On a recent Amtrak round trip Boston-Chicago-Boston, we arrived more than 90 minutes late on both trips due to interference from freight traffic. On the eastbound trip, we were already over an hour late when we had to wait another 20 minutes outside the Worcester, Mass., station until an originating commuter train occupying the only platform was scheduled to depart! We made our connection with the last bus of the night to Portland, Maine–ideally one hour, 45 minutes–with barely ten minutes to spare.
Here’s my question: Back in the day, when railroads ran lots more through passenger trains and just as many freight and commuter trains as they do today, did through passenger trains experience as much interference from freight and commuter operations as they appear to now? If they did, how did anyone get anywhere on time? And if they didn’t, what accounts for the difference?
Two hypotheses have occurred to me: 1) Interactions were smoother when one entity–The Railroad–operated everything on a given piece of track (or have passenger departments always bickered with freight departments within companies over operating priorities?); and 2) many freight trains today move on tight schedules more like the everyday passenger trains of yore and offer fewer windows of opportunity to sneak passenger trains through.
So what’s the answer? Opinions and speculation are interesting, but facts and data are especially welcome!
In the day, the B&A was double track, but is now single. IIRC old pictures of the Worcester station show multiple platforms. I’m sure others can answer (or have opinions) as to passenger/freight conflicts.
I’m not sure about how old the “old days” are. When trains began operating in the US, in the first half of the 19th century there were few if any long distance trains. At that time most railroads did not want to connect with other railroads; it was common for a railroad to end at a city, let off the passengers and then the passengers would have to get to another terminal in town to make there connection. In Chapter One of his book Derailed Richard White describes Abraham Lincoln’s 1860 journey to New York for the Cooper Union Address which required changing trains in that way. The whole trip was 1,200 miles, about 200 more miles than it is today. It took “5 trains, 2 ferries, 4 days and 3 nights.”
Today the Lakeshore Limited is scheduled for 23 hours and makes 20 stops between Boston South Station and Chicago. From New York it is 18 hours and 18 stops.
Today the Lakeshore Limited takes 18 hours and makes 18 stops between New York and Chicago.
In the waning days of the 19th Century the New York Central began an express train to Chicago called the Lake Shore Limited. The train had a Boston section. A few years later the 20th Century Limited began to run. In those days these trains ran through and all other trains had to wait for them. As you know, the Lake Shore Limited still runs but it is not the train it was when it began.
An AMTK schedule is a very fungible thing. They absolutely MUST pad the schedule. For example, the Empire Builder runs on the BNSF from Seattle to Chicago. SOMEWHERE on that line there simply MUST be a slow order, cannot avoid it, they always must maintain the tracks. A single ten mile slow order will add an hour to the trip. The problem is, work sites move, and AMTK do not know where they are. So they add that hour to the destination time, and accept that it will be running late in any given place along the railroad.
While a freight line will try to keep AMTK moving, once it is late, all bets are off. They are not going to hold up their trains for a time slot that has no train in it.
AMTK does own NYP and with over 1000 trains a day they do a darn good job of it, but some of their yard moves can really screw up the commuter lines. Their yard moves are pretty darn slow, their crews are after all paid by the HOUR, they are in no hurry to tie up. LIRR runs those tunnels at 70+ miles per hour.
Oh well, freight and passenger no longer belong on the same rails. Passengers need HSR on dedicated ROWs. (Do not hold your breath)
I came of age during the 40s and 50s in Altoona, PA, which was the home of the heavy works of the PRR. It was also a crew change point on the main line between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh.
Altoona was a railroad town. Most of my neighbors worked for the PRR, i.e. two were passenger conductors, one was a passenger engineer, one was a freight conductor, and two worked in the shops. And to sweeten the brew, my aunt’s high school sweetheart, who she wisely did not marry, was a PRR VP, and he visited often. I learned a lot about the company listening to all of them talk about the railroad.
I graduated from high school in 1957. That year the PRR had 38 passenger train movements a day through Altoona. At that time, according to what I remember hearing from the railroaders, the PRR still took pride in its passenger trains, especially its premier trains, and it did everything reasonable to get them (Broadway Limited, General, Spirit of St. Louis, etc.) over the road on time. Management controlled the whole operation; it could do what needed to be done to keep the passenger trains on schedule. It did not have to beg the management of a hoist railroad to treat its trains kindly.
I don’t have a lot of facts as per your request. But my memory tells me that Philadelphia, as recounted to me by the above mentioned railroad people, made it clear that the premier pa
LION did all of this on his (previous) model railroad. Him made string graphs showing where trains could meet each other. Him drew the PRIMARY passenger trains in first, then the secondary passenger trains, and then him fit locals and freights in around these. It was complicated by the fact that passing sidings were far and few between, so an eastbound train could lock a track out for an hour or more before a west bound could enter the block. (LION was modeling Tolkien’s Middle Earth—so you would not want to lay up a train where dragons or orcs could raid it.)
But this little amount of dabbling demonstrates the issues of scheduling a railroad. And today’s trains for the most part (AMTK and exception) run as extras at the whim and needs of the dispatchers and the crews. Having called a crew, they must get this train on the road and keep it moving as best they can, lest the crew turn outlaw on them. UPS and other contracted trains get top priority even over AMTK.
Commuter lines can take AMTK into account, but if AMTK is late the Local Transit Authority is going put their train in where it belongs, and AMTK can be moved when and if there is a slot for it.
New York Penn Station has 1000 + trains a day and just 21 tracks: About 50 trains a day on each track would work out to about 2 trains per hour, except of course it does not work that way. Most trains want to arrive and depart during the RUSH HOURS with AMTK service through the day, but little at night. A single track may see as many as eight different trains in the course of an hour. Long Distance trains need more time at a platform than a commuter that terminates there.
It really is a fascinating thing to schedule and dispatch trains re
Back in the “old days,” almost all passenger trains and mail trains were shown in the employee timetables as first class trains, and there were very few, if any first class freight trains. I was little surprised when the Southern began showing freight trains as first class trains. The only non-first class passenger trains were mixed trains. Thus, passenger trains were superior to freight trains, though in an extraordinary case a dispatcher could give a freight the right over a passenger train.
When two trains were to meet at a certain point, the inferior train (inferior in class or direction) was to be in the clear by so minutes before the superior train was to arrive. And, in some instances, such as when it was expected that a certain passenger train (such as the Southerner on the Southern) was to overtake or meet another train, the other train was to be in the clear by even a longer space of time.
In other words, it was expected that passenger trains were NOT to be delayed by freight trains.
The UP still held to this practice in April of 1971, at least in one instance. I rode the City of Portland from Portland to Chicago in that month, and had an experience which changed my life. I was sitting in the first class dome, talking with the flagman when we came up to an eastbound freight which was waiting for us in a pass track. The flagman had to go down and look the freight over as we went by, and I, standing in the aisle, remarked (to no one) that it was good that we were not going to be stuck behind the freight. A lady standing behind me agreed, and we sat down together and began talking of our travels by rail, and many other things. I ordinarily do not talk at great length with people I have just met, but we talked fo
IMHO the situation is much more complicated than we first see. An extreme example is the 2 LAX - mid America routes of UP & BNSF. The AT&SF had about 10 - 12 passenger trains a day on some of its “transcon” These trains operated in mostly ATS territory at up to 100 MPH. The SF had not too many 40 MPH freights except during WW-2 and had passing sidings for the freights to enter to get out of the way of these passenger trains.
Now the situation is much different. 50 - 60 intermodal freight trains that operate at allowed passenger train speeds up to 70 MPH. Fortunately BNSF has completed almost all the transcon to double track except for 2 or 3 single track sections. The third track wait sidingfs are almost all gone so any restricted speed freight such as a high - wide or a heavy freight on a grade slows down all the 70 MPH freight trains + passenger trains.
Now take the UP Sunset route that is only about 60% double track and that track can get congested or worse almost at a standstill quickly. The problems of waiting for opposite direction trains have been well posted by others.The delays on the Sunset Limited are well documented on these single rack sections.
now Enter the east. As an example the NS route from Manassas - ATL - meridian and the CSX “A” line that both were once all double track but much was removed and only now is being re double tracked. These faster intermodals are tying up these routes and opposing traffic has difficulty passing as the sidings were spaced for 40 - 50 MPH trains instead of very long 70 MPH trains. All double track needed ?? – you bet. The NS corridor from Harrisburg - Roanoke - Chatanoog - Memphis is even worse. Put passenger trains on these single track lines and how can you reliably dispatch on time ?