Amtrak 8 Delay (6/19)

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brianpmcdonnell17

brianpmcdonnell17

Conductor
Joined
Mar 5, 2016
Messages
1,560
Location
Chicago, Illinois
Amtrak 8 just left Stanley, ND 1:44 late. I have a scheduled boarding at 8:00 AM in St. Paul, MN. The train is scheduled to arrive Chicago at 3:55 and we have tickets for a 7:05 Cubs game. Is this delay normal for this train and what are the chances the train gets back on schedule by MSP and or CHI? Should we still get to station at 7:15 as planned and should we keep the Cubs tickets?
 
The train was delayed by the cleanup of a derailment near Malta, Montana, and as such do not consider it to be normal.
 
brianpmcdonnell17 said:
Amtrak 8 just left Stanley, ND 1:44 late. I have a scheduled boarding at 8:00 AM in St. Paul, MN. The train is scheduled to arrive Chicago at 3:55 and we have tickets for a 7:05 Cubs game. Is this delay normal for this train and what are the chances the train gets back on schedule by MSP and or CHI? Should we still get to station at 7:15 as planned and should we keep the Cubs tickets?
Click to expand...

That is a judgement call that only you can answer. There is a lot of railroad from where you stand and where the train is located. Additionally, there is a great deal of railroad from where you stand to where you're going.

While trains can make up time, ANYTHING could occur in the almost 1000 miles between STN-CHI. It could get stuck behind a disabled train or there could be something stuck on the tracks.

Personally, I'd go for it. Even if the train is 4 hours late, you'll probably only miss a small portion of the game.
 
Looks to me like it will be on time or close to it in St. Paul. Only little over an hour down at minot and there is extra make up time into st.paul. I would plan on being at the station early and making the cubs game no problem. Of course things could happen but i think it looks good.
 
brianpmcdonnell17 said:
Amtrak 8 just left Stanley, ND 1:44 late. I have a scheduled boarding at 8:00 AM in St. Paul, MN. The train is scheduled to arrive Chicago at 3:55 and we have tickets for a 7:05 Cubs game. Is this delay normal for this train and what are the chances the train gets back on schedule by MSP and or CHI? Should we still get to station at 7:15 as planned and should we keep the Cubs tickets?
Click to expand...
the delay is very normal, when I last took it, it was 5 hours and 33 min late into Columbus, WI, and 6 hours late into CHI, as they say, a late train gets later, but you shouldent worry, so long as you don't need to be there before 5:30-6:00 PM (at wrigly field)
 
Here is the history for #8 for the last 5 weeks or so. Looks like it's doing pretty well as far as getting into Chicago goes.

Screen Shot 2016-06-20 at 9.01.55 AM.png
 
How do you access that history? Is it online somewhere or something you compiled? I was wondering about the Southwest Chief. I took a round trip recently and it was two hours late into Los Angeles and 3-1/2 hours late on the return to Chicago. I wondered how typical that was. I was minimally inconvenienced, but I know it was a big deal for a large number of people.
 
EB #8(6/19) arrived at MSP 35 minutes late and departed 42 minutes late. It was 1:31 late at St Cloud, so there is obviously padding between St Cloud and MSP stops. So provided the OP did not change his plans, he has good odds of getting to CHI on-time and also good odds of watching the Cubs win.

The May route performance numbers are on the Amtrak website. The Empire Builder had a 94.4% endpoint OTP for May, a remarkable change from the severe delays of several years ago. Over the past few months, the EB has been among the most reliable of the LD trains for OTP. Shows that capital investments in track capacity (even if made for other reasons) and a drop-off in freight traffic can do wonders for LD OTP. Meanwhile, the Texas Eagle is now doing badly for OTP among with western LD trains.
 
The curse of the billy goat will make your attendance at future Cubs games unimportant in the long run. Besides, it's an even year, so look for the Giants to once again take all the marbles for the fourth even year in a row.
 
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