Cancelled at various times intermittently between now and June due to UP railroad trackwork…that is the excuse given. I remember not too long ago when they routed trains around trackwork or had specific operational windows when trains could travel on the track. Cancel the train? Unbeliveable.
According to an Amtrak advisory, the southbound Texas Eagle will terminate at Marshall on 22 days from March 20th through June 10th because of UP track work between Marshall and Dallas. A bus bridge will take through passengers to Fort Worth, making the same intermediate stops as the Eagle. At Fort Worth passengers for points south and west will board cars that will be turned from the northbound train.
On the days the bus bridge is being used, No. 21 will be No. 1021 and 22 will be No. 1022. The bus between Marshall and Fort Worth will be 3021; the bus from Fort Worth to Marshall will be 3022. The through cars will be No. 421 from Fort Worth and No. 422 from LAX. No. 421 will originate at Forth Worth; No. 422 will terminate at Fort Worth.
The schedule south of Fort Worth has been increase by 30 minutes, i.e. Temple at 5:05 pm as opposed to 4:35 pm. The last time around the Eagle from Forth Worth to San Antonio or beyond was consistently late because of the bus bridge. Today’s train is shown as nearly two hours late at Temple. No. 422 was 2 hours, 8 minutes late arriving at Fort Worth.
Those days ended with the enactment of Staggers giving the carriers the ability to ‘rationalize’ their operating plants - no longer would there be four and five routes between important O-D pairs. With plant rationalization so went the ability to detour one carriers traffic on to another carriers property with minimal delay as the result.
Now that we have SIX Class 1 carriers controlling most of the trackage in the USA (I don’t consider Amtrak a Class 1 carrier for anything except its ownership and operation of the NEC). There are only so many detour possibilities between significant O-D pairs, beyond that the owning carrier like has those line segments full of their own traffic and likely don’t have the capacity to handle detour traffic - either from operational capacity or crew base capacity. Just because rails exist between points doesn’t mean those rails can handle detour traffic.
Do you know what day service will be back to normal? I have a reservation on Sunday, June 29 on the train from Fort Worth to Dallas. I do not want to take a bus bridge; this was intended as a train trip. Will it be finished by then, or should I make other plans?
It should be over by June 11th, Amtrak says.
Welcome aboard @erickessler! and Whats wrong with the Texas Eagle? It’s the Only Amtrak train route that runs through Osceola, IA (or at least that I know of)
Unless there is something compelling about Sunday, January 29th, and you just want to ride a train from Fort Worth to Dallas, the Trinity Railway Express would be a better option. It has 29 daily departures from Fort Worth to Dallas on weekdays and 21 departures on Saturday. The return schedules from Dallas to Fort Worth has approximately the same number of departures.
TRE trains run over the same route as the Texas Eagle between Fort Worth and Dallas, although they make seven stops along the way whereas the Eagle runs nonstop. T
The TRE is almost always on time, whereas the Eagle frequently runs hours late. This is particularly true on the days the LAX to Chicago through cars are transferred from the Sunset Limited to the Texas Eagle in San Antonio. If the Limited is late, Amtrak holds the Eagle until the cars can be transferred, which can make the Eagle two to three hours late. Sunday is a transfer day.
Lastly, I believe the fare on the TRE is considerably lower than on the Eagle.
I take TRE frequently. The TRE doesn’t run on Sundays, except during the Texas State Fair. The particular trip I planned is on a Sunday.
You’re only off by several 100 miles. The closest is through Illinois.
What do you mean @charlie_hebdo2
Welcome on board, erickessler.
David
He means that the Texas Eagle route doesn’t go close to Osceola, let alone serve it. You’d be going west to Denver, not south.
There was a point when I boarded the Texas Eagle at/in Osceola a few years back before Covid-19 hit
Osceola is served daily by Amtrak’s California Zephyr. To Chicago, as an example, it departs at 7:38 am and arrives Chicago at 2.39 pm. From Chicago to Osceola, the Zephyr departs at 2 pm and arrives Osceola at 8.23 pm. This assumes the train runs on time, which is a stretch. In FY24 the all station on-time percentage for the Zephyr was a just 44.1%. The average time late per passenger was 124 minutes.
A coach seat to Chicago on May 14th, with a return on May 21st, would cost $198.
Ohhh, Ok I got my trains mixed up , thanks PJS1, My fault though I should have known that
No, I plan on purchasing an EMD F40PH out of a scrap yard and restoring it as a lodge like the Great Northern EMD F45 441. But what makes you say that? I made a topic discussing that called ‘News for Everyone’
Are you sure that exists?
To answer your question, @charlie_hebdo2:
https://forum.trains.com/t/news-for-everyone/411531?u=gabetehgameh