Noticed/Questioned Major Delays, Annulments, Reroutes

Well, better than yesterday's odyssey!
* Train 30 of 06/18/2014.
* Capitol Limited
* +---------------- Station code
* | +----------- Schedule Arrival Day
* | | +-------- Schedule Arrival time
* | | | +----- Schedule Departure Day
* | | | | +-- Schedule Departure Time
* | | | | | +------------- Actual Arrival Time
* | | | | | | +------- Actual Departure Time
* | | | | | | | +- Comments
* V V V V V V V V
* CHI * * 1 640P * 929P Departed: 2 hours and 49 minutes late.
* SOB * * 1 909P * 1251A Departed: 3 hours and 42 minutes late.
* EKH * * 1 929P * 144A Departed: 4 hours and 15 minutes late.
* WTI * * 1 1023P * 258A Departed: 4 hours and 35 minutes late.
* TOL 1 1139P 1 1149P 452A 504A Departed: 5 hours and 15 minutes late.
* SKY * * 2 1240A * 556A Departed: 5 hours and 16 minutes late.
* ELY * * 2 115A * 638A Departed: 5 hours and 23 minutes late.
* CLE 2 145A 2 154A 716A 723A Departed: 5 hours and 29 minutes late.
* ALC * * 2 305A * 842A Departed: 5 hours and 37 minutes late.
* PGH 2 505A 2 520A 1042A 1106A Departed: 5 hours and 46 minutes late.
* COV * * 2 659A * 1248P Departed: 5 hours and 49 minutes late.
* CUM 2 919A 2 931A 335P 342P Departed: 6 hours and 11 minutes late.
* MRB * * 2 1100A * 516P Departed: 6 hours and 16 minutes late.
* HFY * * 2 1125A * 543P Departed: 6 hours and 18 minutes late.
* RKV * * 2 1210P * 659P Departed: 6 hours and 49 minutes late.
* WAS 2 110P * * 724P * Arrived: 6 hours and 14 minutes late.

Good afternoon to all.

Just received an email from Amtrak concerning service-disruption for #5-6. Seems there will be a re-route for #5-6 between Creston, IA and Lincoln, NE due to sandbagging, etc for rising Missouri River, at least as of Monday 6/23. Sure hope any delays will be minimal as it were with a similar re-route I was on two years ago. I'll be on #5(23).

Amtk30

19 June, had delays on 365, Blue Water from Port Huron to Chicago, as did 371, Pere Marquette service from Grand Rapids. I was on the 365, which got to Whiting, Indiana about 2 hours late. The delays were because of CP & NS trackwork, and also, quite likely, a delay getting through the yard at Port Huron; it departed on time, but was over 30 minutes late at the first station, Lapeer.

At Whiting, we came to a stop, and the conductor advised that the 371 from Grand Rapids, which we passed, had a dead engine. We were instructed to shove back to couple onto the 371, connect the HEP cable and brake pipe, run an air test, and pull 371 with us to Union Station. It took over a half hour to shove back a mile, couple up, connect the cables and brake pipe, and run the air test. We also had signal problems on the NS, and a bridge problem over the Calumet River--the bridge would not indicate that it was locked in the OPEN position for waiting marine traffic. All in all, we were over 3 hours late to Chicago, and some folks missed their connections, which were not held. From the perspective of one who has had an association with railroad operations, it was interesting, and even more amusing to hear people complain that they were delayed, as if AMTRAK has dozens of spare engines and crews, and the NS, CSX, CN, CP, and other lines have nothing better to do than to hold their money-making freights for AMTRAK to solve its problems.

Passengers on a short distance train complaining about being three hours late. How dare they!

erie910 wrote: All in all, we were over 3 hours late to Chicago, and some folks missed their connections, which were not held. From the perspective of one who has had an association with railroad operations, it was interesting, and even more amusing to hear people complain that they were delayed, as if AMTRAK has dozens of spare engines and crews, and the NS, CSX, CN, CP, and other lines have nothing better to do than to hold their money-making freights for AMTRAK to solve its problems.

So why is that too much for the normal (non-railfan) rider to expect?

The rider is paying for an advertised service - be it Amtrak, Southwest or Megabus. If the carrier is unable to perform, it should be called on the carpet.

ohioriverrailway wrote:So why is that too much for the normal (non-railfan) rider to expect?

The rider is paying for an advertised service - be it Amtrak, Southwest or Megabus. If the carrier is unable to perform, it should be called on the carpet.

The people complaining are paying for transportation, not an excursion. While there may be some on the train who enjoyed the extra train time, the people who had somewhere else to be (especially those with connections to leave Chicago) are within their rights to complain. While we may understand the difficulties railroads have working around problems with limited resources - and even understand that resources are limited - passengers paying for transportation want transportation. If Amtrak fails them too many times they will look elsewhere. (Even if Amtrak's failures can be blamed on several other entities ... they paid Amtrak for transportation.)

Nothing is going to change while the class 1's hold onto 100 year old operating practices and attitudes.

Caught a STUPENDOUSLY (12 1/2 hours!) late 8(18) from Dayton's Bluff (St. Paul) just now, led by P42 #24 and followed by PV Silver Foot. What gives? Is that the Chi-Town death cycle nastiness TR7 mentioned on the last page?

justalurker66 wrote:
If Amtrak fails them too many times they will look elsewhere. (Even if Amtrak's failures can be blamed on several other entities ... they paid Amtrak for transportation.)

Exactly - they'll vote with their feet and their credit card. And when you look at the miserable performance of 29/30 and 48/49 you have to ask why anyone in their right mind would ride if they had alternate forms of transportation, and why Amtrak continues to throw good money after bad paying NS, CSX, etc to try to accommodate the trains.

ohioriverrailway wrote:Exactly - they'll vote with their feet and their credit card. And when you look at the miserable performance of 29/30 and 48/49 you have to ask why anyone in their right mind would ride if they had alternate forms of transportation, and why Amtrak continues to throw good money after bad paying NS, CSX, etc to try to accommodate the trains.

If Amtrak only ran profitable trains there would be a lot less Amtrak service. Amtrak needs to manage expectations. There is not an alternative to paying NS, CSX, etc. to use their tracks ... so they just have to do the best they can with the facilities available.

ohioriverrailway wrote:

justalurker66 wrote:
If Amtrak fails them too many times they will look elsewhere. (Even if Amtrak's failures can be blamed on several other entities ... they paid Amtrak for transportation.)

Exactly - they'll vote with their feet and their credit card. And when you look at the miserable performance of 29/30 and 48/49 you have to ask why anyone in their right mind would ride if they had alternate forms of transportation, and why Amtrak continues to throw good money after bad paying NS, CSX, etc to try to accommodate the trains.

I''ll agree with the fact that 48/49 has performance issues, which the states and railroads are working to resolve. The problem of course being that a portion of the route is still very much single track and choked with freight traffic that also is delayed due to that very reason. While freight can't complain, passengers can and do. As for 29/30 I'd say the performance is a good bit better than that of 48/49, due to a better kept right of way which is largely double tracked. 29/30 also offer splendid scenery which people are willing to pay for, no Amtrak isn't an excursion but it offers something different than the interstate highway or 30,000 feet in the air can give one.

Early morning service to/from Boston's three stations halted

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentSe ... 1626311517" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As far as the route of the Lake Shore Limited goes, the only single-tracked portions are from CLE Station to Collinwood and Hoffmans to ALB, neither of which have any serious freight traffic. Likewise, freight interference between ALB and NYP is a non-issue.

Dick H wrote:Early morning service to/from Boston's three stations halted

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentSe ... 1626311517" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

925 was the lead unit on the northbound regional. The front of it looked to be either burned or covered in some dark grimy shnitz. Work crews were in the process of rerailing it with a Tonka crane. There were grooves in the tie from the derailed wheelset for about 1/4-1/2 a mile from where the train stopped. Further up was a little shrapnel and a single tire as well as a swarm of police and first responders. I'm really hoping it wasn't a track car since the collission happened way into the woods west of Mansfield. The westbound track was the only one in service at 7:50am, with the regional train still on the eastbound track. The 6:05am Acela was cancelled this morning but I just got overtaken by one at South Attleboro.

http://instagram.com/p/plf7yujiU9/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

B&M 1227 wrote:

Dick H wrote:Early morning service to/from Boston's three stations halted

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentSe ... 1626311517" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

925 was the lead unit on the northbound regional. The front of it looked to be either burned or covered in some dark grimy shnitz. Work crews were in the process of rerailing it with a Tonka crane. There were grooves in the tie from the derailed wheelset for about 1/4-1/2 a mile from where the train stopped. Further up was a little shrapnel and a single tire as well as a swarm of police and first responders. I'm really hoping it wasn't a track car since the collission happened way into the woods west of Mansfield. The westbound track was the only one in service at 7:50am, with the regional train still on the eastbound track. The 6:05am Acela was cancelled this morning but I just got overtaken by one at South Attleboro.

http://instagram.com/p/plf7yujiU9/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

105W-108E were the rescue units sent from Boston to retrieve the set and tow back to town with a 30 mph speed restriction. Departed the scene with train in tow aprox. 11:15. It was a private vehicle and only Lord knows what it was doing in this area. Lots of delays for trains today, and the crime scene is still very active as of 11:25am