Blog about the many delays
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKpU54Cha78&feature=youtu.be
Very few locomotives have 4 axle trucks like those in video.
The reality is that Amtrak doesn't even operate the NEC On Time! And that is the railroad they own.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Too bad this guy's not around anymore, Amtrak could hire him as a spokesman!
"It wasn't my fault!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZqfxoCYfxw
BaltACD The reality is that Amtrak doesn't even operate the NEC On Time! And that is the railroad they own.
Amtrak owns 79.4 percent of the NEC between Washington and Boston. Moreover, it has to work into its operations numerous commuter trains, which are the majority of train operations on the NEC.
In FY18 the NEC's on-time performance records at the end points was 80.4 percent, with the Acela service clocking in at 81.6 percent. This is as good as the on-time performances for most of the nation's domestic flights, which were on-time 79.3 percent in 2018.
The long-distance trains, which are heavily dependent on the freight carriers for their schedule performance, had an on-time performance record at their end points in FY18 of 48.6 percent.
The nation's freight railroads are investor owned businesses. Management understands the need to cover the costs and earn a profit. Pay them the fully allocated cost of hosting Amtrak's long-distance trains, and I'd bet you would see an improvement in the on-time performance records.
BaltACDThe reality is that Amtrak doesn't even operate the NEC On Time! And that is the railroad they own.
Thats even with their schedule padding and their "Lets not count the first 10-12 min of being late as actually being late"......BS. They can't maintain the NEC properly either. Hence it should be spun off to an agency just focused on maintaining the NEC and charging everyone that uses it a fair and equitable price. Amtrak needs competition from other providers on the NEC the most, otherwise it has no incentive to improve and we are stuck with warmed over crap as service.
Flintlock76Too bad this guy's not around anymore, Amtrak could hire him as a spokesman!
Last I looked, David Leisure (who is almost the ideal spAmtrak spokesman) IS still available.
(I looked for the archetypal PECO commercial, where he's interviewing with "Enron" for what, in retrospect, might have been an actual job, but can't find it on line. Perhaps Mike knows where. In the meantime, here's the idea -- I'd especially love to hear him 'explain' Superliner toilets...)
JPS1 BaltACD The reality is that Amtrak doesn't even operate the NEC On Time! And that is the railroad they own. Amtrak only owns 79.4 percent of the NEC between Washington and Boston. Moreover, it has to work into its operations numerous commuter trains, which are the majority of train operations on the NEC. In FY18 the NEC's on-time performance records at the end points was 80.4 percent, with the Acela service clocking in at 81.6 percent. This is as good as the on-time performances for most of the nation's domestic flights, which were on-time 79.3 percent in 2018. The long-distance trains, which are heavily dependent on the freight carriers for their schedule performance, had an on-time performance record at their end points in FY18 of 48.6 percent. The nation's freight railroads are investor owned businesses. Management understands the need to cover the costs and earn a profit. Pay them the fully allocated cost of hosting Amtrak's long-distance trains, and I'd bet you would see an improvement in the on-time performance records.
Amtrak only owns 79.4 percent of the NEC between Washington and Boston. Moreover, it has to work into its operations numerous commuter trains, which are the majority of train operations on the NEC.
The freight railroads can't keep many of their own trains on time.
One small "benefit" of the shift to so-called PSR is that every single train has a schedule, and the computer system keeps track of how late or early it is via the AEI scanners.
I can't speak for the other railroads, but on CN this information is easily available to operating employees, along with the reasons for the delays (some are pretty good, I couldn't make them up). Most of our priority intermodal trains are currently operating even later than VIA's Canadian, whose delay reports are also accessible in the same system.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
SD70DudeOne small "benefit" of the shift to so-called PSR is that every single train has a schedule, and the computer system keeps track of how late or early it is via the AEI scanners. I can't speak for the other railroads, but on CN this information is easily available to operating employees, along with the reasons for the delays (some are pretty good, I couldn't make them up). Most of our priority intermodal trains are currently operating even later than VIA's Canadian, whose delay reports are also accessible in the same system.
The Class 1 freight carriers have always had scheduled freight trains (I have a schedules and classification manual from the B&O circa 1954) that they monitor as closely as they monitor Amtrak - PSR or not.
One thing PSR can't 'schedule' is the operation of bulk commodity trains - Coal trains, Ore trains, Grain Trains, Oil Trains, Ethanol Trains etc. etc. etc. The trains become ready when the customer either finishes loading or unloading the commodity.
Since I have retired, I have no idea how CSX is performing with their scheduled freight network. When I was working the 'within tolerance' percentage of scheduled trains was in the high 80's. I have no idea how CSX is performing in the PSR world, nor how they are treating Amtrak.
BaltACD One thing PSR can't 'schedule' is the operation of bulk commodity trains - Coal trains, Ore trains, Grain Trains, Oil Trains, Ethanol Trains etc. etc. etc. The trains become ready when the customer either finishes loading or unloading the commodity.
That's what I mean, our unit trains have schedules too. Their schedule may only start when the train leaves its originating point, but enroute delays are still tracked and they too are often arrive at their final destination far behind schedule.
Our local roadswitchers and wayfreights have schedules in the computer system too for some reason, but no one pays much attention to them.
JPS1 I’d bet the on-time performance would improve dramatically if Amtrak paid the railroads that host its trains the fully allocated cost of doing so.
I don't think so. It would just make some feel a bit guilty about it.
I have seen zero evidence that Amtrak trains aren't given first class treatment relative to freight traffic. The problem is just plain lousy operation all around.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
SD70DudeOur local roadswitchers and wayfreights have schedules in the computer system too for some reason, but no one pays much attention to them. Add Quote
Those schedules most likely exist to support car-level trip plans.
If you are going to do computer aided movement planning (ala NS's UTCS), you have to have reliable local train schedules for that. I suspect "reliable local schedule" is somewhat oxymoronic....
SD70DudeOne small "benefit" of the shift to so-called PSR is that every single train has a schedule, and the computer system keeps track of how late or early it is via the AEI scanners.
On NS, every train has a schedule in the system. The train dispatching system requires one. If you want to run an "unscheduled" train, you have to create a schedule for it in the train schedule system, first.
That's the good news. The bad news is that performance against schedule, in real time isn't shared very well. The dispatcher doesn't know it, even though the UTCS movement planner is using it as part of it's calculation. The train crew doesn't know squat about it, although you could give it to them as part of there paperwork.
So, why not? Because the movment planner system doesn't attempt to run trains "on time" as much as it tries to get all the trains to their end point with the least variance to schedule (it's actually a bit more complicated than this. Different trains types have their early and late variances weighted differently)- and since no single person or decision can see the overall plan, it could be counter productive to share schedules.
I call minor BS on this. If you have solid, defendable schedules, then the sum of the parts will be pretty close to the whole, nearly always.
SD70Dude BaltACD One thing PSR can't 'schedule' is the operation of bulk commodity trains - Coal trains, Ore trains, Grain Trains, Oil Trains, Ethanol Trains etc. etc. etc. The trains become ready when the customer either finishes loading or unloading the commodity. That's what I mean, our unit trains have schedules too. Their schedule may only start when the train leaves its originating point, but enroute delays are still tracked and they too are often arrive at their final destination far behind schedule. Our local roadswitchers and wayfreights have schedules in the computer system too for some reason, but no one pays much attention to them.
The way I 'observed' schedules being created (I worked adjacent to the Service Design Department for several years and had frequent conversations with people doing the job of scheduling) was a multi-phase process. First step was for Amtrak and/or commuter schedules; Second step was to plot in the customer requirements of Priority Customers or operations (UPS, Intermodal, Tropicana and other similar things); third step was to plot in automotive custormer requirements - assembly plants for JIT parts (which has decreased to nearly nothing in recent years) and loading/unloading centers for finished vehicles; fourth step is to figure out the avilability and routing of 'loose car' merchandise traffic and therein design trains to handle this business in effective timeings and routings to serving yards and/or interchange (the interchange movements often end up as run-through trains to connecting carriers).
With the timings of all the foregoing plotted over a territory or sub-division one will see 'windows' where there is limited or no scheduled traffic - into these windows is where Locals or Road Switchers are scheduled to handle the line of road customers on the territory. These windows are also where the 'unscheduled' bulk commoditiy trains idealy placed in the network - note 'unscheduled' trains do have computer schedules between origin and destination, not that anyone but the computer cares.
The above was the practice before PSR - what it is now with PSR pounding square pegs into round holes and vice versa - I have no idea.
When a rail network runs itself off into the ditch - the only way to get it back to a fluid operation is to start 'pounding' on operating personnel to make decisions base on the priorities from step one on down the line - it takes discipline to run a fluid operation - screw up the discipline and you screw up the railroad.
I just lookedat the original U tube piece, which is an ATK attack on the freight carriers. With 'friends' like this who needs enemies?
JSP1: Since on time is based on scheduled distance the time for on time is much less. so look at the status map almoost all tains are in the green
https://asm.transitdocs.com/map
The grace period is determined by train run length for Amtrak trains:
BOS - WASH 457 mies so that on time is 25 minutes for Regionals. NYP - WASH 225 miles so for those trains 10 minutes and all ACELAs BOS - WASH 10 minutes. Albany and Springfield trains all are under 250 miles
IMHO the 10 minutes for AMTRAK NEC trains of 10 minutes and 80% is so much better than the freight RRs.
oltmannd I have seen zero evidence that Amtrak trains aren't given first class treatment relative to freight traffic. The problem is just plain lousy operation all around.
Two things about this video bug me. First, Amtrak does not carry 32,000,000 people. It carries 32,000,000 passengers. Every time you board an Amtrak train you are counted as one passenger. So, if you take four Amtrak trips a year you are counted as four passengers but you are still only one person. Plus, I doubt if anyone "relies" on Amtrak for transportation. They may choose Amtrak but there are plenty of other choices in most cases.
Secondly there is no mention that part of the NEC is owned by Metro North in Connecticut and New York. I don't know for sure but I would think that given the number of passengers on the NEC vs. the number on the LD trains that Metro North delays far more passengers than all of the freight railroads combined. This has been my experience as a frequent NEC user.
If Amtrak is going to attack the freight railroads for delays then attack the biggest offender which is non-freight.
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