Texas Eagle schedule change?

[fillyjonk]

Anyone heard of the TE changing its schedule, like, really soon?

I am taking a trip on 22 on the 13th, and on 21 (return trip) on the 20th of this month.

Came back from class today to an e-mail from Amtrak with my ticket on it - now my return time is at 6:04 pm instead of 4:04 pm (not found? heh) which was what was listed before.

The Amtrak website has no new schedule for the TE, it's still the one from last November. I don't see anything in the service alerts either.

I'm sure this is legit, it's not like they were promising me $25000000 USD or telling me I needed to send them my password, it's just, it slightly freaked me out because I have issues with sudden changes....

 

[Willie1946]

Using the Schedules tab portion of the Amtrak web site I see a two hour later departure from Chicago starting on Wed Mar 18th.

 

[Ryan]

Really? I've got a reservation at the end of the month and hadn't heard anything.

More layover time in CHI is a Good Thing.

Edit: Looking at my ticket and Amtrak's website, 21 leaves CHI at 1:45 and arrives in SAS at 9:55 in both places.

 

[Willie1946]

Oh well, a little more looking and the schedule reverts back to the 1:45 departure on March 21st. Probably avoiding some kind of track maintenance window for a few days.

Bill Nash

 

[DryCreek]

OP, what is your departure and arrival station?

I am trying to wrap my head around a similar issue I discovered. If you are traveling into Arizona, then you could be seeing the results of the rest of us shifting into DST while they remain on MST.

If you look on the schedule for the TE and the SL, you will see note 69 in a box for the Arizona stations. Also, they show the stations from Benson to Yuma in the "MST" brackets. That is where they remind you about the time change - or lack thereof.

When I looked that the TE schedule it shows we should arrive in TUS at 1945 (7:45 pm). My ticket shows arrival at 1845 (6:45 pm). Again, that is a difference from the schedule caused by the shift to DST for those of us in Central and Pacific Time Zones. Now here is where I am getting confused. My ticket shows my return booking on 422 (TUS-CBR) departing at 0815 (8:15 am), which makes sense to me, in a way due to the Tuscon station NOT "springing forward" into Daylight Saving Time. The schedule shows a 0915 (9:15 am) departure. But, when I go to the Amtrak website and use their "Track A Train" application, and then bring up station information for TUS, I see that under todays departures, the EB 2/422 departed on time at 0615 (6:15 am MT)! Good heavens, what time do I need to be at the station in order to NOT miss my return booking? I am thinking that the most sensible thing to do would be for me to ask the station attendant and possibly the conductor (on departure from the train) what time to be on the platform in two days!

I'm hoping that some of the contributors here that are very familiar with LD train travel can help us understand how to extrapolate schedule times for real-world scenarios such as crossing time zones and adapting to DST (or not?).

 

[John Bobinyec]

Train 422 is actually train number 2 west of San Antonio. The Sunset Limited that left Los Angeles yesterday (3/11) is the last one which was leaving Los Angeles 2 hours early, due to track work. Under this early schedule, the train departs Tucson at 6.15 a.m.

After that train, number 2 reverts back to its normal departure times, which is 9.15 a.m. at Tucson.

However, I wouldn't want to be the one to make you miss your train, so by all means call Amtrak and ask, to be sure.

jb

 

[OBS]

And then call a second time to make sure the first person knows what they are talking about...

 

[DryCreek]

Train 422 is actually train number 2 west of San Antonio. The Sunset Limited that left Los Angeles yesterday (3/11) is the last one which was leaving Los Angeles 2 hours early, due to track work. Under this early schedule, the train departs Tucson at 6.15 a.m.

After that train, number 2 reverts back to its normal departure times, which is 9.15 a.m. at Tucson.

However, I wouldn't want to be the one to make you miss your train, so by all means call Amtrak and ask, to be sure.

jb

Ahh, early departure from LAUS due to track work. That makes it very clear now. I was trying to make some kind of sense out of the fact that the station remains on MST, yet the "Track A Train" feature on Amtraks website shows the scheduled/actual arrival and departure times at Arizona stations in MT vs. MST. It was starting to give me a headache trying to visualize time zones and standard vs. DST changes. I had almost convinced myself that the Amtrak computers must be on CDT and displayed the times according to their time zones - but corrected it to PDT to compensate for the non-changing time zone change, so that 0815 here really is 0615 there. That would be handy if I were calling the station, but not so much if I was there trying to climb aboard and see America. Or something.....

I'll be sure to ask - several different people.

 

[fillyjonk]

Using the Schedules tab portion of the Amtrak web site I see a two hour later departure from Chicago starting on Wed Mar 18th.

Thanks. That makes sense given the change. I guess they haven't got a new "timetable" schedule up yet, that's where I looked.

But given the week I've had, a change in my travel plans just kind of added to the freak out.

 

[fillyjonk]

OP, what is your departure and arrival station?

I am trying to wrap my head around a similar issue I discovered. If you are traveling into Arizona, then you could be seeing the results of the rest of us shifting into DST while they remain on MST.

If you look on the schedule for the TE and the SL, you will see note 69 in a box for the Arizona stations. Also, they show the stations from Benson to Yuma in the "MST" brackets. That is where they remind you about the time change - or lack thereof.

When I looked that the TE schedule it shows we should arrive in TUS at 1945 (7:45 pm). My ticket shows arrival at 1845 (6:45 pm). Again, that is a difference from the schedule caused by the shift to DST for those of us in Central and Pacific Time Zones. Now here is where I am getting confused. My ticket shows my return booking on 422 (TUS-CBR) departing at 0815 (8:15 am), which makes sense to me, in a way due to the Tuscon station NOT "springing forward" into Daylight Saving Time. The schedule shows a 0915 (9:15 am) departure. But, when I go to the Amtrak website and use their "Track A Train" application, and then bring up station information for TUS, I see that under todays departures, the EB 2/422 departed on time at 0615 (6:15 am MT)! Good heavens, what time do I need to be at the station in order to NOT miss my return booking? I am thinking that the most sensible thing to do would be for me to ask the station attendant and possibly the conductor (on departure from the train) what time to be on the platform in two days!

I'm hoping that some of the contributors here that are very familiar with LD train travel can help us understand how to extrapolate schedule times for real-world scenarios such as crossing time zones and adapting to DST (or not?).

Bloomington-Normal for departure, Mineola TX for arrival. Apparently it's some weird trackwork avoidance thing as someone else posted. Whatever. I'll just have to roll with it.

 

[kbmiflyer]

It looks like trains 300-303 are cancelled March 18th, while trains 304 and higher are still scheduled (I put in a fake booking CHI-BNL). Even the inbound 22 is maybe going to detour (old CEI route?), while the outbound 21's just leave later.

Agree it looks like track work.