Daily Sunset is on Gunn's plate

[Bill Haithcoat]

But I feel sure the Sunset's numbers westbound would be so much better if it were not so chronically late. Of course that is a "what if" senario, what is done is done.....the patronage, at present, is low probably because of all the bad experiences people have had with being bussed, etc.

 

[battalion51]

But how is making the train a daily train going to help OTP? LEt's face it, UP is going to poorly dispatch the train all the way from Lafayette, all the way to LA where it gets on SCAX territory, there's no two ways about it. Now, does CSX make boneheaded moves once in a while (yes, I can personally attest to at least two dozen idiodic moves in my 170something trips), but their moves usually aren't 4 or 5 hour delays, usually 20-30 max. The ultimate solution for this train is its breakup. It's like when Standard Oil was broken up, we were all better off for it, and that's the Sunset. The Sunset is a big monster that needs to downsize.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

No, of course not, agreed, going daily would be irrelevant as to improved OTP. I am just saying it must be at least partly the fault of poor OTP that its patronage is so low.

The only thing that would help is better dispatching, if practicable by UP. Maybe better OTP would increase ridershp and make going daily make more sense.

I shudder to think about the people who live along its route who have such miserable horror stories to tell---and if they meet up with anybody else who has ridden it to find out that they, too, arrived 10 hours late because of the frieght trains going through first.

What a joke Amtrak must seem to them.

 

[Viewliner]

I could see breaking the train up if it'll help OTP and thus ridership. Its nice to be able to stay on one train for the entire trip, but if they can break it up and still guarantee connections within the LAX-MIA route. I'd rather be guarenteed connections throughout, my trip even if it means having to switch trains one more time. If need be, even running the train through could work. Its too bad more pressure can't be placed on UP, but this is the situation.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

And its is all just too, too bad, about the OTP. Because extending the Sunset to Miami(originally) was one of Amtrak's NOBLEST acccomplishments (thinking "outside the box', something the private railroads did very little of ).

Interestingly, another noble Amtrak accomplishment was linking Portland,Seattle,SF,LA and San Diego as one long-route train. The railroads had always considered each of those to be separate segments. Of course ,then, as bad luck would have it, the Coast Starlight is plagued by lateness also.

To wit, it was at first extended all the way to San Diego. They soon had to get over that and shorten it to LA because frequent lateness s.b. into LA made it unreliable for local passengers going from LA to San Diego..

 

[panamaclipper]

Would creating that train that was supposed to run through Jackson and Vicksburg and Shreveport to Dallas and on to El Paso help or hurt things with the Sunset?

 

[AlanB]

Actually gentlemen, I have to disagree with the idea that having a daily Sunset wouldn't help time keeping. Adding a fourth frequency isn't going to help at all though, that I agree with.

However having a daily train makes things far easier for a dispatcher to keep track of. He/she doesn't have to stop and think about whether the Sunset is due into his area today or not. It allows for the RR to consistently schedule its trains around the Sunset.

Consider that while still far from perfect, the Texas Eagles OTP went up when the train went daily a few years back. UP dispatches most of that trains run too. Plus part of the Eagles performance is still being impacted by late arriving connections from the Sunset.

Is having a daily Sunset going to mean that it's on time 95% of the time? No, I doubt that very much. But going daily will certainly help to get the trains OTP out of the dumper. At this point, even getting to 50% would be nice and running daily just might help to accomplish that.

 

[battalion51]

Alan. The Sunset is no different than any other train. It just shows up as another blip on their computer screen. Does Tri-Rail have trouble with OTP when they cut down to 10 or 12 trains on the weekend? No, Steve and Sonya dispatch no differently than they would on a weekday.

 

[AlanB]

Alan. The Sunset is no different than any other train. It just shows up as another blip on their computer screen.

Blip or not, there is a big difference between expecting that blip every day vs. three times a week. A dispatcher doesn't just handle what's on his screen. He/she must be thinking ahead at what will be coming down his set of tracks soon. Especially in the case of a train that's able to move faster than other trains on the tracks.

Does Tri-Rail have trouble with OTP when they cut down to 10 or 12 trains on the weekend? No, Steve and Sonya dispatch no differently than they would on a weekday.

I'm sorry but that's not a fair comparison for several reasons. First off there's a big difference between commuter ops & long distance ops.

Second Steve & Sonya are only dispatching 65 miles of track for Tri-rail. UP is dealing with the Sunset for almost 2,000 miles. Yes I'm sure that more than one dispatcher handles the Sunset, but again my point is that they must remember that the Sunset is coming and when it is due into their area. They have to think about the fact that they've got a 10,000 foot freight about to enter a 100 mile stretch of single track where every siding is no longer than 9,000 feet.

Steve & Sonya don't really have that worry. Plus Tri-rail trains are never 10 hours late.

Finally if Sonya & Steve do start having problems with dispatching Tri-Rails weekend schedule, then they will be looking for new jobs. FDot owns those tracks so they want to ensure that Tri-Rail remains on schedule. While I believe that CSX actually does the dispatching, if FDot starts yelling you can be sure that CSX will be listening in this case.

Now as I already mentioned the Eagles OTP shot up once that train started running daily. So for whatever reason, it is apparent that daily running does improve OTP.

Also while we joke about the Late Shore being late and even the Capitol sometimes has problems, by far the worst performer in the Northeast out of Chicago is the three day a week Cardinal.

 

[Save Our Trains Michigan]

10hrs late :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

About a week ago the darn thing got into New Iberia at 0730 it was like 14 or 16 hrs late.And Alan is correct it can screw a freight RRs timeing if Amtrak is late belive me i know thers days we have to clear a track in the yard ASP because AMTK needs to run through.