Whats with freight delays and speed restrictions?

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Require freights to not run trains that can't fit on their own sidings.

Until this happens, I am afraid the new on-time STB rules will just have the unintended consequences of slowing down our passenger trains even more.

In the past, schedules were padded at the last stop. Now, they’re gonna be padded all the way through. Just look at the schedule on the new northbound Crescent. Garbage.

Some people are OK with it, because it makes their station times better. But that’s just luck. There’s no excuse in lengthening the schedules of any of our passenger trains.

Three mile long freight trains don’t serve anyone. Not freight customers, not passenger trains, certainly not drivers sitting there interminably waiting for a three mile train to pass.
 
In the past, schedules were padded at the last stop. Now, they’re gonna be padded all the way through. Just look at the schedule on the new northbound Crescent. Garbage.
Agreed. Having padding at intermediate points may help intermediate timekeeping, but in some cases, it will "waste" the padding allocated to the total schedule, and not be available where it is really needed. By waste, I mean if a train is running without delays, it will have to sit and wait to depart at many stations for the schedule time, and if delayed further down the line, that time spent will not be available later to recover from subsequent delays.

If I was constructing the schedule, I would run it from NOL 'tight' (present times) until a junction station with a connection, put some padding there, then tight again until the next junction, such as CLT, CVS, WAS, and PHL and finally pad between the last two stations, as is currently done.
 
Airlines have their own set of delay issues. Weather, too much air traffic, etc. Just google delays for LGA, EWR, JFK DCA and IAD.

In my personal experience though the airline system has worked pretty well. An hour delay on an airplane trip that goes 2000 miles is not big deal imho. I have had only a few canceled flights due to weather. The most dramatic were overnight stays in Houston and Miami traveling between Central America and Chicago. And in both incidents the airlines put us up in hotels.

Amtrak has proactively handled my experiences of missed connections pretty well. On one trip on 3 we were several hours late into LA. As soon as I had a cell signal near Barstow I was receiving emails from Amtrak telling me that I would be routed up the valley to catch up to the Coast Starlight. On my return on that trip we were delayed again on the Starlight, and Amtrak again proactively routed me up the valley to ensure my connection to the Sunset Limited. These were all on points tickets. Then when I called to seek a voucher for a few missed meals in the dining car, I got a voucher for a whopping 1500 dollars which I immediately used for a round trip on the California Zephyr.
 
Until this happens, I am afraid the new on-time STB rules will just have the unintended consequences of slowing down our passenger trains even more.

In the past, schedules were padded at the last stop. Now, they’re gonna be padded all the way through. Just look at the schedule on the new northbound Crescent. Garbage.

Some people are OK with it, because it makes their station times better. But that’s just luck. There’s no excuse in lengthening the schedules of any of our passenger trains.

Three mile long freight trains don’t serve anyone. Not freight customers, not passenger trains, certainly not drivers sitting there interminably waiting for a three mile train to pass.

Actually from a railroad's point its the height of efficiency. On a two main track who cares as most of the three mle Intermodals are doing the same speed anyways and its directional. Makes crazy profit per train for railroads. But add a Pax train in the mix thats 9 mph faster, and stopping every 60 miles or so and one can see how it throws a wrench in the ops. Make it a single main with limited sidings and it gets real fun. ie. UP between Del Rio and San Antonio. In which the Pax train normally looses.
 
Agreed. Having padding at intermediate points may help intermediate timekeeping, but in some cases, it will "waste" the padding allocated to the total schedule, and not be available where it is really needed. By waste, I mean if a train is running without delays, it will have to sit and wait to depart at many stations for the schedule time, and if delayed further down the line, that time spent will not be available later to recover from subsequent delays.

If I was constructing the schedule, I would run it from NOL 'tight' (present times) until a junction station with a connection, put some padding there, then tight again until the next junction, such as CLT, CVS, WAS, and PHL and finally pad between the last two stations, as is currently done.


This, and makes train travel in efficient time wise compared to other modes, be it driving or buses.
 
Padding already exists at intermediate stations. Take 22. Theres padding at Austin, Fort Worth, Dallas, Marshall, Little Rock, St Louis, and Joliet. Yesterday’s 22 went from 1h5m late at Longview to 21m late at Marshall. There are multiple opportunities to make up time within the schedule. Often, it just doesn’t keep it. In our example, 22 lost it all by Texarkana, back to 1h6m late haha.
 
Somehow, I don't think speed restrictions would work to well for airplanes :eek:
They face speed restrictions all the time on approach to larger airports, and sometimes even en route in order to maintain separation from slower traffic ahead at the same flight level, or same approach path.
 
Indeed. I can't ever remember a train circling the station for an hour. ;)
That is the London Heathrow special. Remember holds south of London somewhere. I cannot remember anytime when I flew straight into Heathrow specially early in the morning, the usual arrival from across the pond for evening departures from the east coast. And Newark, the hold over Wilkes-Barre coming from the west.
 
That is the London Heathrow special. Remember holds south of London somewhere. I cannot remember anytime when I flew straight into Heathrow specially early in the morning, the usual arrival from across the pond for evening departures from the east coast. And Newark, the hold over Wilkes-Barre coming from the west.
LHR = Lengthy Hold Required. I can beat it though without crossing the Atlantic: Approx. 1-hour flight from YYZ-ORD in regional jet; circle ORD for an hour, then fly south to Lexington; land, refuel, take-off for ORD; circle ORD for another hour; land 3.5 hours late. Traffic congestion.
 
LHR = Lengthy Hold Required. I can beat it though without crossing the Atlantic: Approx. 1-hour flight from YYZ-ORD in regional jet; circle ORD for an hour, then fly south to Lexington; land, refuel, take-off for ORD; circle ORD for another hour; land 3.5 hours late. Traffic congestion.
Surprising that they did not catch that with flow control in a ground hold!
 
It's all rather complex actually. If you have a spare 30 dollars to spend buy the game Train Dispatcher 3.5 and download all the territories then try keeping the trains on time. Double Track isn't always the answer because it can get awfully messed up as well. Especially when passenger trains are concerned. You have a train that is moving 19 MPH faster than everything around it. It is quite a hard guessing game to know who to hold and who not to run it around.

One of my favorite scenarios is Toronto to Montreal on the all double tracked CN line. Good luck juggling passenger trains around freights because the opposite main is usually occupied and has another passenger train aimed right at where you are wanting to run one around at. Sometimes you get no option but to run slow behind freights because it isn't possible to run around them on double track.

As far as speed restrictions this can be anything from a permanent one for a curve somewhere like on your route the Porter Connection. Or it can be something having to do with track work, or weather.
 
I think a lot of people are missing the point of the terrible Crescent changes. Atlanta, by far, has the most people wanting to go overnight to the NEC cities. Other places, like Charlotte are already late night for the Crescent and have multiple other choices to get to the NEC. NOL may be a bit nicer than it was but not many rooms are taken and coach is much less crowded until Atlanta going north. Greensboro will have the Carolinian as competition and anyone who doesn't want to splurge for a daytime room would be far better off splurging a lot less for BC on the Carolinian.

So the only major city for overnight will now have a bad northbound departure time and a terrible one if there are delays.

Big mistake in my mind.
 
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