AmtrakerBx
Train Attendant
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2002
- Messages
- 44
Return to index
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What makes a train late?
By Leo King
Editor
How do Amtrak’s trains get to be so late sometimes?
Consider last week’s Nos. 91 and 97 on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Amtrak’s spokesman in Washington, Cliff Black, tells us the delays are not all CSX’s fault.
The trains operate over Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor between New York City, where they originate, until they pass south of the District of Columbia.
He specifically looked into No. 97’s delays. At the outset, No. 97 had problems.
It incurred “a 70-minute delay at departure from New York Penn Station when bad-order toilets on a sleeping car required the car to be shopped and another car substituted.”
Later, according to the train log, “22 CSX speed restrictions because of track conditions created a total of 75 minutes of delay on the run.”
Summertime is, as railroaders are quite aware, when major track upgrades and repairs are made.
“Five incidents of freight interference produced delays of 42 minutes,” he added, and noted, “There were other communications and signals (C&S) related delays that didn’t amount to much.”
Sometimes, though, Amtrak’s trains get in each other’s way, especially if it’s a single-track route with passing sidings, as much of CSX is.
“There were five incidents of passenger train interference en route (other Amtrak trains) causing 20 minutes delay to 97. Are these CSX problems? Perhaps, depending on dispatching and physical plant limitation. Hard to tell.”
A minute here, a minute there, and it all begins to add up.
Black said en-route delays “not attributable to CSX included eight minutes at Richmond ‘checking wheels;’ three minutes ‘heavy travel’ at Wilmington, Del.; eight minutes loading baggage at Charleston; and five minutes at Savannah to use a wheelchair lift. Double stops at several stations produced a total of about eight minutes delay.”
In all, that added up to about a half-hour. “Heavy travel” is a term railroaders use to describe many people getting on or off the train – and their luggage.
“All told, about two hours of the total delay was directly attributable to CSX,” he noted, “but approximately one hour and 42 minutes was attributable to Amtrak itself.”
No. 97 accumulated about four hours delay over all. It was clocked into Miami at 11:22 p.m., 1 hour and 36 minutes late. That means there is about two and one-half hours pad in the schedule, at least according to my unscientific review, he said.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What makes a train late?
By Leo King
Editor
How do Amtrak’s trains get to be so late sometimes?
Consider last week’s Nos. 91 and 97 on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Amtrak’s spokesman in Washington, Cliff Black, tells us the delays are not all CSX’s fault.
The trains operate over Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor between New York City, where they originate, until they pass south of the District of Columbia.
He specifically looked into No. 97’s delays. At the outset, No. 97 had problems.
It incurred “a 70-minute delay at departure from New York Penn Station when bad-order toilets on a sleeping car required the car to be shopped and another car substituted.”
Later, according to the train log, “22 CSX speed restrictions because of track conditions created a total of 75 minutes of delay on the run.”
Summertime is, as railroaders are quite aware, when major track upgrades and repairs are made.
“Five incidents of freight interference produced delays of 42 minutes,” he added, and noted, “There were other communications and signals (C&S) related delays that didn’t amount to much.”
Sometimes, though, Amtrak’s trains get in each other’s way, especially if it’s a single-track route with passing sidings, as much of CSX is.
“There were five incidents of passenger train interference en route (other Amtrak trains) causing 20 minutes delay to 97. Are these CSX problems? Perhaps, depending on dispatching and physical plant limitation. Hard to tell.”
A minute here, a minute there, and it all begins to add up.
Black said en-route delays “not attributable to CSX included eight minutes at Richmond ‘checking wheels;’ three minutes ‘heavy travel’ at Wilmington, Del.; eight minutes loading baggage at Charleston; and five minutes at Savannah to use a wheelchair lift. Double stops at several stations produced a total of about eight minutes delay.”
In all, that added up to about a half-hour. “Heavy travel” is a term railroaders use to describe many people getting on or off the train – and their luggage.
“All told, about two hours of the total delay was directly attributable to CSX,” he noted, “but approximately one hour and 42 minutes was attributable to Amtrak itself.”
No. 97 accumulated about four hours delay over all. It was clocked into Miami at 11:22 p.m., 1 hour and 36 minutes late. That means there is about two and one-half hours pad in the schedule, at least according to my unscientific review, he said.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
