WSJ article that has NS demanding that Amtrak quit listing tweets about the delays happening on NS.
For those of you needing the tweet link here it is!
As J. J. O’Driscoll used to say “Its a strange bird that shits in its own nest”.
ATK is far beyond strange bird status.
Are you suggesting that Amtrak should keep its mouth shut and put up with the delays??
Is J.J. O’Driscoll real?
Since PNWRMNM (probably a so-called libertarian) hates Amtrak and government, his remarks about Amtrak are about as useful as the supposed quotation from Mr. O’Driscoll.
It’s not polite to air other people’s dirty laundry in public.
The reasons for delays that the conductor enters into his hand-held device are his (and the engineer’s) opinion. Amtrak meets with the host roads to review the reported delays on a regular basis.
It might not be a good idea to tweet so much about who’s to blame for what. Providing info about the delay and expected ETA’s is a good idea, though.
Looks like the Wall Street Journal article can’t be read unless you’re a subscriber, at least the link doesn’t work for me.
No biggie. Here’s the thing, when something is your fault, you acknowledge the fault, you fix the fault, and you do your best to try and make sure it doesn’t happen again.
When something’s NOT your fault, i.e. Amtraks poor on-time performance due to freight train interference it makes no sense to take the blame, although I’d think anyone traveling Amtrak should realize FTI can be part of the problem and accept the fact, as long as it’s not too outrageous.
Yes. What is the point of ATK whining? Really.
They are getting a free ride by paying far less than market value for the capacity they consume.
Basically: NS didn’t like Amtk tweeting that the delay was caused by a NS freight train interference.
So now Amtrak just says freight train interference. It’s up to the passengers to look out the window to see what color the freight engines sharing the line are.
A part of my position before retirement was to work with the ‘Amtrak Clerk’ concerning delays - the Amtrak Clerk would be in possession of the delays as reported by the Amtrak Conductors and then try to correlate those reported delays to delays observed on the Amtrak Train’s trainsheet (CSX developed a computer application to overlay one upon the other). Many times when the Amtrak train was having its own mechanical issues, the Amtrak Conductors would report the delay as ‘freight train interference’.
A least when I was working, CSX tried to the Amtrak ‘passenger preference’ within our guidelines of operation, that doesn’t mean that Amtrak ALWAYS got preference but they were given breaks over most CSX trains - a UPS train running to make the crew’s HOS time, with no recrew available, would get preference over Amtrak.
And if the engine they see is a foreign engine they still may not know what road is responsible–unless they know just where they are.
Would like to see Amtrak post CSX freight train interferrence when it is the delay at Howell CP in Atlanta.
I don’t think that the average passenger really cares whose fault it is, they just want to get where they are going on time or close to it. I just returned from a trip to Philadelphia via Acela Express. We left Penn Station about 3 minutes late and were nearly 20 minutes late by Stamford, all because of Metro North delays. But, there were no mentions of that on the Amtrak Alerts page. They normally report “commuter train congestion” or “track work” as reasons on Metro North so why do they name the freight railroads?
Here is a NARP post that has copy of Amtrak’s letter responding to NS. Someone who knows NS schedule tell us about 21M.
https://www.railpassengers.org/happening-now/news/blog/amtrak-takes-the-fight-against-delays-online/
However still could not find that 20/24 exceeded 60 MPH ATL - CLT
21M is the old Conrail/PC/PRR Mail8. Premium intermodal. Runs Croxton, NJ to Chicago Englewood. Scheduled crew change at Conway PA at 10PM. Scheduled arrival at Englewood, 10AM. Capitol Ltd. is scheduled to pass this train en route, departing Pittsburgh about midnight, arriving Chicago at 8:45 AM.
NS can’t really mess with 21Ms schedule commercially. The only real solution is to set the Capitol back a couple hours or ahead a couple hours to eliminate the planned pass.
AMTRAK named NS again today.
Amtrak AlertsVerified account[quote user=“blue streak 1”]
AMTRAK named NS again today.
Another NS delay between Austell and Howell in ATL for 20/28. Then was 6 hours late leaving ATL now 11 + hours late approaching ALX.
And the beat goes on and the beat goes on.
[quote user=“blue streak 1”]
Amtrak Alerts
Back when NS was having trouble getting Amtrak trains from New York and Washington into Chicago, I boarded #5 at the proper time–and we left more than two hours late so passengers from #29 and #49 could transfer. The crews in Lincoln were called for on time departure; we left Lincoln about five hours late–and had to be recrewed before we got out of Nebraska.