In addition to monitoring the schedule performance of the Texas Eagle at key points in , which I reported on in Texas Eagle Performance, I also monitor the Sunset Limited and Heartland Flyer.
During 2008 Number 2 was late by an average of 58 minutes and a median of 39 minutes at . The numbers were 82 and 61 at , showing the train tended to lose time between and . These numbers compare to 120 and 108 in 2007 at and 110 and 90 at . A significant amount of the year to year improvement come during the last quarter of the year.
Number 1 was late by an average of 32 minutes and a median of 0 minutes at , whilst the numbers were 35 and 5. In 2007 the numbers were 78 and 72 at and 62 and 2
Better reliability; but #1 & #2 still have slow schedules that arrive at inconvenient hours in Arizona and lose a day with layovers.
I’ve been thinking about your idea to reroute the Sunset through Shreveport. That would save a day and afford a reliable connection with the Eagle, but would there be enough traffic to support a train between New Orleans and Fort Worth, especially overnight and irregular arrivals subject to delays and waiting for late connections?
A New Orleans - Houston - Dallas day train presents a possibly more viable alternative. Why go through New Orleans if you don’t lay over an extra day or two? The same holds to a lesser extent for Dallas-Fort Worth. The whole idea is to tour the country by rail.
Conversely, the lost nights in New Orleans and Dallas-Fort Worth may be a turn-off for Atlanta and Houston tourists. This could be mitigated for Houston with a separate morning train to Fort Worth with and evening return connecting more expeditiously with the Eagle-Sunset.
I did not propose running the Sunset Limited or any other train through Shreveport. My proposal to Amtrak included discontinuing the Sunset Limited.
The first part of my recommendation was to extend the City of New Orleans from NO to San Antonio as a day train. If the train left Chicago at 11:15 a.m., it could arrive in NO at 6:15 a.m., depart for NO at 7:00 a.m., and arrive in the Alamo City at 9:30 p.m.
The second part of my recommendation was to run the Texas Eagle from Fort Worth to LA via Midland, El Paso, etc. This would enable the train to serve a much larger market in Texas and would be an improvement in service. Also, passengers from the Eagle and the Heartland Flyer could make reasonable connections in Fort Worth if the arrivals and departures for both trains are coordinated in Cow Town, which is doable.
The third part of my recommendation was to run the Heartland Flyer from Oklahoma City to San Antonio. Doing so would make for much more convenient departure and arrival times in Oklahoma City and San Antonio.
Subsequent to sending my letter to Amtrak I learned that a similar proposal had been made by others, including TXARP. But they did not want to give up anything. They wanted to extend the Eagle as per above, but keep the Sunset. In other words, they wanted to run a second train on the Sunset route, which makes no sense since there is not enough traffic to support a daily Sunset.
Not to worry! Amtrak is not likely to make any changes in the long distance trains until it is forced to replace the equipment. Hopefully, when that time arrives, the makers and shakers will realized that long distance trains don’t make any sense, and they will redirect the monies wasted on them in
On a bit more positive note No. 22 typically boards about 30 passengers at Longview - locals and those who have ridden the Thruway connections from Houston and Shreveport. Another 5-10 will board both at Marshall and Texarkana. This results in a fairly decent occupancy rate when the Eagle leaves the lone star state.
Even at that it is a pretty marginal operation and a big money loser. I doubt if 21 & 22 would still be running if it weren’t for Kaye Bailey Hutchison (sp?).