Sunset Limited #2 problem along the line?

[mfastx]

You most assuredly will, the NEC melts down at least a few times a year.

As opposed to how many times per year on the Sunset Limited/other LD routes?

 

[Nathanael]

And it's not even 1979, it was 1971! Other countries similar to the US have delays too, like Canada, Australia, or Russia.

Russia keeps very reliable passenger train schedules. Yes, Canada and Australia have unreliable trains just like the US.

 

[Nathanael]

Well, the rest of the world's trains have different rules and operating procedures. They may have a more streamlined way of dealing with things.

True; they do things more sensibly in Russia, for example.

Also, other countries arent as big as we are, so of course going 3 days across the continent is going to cause some sort of delay at some point. Plus, we have way more freight than some other countries.

Both of these are red herrings. Russia has far more reliable passenger rail service than the US, and has a humungous amount of freight. We would actually do pretty well by copying Russian procedures.
Hint: Russian Railways is a single, unified, government-owned monopoly which handles all freight and all passengers. Sort of like British Rail was in the UK before John Major messed it up; sort of like Deutsche Bahn in Germany; sort of like SNCF in France was for decades.... sort of like the Chinese Railway ministry is now, the one which is building huge HSR lines while expanding freight capacity...

...it simply seems to be the best way to run a railroad.

 

[Ryan]

You most assuredly will, the NEC melts down at least a few times a year.

As opposed to how many times per year on the Sunset Limited/other LD routes?

Hold on, I've got to catch a train to keep up with the goal posts you keep moving.

Only thing I was pointing out was that your claim that

That's right, and you won't see multiple hour delays on those routes.

is utterly false.

 

[Amtrak Cajun]

What works for Russia/France/insert other country here/ may not work for us is what I am trying to get at Nathaniel.

Also, we dont live in Russia/France/whatever, we live here, so what they do with their trains is a moot point. They dont have an expansive 3 day cross country trek like our LD trains do. The closest thing we have to HSR from those other countries that you mentioned at this point is the Acela/NER.

 

[Ispolkom]

Hint: Russian Railways is a single, unified, government-owned monopoly which handles all freight and all passengers. Sort of like British Rail was in the UK before John Major messed it up; sort of like Deutsche Bahn in Germany; sort of like SNCF in France was for decades.... sort of like the Chinese Railway ministry is now, the one which is building huge HSR lines while expanding freight capacity...

...it simply seems to be the best way to run a railroad.

That depends on how you define "best." Both the Russian and Chinese railroads work with a soft budget constraint (political objectives are far more important that ROI), which makes a poor comparison with US railroads.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Well, the rest of the world's trains have different rules and operating procedures. They may have a more streamlined way of dealing with things.

True; they do things more sensibly in Russia, for example.

Also, other countries arent as big as we are, so of course going 3 days across the continent is going to cause some sort of delay at some point. Plus, we have way more freight than some other countries.

Both of these are red herrings. Russia has far more reliable passenger rail service than the US, and has a humungous amount of freight. We would actually do pretty well by copying Russian procedures.
Hint: Russian Railways is a single, unified, government-owned monopoly which handles all freight and all passengers. Sort of like British Rail was in the UK before John Major messed it up; sort of like Deutsche Bahn in Germany; sort of like SNCF in France was for decades.... sort of like the Chinese Railway ministry is now, the one which is building huge HSR lines while expanding freight capacity...

...it simply seems to be the best way to run a railroad.

German train are very reliable, but not the Chinese. Even the best non-HSR expresses can get delayed three to four hours. I know because I've taken one that was delayed. Not as much as the US, but far from Germany.

You most assuredly will, the NEC melts down at least a few times a year.

As opposed to how many times per year on the Sunset Limited/other LD routes?

Hold on, I've got to catch a train to keep up with the goal posts you keep moving.

Only thing I was pointing out was that your claim that

That's right, and you won't see multiple hour delays on those routes.

is utterly false.

And the SL actually has decent OTP excluding blips like this from broken rails.

 

[mfastx]

Hold on, I've got to catch a train to keep up with the goal posts you keep moving.

Only thing I was pointing out was that your claim that

That's right, and you won't see multiple hour delays on those routes.

is utterly false.

I don't think it's hard to understand the gist of what I am saying.

I think everyone can agree that OTP would be much better for LD routes if Amtrak owned the lines. That was the claim I made in my OP in this thread and nothing anyone has said in response to me has disproved that.

And the SL actually has decent OTP excluding blips like this from broken rails.

Lately, that has been pretty much true. I hate to see trains departing HOS, say, 3-5 hours late though. It's really embarassing that our national train network has delays like that so regularly. Sigh.

 

[Amtrak Cajun]

Well, we can sit here and say X or Y should happen, but the fact of the matter is, we dont deal with the host railroads. Furthermore, we dont see the day to day hassles that have to be dealt with by Amtrak as they try their best to keep their trains running on time.

Broken rails, stalled freights, mechanical failures of some sort, the list goes on.

 

[mfastx]

Well, we can sit here and say X or Y should happen, but the fact of the matter is, we dont deal with the host railroads. Furthermore, we dont see the day to day hassles that have to be dealt with by Amtrak as they try their best to keep their trains running on time.
Broken rails, stalled freights, mechanical failures of some sort, the list goes on.

I can't speak for others, but I am in no way faulting Amtrak at all for this. If Amtrak were given the resources to properly run a train business, they would certainly succeed.

 

[AlanB]

If Amtrak were given the resources to properly run a train business, they would certainly succeed.

This I wouldn't argue at all. They were given very limited funding initially & hand me down equipment; and then people stood around in wondrous amazement that they weren't somehow instantly profitable. This despite the fact that the entire reason for creating Amtrak was because passenger rail was losing money.