Has anyone heard that something unusual is happening in Amtrak's yard? On Sunday the Builder was a 53 minutes late departure, the Zephyr 1 hour 3 minutes and the Eagle 1 hour 24 minutes. Yesterday the Chief was 2 hours 54 minutes late in leaving.
Late arrivals can be the cause if turnaround time from an inbound train is tight to begin with. Amtrak does not have spare equipment available to get an outbound train out on time if the inbound train is late beyond a certain time.
CSSHEGEWISCH Late arrivals can be the cause if turnaround time from an inbound train is tight to begin with. Amtrak does not have spare equipment available to get an outbound train out on time if the inbound train is late beyond a certain time.
Lack of equipment is a severe impediment to Amtrak running it's system on time. When a set of equipment is very late on it's inbound schedule to a terminal, the outbound origination that this equipment services cannot be met, which compounds itself as it works through the system. There only exist two ways to combat the problem (without securing extra equipment). Continue to operate the service and try to 'make up' time until after several 'good days' the service is near on time. The other is to cancel a trip so that the late arriving inbound equipment can originate it's outbound service On Time on the 2nd scheduled day. Neither solution creates a 'good taste' in Amtrak's customer base.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
I considered that late arrivals due to heat related slow downs might be part of the problem, but that really didn't start in the central plains until Monday. For example, at North Platte (close to the route of the Zephyr) Sunday's high was 92, Monday 106, and Tuesday 100.
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