Train 14 (the Coast Starlight ) on 8/04/12 arrived Seattle 4 hours 34

[railpost]

Hi , I was wondering if anyone out there might know why the Coast Starlight (train 14) arrive Seattle at 1:19 am Sunday morning instead of at 8:45PM on Saturday night?

I'm a long time train advocate and fan so I am aware that Amtrak runs late however 4 and a half hours late is exceptionally late especially for the Coast Starlight ,which I thought had a better service record then that.

I wasn't on the train but I have some very good friends ( a family of three) who were riding the Starlight and are on a multi destination trip out west and are taking Amtrak largely because of my encouragement and how much I have recommended traveling via Amtrak and the great experience of traveling by train. I haven't heard from them yet but they were supposed to be checking into a hotel last night and on Monday afternoon they will be catching a one week cruise to Alaska and then they will be taking the Empire Builder to Glacier National Park for a few day before heading back home to Chicago.

Now I know that Empire builder has been running very late (like 2 to 4 hours) but 4 hours for the Coast Starlight seems a bit a unusual? Or has that become a frequent thing on 14 as well?

I am from CHicago so I really haven't been following the Coast Starlight's punctuality very much until these friends took this trip.

They rode the Southwest Chief to Williams Junction and the Grand Canyon first and it seems like that have been having a good time so far, despite number 3 arriving into Williams Junction about 2 hours late on Thursday night.

Thanks to anyone out there might know the reason for the 4 hour plus delay.

Railpost

 

[brandon02852]

I cannot give you a definitive answer, but the usual case for such a delay is a combination of...

1. Engine breaking down

2. Heat slows

3. Delays of loading/unloading passengers at stations (can add up if the train stops frequently)

4 Miscellaneous technical issues

I am sure you will find out when you get in touch with your three friends.

 

[williamflemming]

well, It suddenly lost 3 hours:

* SLM * * 2 203P * 422P Departed: 2 hours and 19 minutes late. * PDX 2 340P 2 420P 900P 924P Departed: 5 hours and 4 minutes late.

 

[brandon02852]

In that case, I would attribute that to a breakdown.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

For some reason I cannot open Amtrak Status Maps.

In that case, I would attribute that to a breakdown.

It may also have been an accident

If it did break down, why?

The previous two hours of delays were probably caused by freights blocking the way.

 

[railpost]

Swadian I'll bet that you are right as a 2 hour delay seems more expectable then a 4 hour delay. I'll have to speak to my friends who were on that Coast Starlight to see if they found out any good information.

 

[fairviewroad]

There was a "signal problem" with the Steel Bridge just south of PDX train station. I don't know

where #14 waited out the problem (obviously somewhere between Salem and Portland) but

that bridge is very close to the PDX station so it's possible some poor souls on the

train were less than a mile from their destination during the entire delay.

The same problem also screwed things up for passengers on Amtrak Cascades train 507.

It also affected MAX light rail trains, which use the upper level.

I have no idea if this was connected, but PDX hit 102 degrees on Saturday which was a record

for that date.

To the OP: As a rule, the CS has been doing fairly well arriving into Seattle. There's a huge amount

of padding on the north end of the line. The "average" delay over the past month into SEA has been

52 minutes, but if you take out 3 outliers, the train has been basically arriving on schedule. (thanks

to that padding)