A couple of months ago, the Sunset Limited was running around 16 hours late. One of the managers in charge at LA (whose name I can't think of at the moment) had insisted that there be enough equipment to make a spare train when necessary. Thanks to that policy, the eastbound Sunset actually left before the westbound arrived.
However, since that time, those spare cars have gone elsewhere in the system to cover for shortages, and the result is that there is, once again, no spare equipment (well, minimal spare equipment) in LA to make a spare trainset.
Occasionally, Sanford would have enough spare equipment to run a train with maybe three coaches and a lounge to New Orleans where passengers could transfer to the regular Sunset equipment, which would be terminated there if it was running extremely late (i.e. more than 12 hours). However, apparently not even Sanford has such a reserve anymore.
Meanwhile, I think a couple of trains might still be running with an Amfleet II (or a Horizon coach) forward of the transition sleeper due to not enough Superliner coaches to go around.
The latest report for 1(11) is that it was 28:40 late at San Antonio. However (careful if you are faint of heart), it isn't estimated to arrive into El Paso until 3:00 AM tomorrow (it was due into LA at 6:40 AM today), a mere 35 hours and 50 minutes late.
Granted, I've only been following Amtrak for a couple of years, so maybe someone knows of a better (worse) "record," but the latest I can remember an Amtrak train running in recent times was a California Zephyr that arrived into Emeryville some 30 hours late (it may have even arrived after the following day's train, but I can't be sure of that). This was a couple of years ago, and at least that train had an excuse. It had left Denver and traveled partway through the Rockies before the line was closed due to wildfires in Colorado, and the train had to return to Denver and then detour via Wyoming.
Now, I may be attacked by someone on this list, but I think, for the sake of the passengers (whatever ones are still left on the trip, they ran on-time buses for passengers boarding Houston and west), they should have cancelled the train (this trip, not the whole route), put the passengers on buses (or even airplanes if they are going long distances), brought the equipment back to New Orleans for servicing, and sort things out from there.
However, since that time, those spare cars have gone elsewhere in the system to cover for shortages, and the result is that there is, once again, no spare equipment (well, minimal spare equipment) in LA to make a spare trainset.
Occasionally, Sanford would have enough spare equipment to run a train with maybe three coaches and a lounge to New Orleans where passengers could transfer to the regular Sunset equipment, which would be terminated there if it was running extremely late (i.e. more than 12 hours). However, apparently not even Sanford has such a reserve anymore.
Meanwhile, I think a couple of trains might still be running with an Amfleet II (or a Horizon coach) forward of the transition sleeper due to not enough Superliner coaches to go around.
The latest report for 1(11) is that it was 28:40 late at San Antonio. However (careful if you are faint of heart), it isn't estimated to arrive into El Paso until 3:00 AM tomorrow (it was due into LA at 6:40 AM today), a mere 35 hours and 50 minutes late.
Granted, I've only been following Amtrak for a couple of years, so maybe someone knows of a better (worse) "record," but the latest I can remember an Amtrak train running in recent times was a California Zephyr that arrived into Emeryville some 30 hours late (it may have even arrived after the following day's train, but I can't be sure of that). This was a couple of years ago, and at least that train had an excuse. It had left Denver and traveled partway through the Rockies before the line was closed due to wildfires in Colorado, and the train had to return to Denver and then detour via Wyoming.
Now, I may be attacked by someone on this list, but I think, for the sake of the passengers (whatever ones are still left on the trip, they ran on-time buses for passengers boarding Houston and west), they should have cancelled the train (this trip, not the whole route), put the passengers on buses (or even airplanes if they are going long distances), brought the equipment back to New Orleans for servicing, and sort things out from there.
