I have come to accept it as being part of railroading and a easer way of life...
By the way it gives me more time to talk up some romance with the lady that is siting next to me..
Which is why I dont get every one getting into a huffy over a train being a half an hour late..
However perhaps I am forgeting that people have cars picking them up at the station so my advice is to call your relitives a hour before and dont have them waiting..
eolafan wrote:I have come to realize if you are on a set travel time schedule (such as for business meetings), Amtrak is really not a safe bet, except perhaps in the shorter distance corridors such as the NEC, Hiawatha, etc.
And, my friend, if you're really on a tight schedule, don't plan to travel by air, either. I recently took a coast to coast trip on a major US airline, good weather both ways, three of the four flights were late arriving, one late enough to almost miss a two hour connection.
I DO mind!
If you want to use AMTRAK as a vacation line, all well and good. We can spend Federal tax dollars for a subsidized cruise line as well. If we can just break the Air Force away from that pesky military mission they seem to harp on, we will have the skies covered too.
But the function of a transportation system is to move either freight or customers in a timely, efficient, and cost effective manner. From what I've seen and read, AMTRAK fails the "timely" criteria. That is not going to please the vast majority of paying customers who need to get from Point A to Point B to do something other than sightsee. Cost efficiency is a different matter... and the debate continues over whether AMTRAK should be subsidized or not. But they do themselves no service by failing the basic standard of what is considered good government (and good business).... making the trains run on time.
Erik
Slow that hot shot container train down a few notches and assign it a second class and give the railroad to Amtrack. Me thinks cargo is more important than people.
I dont even consider Latetrack for any kind of trips, the risk of having to spend a night in Chicago or lose half a day at the station waiting for the thing is too high. In fact it will be cheaper to hop in the car and drive. 3.00 gas or not.
Having just ridden Amtrak across the country, I feel I'm qualified to chip in here.
Amtrak has the Northeast Corridor under their name. There, the trains run on time (or so I'm told). The problem is that when Amtrak doesn't have the title to the rails it's on, it is second class or worse to the railroads' priority freight. I booked our trip knowing the reputation for late trains, and I was okay with it because the way Amtrak had scheduled it, we had 4 hours, plenty of time to make the connection. What could go wrong?
Well, we barely made the connection going out. They held the train for us and we climbed on board just in time. No such luck coming back. The train was 5 hours late and we lost our sleeper reservation. Thank you CSX! By the way, Amtrak crews make it a point to notify the passengers who inconvenienced them. Amtrak has it's own problems, but the crews on the Capitol Limited told me that 4 hours behind schedule has been the average since February.
The painful truth is that you can run either freight or passengers--but not both--on time. If the US Gov't decides it's going to subsidize railroads on the same level that they subsidize highways and airlines, then they might have more of a say in who gets priority. Heck, they might even give the railroad an incentive for 98% on time performance. Until money changes hands, however, good luck on making that connection.
Steve WaldenEditor, Colorado Railroads
If you want to accept a crappy product, Amtrak is there for you. If everyone accepts the crappy product, nothing will ever change.
I have traveled Amtrak several times on business. The last was Detroit to Milwaukee. The flight is 1 hr, the drive is 6 hrs, the train trip was scheduled at 9 hrs (1.5 hr layover in Chicago).
After delays by the NS railroad, it ended up being 12 hrs. I will not tolerate this level of service no matter who is to blame. Amtrak will not get my money until they solve their problems.
Check out the Deming Sub by clicking on the pics:
and on a lighter note: I can hear the westbound Amtrak if it leaves close to its departure time and I can hear the eastbound if it comes in around it's arrival time - they are about 4-5 hours apart.
They use the same track so I am waiting for the day they meet.......
Moo....
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
Amtrak problem is that it does not OWN the track... Now it seems that CSX and NS are now calling themselves FREIGHT RAILROADS..... and would like to see Amtrak go away...
Matter of fact that would has always been the plan to relieve the freight railroads of the legal burden (Created by there status as common carrrers and in payment for land grants and goverment powers of eminiate domain) of running passenger trains and gradulay wean of the american public of the Habit of riding passenger trains untill it became a distant memory...
Mexico is prime example of this....for American Railroads to invest in Mexican Railroads they told Mexico that the passenger trains had to go...Because they wanted to move more AUTO parts to Mexico so there would be no alternitive....
When railroads did run there own passenger service they were to blaime for all of americas ills..
Even when portions of there routes were subsidized (Erie RR Commuter Service and Portions of Penn Central) they caught cow dung...
But if the Goverment ran the trains they could take the blame for killing the train...which in 1975 they were well used to that after the Vietnam War Fiasco..
WE NEED A DIFFRENT BUISENESS MODEL
The Way its set up now the Class Ones get paid if the trains are on time or late or empty..
Now perhaps with a change of plans Perhaps CSX and NS could compete for goverment contracts to run passeger service... Since CSX(NYC) and NS (Nickel Plate) both go to the same places more or less they could submit a sealed bid to run the Lake Shore Limited and on top of that they could tack on as many mail cars as they want..and run at 80 miles per hour..
Same with BNSF and Montana Rail Link both could compete to run the Empire Builder...
We could face off UP(CNW) vs CP(SOO) for Chicago-Minnie-St Paul Trains ...
Passenger Trains are a public nessity so perhaps they shoudl be handled the way all goverment contracts are done.
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