Hoosier State derails outside Chicago 6/8

Who's trying to gray out this issue? No hints needed. I am!!! I was hoping, foolishly I guess, to point out that there was a possibility for agreement. Said agreement would have gone something like this:

Fels: You know, I guess if you are looking at recent arrivals, I can understand how you might claim the train is rarely on time.

Loco: Maybe I was exagerating when I should not have. Now that I see the Amtrak performance data, I realize the train has been on time more often than not over its history.

Both together: I'm glad we've put this behind us. You know, we all want Amtrak to succeed. Let's work hand in hand to make Amtrak the best railroad it possibly can be! Group hug, everybody!

Foolish me. Why focus on the big picture and common goals when we can argue over trivia?

Attempting to spin a lie into "trivia" is neither mature nor respectful.

Attempting to spin a lie into "trivia" is neither mature nor respectful.

Now, there you go again.

I don't think anybody's lying. I think Loco exaggerated when he said the HS is "rarely on time." I think Fels irritated him, and several others including myself, by not giving him any benefit of the doubt. And I think that at this point all we're arguing over is the meaning of the word "rarely," and possibly the meaning of the phrase "it depends." Maybe we're also arguing about Loco's motivation. Was he lying or exagerating, spewing disinformation or merely misinformed himself? I don't know. We could always ask him. Regardless, I call it all trivia. You say it's not trivial? OK, we can argue about that too, but I will call that argument trivial as well.

I actually think there a good chance that Mr. LI Loco's statement is correct. If Amtrak chooses to define the concept of "on time" with a 30 minute window, and if the Hoosier State only arrives within that on time window 60% of the time, I think it is safe to say that the train rarely arrives on time if one defines "on time" as "on time". Might Mr. Fels be rushing to judgment?

Trivia? Mere exaggeration? We know better.

That wasn't a throwaway reference. LI Loco cited the "rarely on time" claim as one of 5 key characteristics that supposedly make the Hoosier State unmarketable. Where did this appear on the list? No. 2.

And I'm glad the subject of "irritation" came up. Where was this bogus claim first mentioned? In a personal harangue directed to me by name. Read it here

"Rushing to judgment"? No. LI Loco didn't stipulate a definition of "on time." iIt's a little late to start trying to furnish one now.

Attempting to slowly expand on the teeny-weeny size of my sample, today's 317 arrived in Chicago 44 minutes late. That makes nine of the last nine Hoosier State arrivals late. Here they are again:

Train 317:
2:48 late on 6-11
1:08 late on 6-13
0:35 late on 6-15
1:30 late on 6-16
0:44 late on 6-18

Train 318:
5:22 late on 6-12
2:11 late on 6-14 (maybe later, but probably not a lot)*
1:08 late on 6-15
2:50 late on 6-17

*"Estimated arrival: 1 hour and 10 minutes late. As of the last report at 2:31 AM, between Crawfordsville, IN and Indianapolis, IN, it was running 2 hours and 51 minutes late." May have made up some time, we can't tell. It must have arrived at least 2:11 late if it was still running at 2:31 am.

I think we have exhausted the original topic of this thread, which was the derailment of the Hoosier State?

-otto-