Amtrak switching: Spokane and Albany

[081552]

Does Amtrak have their own switchers in Spokane or Albany for the Empire Builder and Lake Shore? When I was in Spokane in 1999 I saw an old BN engine in the station but I don't know if that was used for the Empire Builder.

[RRCharlie]

The last time I rode the Lake Shore, the New York section uncoupled and pulled ahead. The Boston Locomotive backed down and picked up the Boston cars and pulled ahead onto the spur heading toward Boston.

Now there is no switching done on the Lake Shore as the Boston section is a separate train that requires cross platform transfers.

Mel Hazen; Jax, FL

[Anonymous]

There is a rumor floating about that Amtrak is going to junk the Sunset Limited after the first of the year.  The game plan, according to the rumor, is to run the Crescent from New Orleans to San Antonio, thereby covering that leg of the existing Sunset route; and extend the Texas Eagle from San Antonio to Los Angles, thereby covering the Sunset's route west of San Antonio.

If the above rumor comes to past, it will eliminate the switching of the Eagle cars - coach and sleeper - in San Antonio to the Sunset Limited, thereby saving Amtrak some nice pocket change.

 

[oltmannd]

There is a rumor floating about that Amtrak is going to junk the Sunset Limited after the first of the year.  The game plan, according to the rumor, is to run the Crescent from New Orleans to San Antonio, thereby covering that leg of the existing Sunset route; and extend the Texas Eagle from San Antonio to Los Angles, thereby covering the Sunset's route west of San Antonio.

If the above rumor comes to past, it will eliminate the switching of the Eagle cars - coach and sleeper - in San Antonio to the Sunset Limited, thereby saving Amtrak some nice pocket change.

Would that New Orleans - San Antonio leg be overnight or would they shift the whole schedule?

Could this be related to the other rumor about re-routing the Crescent from Birminham thru Mobile to New Orleans?

 

[Anonymous]

If Amtrak extended the Crescent from New Orleans (NO) to San Antonio (SA) in place of the Sunset Limited, it would face a scheduling challenge.  I don't know what they plan to do, if anything, but here are several options.

If the Crescent paused 45 minutes in New Orleans for servicing, which is the amount of time that the Texas Eagle lays over in Fort Worth for servicing, it would depart NO at 8:15 p.m., assuming that it runs between New York and New Orleans on its present schedule.  If it requires the same amount of time as the Sunset to run to SA, which is 15 hours and five minutes, it would arrive there at approximately 11:20 a.m.  If the Eagle stayed on its present schedule, it would have departed SA at 5:40 a.m.  Passengers on the Crescent who wanted to go to points west of SA would have a long layover.

To arrive in SA at 5:00 a.m. to provide a reasonable connection with the Eagle, the Crescent would have to leave NO at approximately 2:00 p.m., which means it would have to leave New York and Washington approximately five hours earlier.  Leaving New York and Washington five hours earlier would cause the Crescent to lose its convenient overnight schedule between Washington and Atlanta. 

Amtrak's schedulers would face similar challenges for an eastbound Eagle/Crescent connection.  To arrive in NO at 6:35 a.m. for servicing and a 7:10 a.m. departure to New York, the Crescent would have to leave SA at approximately 3:30 p.m.  The Eagle would have to depart LA approximately seven hours earlier to allow a same day connection with the Crescent.  This would improve the calling hours at Maricopa and Tucson, major population centers, but would make for a wee hours stop in El Paso. 

A year or so ago I put together a proposal to improve Amtrak's service in Texas and sent it off to Amtrak.  I received a nice response from Alex Kummant.  Of course, one of his assistants wrote it. 

I suggested discontinuing the Sunset and making the following changes to improve Amtrak's service in Texas. 

• Change the Chicago departure time of the Eagle to mid-morning. Beyond Fort Worth run it via Abilene, Midland, Odessa, El Paso (EP) and its current route west of El Paso. This would provide service to several medium size cities in West Texas, with a population of more than 360,000 people, as opposed to the 40,000 or so folks served by the Sunset between SA and EP.
• Extend the Heartland Flyer to SA. It could be scheduled to provide connections with the Eagle in Fort Worth, as well as more convenient departure and arrival times in SA and Oklahoma City. It could also be the start of a true corridor train in the Texas Triangle.
• Change the Chicago departure time of the City of New Orleans and extend its run from NO to SA. If the City left Chicago on a mid morning schedule designed to time its arrival in NO early the following morning, it could run from NO to SA as a day train, which would be more convenient for passengers going to Houston and SA. However, it would mean that passengers desiring to go west of SA would have to stay overnight in the Alamo City and then take the Flyer to Fort Worth for a connection with the westbound Eagle. I don't know how many passengers would be inconvenienced by this arrangement, but I suspect not a great number.

This exercise gave me an appreciation for the challenges Amtrak schedulers face.  It also highlighted the weakness of a system that runs one train a day over a route that serves several major population centers.  No matter how it is scheduled, the train is going to serve some markets in the middle of the night, and most people are not going to get up in the wee hours to catch a train.  They are going to catch a plane or bus after a good nights sleep.   

Subsequently I learned that a similar proposal had been made by several TXARP members.  However, they wanted to keep the Sunset on its Orlando to LA schedule and add a second train west of El Paso, i.e. routing of the Eagle through west Texas as per above with a continuation on to LA.