Ontime Record for Capitol Limited into Chicago?

Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Dec 31, 2007
Messages
3
Can anyone tell me how to get a sense of the on-time record for the Capitol Limited from DC through to Chicago? As a surprise "double birthday plus anniversary" present for my husband and five year old son, I have booked a round-the-country trip for the three of us. The Capitol Limited is supposed to leave DC at 4:05 pm on the July 28th, and arrive in Chicago at 8:40 am on July 29 --and we are supposed to board the Empire Builder for Glacier at 2:15 the same day. This is the only leg where I've left less than a 24 hour cushion, and--three months after making the reservations--I'm realizing that five hours may well not be enough to ensure that we make the Glacier train. I'm really nervous, as there are no bedrooms left on the previous day's train. Anybody have any thoughts on just how worried I should be, and how hard I should be working on enlarging that cushion?

We could leave Washington DC as early as 5am on the 28th, but it's looking like the 4:05 pm Capitol Limited is the only thing available that day. Can that be right? Thanks for any help or advice you can offer!
 
you can go to

http://www.amtrakdelays.com/cgi-bin/train.cgi

for train on-time-performance history for at least the past week, and if someone else requested that train's performance into that particular station frequently over the past three weeks, then it may show that full three weeks' history, because it remembers search results for up to three weeks. This is not an Amtrak site, but put together by someone who is a member here who wanted to be able to get the information more easily than thru the Amtrak site.

Here is the output of that site for train 29 into Chicago as of today:

Status for train 29 arriving into CHI
2007-12-31: Scheduled: 8:40 am Actual: 8:53 am Delay: 13 minutes

2007-12-30: Scheduled: 8:40 am Actual: 9:10 am Delay: 30 minutes

2007-12-29: Scheduled: 8:40 am Actual: 9:43 am Delay: 63 minutes

2007-12-28: Scheduled: 8:40 am Actual: 9:27 am Delay: 47 minutes

2007-12-27: Scheduled: 8:40 am Actual: 8:54 am Delay: 14 minutes

2007-12-26: Scheduled: 8:40 am Actual: 8:30 am Delay: 0 minutes

2007-12-25: Scheduled: 8:40 am Actual: 8:08 am Delay: 0 minutes

2007-12-24: Scheduled: 8:40 am Actual: 10:17 am Delay: 97 minutes

2007-12-23: Scheduled: 8:40 am Actual: 10:25 am Delay: 105 minutes

2007-12-22: Scheduled: 8:40 am Actual: 9:57 am Delay: 77 minutes

2007-12-20: Scheduled: 8:40 am Actual: 8:30 am Delay: 0 minutes

2007-12-19: Scheduled: 8:40 am Actual: 8:40 am Delay: 0 minutes

2007-12-18: Scheduled: 8:40 am Actual: 8:46 am Delay: 6 minutes

2007-12-17: Scheduled: 8:40 am Actual: 12:02 pm Delay: 202 minutes

2007-12-16: Scheduled: 8:40 am Actual: 2:47 pm Delay: 367 minutes

2007-12-15: Scheduled: 8:40 am Actual: 9:01 am Delay: 21 minutes

2007-12-14: Scheduled: 8:40 am Actual: 9:53 am Delay: 73 minutes

2007-12-13: Scheduled: 8:40 am Actual: 9:36 am Delay: 56 minutes

2007-12-12: Scheduled: 8:40 am Actual: 9:05 am Delay: 25 minutes

2007-12-11: Scheduled: 8:40 am Actual: 8:38 am Delay: 0 minutes

Average delay is 60 minutes
So it appears there was one day that didn't get into CHI in time. I don't know about the 21st, which did not show an arrival time, and may have been canceled for some reason - I don't know. But given your time frame, your odds as of right now look pretty good.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Just remember that you are traveling in July and the delays AmtkWPK has given you are for winter movement so you should not have the hazards of cold snowy days.
 
I travel quite often on the Capitol, and have never had a problem making a connection. Nor have I had major delays when I am just going to Chicago. Last week, we were 15 minutes early eastbound. Of course, there is always something that may come up but that something could happen on any mode of transportation. There was a freight derailment in Portage, Indiana on the 21 of December which caused Amtrak to bus passengers. Maybe that is why it wasn't listed on the "arrival history".
 
What a great forum this is! Thank you all for your responses, this is very helpful.
 
The biggest hazard to your connection would be some sort of freight train derailment. Otherwise, the WB connection from #29 to #7 is rather straightforward.

Over at on-track-on-line.com, the webmasters have kindly posted a few of my personal opinions on some things to do while hanging around Chicago.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top