What is your latest arrival? Earliest arrival?

[Bill Haithcoat]

What is the latest you a have ever arrived at your destination? I have been nine hours late twice, and eight hours late once. Both of the nine hour delays were pre-Amtrak: one on the California Zephyr, due to flooding in the Feather River Canyon. The other on The Georgian from Chicago to Chattanooga, due to re-routing around freight wrecks. Under Amtrak my latest was, you guessed it, the Sunset Limited into LA , eight hours late a couple of years ago.

Surprisingly, my earliest arrival was 45 minutes early on Amtrak's Sunset Limited into New Orleans a number of years ago.

What have been your experiences?

 

[seajay]

As a relatively infrequent rider I don't have much experience being early or late. I think I was a couple of minutes early into Pittsburgh (from Chicago) on the Three Rivers about 14 months ago. Numerous times I've been a couple of hours late on the east-bound Zephyr from Mount Pleasant, IA into Chicago. A couple of times on the Capitol Limited from Chicago to Washington, DC I've been 2-3 hours late. On the City of New Orleans from Chicago to New Orleans, we were also 2-3 hours late.

These trips have been spread out over the course of the past 10 years. This isn't much from which to gain much statistical information. Luckily, though, I've never had to deal with a major problem that caused the train to be many hours late.

seajay

 

[Amfleet]

January 7-8, 2000 I was on the Auto Train from Sanford to Lorton. We departed Sanford at 11:00 pm (6 1/2 hours late) and arrived in Lorton at 8:00 pm the next day (11 hours late). The delays were mostly caused by numerous CSX signal malfunctions, hot boxes, and the crew went dead somewhere in South Carolina.

On the flip side in March 1999 the Auto Train arrived into Lorton at 8:30 am (30 minutes early). B)

 

[Coach34135]

Surprisingly, my earliest arrival was 45 minutes early on Amtrak's Sunset Limited into New Orleans a number of years ago.
What have been your experiences?

45 min early! WOW!

My SL ride was 4 hrs late into NOL and returning 6 hrs late into LAX.

 

[tp49]

My worst delay was 4 hours on a corridor train. I've been anywhere from 5 minutes late to two hours on other services.

Normally the train I ride arrives in Sac 15 minutes early, but the best I ever did on being early was on the NB Adirondack when we had to be bussed from Albany to Montreal due to trackwork on the D&H north of Schnectady. Even with the hour and a half we spent at the border we were 2 hours earlier into Montreal than the train would have been.

 

[jccollins]

About 9 1/2 hours late into LAX on the Coast Starlight. I didn't even need the hotel reservation I had made that night; the hotel made me pay anyway, though. 30 minutes early into Bakersfield on the San Joaquins was my earliest arrival, and I have no idea how the crew managed it when that train runs on such a tight schedule as it is.

 

[EmpireBuilderFan]

The earliest that I've arrived at my destination has been 35 minutes early into Portland on the Empire Builder, which has happened actually quite frequently. The latest was three hours into Devils Lake, ND. The Builder is scheduled to arrive in Devils Lake at 11:32 PM, but didn't get there until 2:30 AM.

One time that I rode the Empire Builder from Portland, we arrived in Spokane at 11:15 PM, an hour early. A few minutes later, the Seattle section arrived, also an hour early. We ended up waiting two hours in Spokane for the scheduled departure time. This is one of those (unfortunately rare) times where the schedule padding is actually wasted time.

 

[gswager]

Is anyone beating 1 hour early arrival time?

My SW Chief from LAX arrived ABQ at 11:30 am instead of 12:30 (okay, it's 12:29 pm) on Thursday, Sept. 5.

Poor passengers on continue journey have to wait for almost 2 hours on fuel stop in ABQ.

Latest arrival I've ever had was about 2 hours on CA Zephyr and Coast Starlate few years ago.

 

[Superliner Diner]

Hmm, fresh in my mind is a trip I just took a few days ago, on the Crescent round trip between Washington, DC and Atlanta, GA. In both directions (Train 19(7) and 20(8) ) the train was 10 minutes early into my destination. Hats off to Norfolk Southern for excellent dispatching!

The latest train I was on is probably the Texas Eagle I took from Chicago to Fort Worth, TX about 4 years ago. We were delayed by everything imaginable, from slow freights to employees not immediately getting to work on switching operations in St. Louis, to slow orders due to possible heat kinks (it was 113 degrees in Texas that August day). On that trip, we were over 4-1/2 hours late. The benefit of our late arrival is that it was after 9 PM, and when it got dark it had cooled down to a chilly 109 degrees.

During that same vacation, I was supposed to take the Sunset Limited from San Antonio to Jacksonville. When we got into San Antonio on 21 it was learned that Train 2 was running ten hours late. Why? Simply because Train 1 of the preceeding day had gotten into Los Angeles 18 hours late, and they needed time to turn the train and rest the crews. This experience does not qualify for this topic, however, because they put us on a bus from San Antonio to New Orleans, where we arrived hours before the train would have gotten there had it been on time. At New Orleans, a make-up train became an on-time Train 2 and we proceeded to Jacksonville, where we arrived 15 minutes ahead of schedule! And here I had been thinking of cancelling my hotel reservations there expecting we would get to JAX 10 hours or more late.

 

[seajay]

I guess the latest departure I've ever had was the one that didn't depart at all! The eastbound Cardinal departing Chicago on December 23, 2000 was cancelled. I was going as far as Clifton Forge, VA.

I flew into Roanoke, VA (my actual final destination) the next day. I arrived in Roanoke about an hour before I would have gotten into Clifton Forge on the Cardinal. Counting the ~1 hour drive time between Clifton Forge and Roanoake I guess I arrived 2 hours early!!

:lol:

seajay

 

[Chatter163]

This past summer I arrived ten minutes early into Penn Station on the Crescent. Several weeks later I arrived 11 houres late (the next morning) on the Sunset Limited into Orlando. Actually we did not even make it into Orlando; the train terminated one stop earlier at Sanford. :lol:

 

[Viewliner]

Chatter, its two stops, you forgot Winter Park.

Earliest, was a little around an hour early on the Silver Meteor. Latest was an Hour or Two on a Silver Service Train I guess, maybe the Day after the Auto Train Derailment, my train was a little late, then had to go via TPA, and I had to take a car from Jacksonville to Orlando.

 

[battalion51]

Well I personally don't keep track of my latest arrival, but I do hav my stories. Latest arrivals were last week (Thank God for access to ARROW). All trains originating last Thursday had major issues on the east coast. To run down the list P052 8 hours late, P053 11 hours late, P092/P098 combo 11 hours late by 92's card, P089 equipment 12 hours late (including no stop in TPA), P097 6 hours late. Earliest arrival was back in July when P089's Engineer was very anxious to get home, 45 minutes early into Miami.

 

[jrmaltman]

June 2001 Coast Starlight, San Jose to Seattle. Train was stopped due to forest fire near SLO. We were to board Sunday evening, did not get on until Monday 11 AM, Arrived PDX Tuesday mid-morning, bussed to Seattle, arrived18 hours late.... needless to say I am now the proud owner of a service guarentee certificate that will be used soon !!!!!!!

 

[Amtrak Watcher]

I travel with Amtrak about 2 times a month almost always on an over-night trip of some kind. I don’t know what this makes me: a frequent or infrequent traveler. But I can not remember a late arrival of more than 2 hours any time the past two years. The latest arrivals were an east-bound Capital Limited into Washington, D.C. in late 2001, and a south-bound Coast Starlight into LAX the same year. Both were just over 2 hours late. My earliest arrival was by 14 hours on a west-bound Sunset Limited into LAX. The train stopped in San Antonio when it couldn’t go further to the west due to some kind of accident in west Texas. Everyone was put on some kind alternative transportation depending on the final destination. I was put on a plane to LAX, which got me to my destination a day early.

 

[italiancanuck89]

I was 8 hrs late on the LSL this past summer (August 02). The reason, 2-3 hrs out of ALB because the Harley-Davidson bikers where having their annual get together in Iowa, I think it was. It took extra time to get that set up. So, pretty much there were 2 trains put together that night/day. Then we lost more time sitting in TOL because of a problem with one of the coaches trucks. Something to do with the brakes, i think. We arrived in CHI at about 7pm-7:30pm instead of a 11:45am arrival. By then, 48 should have been boarding but because the set i was on turns and goes back as 48, it wasn't even close to being ready. I think the consist went something like this:

3 Units

Baggage

Crew Sleeper

Viewliner Sleeper

Diner

Lounge

6 Amfleet Coaches

Viewliner

Baggage

2 Amfleet Coaches

Lounge

Diner

Viewliner Sleeper

5 Express Cars carrying thier motorcycles.

I'm pretty sure it was 5 express cars. I saved the consist on my computer disk, but the disk some how became unformatted later on and i lost info going back to '95. It sucked soooo bad.

 

[WoodenMike]

9-11-01

I worked the Broncos Monday Night Football game, and after the 9-11 tragidy, we sat in the Denver station nearly 12 hours while they inspected every inch of track.

Most of the Passengers took the correct attitude, "Let's roll! We don't want these cowards to control our lives!"

What a set-up.

And now, we have the American *****, in the guise of Homeland Security.

So sad.

 

[Brandon]

In June 2002, I was 10 hours late on the Texas Eagle into Chicago. Had to be put up for the night, etc. but Amtrak handled it well. Near Tower 55 (FTW) we sat for four hours. I still ride as often as possible.

I have never arrived on Amtrak early, but hope to do so on my next trip - on the Empire Builder!

 

[Amfleet]

In June 2002, I was 10 hours late on the Texas Eagle into Chicago. Had to be put up for the night, etc. but Amtrak handled it well. Near Tower 55 (FTW) we sat for four hours. I still ride as often as possible.
I have never arrived on Amtrak early, but hope to do so on my next trip - on the Empire Builder!

You may get lucky. The Empire Builder has the best on-time performance among the other 17 long-distance trains. B)

 

[EmpireBuilderFan]

Brandon,

You'll probably be on time, if not early, on the Empire Builder if you're hitting one of the end stations (Chicago, Portland, or Seattle). Thanks to the padding throughout the schedule, I've frequently gotten on the Builder an hour late in North Dakota and still arrive 30 minutes early into Portland, OR.