Chance of Normal Trip?

[guest]

Hello there

You have a great forum I stumbled on a couple of days ago.

my wife and I are interested in taking a round trip on Amtrak long-distance trains, probably the Empire Builder one way and the Southwest Chief back. We'll probably fly between LA and Portland.

The question is: what are the chances of a normal trip? Close to being on-time and no major things going wrong in the sleeping cars? It seems from reading a lot of the posts the past few days, the Amtrak world of travel is filled with perhaps more adventure and unexpected pleasures (and not-so pleasures) than my wife and I care to experience. We're looking forward to relaxing travel and nice unhurried meals. Some of the readings on this post suggest the odds aren't much better than 50-50.

Am I reading too much into the posts? Or do complaints and shortcomings naturally get more play even on a site like this?

 

[the_traveler]

This winter, the weather has been tough on the Empire Builder, but normally the 2 trains that are usually on time are the Empire Builder and the Southwest Chief!

 

[Green Maned Lion]

Iunno, I had half the problems in the book thrown at me and I had the time of my life, my friend. But don't Fly from LAX to PDX. That's just nuts. You're going this far on the train, don't ruin your trip. Also, if something DOES go wrong, Amtrak will cover you if you miss the Starlight. They are not responsible if you miss a flight.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Hello there
You have a great forum I stumbled on a couple of days ago.

my wife and I are interested in taking a round trip on Amtrak long-distance trains, probably the Empire Builder one way and the Southwest Chief back. We'll probably fly between LA and Portland.

The question is: what are the chances of a normal trip? Close to being on-time and no major things going wrong in the sleeping cars? It seems from reading a lot of the posts the past few days, the Amtrak world of travel is filled with perhaps more adventure and unexpected pleasures (and not-so pleasures) than my wife and I care to experience. We're looking forward to relaxing travel and nice unhurried meals. Some of the readings on this post suggest the odds aren't much better than 50-50.

Am I reading too much into the posts? Or do complaints and shortcomings naturally get more play even on a site like this?

Ditto on not flying from PDX-LAX, take the Cost Starlight! It's one of the best trips in the USA, the Empire Builder is great, as is the California Zephyer! I'd say that you should ride the SWC from CHI-LAX West bound, then take the Coast Starlight to PDX so youd be sure to see the Pacific in the daylight North of LAX! Maybe even ride the California Zephyer instead of the Empire Builder this time of year, the Builder has had a tough winter with the record low temps and snow drifts, just dont use a plane ,use atrain!

 

[GG-1]

Aloha

I highly rate the Coast Starlight. I usualy expect trains to be late, "Murphy" fools me by all connections working. I rate the CS the best train, but being on a train is my best time.

Eric

 

[sean86m]

On my 4 train rides over the summer each was delayed by at LEAST 2 hours. Needless to say, I got over my fear of flying pretty quickly after seeing what Amtrak offered.

 

[amtrakwolverine]

On my 4 train rides over the summer each was delayed by at LEAST 2 hours. Needless to say, I got over my fear of flying pretty quickly after seeing what Amtrak offered.

2 hours your going to ***** over 2 hours. if a plane was delayed for 2 hours on the tarmac due to rain at the destination would you give up flying cause the plane was late. 2 hours is nothing for LD trains.

 

[Everydaymatters]

Throw you clocks and watches away, plan on being late. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

That way, if you're late, you won't be disappointed.

If you're not late, you will be disappointed!

 

[caravanman]

Hi,

Although I live in the UK, I have made several trips, and have many thousands of Amtrak miles behind me..

I would say that the extremes do get played up on this board.. normal service is not cause for comment.

Having said that, The idea that you will board your train, have your meals, and arrive bang on time at your destination is fairly optimistic.

Most of us expect that there will be incidents on any trip, be they airport delays, traffic holdups, or whatever. With Amtrak, the chances of late running are

quite high, the chances that you will feel let down by at least one member of Amtrak's staff are quite high, the chances that your dinning car experience will

not always be 100% as you hoped are quite high, from my own experience.

On the other hand, you will often be seeing scenery that is spectacular.. many trains access views that are not seen from the highway. It is a great

adventure to board a long distance train. It is real travel, not such a pre-packed automated event as much of air travel has become.

At the end of the day, you have a good idea of your own comfort zones. The admitted potential "unknowns" of an Amtrak long distance train trip might throw

too long a shadow for you. For myself, the adventure, the scenery, and sense of excitement as the train pulls out, far outweigh the negatives on Amtrak.

Step outside your comfort zone, and have a big adventure!

Ed

 

[SCrails]

Step outside your comfort zone, and have a big adventure!

AND be sure to report on your experience back here if you do decide to take the train!

 

[Malrothien]

I did a long trip this month, VAN to ORL. The EB was 40 min early into Chicago, the CL was 25 minutes early into DC, and the SM was only 10 minutes late.

 

[rrdude]

On my 4 train rides over the summer each was delayed by at LEAST 2 hours. Needless to say, I got over my fear of flying pretty quickly after seeing what Amtrak offered.

2 hours your going to ***** over 2 hours. if a plane was delayed for 2 hours on the tarmac due to rain at the destination would you give up flying cause the plane was late. 2 hours is nothing for LD trains.

Amazing, ".....2 hours is nothing for LD trains.........." shows how we have been "accustomed" or dare I say "trained" to expect SUB-PAR performance. There was a time once in this great country of ours that organizations took pride in meeting what they advertised, i.e., the schedule that they print. But years, again dare I say, generations of Americans, (me included) now readily accept SUB-PAR performance from Amtrak, simply because that is "all we have............."

Having been a closet foamer my entire life, (well, I did bug out of the trolley riding in BeanTown to watch the NFL games that Sunday....) it might make sense for me to hold Amtrak to the advertised. If more people did it, maybe they'd take running their trains (over private railroad's tracks) more seriously.

Oh how I wish for the days of the late W. Graham Claytor., THAT man knew how to run a railroad, AND, deal with the scoundrels in D.C.

But I digress, which is normal. Lower your (and more importantly your traveling companions) expectations of the Long Distance trip. I don't neccessarily mean that in the negative, but just don't expect GOURMET food, and CRUISE SHIP STYLE accommodations or staff.

Occasionally, you will be pleasantly surprised. Don't get wigged out if you are 40 minutes, or 4 hours late..........

 

[StevenBDel]

Personally, most of my Amtrak trips have been great.

6 of the last 8 long distance trains I've ridden have arrived either on time or early.

Out of 40+ total Amtrak trips, I have only had two missed connections and two negative experiences.

Amtrak's long distance trains seem to have a lot more problems in winter due to snow and extreme cold, but overall I think it's the least stressful form of transportation.

 

[alanh]

And for what it's worth, on my last trip (Denver-Sacramento-Portland), the trains ran fine. It was my flight PDX-PHX that got screwed up due to the bad weather last week. The best the airline could do was 24 hours late (next day flight); I actually went as far as LAX and drove to Phoenix from there, making me "only" 12 hours late.

 

[JayPea]

I've taken, in total, both short and long, 36 trips on Amtrak, lifetime. Of those 36, only two have been over an hour late. One was the CZ, and you can thank the good old Union Pacific for that. That trip from Chicago to Reno several years ago was about an hour and a half late. The other was a Cascades trip from Seattle to Eugene, OR that was over two hours late leaving Seattle because it was two hours late coming in from Eugene due to locomotive problems.

I guess I can say I've been fortunate!

 

[sunchaser]

Welcome to the board!

It really depends on what you think is normal!

When I first started checking into riding Amtrak, I read a lot of trip reports elsewhere that made it sound like a fairly luxurious land cruise.

I still had questions, so I contacted Amtrak & got nowhere.

Then I found this board, which not only answered all of my questions, but also informed me more of what to expect & not expect.

If I had not found this board before we went on our trip, we would have been terribly disappointed & probably would have never taken the train again.

We have not had any major issues with lateness on the trips we have taken, but we have not taken lots of trips.

If you will be on a tight schedule, you can find yourself getting worried about getting somewhere on time.

Amtrak will not guarantee a connection of an hour of each other. But if something does go wrong on a guaranteed connection, they will take care of you.

There is always a chance that something could go wrong, but that's true with any mode of transportation.

I also would not fly from PDX to LAX, I would take the Coast Starlight with a bedroom.

That is our favorite train so far. We love the Pacific Parlor Car.

Enjoy your trip! Try to relax, & ask away. Make sure you sign up for Amtrak Guest rewards too.

 

[RRrich]

Amtrak LD trains run 2 hours late??? Oh my, I;m gonna be in deep doo-doo!!!

On Wed 2/3 I will make what we here call the KWD-CBS Loophole run - 116.5 hours on the train - from just outside St Louis to just outside Milwaukee. Leaving on 2/3, returning on 2/8 - all nights between on the train and all but one meal on the train.

I will have 4 connections -

Kansas City where I will spend (kill) 1 hr 15min roughly

Los Angeles ditto 2 hrs

Portland OR ditto 1 hr 5 min

Chicago ditto 1 hr 20min

Because of the way the trip was booked/ticketed, all the connections are guaranteed by Amtrak, which means that they promise that they will get me there, I am retired and am NOT in a hurry - I feel that F-ups are opportunities - I just wish that my wife could be with me.

 

[the_traveler]

On my 4 train rides over the summer each was delayed by at LEAST 2 hours. Needless to say, I got over my fear of flying pretty quickly after seeing what Amtrak offered.

Back in the "old days" when airlines had free meals in coach (remember those days :huh: ), I had a flight from ORD to PVD. I had my lunch, was shown a movie, and saw over 1/2 of a second movie - and this was all before leaving the ground at O'Hare! (There was a line of severe thunderstorms on the way - and the ground delay was over 3 hours!)

 

[DET63]

To the OP and others who may not know it yet, there is no such a thing as a "normal" trip when the_traveler is involved.

 

[RRrich]

To the OP and others who may not know it yet, there is no such a thing as a "normal" trip when the_traveler is involved.

He was extensively inolved with the planning/discovery of the KWD-CBS (nee KCY-CBS) loophole.

I think normal is vastly overrated - ask the GML

 

[Jeremy]

Being on the train is half the fun of going somewhere -- the later the train is, the more time you have to be on the train, relaxing and enjoying the experience. If you're traveling in a room/roomette, it also means they have to feed you more. On our '07 CZ trip, we were 6 hours late into Omaha -- but that meant that, instead of being deposited on the platform at 0-dark-hundred, we had a nice breakfast and detrained in Omaha afterward.

Jeremy

 

[Long Train Runnin']

I wouldn't worry about the equipment the odds of you having a sleeper that is in decent shape are pretty good.

If your going on the trip to simply take the train, then delays and such are just part of the fun. My next long distance trip is all about the train ride, and we don't have any tight connections, so there is nothing to worry about. If you late Amtrak will feed you meals until you arrive!

I would say go for it. Once your on the train its very easy to relax.

 

[rail_rider]

My worst travel experiences have been on planes. I expect problems will occur on a LD train trip but in all the trips I taken by train I've only experienced minor gliches. I try to plan before I leave what I'll do if something happens enroute. I take extra snacks, reading material, and Ipods. I also keep a list of phone numbers for the hotels in case I'll be late. How many safe adventures are out there that we can take? Everytime I board I look forward to a new adventure.

Take the train you'll have a great time!

 

[acelafan]

Hello there
You have a great forum I stumbled on a couple of days ago.

my wife and I are interested in taking a round trip on Amtrak long-distance trains, probably the Empire Builder one way and the Southwest Chief back. We'll probably fly between LA and Portland.

The question is: what are the chances of a normal trip? Close to being on-time and no major things going wrong in the sleeping cars? It seems from reading a lot of the posts the past few days, the Amtrak world of travel is filled with perhaps more adventure and unexpected pleasures (and not-so pleasures) than my wife and I care to experience. We're looking forward to relaxing travel and nice unhurried meals. Some of the readings on this post suggest the odds aren't much better than 50-50.

Am I reading too much into the posts? Or do complaints and shortcomings naturally get more play even on a site like this?

I echo many of the other comments here - I recently took the Southwest Chief and the Coast Starlight. They were my two favorite trains on my trip! (I took the Crescent and Capitol Limited as well but I did prefer the western trains).

Sure you might be delayed on your journey, but to me it doesn't matter - the train is so relaxing and I love to pass time by looking out the window or chatting up conversations with fellow passengers. It's a world away from airline travel.

In my case, the Coast Starlight was delayed by 3 hours at one point near San Luis Obispo, but we ended up arriving in Portland about 90 minutes late and then only 20 minutes late into Seattle. One cardinal rule of Amtrak travel: do not make tight airline connections at either end of your trip - give yourself plenty of time to make any transportation connections in the event one (or more) modes of travel is late - especially since the train does not run that often (once/24 hours!)

Enjoy - train travel is second to none...seriously!

 

[anir dendroica]

In the winter months, the probability of on-time (or <90 min late), hassle-free travel on the Empire Builder looks to be about 75%. I would estimate 85-90% for the Southwest Chief (fewer snowstorms farther south) and a similar probability for the California Zephyr (occasional mudslides and treefalls). From April-November, these probabilities rise to around 95% for all trains (i.e. on average one severely late train per month due to mechanical problems, freight delays, track repairs, etc.).

So...the odds are always better than 50-50, and in most cases they are much better. Have a good trip!

Mark

Hello there
You have a great forum I stumbled on a couple of days ago.

my wife and I are interested in taking a round trip on Amtrak long-distance trains, probably the Empire Builder one way and the Southwest Chief back. We'll probably fly between LA and Portland.

The question is: what are the chances of a normal trip? Close to being on-time and no major things going wrong in the sleeping cars? It seems from reading a lot of the posts the past few days, the Amtrak world of travel is filled with perhaps more adventure and unexpected pleasures (and not-so pleasures) than my wife and I care to experience. We're looking forward to relaxing travel and nice unhurried meals. Some of the readings on this post suggest the odds aren't much better than 50-50.

Am I reading too much into the posts? Or do complaints and shortcomings naturally get more play even on a site like this?