Very Late Guaranteed Connections

[jbonner]

We boarded the Sunset Limited last Sunday in Los Angeles at about 21:30. The SL was scheduled to leave at 22:00 however we were delayed waiting for the Coast Starlight which was running late. The CS eventually arrived at 01:45 Monday (over 4 hours late) and, in turn the SL departed over 4 hours late at 02:18. The SL continued to lose time and eventually got to San Antonio over 5 hours late at 10:35.

Next, the Texas Eagle that was scheduled to leave San Antonio at 07:00 waited for the SL and finally departed over 4 hours late at 11:25. It also continued to lose time and eventually got to Chicago over 7 hours late at 21:14.

Now here is my take on this whole situation. I am guessing that Amtrak waited for very late CS and SL trains so that they would not have to deal with missed but guaranteed connections. Perhaps rather than incur the cost to reschedule connecting passengers, Amtrak chose to make passengers on SL and TE later than they would have if their trains started from LAX and SAS on time. This would have a tendency to create even more “never again” passengers.

Someone recently stated on another thread that it cost more to acquire a customer than to keep one.

Maybe Amtrak should not have held the SL for 4 hours and 18 minutes and the TE for 4 hours and 25 minutes. IMHO, this was beyond reasonable.

 

[Thirdrail7]

Now here is my take on this whole situation. I am guessing that Amtrak waited for very late CS and SL trains so that they would not have to deal with missed but guaranteed connections. Perhaps rather than incur the cost to reschedule connecting passengers, Amtrak chose to make passengers on SL and TE later than they would have if their trains started from LAX and SAS on time. This would have a tendency to create even more “never again” passengers.

Someone recently stated on another thread that it cost more to acquire a customer than to keep one.

Maybe Amtrak should not have held the SL for 4 hours and 18 minutes and the TE for 4 hours and 25 minutes. IMHO, this was beyond reasonable.

Sometimes it is the lesser of the available evils. This is particularly true if there isn't space on the next scheduled train and/or their is a shortage of lodging in the connecting city. This happens more than you think.

Another aspect that you are overlooking is perhaps the train was going to leave late anyway. With all of the late arrivals, they might have needed to wait for equipment or crews. There was a situation that occurred recently in which a connecting train was held because the train was going to be held for crew rest anyway. By the time they were available under the Hours of Service law, the actual wait for the connection was projected to be another 40 mins.

At that point, why not wait?

 

[the_traveler]

Another consideration is that the SL only operates 3 days a week. So for someone going from say PDX to TUC or EMY to ELP, Amtrak would have to put them in a hotel in LA until the next train. However, the next train would not be for 2-3 days. So Amtrak would have no choice but to pay for a hotel for 2-3 nights if they did not hold the SL.

In SAS, the northbound TE is a continuation of the TE/SL arriving from LA. That is why the departing TE was also held.

 

[Steve4031]

I'm connecting to the sunset limited tomorrow. I hope they wait, but that they don't have to wait 4 hours.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Amtrak would have no choice but to pay for a hotel for 2-3 nights if they did not hold the SL.

In reality Amtrak has other options available to them. If you look closely and parse the language you can see that Amtrak's Force Majeure terms are so vague and so broad that they could probably be applied to almost any conceivable situation. All this talk of guarantees should probably come with a disclaimer that reminds travelers that in Amtrak's case a guarantee is nothing more than a promise to refund the unused portion of your affected trip. Anything else provided is at Amtrak's sole discretion.