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Empire Builder returns to regular schedule
The “Empire Builder” had a schedule through Whitefish, Montana reminiscent of Southern Railway’s “The Tennessean” on the Memphis Subdivision, especially at Huntsville, Alabama… My father insisted on returning from New York on that train with me and my mother in tow. The city of Huntsville looked desolate with empty streets. I much rather return on “The Birmingham Special” with sleeping accommodation with a change in Chattanooga to Train No. 35 for a daytime arrival in Huntsville similar to as we left.
My father was obsessed with seeing the Virginia mountains in daylight. He loved mountain scenery. Meanwhile, as a 6-year-old, I rode 700 miles in a coach with tired hips. This was in stark contrast to our journey in a Pullman in the opposite direction.
The Tennessean" made a negative first impression with its bad schedule.Furthermore, it was the first train I saw with a high headend ratio with express box cars in the mix. It was over a decade later I learned “The Tennessean” was once a streamline!.
The rally in Shelby might not go over too well Tuesday “afternoon” as the train is 8 hours late, mostly due to mechanical problems (delayed 5 hours between Chicago and Glenview). The train is now lead by leased Citibank ES44AC unit 1203.
And it should be “Amtrak delivered on its promise”, not “Amtrak delivered on it’s promise.”
Thank you Mr. Meyer. It’s painful to read “it’s” when it’s supposed to be “its”! Bad grammar ruins my appreciation of the whole article.
Take a shave, Marc.
Perhaps cultural decline in the USA can be measured by the two metrics of grammatical ignorance and passenger rail service.
I rode from Chicago to Essex on Nov 9th and arrived almost 6 hrs late. Thanks BNSF!!!
#7 six hours late into Shelby (Shelberia), MT. Not BNSF’s fault. No locomotives available in the heavily-unionized Chicago shops. Yar, Amtrak doesn’t have adequate motive power for their divergent routes (signal compatibility and PTC non- interoperability a large factor). Can’t we get on the same page? Methinks the FRA and TSB are the root problems. Politicians!
Pack: that was before the schedule reversion. I’m sure you were forewarned. BNSF spent over $5B on the Hi Line last year, double-tracking and adding sidings, and will spend $6B this year. Not much funds from Uncle Sambo. We will have a reprieve now, with the Commies of the ILWU going on strike on the “Left Coast”. P-Q-S-Z trains embargoed on the BNSF, WB. Smoother sailing for the Bakken oil trains, until the pinkos in Oregon shut them down. I do like my $1.99 gas (up from $1.43 when GWB left office)! Only temporary, I am sure.
hays try smiling,it could be worse,we might get teddy the cruze