Empire Builders are several hours late over the last few days

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ParanoidAndroid

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What happened? Libby, MT only an hour late, and Whitefish, MT 6 hrs late?

Edit: Now EB #8 (6) departed Spokane on-time, but by the time it left Montana it was 9.5 hours late! I thought the body had already been dealt with!

Edit: #8 (7) is 6 hrs late and #7 (7) is 5 hrs late. I suspect they're going to get more delayed as time goes on.
 
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I'm on 7 right now, only a few minutes ago we passed Cut Bank. About eight minutes outside Shelby we were held aside while 8 passed by. I am thinking they're really really late. So just now in dining car one of the staff said there was an incident on the track that held everything up for six hours. She didn't say what.
 
Ok, this straight from the conductor who opened the platform car door of my car in Spokane a mere 5 hrs ago: A vagrant had been riding on a freight car near Wolfe Prairie when he fell off and was killed. Though not on the Amtrak track itself, it made a complete backlog for all trains in the area until investigation was done. 7 was about 30 min late into Spk due to traffic.
 
OK, so now #8 (6) is 9 hours late, while all of the California Zephyrs are on-time!

Oh, and #14 (7) lost 2 hours from Oakland to Emeryville? Seems like an unlucky couple days for Amtrak . . .
 
OK, so now #8 (6) is 9 hours late, while all of the California Zephyrs are on-time!

Oh, and #14 (7) lost 2 hours from Oakland to Emeryville? Seems like an unlucky couple days for Amtrak . . .
I think PVs were removed from 14 in Oakland.
 
Now #8 (7) is 6 hours late, and #7 (7) is 5 hours late. Anyone know why they're now consistently delayed several hours?

I'm thinking passengers on #7 and #8 (8) are pretty worried now . . .

Not to mention SWC being consistently 1-2 hrs late in New Mexico, while the CZs are still peculiarly on-time.
 
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There has been heavy freight congestion in the GGW area for the last couple of days.
 
Uhhhh . . .

Just a heads-up: Look up Glasgow, MT instead of GGW.

I might start an awkward station code thread (add in Cumberland, MD too)! :unsure:
 
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Uhhhh . . .

Just a heads-up: Look up Glasgow, MT instead of GGW.

I might start an awkward station code thread (add in Cumberland, MD too)! :unsure:
I'm trying to get out of the habit of throwing city codes and other assorted jargon around the board. It is a work in progress.
 
I'm trying to get out of the habit of throwing city codes and other assorted jargon around the board. It is a work in progress.
Thank you. Using city codes rather than city names often hinders the transmission of information, as well as transmitting incorrect information when the wrong code is used. (I don't mean you, Thirdrail7, use incorrect codes, but others do.) City codes and jargon emphasize the feeling that there is an "in group" and can discourage newcomers from participating in a forum.

Sometimes discouraging newcomers seems to be the point. If that is the goal, rather than sharing information, then city codes and jargon can be useful tools.
 
Between Glasgow and Malta, we were put on a siding where 6-8 eastbound freights passed. This caused a 4 hour delay. After Malta we passed #8. But then more sidings and more freights. (And more delays! :( ) We even had to be re crewed

Finally we pulled into Spokane 5+ hours late at 7 am. There was discussion about annulment of 7/27 in SPK, but both went thru.

I don't yet know about the connection to the CS in PDX. (5 hours delay and 4 hour connection.) I'll find out more later.
 
Whatever happened to the hundreds of millions of dollars BNSF spent on the Hi-Line to fix this very problem: freight congestion? Looks like the money wasn't that well spent? Most EBs over the past couple of weeks have encountered at least some delays and recently the delays are approaching what we all saw not too long ago. If this keeps up it will be tough fro Amtrak to keep any kind of schedule on these trains.
 
Double tracked east of Glasgow, mt. It sounds like they just moved the problem west.
 
Number's 7 and 27 are well over 6 hours late into SEA and PDX today, which means both are likely to be 4-5 hours late when they depart very late this evening, which just compounds the problem, since each one of these will be starting way behind in their respective journeys. Meanwhile #8 is well over 7 hours late now and may not arrive into CHI until around midnight, which may prove to be a challenge to get Monday's #7 out on time. Even today's #8, now in Montana, lost over two hours after leaving SPK.

I know some of the issues were supposed "one offs", but the general trend appears to be away from on time performance even absent these events, just when people were beginning to believe Amtrak had gotten the horrendous delays of the past few years on the EB behind them.

My BNSF contact says while freight traffic is indeed heavier in the Fall, the extra trackage that they spent huge sums of money on throughout much of the Hi-Line should have greatly reduced any passenger train issues. He reminded me that the oil train numbers remain lower than before and with the extra "fluff" that BNSF and Amtrak built into the EB schedule, the modestly heavier freight traffic should not be causing these extensive delays.
 
Hopefully #27 passengers made the connecting SB Coast Starlight. Amtrak says 27 arrived at 2:20pm, and 11 departed at 2:26pm (only 6 minutes to transfer baggage and pax and everything!)

Meanwhile, the Seattle section is 6 hrs late and hasn't reached Everett yet.

Interestingly enough, #7 (8) is perfectly on-time right now!
 
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#11 is 3.5 hrs late and the approaching #14 is 3 hrs late!

And while the 7 hrs late #8 is trudging through Minnesota and Wisconsin, the #8 behind it is now also 3 hours late.

Bad day week?
 
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