On-time trains, Boston vs New York

There was a show on the Science Channel last night that had a segment about Grand Central Station in NY. They said that 98% of the trains leave within 1 minute of their scheduled departure time. Their system is a LOT bigger than ours, so how is it that they can be so precise yet trains around here are so notoriously unpredictable?

More professional?!?

Sorry to say this, but my personal experiences with a couple of the MBCR dispatchers haven't always been that great. 99% of the regular dispatchers know what they are doing, but there a two or three that are just horrible. For example the woman that is on the Branch Line on Sunday night overnights........ 1) Doesn't seem like she's qualified on the characteristics of the territory she controls. 2) Aweful radio procedure, especially steeping on other transmissions.

As for delays in Boston, remember that a commuter rail train is not considered late unless it is running in excess of 3 minutes, I believe.

Also note that it said 98% of trains LEAVE on time. Do they also get where they are going on time? What is the MBTA percentage for on-time departures from its terminals?

Good point. We don't actually know if they arrive anywhere on time.

I don't know about GCS, but I know last time I left from Penn Station coming home on the Acela last year...

I rushed to Penn to try and the 3pm train (I had tickets for the 4pm). Got the tickets with a few minutes to spare, but the train hadn't even arrived yet. And then everyone started getting tickets for it, to the point it was fully booked. Left about 50 minutes late. so did a lot of trains that day. Of course we were outside of our "window", so we had to defer to other "on window" trains, so we got more and more behind schedule, while others went around us.

Then about 200 yards from Stanford, the train broke down. Apparently a brake cable busted. It took them _3 hours_ to get us moving again - including turning all power off for quite a while, when it was blasted hot outside, so it got stinkin' hot inside too...

I saw two Acela trains go by us...I should have stayed on the 4pm.

Finally got to South Station at 10:30PM. Not a word from the crew apologizing, offering compensation, or anything - in fact, they appeared to take off the moment we stopped - didn't see a single Amtrak employee.

The first time I took it, we were delayed 45 minutes into NY because of a branch on the catenary - and they gave us a $50 credit for the next ticket. Not even an apology this time.

Conclusion: It doesn't matter how late you are, you are only one train that is late, and that's all they count.

FatNoah wrote:Also note that it said 98% of trains LEAVE on time. Do they also get where they are going on time? What is the MBTA percentage for on-time departures from its terminals?

That's a very good point. Except during major snowstorms and the like, MBTA commuter trains generally seem to get out of North Station right on the dot. I'm not a regular rider out of South Station so I don't know if the situation is as good there.

Amtrak intercity service out of Penn Station is a completely different thing, and yes, very prone to delay.

Also on lroutes that operate over foreign railroads they like to play the blame game and blame the hosting railroad for the delays as much as they can.