I happened to notice the western trains all departed late from Chicago yesterday, but within a few minutes of one another. Specifically, the Eagle left at 3:01, the Chief at 3:10 and both the Builder and Zephyr at 3:12. I checked arrivals, and sure enough the Lake Shore came in at 2:33 (4 hours 48 minutes late). It appears likely that the four trains were held for passengers from the Lake Shore. The Capitol was also more than 4 hours late into Chicago, but its arrival would not have affected the outgoing trains.
However, I also found that the Cardinal left 14 minutes late, the City 1 hour 40 minutes, the Capitol 52 minutes and the Lake Shore 1 hour 36 minutes. I would have thought that the late arrivals still left time to turn the consists, but perhaps that is not so; and that wouldn't explain the Cardinal nor the City.
Does anyone have an idea of what might have been happening?
I have the understanding that the equipment coming in on the Texas Eagle goes out on the City of New Orleans, and vice versa. Since the Eagle came in at 4:28 (2:36 late), this may have delayed the departure of the City, though 1:40 late does seem excessive to me.
Johnny
Deggesty I have the understanding that the equipment coming in on the Texas Eagle goes out on the City of New Orleans, and vice versa. Since the Eagle came in at 4:28 (2:36 late), this may have delayed the departure of the City, though 1:40 late does seem excessive to me.
This is a great example of the snowball effect. The Texas Eagle was late leaving San Antonio, it appears, because No. 2 was running approximately 2.5 hours late. The Eagle had to wait for the two through cars off of No. 2. It appears that it did not make up any of the lost time between San Antonio and Chicago, which would result in the time constraint for the City of New Orleans.
One of the regular Eagle conductors has told me that Amtrak will put the SA protect cars on the Eagle if No. 2 is really late, although he did not say what really late means. Apparently it was not late enough yesterday to put the protect cars on the train so that it could leave SA on time. He also said that if No. 2 is really really late, Amtrak will take the through passengers off of No. 2 at Alpine or Del Rio and bus them to Austin, where they can get back on the train.
Beginning on Friday, Amtrak will be off the hook as far as through cars from LAX to Chicago. The Eagle is being suspended between San Antonio and Fort Worth, so everyone will get a bus ride from SA to Cow Town.
PS: No. 21 is reported 2 hours 7 minutes late for Temple this afternoon. No. 22 is nearly on time for Mineola.
This is a major problem for once a day, LD trains. Lost time is cumulative and has a ripple effect on other trains waiting for connections. Perhaps it doesn't matter to some of the endpoint ridership, but clearly nobody who wants to travel in a predictable way on a schedule between intermediate points will NOT.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
They need to dump the Sunset Limited LAX to New Orleans, that train is a big money loser. The Cardinal should go as well now that Senator Robert Byrd is retired. At a minimum I would like to see those two LD trains disappear. Amtrak could use the resulting surplus equipment as backup and to experiment with other, shorter routes.
I concede your economic logic, MILW, and it would be nice to have the equipment freed up for other, better-patronized trains. But ask yourself: How would you feel about it if you lived along the route of the Sunset or Cardinal, and even rode once in a while?
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