After readiing the CN response to the Amtrak PRIIA complaint one item stood out. It was their complaint that other RRs were not informing them in a timely manner and that other RRs often would not answer their call for hand offs
I cannot believe that no start has been made toward a common dispatch system that UP and BNSF have institued in several locations and CSX _ NS in Atlanta. The Atlanta joint dispatch I have heard has decreased delays especially at Howell tower.
I realize that implementing a common dispatch system will be complicated but if all dispatchers were in one room then certainly there would be speeed ups. Why Create has not addressed this problem is very puzzling. When one dispatcher only covers 5 miles in some cases ??? Freight speed ups would probably be large and would cerainly help Amtrak and Metra.
If system could over ride some automatic block signals at RR grade crossings there would be even more speed ups. Ex. RR a crosses RR B but cannot clear RR B because of a blockage at crossing C.
CN right now is grasping at Straws for any and ALL REASONS to try and delay this case. Remember this alot of these trains that are delayed the ONLY lines they run on are CN lines so who is Responsible for them Delaying Amtrak. Also remember this is the same RR that could not inform their OWN TRAINS that their tracks where washed out when they had over one hour and it led to deaths directly. When the STB says you need to IMPROVE your own INTERAL Warning SYSTEMS there is a Company wide ISSUE with COMMUNCATION.
Sorry but most people at CN have HIC or HUSRE syndrome their heads are either buried in Cement or so far up their Supervisors Rear END so they can get that next Promotion that they never want to HEAR BAD NEWS since it would affect them.
About 15 + or - years ago, CSX stopped the transfer of the Chicago dispatchers to Jacksonville at 11:59 of the last hour on the understanding that a office for ALL Chicago area dispatchers was imminent in being created and CSX didn’t want to pay double relocation expenses of moving employees to Jacksonville only to move them back to Chicago after a short interval…obviously what had been intended 15 years ago has never come to pass.
The problem with communications among employees that have been loaded to near their maximum abilities in performing a job that requires thought and communication is that there are SO MANY people that they have to communicate with. Those that are trying to get in the que to be answered, can’t conceive that the person they are trying to contact is working his posterior off in communicating with those that have come before his entry to the que. When you can’t see that the person you are trying to communicate with is working his tail off, your first thought is that the individual is ‘lolly gagging’ around and just blowing you off.
When the CADS providers were selling CADS to the railroads their chief selling point was that a Dispatcher would be able to easily handle 1000 miles of railroad. If the only thing Dispatchers had to do was line signals and plan train meets - that would be a reasonable assumption. A reasonable assumption but totally FALSE!. First problem is that a railroad does not continue to run without maintenance - track workers and signal personnel have to communicate with Dispatchers to get authorities to be on the track, and the location an timing of these authorities have to be coordinated with the operation of the territory when the authorities are requested. Second, trains don’t always run without problems - wayside detector activation, undesired emergency brake application, engine failure, necess
A thought is if an Amtrak train has to copy any train orders it would have to stop unless conductor rode in loco to copy such. Any idea if such is required?
Okay, I see where we’re going here now. This is CN defending itself against accusations of its treatment of Amtrak.
First of all, there is a degree of coordination between railroad dispatchers in Chicago, concerning normal interchange routes. This has been credited for reducing delays over the normal interchange routes.
I don’t know whether this coordination is a direct result of CREATE or not. However, it’s interesting to note that CN dropped a lot of support for individual CREATE projects as it acquired the EJ&E. Brighton Park was going to be a flyover at one time. Not sure they will ever make it now. In the past, CN would have used the north-south route over Brighton Park for its trains from the old WC to other parts of the system. That whole “central corridor” idea was cut out because CN dropped out.
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CShaveRR:
Can you be more specific as to locations, please?
Carl: I will be glad to. CN has evidently spent a lot of time on this answer and I suspect that it has been many months in preparation.
On their reply page 64 figure H is their Eagle answer of interlockings controlled by others.
Another point about CN’s track between Thornton Junction and Munster. CSX, I believe, uses the same stretch of CN track to get from the former C&EI that it shares with UP (at the Junction) and the ex-Monon at Munster. I wonder whether CSX has the same problems getting its own trains over these five miles.
You are correct, Lion is not. The engineer of a moving train may not copy a track warrant, at least under GCOR and I suspect any othe rule book. IIRC there is a FRA rule about this. If there is an assistant engineer (fireman) then of course (s)he can copy without stopping the train. The conductor will be in a passenger car, not with the engineer in the normal course of events. BTW train orders are long gone, replaced by track warrants, and Form A and Form B.
I read the Complaint also guys where they are also screaming about is not just the Chicago to Joliet Corridor BUT the Chicago to NEW ORLEANS and since when does anyone but CN control that one. That line last year alone and this is the reason for the Complaint the trains lost over 26 DAYS of schedule time due to Freight train INTERFERANCE alone. So I did a little more research and found one time where the City of New Orleans was On Time out of Carbondale and hit Champaign IL 4 hours late what happened the train ahead of it a Freight train the Crew went dead on the LAW on the Main and it took 4 hours to Dog Catch Crew to get there.
The Amtrak issue with CN is a very good example of the issues which are faced in the Chicago area. I skimmed thru the CN response and they make a very good case. I didnt completely review the methodology for Amtrak’s complaints (minutes lost per 10,000 of operation, Terminal to terminal, station to station), but it is a mess getting into, out of, or thru Chicago.
What really surprized me is that CN has just recently begun to strickly monitor each train’s performance (February) with detailed reporting. Isnt that something that should be available historically? Are those records kept, or is it difficult to reconstruct these movements? Or perhaps CN realizes they REALLY need to monitor performance.
It seems to me that, as previously mentioned, an Amtrak operations coordinator located in Chicago could go a long way to moving these trains.
Everyone: – got some more information from another source. What really can slow down operations is when it is not the next dispatcher but the second one down line; which makes sense when I think about it. ex — BRC has a train fouling Lemoyne; if a long CN freight doesn’t get stopped before Brighton it can foul Corwith and Brighton interlockings.tying up both BNSF and NS. BRC would have had to contact CN which would have to contack BNSF to keep Corwith lined for BNSF. and CN informed NS about problem.
One help some RRs are doing in the CHI dispatching area is to begin a texting system so there is a written notification to second RR dispatcher.
Some of it has. Both CSX and the IHB are in the same dispatching center. The benefit of having all dispatchers in the same center is really not as big as some on this site would leave you to believe.