It looks like yesterday’s(Thursday 01/15) westbound Amtrak’s Cal. Zephyr out of Chicago is having lots of problems. From their Train Status info at Amtrak.com, the CZ got out of Chicago Thursday evening over 7 hours behind schedule from the git-go. Now it’s 12 hours down getting into Osceola, Iowa. Anybody know the exact cause? the derailment outside the Chicago station?, or does the below zero temps in the midwest have anything to do with it? Just curious.
Bill
There was a minor derailment of an Amtrak train coming out of Union Station yesterday. Nobody was hurt and the Superliner cars remained upright, but it hosed things up schedule-wise and put the kibash on my trip to Ann Arbor. [banghead]
IIRC, Amtrak’s stats allow 30 minutes’ grace before a train is considered late.
I wonder if anyone keeps statistics about major late runs, say, six hours or more late on the Chi - West Coast or Florida - NYC trains?
If anyone, who already does not do so, wishes to, it is easy to get the information on all of Amtrak’s trains from the website. For instance, I checked on #5’s departure from Chicago yesterday; it was seven hours and nineteen minutes late getting out–and it is expected in Salt Lake City at 8:26 tomorrow morning–9:26 late, having made up 1:32 from its estimated time of ariveal in Glenwood Springs. It is also possible to check on the on time performance of any of the named trains (all of the Cascades are lumped together, as all of the Northeast Regional are lumped together. You can also see how much of the delays are attributed to each host road and to Amtrak itself.
Last year, as a matter of curiosity, I checked on the performance of the trains my wife and I planned to ride on a 9800 mile trip we planned (and took) for about two months before we left. It was quite interesting.
You start with requesting information at the bottom of the home page.
Al, to me, a train is late if it does not arrive on the advertised time. When does Amtrak consider a train to be early (it does happen)?
Johnny
The cold here in Illinois has got everything backed up on my railroad we had trains with air problems, locomotines with stuck open condensate drain valves, broken rails all over and switch malfuctions. Yes amtrak was late out of Chicago with their own problems which puts them behind the 8 ball as far as everything else we just deal with problems as they occure and get problems resolved and move on and operate our trains according to the cold weather restrictions in the ssi. Us on the front line know and understand Illinois winters, but ous supervisors always act like this has never happened before.
Rodney
Bitter cold and/or a lot of snow raises all sorts of “heck” with railroad operations. Same thing with trucks, cars, buses, airplanes and boats. I always wonder why passenger trains get such a beating when they are late due to stuff caused by weather.
Years ago, the operating VP on the Ilinois Central was complaining that an ice storm had caused a big budget overrun. (Had an impact on his performance bonus.) Since such storms were almost an annual event somewhere on the railroad, the marketing VP suggested that perhaps a good operating plan would have a budget provision for such events.
Well, last night’s CZ made it into Salt Lake City at 9:30 this morning (10:30 late), and left at 9:58 (10:28 late). It is, right now, expected in Emeryville at 1:23 am tomorrow (7:43 late). At least, there should not be any problem with snow at Donner.
Tonight’s CZ is expected to be here on time. It was :53 late arriving in Denver, and :53 late leaving Denver.
Johnny