I know it is known for being late, but the west bound LSL never seems to arrive in Erie, PA on time. Why does it run so late
(1) It dwells longer than scheduled in upstate NY stations, due to huge numbers of passengers getting on and off, at platforms which are too short (Syracuse) or require stairs (Buffalo, Rochester).
(2) The schedule is quite tight from Buffalo to Syracuse, and there's a bridge with a slow order which CSX will not fix.
(3) Then, west of Buffalo, CSX refuses to dispatch it properly, letting it get stuck behind freight trains.
The good side is, once you get west to Cleveland, it's running on Norfolk Southern and it tends to catch up most of the lost time. (Then it loses time again very close to Chicago due to massive rail congestion in the Chicago area, but there are several projects being built to fix this, which should be done next year.)
This is if you *don't* have equipment problems, delays due to weather, etc.
Some of the dwell time issues may be addressed by the Rochester station which is supposed to start construction soon, and there's some track improvements planned which should give some speed-ups around Syracuse and Schenectady which might give more leeway for the other lost time. I'm not sure anything can be done about the problems west of Buffalo unless Amtrak files complaints against CSX with the STB.
