Just fired up the newly updated ATCSMon kit for the Spokane sub and am looking at trains on both mains on either side of Yardley yard - DS, we may have a problem.
#7 is 'on time' near Libby, MT rocketing along at 0 MPH, #28 is slightly late just west of Pasco, WA but #8 is ~2.5 hrs late still in the blocks at Seattle ; we'll see how that all holds up.
BTW that asm.transitdocs.com site is pretty slick, it may even be usable on a mobile device. The arrival time predictions are different than Track-A-Train.
Links to my Google Maps ---> Sunset Route overview, SoCal metro, Yuma sub, Gila sub, SR east of Tucson, BNSF Northern Transcon and Southern Transcon *** Why you should support Ukraine! ***
To update, traffic levels for BNSF and UP through Spokane and Sandpoint remain incredibly high right now. Back in August, the STB suspended its practice of monitoring fall rush expectations, saying, "there is no longer a conspicuous peak season."
http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/regulatory/stb-discontinues-year-end-outlook-letter.html
As is often the case with the reporting and monitoring of Northwest or even Western rail ops by persons who hail from afar, the facts about what goes on here typically dispute what gets said in print or pixels. Traffic might be flat in other parts of the country, but so far, this fall on the Funnel has been as busy as any I've seen. Yesterday was a nearly non-stop parade, with sections of 2MT being used to stage trains for entry into Hauser Yard or passage over Lake Pend Oreille. Which meant fleeting of trains one way through what essentially becomes a roughly 50-mile lane of single track (longer if you include Hauser west toward Spokane), then once that bunch gets through, they fleet trains the other way. When it comes together properly, it allows hotter trains to keep their schedule, including Amtrak, which is doing much better this weekend:
http://www.asm.transitdocs.com/
I don't know what Amtrak's capabilities are in Spokane for re-supplying food and linens, but water is not a problem. As for turning the train, the most common procedure I've seen for both Amtraks, excursions, and business trains has been to run them east into Yardley, around the balloon track at Parkwater, and back west through Yardley:
https://www.google.com/maps/@47.6721503,-117.3329718,1023m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en
Bruce Kelly Word I got was that 7 reached Spokane approx 11:30 this morning, and passengers were bussed west from there. Train has probably been turned by now and will leave Spokane eastward tonight.
Word I got was that 7 reached Spokane approx 11:30 this morning, and passengers were bussed west from there. Train has probably been turned by now and will leave Spokane eastward tonight.
NP Eddie I'm not sure if my last post was accepted or not. Did #7's train make Spokane and turn as #8? I assume that the passengers were bused to destinations of Portland and Seattle. Does Amtrak offer free meals to compensate the passengers for their inconvenience? Ed Burns
I'm not sure if my last post was accepted or not.
Did #7's train make Spokane and turn as #8? I assume that the passengers were bused to destinations of Portland and Seattle. Does Amtrak offer free meals to compensate the passengers for their inconvenience?
Ed Burns
Coming back, the washout above Denver had been taken care of, and we detoured across Wyoming, backing into the station in Salt Lake City.
Johnny
Monday cluster on the Funnel. Last night's No.7 has been standing idle at Colburn, ID, (short of Sandpoint) for some time.
http://asm.transitdocs.com/
And I hear that BNSF isn't taking any westbounds from MRL right now.
Bruce KellyMike, I'm sure you're being a tad sarcastic about the 2 weeks in spring. I can literally see both Spokane Subs (BNSF and UP) as well as West Hauser right out my back window (sorry, can't see Russia though), and I spend more time than I should admit with the scanner on at home or out trackside seeing for myself. Based on observations here over the past two decades, I'd estimate there are at least three or four months of the year when the Funnel is flowing relatively freely, after the grain and Christmas intermodal rushes are over, and when the Centralia and Boardman coal plants quiet down for their spring maintenance.
Of course, hence the laughing icon. I sincerely hope that BNSF skips the usual ABB (anything but bridges) buildout plan to address Funnel bottlenecks; it will pay back easily over the long term. Heck, they were actively planning a new Lake Pend Oreille bridge.
Looking at the needed and shorter Spokane River bridge, a Colton crossing flyover type design might apply: prefab retaining walls supporting lightweight concrete and compacted earth fill, connected to a short steel truss. The long awaited CC project came in under budget, go figure. OTOH the bigger obstacle might be the local eco-loonies and their clueless, math challenged city council that we read about down here.
No.7 due into Spokane last night is now 6.5 hours late approaching Cocolalla, ID. And yes, it was "raining trains" here last night. Driving home from dinner in the Spokane Valley, we passed four rolling westbounds in a row in a distance of not quite 10 miles, plus two or three eastbounds stacked up waiting to get into Hauser.
Hauser fuel tracks being occupied is not a complete show-stopper for traffic flow across the Spokane Sub. Some trains bypass refueling and change crews on Mains 1 or 2, or arrive, linger, and depart through yard tracks. But the "need to feed" does put many of the route's trains on hold out on sidings or 2MT while they wait for their turn onto the pad. The fact that coal, grain, crude, and certain stackers usually have to respot and fuel their DPUs only adds to the delay factor.
Mike, I'm sure you're being a tad sarcastic about the 2 weeks in spring. I can literally see both Spokane Subs (BNSF and UP) as well as West Hauser right out my back window (sorry, can't see Russia though), and I spend more time than I should admit with the scanner on at home or out trackside seeing for myself. Based on observations here over the past two decades, I'd estimate there are at least three or four months of the year when the Funnel is flowing relatively freely, after the grain and Christmas intermodal rushes are over, and when the Centralia and Boardman coal plants quiet down for their spring maintenance.
On Saturday Oct 15 the East Bound EB is more than 8 hours late. It lost most of its time in Montana. Will this be the demise of the Empire Builder? Anyone really know what is happening?
Bruce KellyBut it does get unclogged from time to time.
In the spring. For maybe two weeks.
Bruce KellyBiggest challenge will be adding a second bridge (or one to accommodate both tracks) where the Lakeside Sub (ex-NP) crosses over UP's Ayer Sub and the Fish Lake Trail (ex-SP&S).
Compared to other recent BNSF and UP projects, this is a Nit. It even helps out the design engineer and bean counters by being a two span structure. Cubs, er Mariners win! Hopefully this will make it into the budget soon, along with two other nearby bridges.
As we 'speak', the Hauser clu, er fueling tracks are completely occupied thus preventing movement in either direction on the Spokane sub. All four blocks Athol - Cocolalla are stuffed. It must be raining trains out there.
Track A Train shows that #7 is only 1 1/2 hours down and projected to be 'on time' in Spokane. Perhaps the E.B. is now running on fairy dust, strong weed and unicorn vapors ...
The EB, run this route, is a joke because Amtrak knows BNSF will not be capable of giving them priority. Total Montana station usage in 2015 was 112,278, down 5.0% from 2014. That is only 306 people daily on two trains (153 each way). Idaho 7867, down 7.3%. ND = 120,087. The Twin Cities alone had 92,090 and would be better served (on time) with several MSP to CHI trains daily. Perhaps facts are too negative?
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
The always negative Mr. Schimm has struck again. Amtrak's Empire Builder serves a large number of stations from Seattle to Chicago, especially on the US2 corridor of northern Montana. On the Northern Pacific (I am an NP veteran) we also had times of congestion. Ditto for the BN days.
Just remember, i am a retired professional railroader. When traffic increases so does congestion.
Retired NP-BN-BNSF from Minneapolis.
Heavy traffic (at times) with strained capacity plus necessary construction on the BNSF route are well known. Amtrak should know better than to try to run a service on that route.
Total cluster indeed. But it does get unclogged from time to time. Survey stakes are in place between East Cheney and Lakeside Jct., and there's actually been some general grading in place there for a second track for quite some time. Biggest challenge will be adding a second bridge (or one to accommodate both tracks) where the Lakeside Sub (ex-NP) crosses over UP's Ayer Sub and the Fish Lake Trail (ex-SP&S). Amtrak has gotten back on schedule the last couple of days, but that's always subject to change:
And for those interested in hearing the play-by-play from home:
http://www.railroadradio.net/content/view/224/271/
@BruceKelly, thank you for your thorough synopsis. IMO BNSF cut back on crews a bit too much, and on 'construction season' projects that would produce the 'velocity' and reliability improvements we've seen east of the Bakken oil region.
Now that the CTC projects in ND, MN and IL are pretty much done, the RR east of Spokane deserves judicious investment sooner rather than later; reportedly the bulk products moving through here make more $$ than the intermodal goods on the Southern transcon.
Update - two posts seen elsewhere duplicate what I've always seen on the Lakeside sub ATCSMon - it is usually busy or (in the last two days) a total cluster. CP E Cheney to Lakeside Jct would be #1 on my fix-it list.
Congestion in this area during fall rush is nothing new. It has its roots in the mid/late 1980s and early 90s, a period when unit grain trains to Pacific export were on the rise, BN abandoned most of its ex-SP&S line in eastern WA, and BN introduced or expanded intermodal lanes linking the Pacific Northwest with places like Memphis, Birmingham, Kansas City, as well as intermediate terminals like Laurel, MT, while also enlarging its PNW-Chicago service. Oh, and BN's handling of unit coal to a pair of PNW powerplants and coastal export also ramped up during those years. And lest we forget, electrical generation (thus, coal consumption) always increases during the fall as temperatures begin to drop and hours of darkness increase, not just here but in Asia as well.
Push came to shove during the winter of 2013-14 after harsh weather conditions, widespread track projects, chronically late Amtraks, and a deluge of freight traffic (Bakken crude by rail was near its peak then) prompted BNSF to suspend Z train service across the Northern Corridor:
http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/freight/class-i/northwest-congestion-spurs-intermodal-shift.html
http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/blogs/bruce-kelly/bnsfs-best-days-are-just-ahead.html
It had gotten to the point where track gangs were having to clear up hours in advance of approaching Zs, so in order to get the projects done and over with, and open up the added capacity those projects were going to create, they downgraded the Zs to Qs, which amounted to a lower hp/ton ratio using three units instead of the usual four or five, and an average running speed that added a couple of days to the PTL-CHC or SSE-CHC trip, but it made those intermodals mesh more easily with the corridor's other traffic, and with the numerous track projects.
Z trains returned to the Northern Corridor in mid-2015, and since then the Empire Builder has been running mostly on time. It's only been during the last week or two that we've seen trains 7 and 8 taking severe hits between Sandpoint and central Montana on an almost daily basis:
From what I'm hearing out the back window and on the scanner right now, it's another logjam from Spokane east through Hauser Yard and on across the Funnel to Sandpoint tonight. Just like every other October I've experienced here for the past 20+ years.
By early spring the pressure will subside, empty unit trains for coal, grain, and possibly crude will go back into seasonal storage on every available siding, spur, branch line, and short line, along with empty ("baretable") intermodal cars, and the same voices will chime in again with their assessment that the railroad has somehow lost a ton of business and main lines have suddenly dried up. Which, as always, will be proven largely false come the following summer and fall, once again.
See if I were in Congress as Congressional oversight, I would ask Amtrak to post the actual travel time of each train, en route schedule padding, and past on time performance, right on the timetable next to the host railroad name.
Attempting to run a passenger train on that route seems like an exercise in insanity. Even on a land cruiser like the EB, passengers should be able to expect something better than mutiple days of running 6-9 hours late. It is hard to imagine many repeat passengers (with Amtrak) in the future.
Any relief in sight?
BNSF (and MRL) are facing excrutiating congestion in the Inland Northwest right now, as is usually the case this time of year. Blame it on the flood of grain headed west, empties headed east, slight uptick in pre-Christmas intermodal (though not to the extent of past years), the fact that crude and coal traffic into the PNW has not dropped off like it has elsewhere, crew shortages (though many furloughed folks are coming back), driver shortages (there have been moments with NO drivers available to shuttle crews to or from their trains), you name it. And the serious weather has not even hit yet.
On another board, one recent Amtrak rider observed trains waiting in every siding across Montana and attributed that to good dispatching. True, the DS desks are proving their talent right now. But a large number of those trains being passed were in fact tied down, dead. At one point, MRL's 4th Sub from Kootenai (Sandpoint), ID, to Paradise, MT, had all sidings but one occupied by parked trains. Same thing on BNSF either side of Spokane and clear across the Idaho panhandle into Montana. Dead trains everywhere, until they can be fetched and forwarded to the next available yard track or relief crew.
Despite many miles of 2nd main track and extended sidings being added in the Northwest over the past several years, this region still has choke points and operating characteristics that you don't find on the Southern Transcon. Single-track bridges at both ends of the Spokane-Sandpoint Funnel, a slow stretch of single track through the Kootenai River Canyon on the ID/MT border, Flathead Tunnel, etc. Plus, this corridor handles a large number of loaded unit trains running slower than all other traffic due to TOB restrictions, has quite a few unbonded sidings (quite common on portions of the former GN) which trains must enter at restricted speed, and the need for everyone to get into the clear well in advance of Z trains, Amtrak, and perhaps a moderately hot Q train about to lose its hours of service. The domino effect of each delay ripples out in both directions, from more than one starting point, impacting the entire fleet across hundreds of route miles.
ALL:
What is happening to the eastbound Empire Builder? Today (Sunday) is the third day in a row that #8 is very late. They lost 2 hours 25 minutes between Shelby and Havre and between Malta and Wolf Point. As I write this, #8 has departed about 0945 (looking at the ATCS of the Staples Sub). I estimate they into MSP about 2PM.
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