just read an articles that said Amtrack trains stop for an hour and race to catch-up in spring
Also, what about states that do not use Daylight Savings Time (e.g. Arizona). They stay n Standard time the year around, where as Texas and Californaia use Daylight Savings Time?
Airplanes, flight controllers, etc use Zulu time (UTC time or Coordinated Universal Time), which in my day also was referred to as GMT, Greenwich Mean Time. IIRC.
That eliminates confusion, no matter what Arizona does.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_time
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/railroads-create-the-first-time-zones
https://www.timeanddate.com/time/aboututc.html
I’m getting to old to learn new stuff, so I have not read all the above.
daylight saving time changes occur between 2 and 3 a.m., either moving from 2 to 3, or from 3 to 2.
what happens when a train has a scheduled stop at one station at 2 a.m. and a stop at another station at 3 a.m. It would seem that needs to be at two different stations at the same time.
more realistically, the train might have one hour less to get to a station.
I think I recall when my Dad worked for the Soo Line when I was a kid, they stayed on Standard time.
Take some time to think about it. It really is no problem.
“When I was a lad”, all the railroads stayed on standard time, except the Pennsylvania.
And that was the case in their public timetables.
For example, I’m looking at a June 20, 1955 UP public timetable. ALL times are shown as Standard time, not Daylight.
In this case, that includes the Pennsy. Perhaps the change to Daylight for Pennsy happened after that date. I DO recall the PRR doing Daylight in the middle sixties, as that’s when I was riding passenger trains. On t’other hand, perhaps UP wanted to have their times stated in “UP” time throughout the timetable. Curious.
I AM wondering how commuter train times were done. Like out of New York or Boston.
Ed
Commuter trains ran on town time, either standard or daylight savings, since that was what the customers needed. But for many years in Montreal the schedules were published only using standard time. In other words, Joe’s 4:43 still left at 4:43 but during the summer the public timetable showed 3:43 because it was still using standard time. Eventually that stupidity went away and the public timetables showed whichever time was in use. It was a few more years before the operating timetables also changed.
Really its no big deal. There really aren’t “scheduled” trains in the same way there were 35 years ago, only Amtrak and commuter lines have to worry about departing too early. About the only thing they have to worry about is giving track and time across a time change.
I’m not following you:
“Commuter trains ran on town time, either standard or daylight…” appears to contradict “…the schedules were published only using standard time.”
It SOUNDS like you’re saying the railroad ran on Standard time, but the schedules were printed with Daylight time. This seems kind of maybe unsafe. The 4:50 leaves at 5:50???
Ed
No, eventually schedules published for the PUBLIC were printed using daylight time, which was more easily understood by the riders. But for operating purposes the public timetable was irrelevant; only the internal employees timetables had any force, they were what all railroad employees used to run the trains (and track forces), they remained on standard time and there was nothing unsafe about the practice.
Where the time zone changed geographically, the terminals did have a minor challenge, since trains operating in different directions were using different times. Often the station and yard office clocks had two hour hands, and the agent or operator had to remember which dispatcher he was talking to.
A public timetable would include the time zone, so you might see a westbound train departing nominally 50" before it arrived, assuming a 10" station stop if you ignored that important part. Again, this was only in the public timetable; the operating timetable used to run trains would show the two subdivisions separately.
It should also be noted that the railroads generally changed time zones at the terminal nearest to where the actual change took place, which could also confuse the public in the area, but not the railroaders.
“Eventually” would appear to be post-1965, anyway.
Ed
Um, no. Nobody waits around an hour or travels 60 mph faster to make up the time. The people who do the scheduling know what they are doing. They know that on that date it just takes an hour longer or shorter to get to the destination. I use to schedule television programming and I dealt with the time change twice every year without any problems. The only problem ever was employees showing up an hour early or late because they forget to change their alarm clock.
of course what i read about Amtrack doesn’t make sense
so it would be fair to say that if a train starts on EST or EDT, it follows a schedule using that time until it gets to it’s final destination and any passengers can assume this?
somehow other trains starting after the time changes are cognisant of this
Page 132 of the September 2017 timetable:
“At the fall time change (first Sunday in November), Amtrak trains traveling overnight will normally hold at the next station after the time change then depart on time.”
But I thought that was what all scheduled trains did all the time. That is: You can NEVER leave early. So, naturally, after arriving at the next station, you would “hold at the next station” and “then depart on time”. Always. Or late, of course. Never early.
Or am I wrong?
I expect there would be a new timetable with the starting date and time of the time-change. And it might come into effect while a train is between stations. So, upon arrival at the new station, the train would then operate under the new timetable.
Ed
what do they in the spring when time jumps from 2 to 3am?
is there an amended schedule for one day?
Yes and no. Not every station on a given line might be serviced by that particular train or it could be a flag stop. Plus it is fairly rare to come into an station an hour early in the first place and hold that long.
Amtrak doesn’t issue new timetables in November or March, as I recall, so it is moot for them.
They’re just an hour late and try to make it up.
And Hours of Service on duty and rest times.
Jeff
I have been on Amtrak when the time changes. When the clock turns back, Amtrak sits at the current station for 1 hour until the clock catches up. When the clock goes ahead an hour the trains are 1 hour late and try to make up time. Commuter trains complete their runs without the delay, since the runs are short and most people are outbound from the major starting point. Very few passengers are actually picked up in the deae of night heading towards outlying terminals.