Westbound Wolverine 355 2 Hours Late

[reppin_the_847]

You read the part where there were a lot of other things that delayed you, right?

Trust me, the politicians don't like it any more than you do. Perhaps if people would stop shooting them, it'd be a little less painful for everyone.

Last I checked no politicians are getting shot out here. Joe Biden could care less whether or not the Wolverine was delayed I'm sure. He wasn't even a passenger on the darn train. Besides, he is not NEARLY as big of a potential target to lunatics as the gentleman that he reports to in the White House. The weather conditions were crystal clear last night as well.

If there were significant signal problems, perhaps the agents at the Ann Arbor station could have elaborated upon that. And yes, I noticed that part of the crew switched up in Jackson instead of Battle Creek due to the mounting delays (we sat in Jackson for a while).

Are you upset that I called up Amtrak and successfully received a travel certificate for this? That's probably the only reason I'll just let bygones be bygones for now.

People in general seem to be split among the type of folks that either think for themselves or bow down to authority blindly. Perhaps you fall into the latter category?

 

[Acela150]

You read the part where there were a lot of other things that delayed you, right?

Trust me, the politicians don't like it any more than you do. Perhaps if people would stop shooting them, it'd be a little less painful for everyone.

Of course the OP did.... :angry2: Let's be real Ryan, any time an Amtrak train is late there's always that one person who HAS to call CR and b**ch and moan and demand some kind of compensation. Granted this is something stupid to be complaining about.

Another question to raise is, was this signal work on the Amtrak section or foreign RR??

 

[Ryan]

I'd ask what the clear weather has to do with anything, but I'm pretty sure I don't care.

I'm not upset at all, I'm amused by your outburst.

 

[Triley]

You read the part where there were a lot of other things that delayed you, right?

Trust me, the politicians don't like it any more than you do. Perhaps if people would stop shooting them, it'd be a little less painful for everyone.

Of course the OP did.... :angry2: Let's be real Ryan, any time an Amtrak train is late there's always that one person who HAS to call CR and b**ch and moan and demand some kind of compensation. Granted this is something stupid to be complaining about.

Another question to raise is, was this signal work on the Amtrak section or foreign RR??

Norfolk Southern, since you asked.

 

[reppin_the_847]

You read the part where there were a lot of other things that delayed you, right?

Trust me, the politicians don't like it any more than you do. Perhaps if people would stop shooting them, it'd be a little less painful for everyone.

Of course the OP did.... :angry2: Let's be real Ryan, any time an Amtrak train is late there's always that one person who HAS to call CR and b**ch and moan and demand some kind of compensation. Granted this is something stupid to be complaining about.

Another question to raise is, was this signal work on the Amtrak section or foreign RR??

So you're also upset that I called up Amtrak and received a travel certificate lol. I don't know about you, but I'm not exactly rolling in the dough. When I'm inconvenienced like this, I will take every travel certificate dollar I can get from Amtrak. I have a family to feed after all and I'm not some wealthy scion swimming in cash.

Perhaps if our rail system wasn't a pseudo-government agency to begin with the operation would be run a lot more efficiently!

 

[reppin_the_847]

I'd ask what the clear weather has to do with anything, but I'm pretty sure I don't care.

I'm not upset at all, I'm amused by your outburst.

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I'm not really that upset. I just wanted everyone to know the biggest single reason why the Wolverine ran that late last night since it wasn't really publicized otherwise.

The reason I mentioned the weather was because a very large percentage of delays on that line in the winter are due to weather-related reasons. I'm not nearly as upset in those instances because not a single one of us has any control over the weather. A politician on the other hand is a human being and he or she has some level of control or influence over the situation.

 

[Acela150]

You read the part where there were a lot of other things that delayed you, right?

Trust me, the politicians don't like it any more than you do. Perhaps if people would stop shooting them, it'd be a little less painful for everyone.

Of course the OP did.... :angry2: Let's be real Ryan, any time an Amtrak train is late there's always that one person who HAS to call CR and b**ch and moan and demand some kind of compensation. Granted this is something stupid to be complaining about.

Another question to raise is, was this signal work on the Amtrak section or foreign RR??

Norfolk Southern, since you asked.

No further comment from me..

 

[Ryan]

I'm not really that upset. I just wanted everyone to know the biggest single reason why the Wolverine ran that late last night since it wasn't really publicized otherwise.

Except for that part where it wasn't the reason that you claimed that it was. Damn those pesky facts.

 

[Ryan]

No further comment from me..

Don't you work for NS now? You should shell out some of your paycheck to this guy to make up for his inconvenience. I'm holding you personally responsible for it.

 

[Triley]

You read the part where there were a lot of other things that delayed you, right?

Trust me, the politicians don't like it any more than you do. Perhaps if people would stop shooting them, it'd be a little less painful for everyone.

Of course the OP did.... :angry2: Let's be real Ryan, any time an Amtrak train is late there's always that one person who HAS to call CR and b**ch and moan and demand some kind of compensation. Granted this is something stupid to be complaining about.

Another question to raise is, was this signal work on the Amtrak section or foreign RR??

Norfolk Southern, since you asked.

No further comment from me..

It's hard not to, isn't it? I feel the same. lol

 

[reppin_the_847]

I'm not really that upset. I just wanted everyone to know the biggest single reason why the Wolverine ran that late last night since it wasn't really publicized otherwise.

Except for that part where it wasn't the reason that you claimed that it was. Damn those pesky facts.

So are you saying that the reports show that the signal issues were the primary cause of the delay & not the motorcade that the Ann Arbor staff kept mentioning repeatedly to passengers repeatedly for two hours in the waiting room? Where did you get this information from?

I'd be happy to take back a lot of what I said if Norfolk Southern was indeed the primary cause of the delay lol. I just have a hard time believing it.

 

[Ryan]

You made the claim that it was all on the VP. Objective evidence shows that wasn't the only cause of delay. Burden of proof is on you to show how much of it was because of the VP if you want to keep claiming that it's all his fault.

Motorcades don't delay trains for hours at a stretch - they come and go quickly. That comes from personal experience, living most of my life in DC, it's just a part of life you get used to.

 

[reppin_the_847]

You made the claim that it was all on the VP. Objective evidence shows that wasn't the only cause of delay. Burden of proof is on you to show how much of it was because of the VP if you want to keep claiming that it's all his fault.

Motorcades don't delay trains for hours at a stretch - they come and go quickly. That comes from personal experience, living most of my life in DC, it's just a part of life you get used to.

If that's the case, there was poor communication on the part of the staff I dealt with at Ann Arbor. Obviously the VP wasn't the only cause of the delay; a multitude of factors routinely delay Amtrak trains. However, the staff at Ann Arbor kept repeating to the pax in the lobby that the motorcade was the cause of the 2+ hour delay near Royal Oak. Based on that information, one would be led to believe that the VP and his motorcade was indeed the primary cause of that excessive delay. That initial delay ballooned up to almost a 3 hour & 20 minute delay to my eventual destination. That delay is greater than the actual duration of my scheduled trip.

One more thing...during the actual delay, the ETA was not being updated at all on Amtrak.com or in the Amtrak app. The staff attributed the lack of updates due to the fact that the delay was due to the motorcade.

 

[Ryan]

Obviously the VP wasn't the only cause of the delay;

I recommend you go ahead and change your misleading thread title, then.

 

[reppin_the_847]

Obviously the VP wasn't the only cause of the delay;

I recommend you go ahead and change your misleading thread title, then.

The motorcade still caused the bulk of the delays per the information I was given from Amtrak yesterday. That's all I can say.

Do you have a report that describes otherwise?

 

[Ryan]

Yep, it was posted upthread by an Amtrak employee. Substantiate your claim or retract it.

 

[reppin_the_847]

Just so you know, I looked in to it and there was also a scheduled signal outage that did nothing but make the delay worse. And then the train was also held up to let 354 meet up with it, so 355 could be recrewed.

Also, I don't really understand why you're mad at Amtrak? If someone high up in government is around, security really tightens up and trains, planes, buses all grind to a halt in that surrounding area as required. That decision isn't left up to the company.

I found an article on TrainOrders from a few years ago. http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,1593607 Might be worth taking a look at.

So Triley if you're still around (perhaps tomorrow). Do you know how much of the delay percentage-wise could be attributed to VP Joe Biden's motorcade as opposed to the other factors that you mentioned? I don't think I'll be able to sleep at night until I get the conclusive answer from you that I can share with Ryan lol.

 

[Triley]

Just so you know, I looked in to it and there was also a scheduled signal outage that did nothing but make the delay worse. And then the train was also held up to let 354 meet up with it, so 355 could be recrewed.

Also, I don't really understand why you're mad at Amtrak? If someone high up in government is around, security really tightens up and trains, planes, buses all grind to a halt in that surrounding area as required. That decision isn't left up to the company.

I found an article on TrainOrders from a few years ago. http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,1593607 Might be worth taking a look at.

So Triley if you're still around (perhaps tomorrow). Do you know how much of the delay percentage-wise could be attributed to VP Joe Biden's motorcade as opposed to the other factors that you mentioned? I don't think I'll be able to sleep at night until I get the conclusive answer from you that I can share with Ryan lol.

That I don't know. They would have had to log every delay as a separate delay and give the reason behind it, but as OBS I don't have access to that. I just see comments entered about trains from different stations, about "possible" delays due to the motorcade, and then actual delays due to the scheduled signal outrage.

 

[SarahZ]

I can think of many things worth losing sleep over.

This is not one of them.

 

[reppin_the_847]

I can think of many things worth losing sleep over.

This is not one of them.

I was being sarcastic.

While I respect Triley's informative response, I don't think it's sufficient enough to refute Amtrak (ARB staff's) claim yesterday that the bulk of the delay was attributed to the motorcade. Therefore I'm not changing the topic of the thread. I'm pretty much done saying what I have to say though from a passenger perspective.

 

[Anderson]

I've edited the topic title since, based on the discussion, it seems like there were several causes of the delay that cascaded...and of course, nobody on here has ever seen a delay cascade. Nope, never. Not at all.

By the way, on the Biden front, from what I understand Biden does not enjoy the Secret Service circus surrounding him. There was an article back during part of the sequestration or shutdown mess where Biden indicated that he was happy to at least not be forced to take military transports and the like around and was at least able to choose to take the train. From what I understand, the Secret Service actually has a bit more remit around the President, VP, etc. than the officials in question might prefer at times (and I'm going to bet that this is more the case with Biden than with anyone else in those top two office...probably since Truman famously shaking his security detail for poker games in Key West). However, the Secret Service won't let them have more "room to wander", so to speak, since the last time they did that was when they let JFK use an open car in Dallas.

Finally, I highly doubt that Biden (or Obama, or anyone else) get informed of who/what they're inconveniencing 99% of the time. It is highly likely that, even allowing for the motorcade (or something related to it) causing the delays, Biden wasn't told that he was specifically holding up a given train.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

I am by no means rich. Just barely getting by, and I would not ask Amtrak to reimburse me for a late train because I was told that something outside of their control was delaying my train.

Wonder who reppin_the_847 would go to to collect reimbursement for wasted gas if s/he got stuck in traffic for 2 hours because of a motorcade.

 

[andersone]

my favorite delay story involves junior, the second Bush

I work at a place that is secured by gates, and they held us for almost an hour because his motorcade was going up the main highway on the west side of the plant. My drive home doesn't go three miles near this road but they held us without pay until he was up the road. Best reason I ever had to vote against a politician.

 

[reppin_the_847]

I am by no means rich. Just barely getting by, and I would not ask Amtrak to reimburse me for a late train because I was told that something outside of their control was delaying my train.

Wonder who reppin_the_847 would go to to collect reimbursement for wasted gas if s/he got stuck in traffic for 2 hours because of a motorcade.

Do you commute weekly via Amtrak? I've been commuting weekly on the rails. I wouldn't go collecting for wasted gas because it's not an option. Thanks to Amtrak's Customer Relations team, however, travel certificates are an option. They never actually give you money back to your credit card so it's not a true expense to them in that sense. They've already collected the revenue of the original ticket. Are you afraid that Amtrak is losing money when customers get compensated like this?

 

[reppin_the_847]

I've edited the topic title since, based on the discussion, it seems like there were several causes of the delay that cascaded...and of course, nobody on here has ever seen a delay cascade. Nope, never. Not at all.

By the way, on the Biden front, from what I understand Biden does not enjoy the Secret Service circus surrounding him. There was an article back during part of the sequestration or shutdown mess where Biden indicated that he was happy to at least not be forced to take military transports and the like around and was at least able to choose to take the train. From what I understand, the Secret Service actually has a bit more remit around the President, VP, etc. than the officials in question might prefer at times (and I'm going to bet that this is more the case with Biden than with anyone else in those top two office...probably since Truman famously shaking his security detail for poker games in Key West). However, the Secret Service won't let them have more "room to wander", so to speak, since the last time they did that was when they let JFK use an open car in Dallas.

Finally, I highly doubt that Biden (or Obama, or anyone else) get informed of who/what they're inconveniencing 99% of the time. It is highly likely that, even allowing for the motorcade (or something related to it) causing the delays, Biden wasn't told that he was specifically holding up a given train.

That is fine. Since you're a moderator on this forum I can live with the topic title adjustment & the explanation is sufficient. At least people can view within the thread that the motorcade was still a major factor that contributed to the delay.