southern Missouri.

Agree with me?

 

[Grandpa D]

I feel like telling Amtrak to stop running the Texas Eagle through the flooded area, as its causing the Texas Eagle to run extremely late and now they've had to dispatch an extra trainset for today's 21.

[snip]

Well, at least the passengers aboard 22(6) got to see pretty Southern Missouri.

The 5 hour delay yesterday was due to a freight derailment in Little Rock. I haven't heard anything that said it was weather related. About 1 hour+ of delay is due to the construction detour in Illinois. The slow running in MO and AR is minor, and usually made up by the padding in the schedule. Doesn't seem like any reason to cancel the full run of the TE.

But that Missouri scenery is beautiful in daylight. Rolling hills, green forests and sparkling rivers lapping at the roadbed.

 

[DonR]

Grandpa D is correct. The derailment was the cause for the delay. The flooding affecting train travel is further south and east than the route traveled by the Texas Eagle. I noticed some fairly high creeks and rivers, but didn't see any severe flooding, although I was not looking out the window from well before Little Rock until morning in southern MO.

We finally got into Chicago at 8:30pm last night. Missed my connection on the Cardinal, of course and opted to ride the "Megabus". (Arrived in CIN way before Grayhound.) Interesting ride... would rather be on the train, but it was fairly quick. I will say that the Megabus needs some new megashocks.... rough ride!

Oh, one more thing, when it rains it pours.... (pun always intended).... in addition to the mechanical issue in Dallas, delay by freight derailment at Little Rock, we got stopped in central IL by a Tornado Warning no less. I was glad to be stopped and I was pleasantly surprised that apparently someone at Amtrak has an eye on the weather. We stopped just south of I74 near Glover IL. The tornadic storm was a few miles north of us.

Thanks

Don

 

[AlanB]

Oh, one more thing, when it rains it pours.... (pun always intended).... in addition to the mechanical issue in Dallas, delay by freight derailment at Little Rock, we got stopped in central IL by a Tornado Warning no less. I was glad to be stopped and I was pleasantly surprised that apparently someone at Amtrak has an eye on the weather. We stopped just south of I74 near Glover IL. The tornadic storm was a few miles north of us.

While I'd love to give Amtrak credit for that; they had nothing to do with it, other than the engineer stopping the train.

It would have been Union Pacific, Amtrak's host, that ordered the Amtrak engineer to stop his train until the danger passed. All the freight RR's actually monitor the US Weather service and their tornado feeds for potential problems and will then stop trains from entering danger zones, if they're not already inside the affected area.

Still in all it is good to know that someone was paying attention and doing the right thing so as to avoid any issues.

 

[Jimhudson]

Thanks for the info/Im on 29 out og Pittsburgh on a Sold Out Cap and hopr to catvh 21 tomorrow from CHI to AUS! Great to see such a great group in DC on Amtraks Big Week! Special thanks to Alan B!

 

[fillyjonk]

I got a call yesterday that for my May 16/17 trip, I will be taking a bus from STL to BNL because of trackwork. (No biggie, I did that at Christmas). That's probably the reason for someone originating in Joliet having to get on in Chicago.

I also asked the lady - while I had her on the phone - if the flooding was affecting the TE and she said no, they had started running them again Saturday and apparently the tracks are all fine. (Thank goodness for that.. I did a long-distance bustitution - from STL to MIN - in 2008 and it was miserable - they played movies so loud I could hear them through my earplugs all night long. I did not sleep one bit on that trip.)

 

[DonR]

While I'd love to give Amtrak credit for that; they had nothing to do with it, other than the engineer stopping the train.

It would have been Union Pacific, Amtrak's host, that ordered the Amtrak engineer to stop his train until the danger passed. All the freight RR's actually monitor the US Weather service and their tornado feeds for potential problems and will then stop trains from entering danger zones, if they're not already inside the affected area.

Still in all it is good to know that someone was paying attention and doing the right thing so as to avoid any issues.

Ok, UP being behind that makes sense. I'm glad to know that they have an eye on the weather as well. I work for the NWS... it's always interesting and good to know that people use our products and heed the warnings.

Thanks,

Don

 

[BillB]

Got a friend waiting on the 21 from Dallas to Austin. The latest revision is 9:30 pm (9 hrs + late). The computer status and phone status are obviously not "real" time. Do they ever cancel a run?

 

[BlakeTyner]

If need be, Amtrak will cancel a train and bus passengers to their destinations.

In this case, the Eagles are just victims of circumstance--two derailments of UP freights, one near Mineola and one near Little Rock. Yesterday the train turned in Longview and there was a bus bridge. Today, the southbound 21 turned at Walnut Ridge, AR and became northbound 22. Northbound 22 turned in Little Rock and became southbound 21--and, as you know, is running 8-10 hours late. A bus bridge was done between LRK and WNR.

There were at least 400 people making the bus transfer in LVW yesterday--it was all hands on deck.