What was your earliest arrival?

[Bill Haithcoat]

This supplements the posts asking about latest arrivals and best and worst trips.

I think my earliest arrival was 45 minutes into New Orleans on the Sunset Limited about 10 years ago.

About four years ago I was one solid hour early into Denver on the eastbound CZ. But this does not count because it was not my end point---my end point was Chicago. Though I had passed through Denver several times through the years(both Amtrak and pre) this was the first time I had had time to get out and explore the station and the downtown.

One of my fondest early arrivals was my very last trip, in Feb. of this year, on the Crescent from WAS into my hometown of ATL. It arrived 25 minutes early. That surprised me. Now.....I am fully aware how the schedules are often padded arriving into the bigger cities,etc.....but even so....this was still the earliest I had seen it in all my years of riding it and stopping by the station just to watch.

 

[Anthony]

45 minutes early on the Coast Starlight a few years back... I was shocked!

 

[Amtrak Watcher]

All of my many trips on the west-bound Empire Builder into Portland, Oregon were always about 20 to 40 minutes early. I can't remember it ever being on time or late; always early.

 

[jccollins]

All of my many trips on the west-bound Empire Builder into Portland, Oregon were always about 20 to 40 minutes early. I can't remember it ever being on time or late; always early.

Yep - that's BNSF at work for you! B)

 

[warbonnet]

45 minutes early into albuquerque eastbound on the SW Chief.

 

[P40Power]

The three car Eagle I took back from St Louis in 97 arrived about 7 minutes early in Chicago, thats the earliest Ive ever ridden on. Ive seen the Boston Section of the Lake Shore westbound pull into Albany 20-30 minutes early on occasions before.

 

[Viewliner]

I think like 40 minutes early into Newark on #98 a couple of years back (we were somehow able to maintain our early arrival because WAS-NYP is Discharge only). I woke up past Baltimore on that trip.

 

[carknocker51]

acouple weeks ago we were about 30 or 40 min. early into New Orleans on train #59.I didn't want to get there that early[with a sleeper],but it was a great trip! :lol:

 

[AlanB]

acouple weeks ago we were about 30 or 40 min. early into New Orleans on train #59.I didn't want to get there that early[with a sleeper],but it was a great trip! :lol:

Wow, that's unusual. The southbound City of NOL generally gets slammed and is notoriously late, an hour or more into NOL. The northbound has a much better on-time record.

 

[PRR 60]

Another vote for the Empire Builder, #7 Chicago to Seattle. My wife and I rode it in 1999, arrived 25 minutes early, but could have been hours early. All across North Dakota and Montana we were 5 to 15 minutes early at every stop. Each time we had to sit and wait for the scheduled departure. Add up all that time, and we could easily have made up an hour or two.

Kind of amusing too. Every time we had one of those extended stops, I would hop off and explore the station and the surroundings. Believe it or not, I don’t get to Montana or North Dakota very often, so I figured “lets take a look around.” My poor wife would have a fit. She was sure I would overplay my hand and be left behind in Staples, Montana or some such place. She came to hate the phrase “I’ll be right back” at each stop. Every time she heard that, she knew she would soon see me heading off to see what’s happening in Minot, or Stanley, or Malta. Upon one of my just-in-time returns, I boasted “you can’t do that on US Air!”, to which she replied “That’s why I like flying!” Wife one, Bill zero.

 

[AMTRAK-P42]

My Earliest arrival would have to be on the Crescent a few years back. I was traveling from ATL to New York and there is a Plethora of padding between Washington, DC and New York City because all of the stops are only to discharge passengers. We ended up arriving into New York about 40 minutes early.

 

[seajay]

I remember a trip on the eastbound Three Rivers from Chicago into Pittsburgh a couple of years ago arrived about five to ten minutes early. That's not much but early is early.

Since I'm taking that trip again in September, I've been keeping tabs on its arrival status the past couple of weeks and will continue up until trip time. It's been anywhere from about two hours late to 40 minutes early with an average of about 20 minutes late.

I'll also be traveling on the California Zephyr from Mount Pleasant, Iowa to Chicago on that same trip. Unfortunately, if the Zephyr arrives in Chicago less than two hours late, that's pretty much considered "early". :blink:

seajay

 

[gswager]

Eastbound SW Chief was about an hour early into Albuquerque last year. It's also a fuel stop. Luckily, it's my stop.

 

[Viewliner]

Good to see nobody really had a delay as the earliest arrival. :lol:

 

[AMTRAK-P42]

Well ok, I know I was not actually on this train, but about a month ago, I was checking the arrival status of train #1, the westbound sunset limited, and found that it arrived into LAUPT an incredible 1 hour and 30 minutes ahead of schedule. :blink:

 

[AlanB]

Well ok, I know I was not actually on this train, but about a month ago, I was checking the arrival status of train #1, the westbound sunset limited, and found that it arrived into LAUPT an incredible 1 hour and 30 minutes ahead of schedule. :blink:

Believe it or not, no I'm not Ripley's, this has happened before. Granted it's only been a few times, but it has happened.

I only hope that Amtrak didn't do what they did once before. The train used to be scheduled into LA at 7:55 AM. On one occasion it arrived over 2 hours early. They woke up all of the passengers, including those in sleepers at 5:00 AM and told them to get off the train. :blink: People were furious and numerous articles appeared in the papers. :angry:

Personally if they had done that to me, I would have just stayed in my room and told them to call the police. Cause I wouldn't have moved until 7:55 AM. Just because were early doesn't mean you get to wake me up. :angry:

 

[AMTRAK-P42]

Well ok, I know I was not actually on this train, but about a month ago, I was checking the arrival status of train #1, the westbound sunset limited, and found that it arrived into LAUPT an incredible 1 hour and 30 minutes ahead of schedule.   :blink:

Personally if they had done that to me, I would have just stayed in my room and told them to call the police. Cause I wouldn't have moved until 7:55 AM. Just because were early doesn't mean you get to wake me up. :angry:

I agree. :lol: I would not move!

 

[Amfleet]

Well ok, I know I was not actually on this train, but about a month ago, I was checking the arrival status of train #1, the westbound sunset limited, and found that it arrived into LAUPT an incredible 1 hour and 30 minutes ahead of schedule.   :blink:

Believe it or not, no I'm not Ripley's, this has happened before. Granted it's only been a few times, but it has happened.

I only hope that Amtrak didn't do what they did once before. The train used to be scheduled into LA at 7:55 AM. On one occasion it arrived over 2 hours early. They woke up all of the passengers, including those in sleepers at 5:00 AM and told them to get off the train. :blink: People were furious and numerous articles appeared in the papers. :angry:

Personally if they had done that to me, I would have just stayed in my room and told them to call the police. Cause I wouldn't have moved until 7:55 AM. Just because were early doesn't mean you get to wake me up. :angry:

Technically, passengers are paying to be on that train until 7:55am, and did have the right to a light breakfast. I would have been furious too.

 

[Viewliner]

I too would've been furious, I would've locked the door and told them to come back later. Its okay if they wake passengers up around 7:00 am, but really they shouldn't even do that.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

Does anybody know for sure what the policy is? I remember hearing about them them kicking passengers off. very early, also . ...the schedule is so padded....since it is often so late. But do they, as a matter of POLICY, allow people to stay on board now?

 

[AlanB]

Does anybody know for sure what the policy is? I remember hearing about them them kicking passengers off. very early, also . ...the schedule is so padded....since it is often so late. But do they, as a matter of POLICY, allow people to stay on board now?

Padding is exactly what did them in that one time on the Sunset Limited. Back on the fall 2002 schedule the east bound Limited takes only about 45 minutes to go from LA to Pomona. West bound they allow a little over three hours to go from Pomona to LA.

Well the train ran on-time the whole way, so when they got to Pomona they were only about a half hour late. So with all that padding the train arrived way too early.

As for official policy on what to do in the case of early arrival, I'm not sure if there is one. I do remember hearing that when the Lake Shore had it's early arrival on the last schedule, that after the outcry over the Sunset's early arrival, that David Gunn promised when he came into office that if the LSL arrived early people would not be kicked off the LSL until the normal scheduled arrival time.

I haven't heard if that policy applies to all trains or if the LSL ever actually arrived on time and if the crew complied with the policy.

 

[Viewliner]

You'd think the crew would want to sleep too.

 

[AMTRAK-P42]

You'd think the crew would want to sleep too.

Good point. I would certainly want my sleep.