Reliability of the City of New Orleans

[rmgreenesq]

Greetings Gang:

OK, I expected the service to honor my request to examine my clients in Charlotte, NC. But no, my clients and I have a hearing in Memphis, TN. This puts me on the City of New Orleans from/to Chicago.

The schedule in and out of Memphis is conducive to a same day/no hotel trip. The train from Chicago arrives at 6:15 am and departs for Chicago at 10:00 pm. My client's hearing is at 11:00 am. I'm afraid that five hours might not be enough padding. How is the City of New Orleans for on time reliability? Is it like the Southwest Chief, basically on time, or like the California Zephyr, Sunset Ltd., or Coast Starlight, a daily (or thrice weekly) OTP nightmare? Who is the host railroad and how is their relationship with Amtrak?

As usual any/all advice would be appreciated.

Rick

 

[AmtrakWPK]

Rick -

Well, for the 24th through today, into Memphis, it looks like it has been late once (14 minutes), today, but otherwise on time or as much as 50+ miinutes early:

CONL, #59 arriving into MEM

2007-01-24: Scheduled: 6:27 am Actual: 5:45 am EARLY

2007-01-25: Scheduled: 6:27 am Actual: 5:55 am EARLY

2007-01-26: Scheduled: 6:27 am Actual: 6:27 am ON TIME

2007-01-27: Scheduled: 6:27 am Actual: 5:38 am EARLY

2007-01-28: Scheduled: 6:27 am Actual: 5:36 am EARLY

2007-01-29: Scheduled: 6:27 am Actual: 6:25 am EARLY

2007-01-30: Scheduled: 6:27 am Actual: 5:46 am EARLY

2007-01-31: Scheduled: 6:27 am Actual: 6:41 am Delay: 14 minutes

CONL, #58 arriving into CHI

2007-01-25: Scheduled: 9:00 am Actual: 9:23 am Delay: 23 minutes

2007-01-26: Scheduled: 9:00 am Actual: 8:34 am EARLY

2007-01-27: Scheduled: 9:00 am Actual: 8:27 am EARLY

2007-01-28: Scheduled: 9:00 am Actual: 8:55 am EARLY

2007-01-29: Scheduled: 9:00 am Actual: 9:18 am Delay: 18 minutes

2007-01-30: Scheduled: 9:00 am Actual: 9:40 am Delay: 40 minutes

2007-01-31: Scheduled: 9:00 am Actual: 9:22 am Delay: 22 minutes

So it looks pretty good. Of course statistics like these give nice averages but don't help if there happens to be a breakdown on YOUR train or a signal failure or a freight that breaks down or goes on the law in front of your train, or (etc., etc., etc.....)

(thanks to faraz)

 

[BobWeaver]

Canadian National (CN) is the host railroad for the entire City of New Orleans route and judging from all of thos early arrivals, it would appear that they do indeed have a good relationship with Amtrak!

 

[George Harris]

Where is the hearing? If at the Federal Building on North Main, you can get there on the Trolley.

Check out this for information:

www.matatransit.com/RidingMATA/TrolleyService/tabid/64/Default.aspx

and this for a little more information and some pictures.

www.railwaypreservation.com/vintagetrolley/memphis.htm

If you have time to kill, visit Mud Island. The access point is near the Federal Building on the Front Street side, if I remember correctly. It has been about 10 years since I went there.

While the CN is now a 79 mph single track railroad, in the 50's and 60's the Illinois Central was double tradk with parts posted for 100 mph and CNO made the run in 9h25m with a 15 minute stop at Carbondale to add St. Louis cars. So, while 10h30m is a respectable schedule for the situation, it is not really that tight.

The south Main Street location of Central Station is not a good area to wander around in at night, and there is very little in the area, so eat supper and do what ever you want to fill the evening and when you go to the station, do it without any plan to wander around in the area after you get there.

In times past, Central Station had 10 tracks, with tracks either 6 or 7 through 10 being through tracks and the others stub. Now only a couple of the through track, only 9 and 10 I think, are left. Central Station was served by Illinois Central, Frisco (St. Louis - San Francisco) and Chicago Rock Island adn Pacific. Generally ICRR carried more passengers than all others combined. The other railroads called at Union Station, two blocks away, the area now occupied by a post office sort center. Lines there were Missouri Pacific, Cotton Belt (St. Louis Southwestern), Southern, Louisville and Nashville, and Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis. Only ICRR and Frisco ran through. All other lines terminated.

George

 

[Illini]

I ride the City several times per year between Chicago and Memphis, and it has an INCREDIBLE on time rating. In fact, I've found it usually arrives early to Memphis. As far as on-time performance goes, I'd say it's one of your best bets of all the long distance trains.

 

[AlanB]

Well at the end of Amtrak's last fiscal year, the City was on time at its end point stations 84.4% of the time. The next closest LD train was the SW Chief, which came in at 73%. Note: That on time record is of course a bit biased, since it only reflects the end point arrival times and Amtrak pads most of those arrivals into that final station. A LD train is also considered on time, if it arrives within a half hour of its scheduled time.

 

[Anthony]

Does a host RR still get its incentive payment if a train is on time or early based on padding into the end station, like the westbound Chief, when it has been 1+ hr late until Fullerton?

 

[rmgreenesq]

Thanks for all the comments guys. With that kind of on time performance, I feel better about riding the train to a must attend event with only 5 hours of buffer time.

I'm looking for a cheaper sleeper and therefore will take the Capitol Ltd. to Chicago from Washington. Does anybody know the schedule for the Diner/Lounge car? I'll be outbound on 3/28. I'd appreciate any information on the Diner Lite test car's schedlue.

I'll probably fly or take the lakeshore home in coach (shudder). I can't wack the client too badly with my Amtrak habit, and cant't really afford to subsidize it right now.

BTW Anthony, I wouldn't complain about being an hour late into Fullerton, CA. That is the stop I use to go to my folks house. The Chief is due into Fullerton at 6:30 am. When you have to talk your relatives into driving up to the train station to get you, being an hour late isn't that bad.

Rick

 

[AlanB]

I'm looking for a cheaper sleeper and therefore will take the Capitol Ltd. to Chicago from Washington. Does anybody know the schedule for the Diner/Lounge car? I'll be outbound on 3/28. I'd appreciate any information on the Diner Lite test car's schedlue.

I don't believe that any announcements have been made regarding the Diner Lite testing schedule or actual implimentation of the Diner Lite service that far out. I think that the current test schedule only ran through this month.

 

[rmgreenesq]

I booked my trip to Memphis last night. I'm still working on a cheap way home. Returning in coach on Amtrak is about the same price as flying ($191). The sleepers on the return trip are rather expensive ($500+ versus $380 for the trip to Memphis)

Last night, I think I found a "cheaper sleeper". If I get on the southbound City of New Orleans and ride it to New Orleans in coach (its a daylight run), overnight in New Orleans and take the Cresent north in a viewliner, I get a fare of $330.

Is the forced overnight in New Orleans a good idea? Anyplace cheap to sleep within walking distance of the train station? Is the area around the train station still recovering from Katrina.

Rick

 

[had8ley]

Well at the end of Amtrak's last fiscal year, the City was on time at its end point stations 84.4% of the time. The next closest LD train was the SW Chief, which came in at 73%. Note: That on time record is of course a bit biased, since it only reflects the end point arrival times and Amtrak pads most of those arrivals into that final station. A LD train is also considered on time, if it arrives within a half hour of its scheduled time.

Just curious, but just where does the Cresdent fall in here ???

 

[TransAtlantic]

Does a host RR still get its incentive payment if a train is on time or early based on padding into the end station, like the westbound Chief, when it has been 1+ hr late until Fullerton?

on the schedules, you'll see that the SWC has over an hour scheduled to get from FUL to LAX...in reality, it rarely takes more than about 25 mins...an example of the abovementioned padding...

;-)

 

[AlanB]

Well at the end of Amtrak's last fiscal year, the City was on time at its end point stations 84.4% of the time. The next closest LD train was the SW Chief, which came in at 73%. Note: That on time record is of course a bit biased, since it only reflects the end point arrival times and Amtrak pads most of those arrivals into that final station. A LD train is also considered on time, if it arrives within a half hour of its scheduled time.

Just curious, but just where does the Cresdent fall in here ???

The Crescent did very poorly last year, coming in at 20.4% a drop of 36.9% from the prior year when it came in with a 57.3% OTP. In all fairness the Crescent was hurt in part by Katrina, since for six months of the year CSX was sending it's freights via the NS line since the Sunset route was still out.

Despite that poor performance, the Crescent still came in sixth for best record last year, behind the City of NOL at 84.4%, the SW Chief at 73.0%, the Empire Builder at 60.1%, the Cardinal at 27.2%, and the LSL at 23.1%. The last two actually being a bit of a surprise.

 

[AlanB]

I booked my trip to Memphis last night. I'm still working on a cheap way home. Returning in coach on Amtrak is about the same price as flying ($191). The sleepers on the return trip are rather expensive ($500+ versus $380 for the trip to Memphis)
Last night, I think I found a "cheaper sleeper". If I get on the southbound City of New Orleans and ride it to New Orleans in coach (its a daylight run), overnight in New Orleans and take the Cresent north in a viewliner, I get a fare of $330.

Is the forced overnight in New Orleans a good idea? Anyplace cheap to sleep within walking distance of the train station? Is the area around the train station still recovering from Katrina.

Rick

I don't think that visiting NOL is a bad idea in any shape or form. They need the tourist dollars to help rebuild the city. The area around the train station and the Canal St. (not far from the station), was not damaged to the extent of some of the other areas. It has largely recovered from the flooding, at least in terms of repairs. I don't believe that it has recovered economically as yet, but they are trying.

There are a few hotels that are within walking distance of the train station, not sure about prices though. And Canal St isn't that far from the station either. A short taxi ride or walk about 3 blocks and one can catch a historic streetcar the St. Charles line for the ride to Canal St.

Of course even with a cheap hotel, I'd still bet on spending at least $60 to $70, add in dinner and you might be back close to your $500 for going the other way.

 

[rmgreenesq]

Thanks for the advice Alan. I've never been to New Orleans.

Unfortuantly, I'll have to pick another time to go. My wife let me know that she would appreciate it if I flew back. So I'm going to fold my knees up over my ears and fly AirTran (f/k/a ValuJet) to Boston on Friday night.

Rick

 

[George Harris]

You may have already decided, but another way to get back to the northeast from Memphis is to take a bus to Birmingham and catch the Crescent there. I have not checked the schedules of late, but this used to be workable with about an hour at B'ham and about 1/2 mile or less between stations.

George

 

[had8ley]

Thanks for the advice Alan. I've never been to New Orleans.
Unfortuantly, I'll have to pick another time to go. My wife let me know that she would appreciate it if I flew back. So I'm going to fold my knees up over my ears and fly AirTran (f/k/a ValuJet) to Boston on Friday night.

Rick

When we HAVE to fly Airtran is one of our favorite airlines. They have the newest domestic fleet in the skies and you can upgrade to business for only $40. Talk about a deal. Just to give you an example Northwest is still flying DC-9's the NEWEST of which came off the assembly line in 1972. I guess everybody has their own opinion; just my two cents.

 

[rmgreenesq]

When we HAVE to fly Airtran is one of our favorite airlines. They have the newest domestic fleet in the skies and you can upgrade to business for only $40. Talk about a deal. Just to give you an example Northwest is still flying DC-9's the NEWEST of which came off the assembly line in 1972. I guess everybody has their own opinion; just my two cents.

Thanks for the advice on Airtran. I'll look for the $40 business class upgrade. As to folding my legs over my ears, I'm 6' 7" tall and a bit over 300 lbs. Airline seats (no matter what airline) are designed for people a foot shorter than me and half my weight. Now you see what I like about Amtrak.

Rick

 

[lepearso]

Where do you all get your data for OTP? I'd like to do some research on this topic, but I don't know where I can find that information.

 

[AlanB]

Where do you all get your data for OTP? I'd like to do some research on this topic, but I don't know where I can find that information.

I head to Amtrak's website and look at the monthly performance reports that are posted there. David Gunn started this program as part of his effort to improve the information that Amtrak provides after the dark years of Mr. Glidepath. Thankfully Amtrak continues to provide this info despite David's demise. Just head to this page and pick the month that interests you the most. You'll find a wealth of info in those monthly reports. The OTP stats are near the end of the report, but don't dismiss the rest of the report either.