The EB delays.

[Anonymous]

Here is what I wrote in another post regarding the Texas Eagle.

"The Texas Eagle, prior to the Great Recession, ran so late, as a rule, that those of us who rode it joked that we would not get to San Antonio before the bars closed.  With the coming of the Great Recession, however, the on-time performance improved.  The reason is clear.  Freight traffic diminished in response to the downturn in the economy.  Now, of course, the economy has come back.  And so too has the freight traffic. And the Eagle is again running late more often than not."

Irrespective of performance incentives paid to the freight carriers to get Amtrak's trains over their systems, or what Boardman threatens, as long as the performance incentives are inadequate, and Amtrak does not compensate the freight carriers for the full cost of hosting its trains, the freight carriers don't have an incentive to help Amtrak stay on time.

Two weeks ago I took the Texas Eagle from Taylor to Dallas.  Number 22 was four hours late.  Lets see, it is 117 miles from San Antonio, where Number 22 originates, and Taylor.  Four hours late!  It is happening frequently now that the UP is again crowded with freight trains.  Rather than constantly tick-off passengers because of late running trains, we would be better off to kill the long distance trains and run trains in relatively short, high density corridors.  Even if they are run over a freight carrier, if they don't have too far to go, there is a higher probability of keeping them on time.

[I C Rider]

In early May I did around trip from Jackson MS to Everett WA. The rides on 58 and 59 were tolerable but the EB was another story. We were after midnight arriving in the twin cities on 7 and we crawled though ND and MT. The conductors said it was because of the soaking rains but there were times in ND were we were sidelines for two hours while "junk' freights passed in pairs. We arrived in Everett at 6pm. Coming back on 8 was just as bad this time there were the excuses that the dispatcher sidelined us. My thing is there were times when we were just miles from a service stop anyway so what's up with that?. We left Milwaukee about 3 hours late but Metro put us behind a local and when we got to Chicago we barely made out 8pm connection on 59. That too was a fiasco. At one time you would have to book the EB almost a year in advance for any accommodations but now you can book on the day you plan to leave and still get a sleeper. I understand that BNSF has growing pains and the weather con cause problems but can't dwell time be planned in the service stops? people tend to feel more at ease when the can walk around. My second question is, Is Amtrak leadership working with the freight railroads to kill Amtrak long distance trains? Boardman came to Jackson MS and told the riders of the City of New Orleans if the did not better utilize the train they would lose it. This was in April when I believe all modes of transportation are slack. What's going on