Capitol Limited & Lake Shore Limited Delays Summer/Fall 2014

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NJ very sorry to hear of your ordeal hope at least you didn't have a tight schedule and so enjoyed the scenery. Also thank you for posting the information. How were the crew, food & scenery btw?
 
Passenger railfan's blue eyed boy Norfolk Southern is having a phenomenal meltdown on its portion of the water level route this summer. Add to that CSX's usual ineptitude and that completes the picture for the LSL and CL.

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jis said:
Passenger railfan's blue eyed boy Norfolk Southern is having a phenomenal meltdown on its portion of the water level route this summer. Add to that CSX's usual ineptitude and that completes the picture for the LSL and CL.
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Well, we will see if the CLs and LSLs departing in both directions on Thursday, August 28 have a better trip. Westbound #29 and #49 have both gotten off to reasonably good starts. However, both #30 and #48 departed CHI late, so they are already in the hole for their next gauntlet run on NS.
 
I'm really hoping that the NS trackwork (which is currently disrupting service) actually helps service when it's done.

The Indiana Gateway project (ARRA-funded triple-tracking and switches done by NS) should hopefully be done soon, though I'm not sure when (it started really late).

Also, Englewood Flyover looks like it's going to be finished *early* -- Metra was promising "end of 2014", but it looks like the civil engineering is practically finished and the tracks are already being put in, so I'm going to guess it'll be done by October. Thanks to audiofyl on YouTube for regular ride-by reports.



The Empire Line is only going to get worse for a while (construction at Rochester, Schenectady, and Albany is going to be ongoing all next year -- and CSX has made no plans to improve things on the rest of the line, either). But maybe the Chicago-Cleveland route will recover by the end of the year.
 
Looks like yesterdays (8/28)Caps and LSLs are starting to have OTPs rivaling those of the EB!! 4-7 Hours Late and not out of Ohio yet! As jis said, the NS is really gumming up the works! Bet their dispatchers are having tough going on the consoles!
 
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neroden said:
I'm really hoping that the NS trackwork (which is currently disrupting service) actually helps service when it's done.

The Indiana Gateway project (ARRA-funded triple-tracking and switches done by NS) should hopefully be done soon, though I'm not sure when (it started really late).

Also, Englewood Flyover looks like it's going to be finished *early* -- Metra was promising "end of 2014", but it looks like the civil engineering is practically finished and the tracks are already being put in, so I'm going to guess it'll be done by October. Thanks to audiofyl on YouTube for regular ride-by reports.
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The Indiana Gateway only officially started construction a few months ago. The $71 million project, if it has not been revised or down scoped, has 4 cross-overs and 4 additional track segments to install. (Project diagram that is still available on-line but it is at least several years old). It takes time to spend $71 million on track work, so i would expect the components of the IN Gateway project to get done in stages through 2015, and maybe 2016. But I have not seen any announcements or current documents on the projected schedule. The Englewood Flyover will help when it opens, but the benefit will be limited if NS is still messed up from IN to OH.
 
jimhudson said:
Looks like yesterdays (8/28)Caps and LSLs are starting to have OTPs rivaling those of the EB!! 4-7 Hours Late and not out of Ohio yet! As jis said, the NS is really gumming up the works! Bet their dispatchers are having tough going on the consoles!
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Yes, another nasty day for the LSL and CL on the NS tracks. Looks like the westbound CL #29 (8/28) is running right behind the #49 LSL with #29 almost 5 hours late at Waterloo IN. The eastbound #30 (8/28) is 7 hours and 36 minutes late departing Alliance; hopefully it can avoid adding more hours of delays enroute to WAS.

Meanwhile the eastbound Cardinal #50 is only 26 minutes late departing White Sulpher Springs.
 
I remember when I used to ride 30 into DC from Martinsburg WVa and back the same day. 30 got into Martinsburg at 11AM, arrived in DC before 1 and 29 left at 4:05.back in Martinsburg at 5:45, Living in the East I would ride just to get on a Superliner.

Unfortunately, that trip is all but impossible anymore. Most of the time these days 30 arrives in DC after 29 leaves. Wonder how much longer these massive delays will last? Hopefully I can do that short run once again
 
The meltdown of the CL and LSL, especially eastbound, continues on NS between CHI and Cleveland & Alliance OH. After the 12+ hours late #30 at WAS, CL #30(8/28) departed CHI 3 hours late on Thursday likely because the westbound #29 (8/27) arrived at CHI 4 hours and 27 minutes late. #30 did better than the day before, but still arrived at WAS 8 hours and 46 minutes late. LSL #48(8/28) arrived at NYP 5 hours and 27 minutes late.

Amtrak is in for another repeat for the eastbound trains which are still enroute as I write this with #30(8/29) departing ALC 6 hours and 52 minutes late and #48(8/29) departing ELY 5 hours and 45 minutes late. CL and LSL passengers are not off to a good start for their Labor weekend travel. Does this get better soon? There is still no Amtrak service alert on severe delays for the CL and LSL either.

The Status Maps summary for #30(8/28) is below. It really got delayed between SKY and ELY:

Code: 
* Train 30 of 08/28/2014.
* Capitol Limited
* +---------------- Station code
* |    +----------- Schedule Arrival Day 
* |    |  +-------- Schedule Arrival time
* |    |  |     +----- Schedule Departure Day
* |    |  |     |  +-- Schedule Departure Time
* |    |  |     |  |     +------------- Actual Arrival Time
* |    |  |     |  |     |     +------- Actual Departure Time
* |    |  |     |  |     |     |     +- Comments
* V    V  V     V  V     V     V     V
* CHI  *  *     1  640P  *     839P  Departed:  1 hour and 59 minutes late.
* SOB  *  *     1  909P  *     1139P Departed:  2 hours and 30 minutes late.
* EKH  *  *     1  929P  *     1209A Departed:  2 hours and 40 minutes late.
* WTI  *  *     1  1023P *     133A  Departed:  3 hours and 10 minutes late.
* TOL  1  1139P 1  1149P 300A  318A  Departed:  3 hours and 29 minutes late.
* SKY  *  *     2  1240A *     415A  Departed:  3 hours and 35 minutes late.
* ELY  *  *     2  115A  *     831A  Departed:  7 hours and 16 minutes late.
* CLE  2  145A  2  154A  905A  913A  Departed:  7 hours and 19 minutes late.
* ALC  *  *     2  305A  *     1041A Departed:  7 hours and 36 minutes late.
* PGH  2  505A  2  520A  1243P 1259P Departed:  7 hours and 39 minutes late.
* COV  *  *     2  659A  *     252P  Departed:  7 hours and 53 minutes late.
* CUM  2  919A  2  931A  541P  549P  Departed:  8 hours and 18 minutes late.
* MRB  *  *     2  1100A *     806P  Departed:  9 hours and 6 minutes late.
* HFY  *  *     2  1125A *     836P  Departed:  9 hours and 11 minutes late.
* RKV  *  *     2  1210P *     928P  Departed:  9 hours and 18 minutes late.
* WAS  2  110P  *  *     956P  *     Arrived:  8 hours and 46 minutes late.
 
NYP2NFL01 said:
Last night's CL (#30) is horrendously late, with an 11:18 estimated arrival into WAS. What in the world happened?

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That means it arrived more than 10 hours late!( due to arrive 1:10 P.M.)It seems like the problem happens in South Bend-Elkhart-Toledo area.Almost certainly due to freight traffic congestion in that area due to single track that runs for about 18 miles. Trains .com reports as many as 5 freight trains looking to move over that stretch of track along with Amtrak passenger trains.Seems to me to be a case of too many trains and not enough track to handle them! This also affects the LSL as well as the CL.
 
With all these incredible delays on both the LSL and CL into and out of CHI,WAS and NYP I sure don't feel comfortable relying on either the CL or the LSL to make my connection in CHI to the 421 TE through SAS continuing on to TUS. 421 TE, which only runs 3 days/week, scheduled to depart CHI at 1:45 P.M. Sundays seems like an unlikely connection unless some improvements are made between now and late October when my trip is scheduled. I may have to modify my original plans and avoid both the CL and LSL routes entirely. Seems like the 19 Crescent to NOL has much better on time record. This would require an overnight stay in NOL(never a bad thing!) and then catch 1 SL leaving 9:00 A.M. next morning to TUS. This route would also prevent me from being on sleeper that would have to be cut away from TE and coupled onto the SL consist at SAS in the wee hours of the morning.. Anybody with any better suggestions or ideas I am open to any and all of them.
 
NYP2NFL01 said:
Ouch! Well, hopefully things will clear up by Wednesday night. I am booked on the CL from TOL to WAS, with connections to NYP.

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My wife and I took the CL from Toledo to Chicago and then on west on the Empire Builder a couple of weeks ago and arrived in Seattle only a half hour late.

On our return trip today on the Empire Builder we arrived in Chicago 3 hours late from Seattle, lots of train traffic in North Dakota!

Some folks missed there connections all together and Amtrak would not put them up for the night to wait for another train the next day, that part is SAD!
 
And the delays continue even now as I am writing this reply. Train 48 LSL(8/29) which left CHI Friday night just recently left Albany,NY at 10:25 P.M. It was due to depart at 3:45 P.M. and arrive NY at 6:23 P.M. This train is now 6 hours,40 minutes late and since Albany is about a 3 hour ride to NY,assuming no further delays enroute, it should arrive in Penn Station around 1:30 A.M. or so! It is just incredible that Amtrak does not make any mention of these intolerable delays on their website under the heading of service alerts.They have apparently decided not to acknowledge these delays to their riders. I have now decided to modify my original reservations for my upcoming trip from NYP to Tucson via Texas Eagle and try to avoid connections to and from CHI at all costs,particularly on the CL and LSL Unfortunately for me that reduces my options to the 3 days/week Cardinal,which uses a more southerly route from NYP to CHI via Cincinnati/indianapolis or take the Crescent from NYP to NOL and connect with SL the next morning in NOL. The 3 day/week Cardinal is inconvenient and runs on a much longer time schedule( about 28 hours vs 19 for LSL) but has been more reliable with better ontime performance.Taking the Crescent to the Big Easy requires an overnight stay in NOL( never a bad thing!)connecting with a 9 A.M. departure for Sunset Limited the next morning. Of course this adds extra expense to my trip but at least assures me that I will not miss the 3 day/week SL.

The LSL has missed the connection with the TE in CHI 15 times in the last 28 days! Plus,on 7 other occasions,it arrived with less than 30 minutes to spare to make that connection and in some cases only 15 minutes.This must be costing Amtrak tons of money in buses,hotel costs,etc to deal with this problem, of course the damage done to customer satisfaction can only serve to drive more people away from Amtrak long distance trains if this is allowed to continue for much longer.
 
It is really bad. CSX and NS should be paying for this in tort damages, but for some reason get away without doing so.
 
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Richard McCormkick said:
I may have to modify my original plans and avoid both the CL and LSL routes entirely. Seems like the 19 Crescent to NOL has much better on time record. This would require an overnight stay in NOL(never a bad thing!) and then catch 1 SL leaving 9:00 A.M. next morning to TUS. This route would also prevent me from being on sleeper that would have to be cut away from TE and coupled onto the SL consist at SAS in the wee hours of the morning.. Anybody with any better suggestions or ideas I am open to any and all of them.
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Things should be better by October between WAS, NYP and CHI! The plan to ride the Crescent to NOL is a good one as you say, but of course you have to stay on your dime in NOL!
The LSL and Cap Connections in CHI are guaranteed so Amtrak would be responsible for getting you to TUS, if you missed the 421 they may even put you on the SWC to LAX, then #2 to TUS if it was on a day #2 was scheduled to operate!

You may want to look @ the Cardinal #51 ( 3days a week also) if it gets to CHI on a #421 day, its OTP had been much better into CHI than #29 or #49/#449!
 
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Richard McCormkick said:
The LSL has missed the connection with the TE in CHI 15 times in the last 28 days! Plus,on 7 other occasions,it arrived with less than 30 minutes to spare to make that connection and in some cases only 15 minutes.This must be costing Amtrak tons of money in buses,hotel costs,etc to deal with this problem, of course the damage done to customer satisfaction can only serve to drive more people away from Amtrak long distance trains if this is allowed to continue for much longer.
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In my case just under 4 weeks ago my LSL arrived 15 minutes AFTER the Texas Eagle was to arrive but they held the Eagle for us. That meant a fast transfer across the tracks and NO Giordono's!
 
LSL #48 (8/27) arrived at NYP just 1 hour, 19 minutes late Thursday evening 8/28. I am so glad I switched my ticket at TOL from CL #30 (8/27), which didn't get to WAS until well after 6 PM. I really wanted to ride a Superliner. That's why I chose the CL in the first place. I've never been on a Superliner before!

One of the dining car staff, on her way home to Delaware, said she was so glad to get into NYP "on time". She was so used to getting in at 10, 11 PM or midnight!

All I know is if Amtrak can get this tardiness under control, I'll never be able to convince my wife into a cross-country trip via LSL/CZ!!!!

One other thing, if you are on the Thruway bus from MI, be advised that one of the drivers will tell you (quite convincingly at first) that the bus is bound for Cincinnati, OH after leaving Detroit instead of Toledo. He nearly started a riot before admitting he was joking to soften the blow that Train #30 was late. He actually stopped at a Subway sandwich shop near the Toledo station (yuck!) so we could get something to eat while waiting.

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Today, Sunday August 31, was a better day for the CL and LSL arriving closer to on-time in both directions. CL #29(8/30) arrived at CHI only 1 hour and 4 minutes late; #30(8/30) arrived at WAS 1 hour and 13 minutes late. Presumably lighter freight traffic over the holiday weekend. However #50 Cardinal (8/30) ran into a long delay in Indiana and, even though Status Maps shows a service disruption, it was shown making its way eastbound - 4 to 5? hours late - on the Amtrak Track a Train map.

But now both #29 and #30(8/31) are showing as service disruptions even though the trains are shown on the Track a Train map. According to a post on trainorders, there are track work disruptions:

29(31) is detouring thru Michigan due to NS track work between Porter and South Bend. Will pick up P42 #126 at Toledo.

30(31) terminating in PGH due to CSX bridge work just east of Cumberland. 29(1) will originate in PGH.
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Two odd things about the re-route of CL #29(31) through MI. 1) The LSL #49(8/31) was not re-routed and is currently slogging through the normal NS route and is currently close to 2.5 hours late at Waterloo, IN. 2) CL #29 was shown to be in Michigan south of Detroit on the Track a Train map a hour or so ago, but is no longer shown.
 
My sister was on 49(31) and she tells me she was held just outside of TOL for about 30-45 minutes this morning, I presume while they did the engine switch described in the quote box in post 46. It figures, she was getting off in TOL to catch the Thruway bus to LNS, which of course had to wait for 49 to get in.
 
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