What.s up with Texas Eagle today?

[BillB]

Wondering if anyone knows the cause of the delay fotr the Texas Eagle (21) today?

TIA,

Bill

 

[saxman]

Not really sure. It left Chicago over 2 hour late yesterday. Could have been bad equipment that had to changed out at the last minute or something like that.

 

[Ryan]

I think that it held for a late arriving 49.

 

[VentureForth]

It's the "Texas Eagle". I'd like to see a time when it's not running late.

It usually does run late. Not days late, but typically it seems to run 1-2 hours late. I think a lot of this is caused by extraordinarily high ridership and it take a LONG time to get those pax on the train in places like Ft Worth, Dallas, St. Louis, etc.

 

[montgomerySutton]

And with temperatures still around 105 in Texas, the trains can't reach normal max speeds because of safety concerns re: internal rail temperature, I believe...

 

[Bob Dylan]

And with temperatures still around 105 in Texas, the trains can't reach normal max speeds because of safety concerns re: internal rail temperature, I believe...

All valid points re leaving CHI late, heavy ridership, Slow orders due to the Heat plus there is track work and UP is increasingly running more and longer freights and gravel/coal trains! There are several points on this route that seem to be bottlenecks, between CHI and STL, in the Boonies of Missouri/Arkansas, around Marshall/Longview/Mineola in East Texas and between FTW and AUS!! Makes for long waits in Taylor for #21 after a Point run for Bar-B-Q!! :help: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[montgomerySutton]

Yeah -- I can also speak to the MAJOR UP delays and delays due to heavy ridership. My #21 out of Dallas last week took almost the whole 20 minutes allotted just to get passengers off, before the large group of embarking passengers even began to board. Several disabled passengers, a few children, plus many groups of older and confused riders all were competing for the attention of Amtrak personnel, so we stood in the 105+ heat for 20 minutes before even getting our tickets looked at. Then we had dozens of significant delays for UP traffic, the worst was when we sat at Temple for well over an hour, just waiting on UP. As you can imagine, lots of anger onboard... especially because UP wouldn't give Amtrak any kind of ETA, so we never knew if we would be holding for 3 minutes or 2 hours.

 

[had8ley]

Add one unit for acceleration and HEP out of sidings and main line holds and you're adding time in addition to shooting the dice on a lone GE.

 

[BillB]

Dropped my son off at Union Station in Dallas. He was worried he was going to be late, but apparently the Eagle was waiting for 3 (three) freight trains to pass before they could pull into the station. Seems like Amtrak could have negotiated some higher priority. Guessing politics left UP with all the cards and Amtrak with the empty pack. Like a high school freshman boy on the first day of high school dodging the upperclassmen and hearing--"Outta my way, punk!"

 

[BillB]

5:33 and still no Eagle landing in Dallas.

 

[R.M.]

I'm on the Eagle now. We were delayed 2 1/2 hours leaving Union Station yesterday due to a burst pipe in the 2130 sleeper car. They had no spare sleepers in the yards and so they had to repair it. Today it's been nothing but start and stop waiting for freights between Texarkana and Dallas. In fact I can see downtown Dallas at this moment but once again we're stopped. Who the heck knows when we'll get to San Antonio tonight.

 

[Steve4031]

22 is caught up in this mess too according to Amtrak status maps. It left Ft. Worth but is not yet into Dallas.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

It sounds like another fast Taxi Van ride north for pax making connections to the Heartland Flyer. Just over a week ago I was treated to this and we left FTW just before 6:30 which is about an hour after the Flyer left. Our Van went nonstop to Norman (except for a fuel/snack stop in Denton) and we arrived Norman 5 minutes BEFORE the Flyer.

 

[spidersfan351]

While it still sucks, I think that once any train gets held up like that out of the gate, it seems to miss it's "slot" the rest of the way in crowded corridors. I'm not taking up for UP, CSX or BNSF (all of whom have held trains of mine for 'highball' empty grain trains) but the reality seems to be that it gets pretty tough after that. Granted, all such info is annecdotal, it just seems more likely that a "body in motion remains in motion" and a train that is slow about it, well, doesn't.

Does anyone know how the incentives work for the freight roads for OTP, specifically after a train is already delayed or not delayed on their "watch"? Pure speculation, but I wonder if once Amtrak has caused a delay, the freight road is no longer on the hook for OTP. Thus, they have justification (in their eyes) to clear their lines before they are seriously interested in moving the poor Eagle, Cardinal, Capitol, etc. Memories of sitting aboard a 6 hour late Empire Builder, in the hole waiting for eastbound coal drags in North Dakota comes to mind.