Amtrak's Timekeeping

Trains Magazine Passenger
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I was curious about the timekeeping of Amtrak’s long distance trains so I monitored the arrival times of selected trains during the period May 1 - September 30, 2007. I chose the following trains: the eastbound Capitol Limited and the Cardinal at Washington, DC, the eastbound Lake Shore Limited at New York, and the northbound Crescent at both Washington, DC and New York; note, the Cardinal only runs three days a week and it continues on to New York, but I only monitored its arrivals in Washington. I used the train status feature in Amtrak’s web site to get the scheduled arrival times and the delays. The train status in Amtrak’s web site showed the Capitol Limited was scheduled to arrive in Washington between 30 minutes to 45 minutes later than its scheduled arrival time in Amtrak’s printed schedule and in the schedule posted on Amtrak’s web site between mid June and early September.

The Capitol Limited, the Cardinal, and the Lake Shore Limited delays averaged approximately 2 hours each day during the period of the monitoring while the Crescent’s delays averaged approximately a little less than an hour each day at both Washington and New York. The Capitol Limited and the Cardinal suffered their worst delays in May, arriving in Washington approximately 10 hours and 5 hours late respectively although the total delays for all of the trains that were surveyed were the least in September.

By monitoring the Crescent’s arrival times at both Washington and New York I was able to see what effect the operations on the Northeast Corridor had on the Crescent’s arrivals at its final destination, New York City, during the period of the survey. The northbound Crescent only discharges passengers at Washington and points north so it is not bound by any p

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In its own stats, Amtrak does not count a train late until it is thirty minutes behind schedule.

I wonder if they automatically subtract thirty minutes from the even-more-late trains; making, say, a two-hour-late train 1.5 hours late??

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Good point. Anyone know the answer?

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For the people waiting to board a train, or waiting to meet someone arriving on the train, whether it is officially late is immaterial. They look at their watch or the clock on the station wall, and they know whether the train is late. I’ll bet this is especially true in San Antonio, where the Texas Eagle, which is supposed to arrive at 10:25 p.m., frequently arrives after midnight.

In Texas, which is served by the Eagle, Heartland Flyer, and Sunset Limited, the train(s) is usually late. Through the first quarter of this year, I recorded the following statistics for the arrivals at Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, and El Paso. It is not a pretty picture.

At Fort Worth the Eagle (Numbers 21 and 22) was late, on average, by 72 and 47 minutes. Number 21 arrived in San Antonio, on average, 78 minutes late. And Number 22 was late into Dallas, a mere 32 miles from Fort Worth, by an average of 61 minutes. It lost an average of 14 minutes between Cow Town and Big “D”. Number 22 was on time at Dallas once since January 1, 2008.

The Heartland Flyer (821) arrived into Fort Worth, on average, 19 minutes late. It is a relatively short run from Oklahoma City (206 miles), so it does much better than the two long distance trains.

The westbound Sunset (Number 1) was late by an average of 27 minutes into San Antonio and an average of 29 minutes into El Paso. On many mornings Number 1 is a head of schedule at San Antonio, which means a longer station layover for the passengers. Number 2 was late, on average, by 86 minutes at El Paso and 87 minutes at San Antonio.

The averages, as well as the other statistics that I keep for Amtrak’s trains in Texas, have not shown much improvement since I began tracking them about a year ago.

Most Texans don’t know about Amtrak, and the few that do, by and large, don’t care about it. The most frequent comment&nb

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Amtrak’s statistics are both relevant and material if they cover up “routine” lateness. Yes, we can all look at our watches and see that Whatever is already 10 -15 mins. late. And yes, it matters. At least to me.

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For Al and Alphas. The delays reported in Amtrak’s train status web page were the actual delays, that is the scheduled arrival time subtracted from the actual arrival time. There was no 30 minute grace period.

For Samantha. My wife and I visited San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, and Ft Worth in October, 2004, and she let me off the leash for railfanning in the Dallas- Ft Worth area. On two days I noticed both the eastbound and the westbound Texas Eagles were on time in both Dallas and Ft Worth. But I also rode a TRE train to Ft Worth that was scheduled to leave Dallas 10 minutes after the westbound Texas Eagle,which runs non-stop to Ft Worth, and it was scheduled to arrive in Ft Worth with stops, 10 minutes earlier than westbound Texas Eagle.

I don’t understand how the eastbound Texas can lose 14 minutes between Ft Worth and Dallas, and I don’t understand how the Heartland Flyer can be nearly 20 minutes late on average into Ft Worth

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Clearly, Amtrak management needs to know whether its trains are adhering to their schedules. They need complete, accurate and timely reports. They also need an analysis of the root cause of the problems if they are to address them.

But the passenger, whether he or she is traveling by train, bus, or plane, is only interested in knowing when he is scheduled to leave and arrive at his destination. Most travelers don’t know and don’t care about the inner workings of the carrier.

If the Texas Eagle gets a clear signal between Dallas and Fort Worth, it can beat the Trinity Railway Express (TRE) to Cow Town. But several operating problems make the run difficult in both directions.

Upon departure from or arrival in Dallas, Numbers 21 and 22 must stop just north of the station so that a crew person can detrain and throw a manual switch. This is a 19th century procedure that adds several minutes to the run from Dallas to Fort Worth or vice versa.

Number 21 must back into the Fort Worth Intermodal Transit Center (ITC). And Number 22 must back out. A crew person must stand in the rear car doorway and talk the engineer through the procedure. In addition, as I have observed on many occasions, just as Amtrak is ready to depart Fort Worth, a dispatcher sends a train through the Tower 55 junction, thereby delaying Amtrak’s departure. And if Amtrak is late, they seem to take delight in making it even later.

Rumor has it that Amtrak is negotiating with the TRE to run the Eagle over its tracks between Fort Worth and Dallas. This would eliminate the backing maneuver in Fort Worth and the manual switch throwing in Dallas. Amtrak has run its Fort Worth based standby locomotive and Superliner coach over the TRE to verify that it would be a workable alternative.

Freight train congestion is the major reason Amtrak has difficulty getting into and out of Fort Worth on time. It

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I miss the old days, when the RR companies kept more people in small towns. I could call them up and ask if Number Seven (use train no., not passenger train name) was running on time and they would tell me to the minute! - a. s.

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Re: the Sunset’s timekeeping-the trains through Tucson can be anywhere from an hour late to three or four hours late. Back a few years ago, Amtrak terminated the Sunset in Tucson and bussed all passengers west from Tucson and east from LA due to UP’s traffic jam between Tucson and LA. Sometimes they’d have the company I worked for run coaches on the train’s schedule if it was going to be unusually late-in one case, several hours late.

Timekeeping on the UP is a joke and a bad one at that. Haven’t ridden Amtrak over the BNSF but the Crescent is generally good at making time. Last time I rode New Orleans to Atlanta, we were out of NO on the advertised and only two minutes late into ATL.