I keep an eye almost daily on Amtk long distance trains on YouTube, 3,4,5,6,7,8, 48,49 and these trains are mostly never on time, sometimes 5or 6 hrs late on the Chicago West Coast runs. I’ve watched people just give up and leave intermediate stations like La Plata, Mo when the Chief doesn’t show up. Doesn’t Amtrak leadership realize that for some timekeeping is important and would be riders won’t consider train travel at all if schedules aren’t met or does the brass figure they are at the mercy of the freight railroads and thus will only cater to leisure travelers? And another thing that Amtrak Track Your Train website is almost worthless continuously posting inaccurate information on train arrivals and departures.
Awful timekeeping/on time performance
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Amtrak realizes timekeeping is important, but outside the NEC they have no control over it at all. They are subject to host railroad dispatching and operating conditions.
Historically, while Amtrak has always had a statutory right to priority, Amtrak was not given legal and regulatory tools to enforce it with. Amtrak has had almost no leverage. Also, the statutorily mandated very low, avoidable cost based track access rates that Amtrak enjoys gives host railroads little incentive to improve their handling (negotiated bonuses aside). Amtrak is almost universally viewed as an operational impediment by the host railroads, more so now in these days of PSR.
Amtrak's leverage may now be changing a bit with the very recent acquisition by the STB of the ability to enforce passenger delay rules. But we are in the very early days of that regimen. It is yet to be seen whether that will have an effect other than lengthening schedules in the renegotiation with the host railroads required by the STB befolre enforcement begins, as happened with NS for the Crescent.
There are a lot of things within Amtrak's control that they can improve, particularly consistency of onboard service. Timekeeping isn't one of those things. They are wholly at the mercy of the host railroads.
Historically, while Amtrak has always had a statutory right to priority, Amtrak was not given legal and regulatory tools to enforce it with. Amtrak has had almost no leverage. Also, the statutorily mandated very low, avoidable cost based track access rates that Amtrak enjoys gives host railroads little incentive to improve their handling (negotiated bonuses aside). Amtrak is almost universally viewed as an operational impediment by the host railroads, more so now in these days of PSR.
Amtrak's leverage may now be changing a bit with the very recent acquisition by the STB of the ability to enforce passenger delay rules. But we are in the very early days of that regimen. It is yet to be seen whether that will have an effect other than lengthening schedules in the renegotiation with the host railroads required by the STB befolre enforcement begins, as happened with NS for the Crescent.
There are a lot of things within Amtrak's control that they can improve, particularly consistency of onboard service. Timekeeping isn't one of those things. They are wholly at the mercy of the host railroads.
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Amtrak does have the ability to help improve its time keeping somewhat by ensuring that it sends out Equipment that is track worthy so it starts out and stays in its " Slot",( are you listening Chicago),Protect equipment kept @ key Places, Crews that are Rested ,that it has enough staff for the Route and Schedule (with an adequate Extra Board), so that when "stuff" happens out on the Road, there's not massive delays as is the case now waiting for Relief Crews and Rescue engines from the Class Is!
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And this:
And in my experience, the info on anything past two stops beyond a very late current one is pure fantasy.
This! I have seen so many delays due to maintenance issues, which is in their control. However when there’s a disabled freight train, not much you can do about that…
A proper railroad would have at least two tracks almost everywhere, and certainly on all main lines, so passenger trains (and other freight trains) could be switched to the other track to bypass breakdowns, derailments, etc., (not to mention normal traffic in other direction and slow traffic in the same direction.) There would still be delays because trains in one direction would have to wait for trains traveling the other way to get past the obstruction, but these delays would be short, not many hours. A railroad run on the cheap would tear up their "redundant" tracks, sell the steel as scrap, lay off the track maintenance workers and, for a few months, improve their bottom line. This is America, what do you expect to happen? I ask you, "Is this any way to run a railroad?"
In the case of a 20+ hour late SWC #4 recently, the BNSF derailment west of Needles caused the closure of both tracks. At a later time, one track was opened and traffic moved at restricted speed.
west point
Engineer
It will not happen often. But unless the tracks are separated by a large number of feet some derailments will block both tracks. and of course any Haz Mat even just possible will shut down all traffic passing accident site..
Our loss of track mileage impedes rerouting. Oelwein, IA was a CGW hub but today is at the end of a branch line from Waterloo. In 1956 when a freight wreck near Jesup occurred on the IC, we were on the westbound Land O'Corn west of Dubuque. They rerouted us NW on the CGW up to Oelwein and then SW from there down to Waterloo. We were delayed only an hour or a bit over.
I agree with this, but must point out that railroads pay property taxes that are higher where there are more tracks.
Another good reason for all railroad infrastructure to be owned by the public, or at least some sort of non-profit (and thus tax-exempt) entity.
west point
Engineer
Why can not any improvements by Amtrak on a freight RR be tax exempt. ?
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I have a business trip to Palm Springs in October. My return flight was cancelled by the airline. On their own, the airline scheduled me to depart from Los Angeles rather than Palm Springs. The flight departs Los Angeles at about 9:30 AM.
My first inclination was to call the airline and have them re-book me on a flight that departed from Palm Springs. The downside is that my original flight had just one layover - whereas the only flights now available have two layovers.
But then I had an idea. As much as I hate getting up in the middle of the night, I thought that I would take the Sunset Limited from Palm Springs to Los Angeles. The train departs Palm Springs at 2:02 AM and arrives in Los Angeles at 5:35 AM. That would leave me plenty of time to catch my flight at LAX. The scenery isn't exactly compelling at that time of day, but I wanted to support Amtrak.
And then I pulled up the on-time history for the Sunset Limited. On the day of the week that I need to arrive, over 50% of the arrivals would have resulted in my missing my flight. And several other arrivals would have resulted in a whole lot of worry - and the possibility that I would miss my flight. Which means that Amtrak is simply not an option.
I hear a lot about how important long distance routes are to people who are boarding at "points in between." But with the abysmal on-time performance, there have to be a lot of people in my situation who want to take the train - but just can't. I am now re-booked to fly out of Palm Springs.
My first inclination was to call the airline and have them re-book me on a flight that departed from Palm Springs. The downside is that my original flight had just one layover - whereas the only flights now available have two layovers.
But then I had an idea. As much as I hate getting up in the middle of the night, I thought that I would take the Sunset Limited from Palm Springs to Los Angeles. The train departs Palm Springs at 2:02 AM and arrives in Los Angeles at 5:35 AM. That would leave me plenty of time to catch my flight at LAX. The scenery isn't exactly compelling at that time of day, but I wanted to support Amtrak.
And then I pulled up the on-time history for the Sunset Limited. On the day of the week that I need to arrive, over 50% of the arrivals would have resulted in my missing my flight. And several other arrivals would have resulted in a whole lot of worry - and the possibility that I would miss my flight. Which means that Amtrak is simply not an option.
I hear a lot about how important long distance routes are to people who are boarding at "points in between." But with the abysmal on-time performance, there have to be a lot of people in my situation who want to take the train - but just can't. I am now re-booked to fly out of Palm Springs.
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neroden
Engineer
Yes, that's why the freights need to stop delaying passenger trains.
jis
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Yeah, I was thinking that we might have to engage a detective agency to go and look for the Southwest Chief in Palm Springs first, before worrying about when it arrives in LA
And of course the Sunset runs only thrice a week. But then there are scads of Thruway Bus service, though the earliest gets you into Fullerton at 10:05am and the connection LAX gets in at 11:25am.
And service is suspended to Palm Springs until further notice since the Sunset derailed there due to sand on the platform track. Even on the Sunset which actually serves the station.
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My bad. I meant the Sunset Limited. I got my Los Angeles trains mixed up.
I fixed the original post.
The Commissioner
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Delays outside corridors are almost to be expected and should be taken into consideration for travel plans. It's just part of the Amtrak travel experience. If the equipment is functioning, the food was available and good, and the on board crew was friendly and professional, then perhaps the delays would be more tolerable.
It is a sad fact of life, but you just can't depend on AMTRAK for timely service. After 45 years of flying, I don't think I missed but one appointment when flying. Had a lot of close calls, got there in time.
AMTRAK, however, is another kettle of fish. I went AMTRAK whenever possible, but I always scheduled my arrival a day early. Irritating thing is, when I am traveling JFTHOI, the dern things always arrive on time, especially the middle of the night or early morning.
And if confronted with a bus ride, I will drive, thank you very much. Life is too short to ride buses.
Edit - This is not a paean to airline travel. Traveling on AMTRAK is my first priority when contemplating a trip, and when I can make it work, I will go AMTRAK.
Flying today is tantamount to riding a bus. Not much better, only a little.
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When was that incident?
Random Rumination:
OBTW, I never noticed the Sunset had a Palm Springs stop. Ridden it several times, just never noticed it. Sure wish they would reinstate service to Vegas,
jis
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Sunset had service to Vegas?
frequentflyer
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Sad thing, its not going to get better. PSR is leading freight railroads to use whatever track laid more efficiently, so even with an increase traffic, do not expect more track. Three mile long 70 mph intermodals do not play well with 79 mph LD trains.
jis
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Yep. Though it seems that irrespective of whether Amtrak does anything about it Brightline West will do it. It does appear in the Amtrak ConnectUS map though, but I wonder who would want to fund a slow train in addition to a frequent fast train.
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