Deggesty Would running shoorter trains help? Of course, this would mean that more employees would be needed--and the money-hungry people would be unhappy
Would running shoorter trains help? Of course, this would mean that more employees would be needed--and the money-hungry people would be unhappy
No, shorter trains make the route MORE congested holding car count constant. To illustrate, lets immagine that sidings are 8,000 feet and the railroad is now running 20 trains per day. It is incurring x hours of train delay per day and performing y number of meets per day.
There is an old, old rule that says the number of meets increases as the square of the number of trains per day on a given line segment. That is if you double the number of trains you will have four times the number of meets. So if you shorten the trains by half and double the number of trains the number of meets will quadruple, as will the delay costs. If a line is running at or near its practical capacity in terms of trains per day, you will never get twice as many trains over it. Will freeze up on the first day!
If it is an ATK route, best thing to do is pray for ATK to go away.
Mac
Shorter trains woiuld help if there four or more times the number of sidings that coiuld hold them. And also, how many, just how much shorter, snd thus how many addiitional trains required.
Once again the knife south of Atlanta for the month of March. This does not include 3 round trip cancellations in stats. Used Laurel since trains often take delays just south of Meridian ( MEI ).
South bound 19 from Atlanta to Laurel average loss !:40 and median loss 1:40
North bound #20 Laurel to Atlanta average loss 1:43 and median 1:38.
EDIT
April has started even worse with 20 taking over 3:00 average to ATL and 19 over 2:00 at LAU.
On another site Crescent had end point arrivals on time - # 19 once at New Orleans and # 20 none at WASH. All our other performers did better.
blue streak 1 On another site Crescent had end point arrivals on time - # 19 once at New Orleans and # 20 none at WASH. All our other performers did better.
This is truly and historically awful.
And, in a time when NS needs "all hands on deck" and and everyone pulling in the same direction, they decide to sue a crew that ran a red signal and wrecked in KY. That'll build morale!
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
It was horrible today. #19 was held for #20 a few miles above Tuscaloosa I did not note the time we stopped--and, as we reached East Tuscaloosa, we had to stop becuase some person had left a car sitting on the traqck. I give thanks that the engineer saw it in time. It began to seem that there was no wrecker in Tuscaloosa, but we were able to at least get to Meridian (about two hours late). I hope it will be better tomorrow when I go back north.
I did not note any great delay due to freight; it seemed that such meets were well arranged, including the two with run-throughs with UP power on the point.
Johnny
Really hate to report this but -------
In March 19 loat average of 10 minutes Greenville ( / (GRV) ATL but for first 9 days of April lost average of 35 minutes.
March #20 ATL - GRV lost 30 minutes but April lost 35 minutes.
Does this mean the delays are spreading to north of ATL ? hope this just a glich ?
Only place these trains seem to keep scheduled en route times is north of Gastonia / Charlotte or south of Laurel, MS
I left Meridian 55 miutes late yesterday morning (at train time, the lastest report inn the station was "on time." At one point (I do not remember where) we had a meet with two trains, and backed to the switch after the first one moved on. We left Birmingham 1:49 late, and we left Anniston 2:00 late.
I went to bed after leaving Anniston--and woke up just below Danville, 1:54 late, so we may hve slipped through the Atlanta area.
I made the connections I had hoped to make. tomorrow, I start back from Wilmington tomorrow, and hope to be home by 11:00 Saturday evening.
There are reports on train orders that NS is now jamed from ATL - Linwood yard ( Just north of Salisbury ). 19 today seems to have made it to ATL without more delays but since 20 is not yet at ATL we will see.
Oltmannd - Any information ?
blue streak 1 There are reports on train orders that NS is now jamed from ATL - Linwood yard ( Just north of Salisbury ). 19 today seems to have made it to ATL without more delays but since 20 is not yet at ATL we will see. Oltmannd - Any information ?
Sort of. There are some merchandise trains stacked up - part of the overall issues NS has had with in the past 6 months - but RR still looks pretty fluid. There's quite a bit of capacity on that line - not much traffic.
Tonight (4/26) the northbound Crescent arrived in NYC SIX hours late.
I sure would hate to be a member of the crew trying to explain away
all of this awfull tardiness!
The weekend of the 14th & 15th I rode from Phila. to NO and arrived
Sunday 2 and a half hours late. I guess that's not too bad?! Ugh.
For April Crescent 19 lost an additional 2:34 average 2:10 median Atl - Laurel. #20 lost avg 2:07 median 2:12. #20 lost 2:07 avg 2:12 median.
For May same mid points lost additional 19 avg 2:30 median 2:02. #20 avg 2:00 median 1:57.
For two months end point arrivals NOL zero on time Washington 1 22 min early.
What is worse is delay arrivals during 2 months NOL hours 4+ = 6; 5+ = 2 6&8+ = 4; 11 hours =1. Washington arrivals 4 & 5 =9 8&9 =2
One of the first service changes should be to drop the Crescent south of ATL and replace it with a day train (coaches only, eventually improving speed and reliability). And add (as Oltmann has suggested numerous times) a 2nd train from ATL to DC, a day train.
Prior to 1975, Southern did operate a Washington-Atlanta day train, the "Piedmont". It was operated as a mainline mixed train with 20-30 cars of TOFC/COFC behind 2-3 coaches and a snack bar.
CSSHEGEWISCH Prior to 1975, Southern did operate a Washington-Atlanta day train, the "Piedmont". It was operated as a mainline mixed train with 20-30 cars of TOFC/COFC behind 2-3 coaches and a snack bar.
For the month of June really not much better. However July has shown some improvements maybe due to NS hump partial reopening at Chattanooga. Here are the differences between revelant stations. Arrivals . Note ATN = Anniston, Alabama.
It is noted that occassionally Crescent can be under schedule time between ATN & ATL 25 -30 minutes under enroute schedule but it does not often happen. 2 problems are congestion on NS between ATN and Austell. The other problem is the grade crossing of CSX at Howell interlocking just west of ATL station. CSX often blocks NS track at Howell due to it either having long northbound thru freights on one track changing crews and / or using the other CSX track for flat switching ( used to be hump ).
For train #19 Average delay Median delays
CLT - ATL :59 :51
ATL - ATN :33 :29
ATN - LAU 1:23 1:18
LAU - NOL arrival -:20 - :11
For Train 20
NOL every train departed NOL on time except 1 that was 3:00 Late due to previous nights very late arrival.
NOL - LAU :07 :00
LAU - ATN 1:26 1:25
ATN - ATL :26 :23
ATL - CLT :50 :27
CLT - WASH - :04 - :13
Evidently NS has not been able to make up time north of ATL like they used to . It is unknown what has caused the Crescent to loose time north of ATL . Anyone ?
NOL every train departed NOL except 1 that was 3:00 Late due to previous nights very late arrival.
blue streak 1Evidently NS has not been able to make up time north of ATL like they used to . It is unknown what has caused the Crescent to loose time north of ATL . Anyone ?
My hunch is stuff is still jammed up at Linwood. NS is still not "resourced up" enough to get out of the ditch.
This thread is one year old. If the title is still true, maybe it's time to make Atlanta the southern endpoint.
From July 1st the Atl <> Anniston delays continue. FYI it has been noted that a perfect trip between the 2 stations has been 30 minutes under schedule both ways. Only checking that day can delay locations can be determineds as info is then lost for previous days.
19 average loss was :35 and median :35
20 average loss was :28 and median :40
Number 19 is marked-up 4 hours, 19 minutes late into NO this evening, July 28th. Number 20 is showing 2 hours, 39 minutes late into Atlanta.
In 2017 the Crescent had the worst on-time performance at its end points of the long distance trains at 42.2 percent. The on-time performance at its intermediate stations was probably worse.
I rode the Cresecent from Atlanta to New Orleans approximately 8 years ago. It was on time when I rode it.
Rio Grande Valley, CFI,CFII
http://dixielandsoftware.net/cgi-bin/getmap.pl?mapname=East
Cresent not doing too good today either
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
charlie hebdo This thread is one year old. If the title is still true, maybe it's time to make Atlanta the southern endpoint.
If you watch what happens in Atlanta, you'd see that Atlanta is the destination for most passengers on the train.
Functionally, it's two trains. One from NY to Atlanta and one from Atlanta to NOL. Why not just make both halfs daylight with a long dwell in Altanta. Drop the sleepers and diner, add coaches. Send through passengers off to sleep in a hotel.
Don at one time I was agreeing with you. However if you check station stats for BHM you will find that 41,700+ Passengers boarded in 2017. The highest number did go to NOL. However 8 of the highest 10 revenue pairs came for trips to ATL and north, Spliting the train at ATL probably would eliminate 90% of that revenue ? Plus TCL & ATN also provide much thru ATL traffic.
But definitely a day train north out of ATL is needed. Our only concern is that any day trai service might overload ATL station much more than is already happening on the Crescent ? The morning rush hour could be wild depending on departure time. We feel that it would carry more passengers than the Palmetto does due to the higher population density ATL - Greensboro than Palmetto south of Petersburgh ?
North of Greensboro the route has to be carefully analyzed. If LYH and CVS is skipped then the next planned Roanoke - WASH trip should cover that route at convient times very well except for Danville. By going thru Raleigh the day train would provide another Piedmont schedule CLT <> Raleigh and thru to the NYP. However going by Selma does add additional time but this train would connect 4 state capitols and WASH together. Is there any other route that does or would do the same except the Star ?
BaltACD http://dixielandsoftware.net/cgi-bin/getmap.pl?mapname=East Cresent not doing too good today either
Yes 19 lost another 1:18 atl - atn + :30 pad = 1:48
blue streak 1Don at one time I was agreeing with you. However if you check station stats for BHM you will find that 41,700+ Passengers boarded in 2017. The highest number did go to NOL. However 8 of the highest 10 revenue pairs came for trips to ATL and north, Spliting the train at ATL probably would eliminate 90% of that revenue ? Plus TCL & ATN also provide much thru ATL traffic.
In 2017, Anniston had only 4,255 boardings and alightings. For the Crescent both directions, that is a paltry 11.7 people a day using the station, about 6 on each train getting on or off.
The RPA site shows 7 out of 10 city pairs (from AL) were to ATL or north. What would be more telling would be ridership on the Crescent from each city compared with total ridership. Unfortunately, RPA does not provide that, only rankings:
1. Birmingham, AL - New Orleans, LA
2. Atlanta, GA - Washington, DC
3. Atlanta, GA - New York, NY
4. Charlottesville, VA - New York, NY
5. Atlanta, GA - New Orleans, LA
6. Charlottesville, VA - Washington, DC
7. New Orleans, LA - Washington, DC
8. New Orleans, LA - New York, NY
9. Greensboro, NC - Washington, DC
10. Lynchburg, VA - New York, NY (from https://www.railpassengers.org/site/assets/files/3443/52.pdf
Only 2/10 are from south of ATL through to points north and only two from ATL or point south to NOLA. Add a day train ATL to DC/NYP and make the NOLA-ATL segemnt a dya train.
From 943 - 938 PM tonight so far #20 is holding at Howell interlocking for CSX to clear.
There is not enough slop in the dwell in Atlanta to make up for all the time keeping foolishness, especially south of Altanta.
Raise that dwell to 10 hours or so and package up the overnight travellers with hotel and transfer in Atlanta, so all they have to do it get off the train and on shuttle van in Atlanta, and I'll bet you don't lose many of existing traveller, but you'd pick up a whole bunch of tourism oriented travellers.
...and reliable departures from Atlanta every day.
Crescent watchers: almost good news Sunday night 8/26 -
#19 arrived in New Orleans @ 7:45 - just 13 minutes late!
That must be close to if not a record for 2018. Lucky were the
passengers tonight!!
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.