So I would expect now with the elimination of the backup move into Fort Worth, lack of waiting at Tower 55 three times, and use of the faster ex-Rock Island tracks (Trinity Railway Express route) between Dallas and Fort Worth as well as speed improvements between Chicago and St. Louis.
We should see some elimination of schedule padding for the Texas Eagle and a faster overall running time between Chicago and San Antonio in the 2016 timetable…I would hope.
Don’t hope too much.
Amtrak shows that there is no new January 11, 2016 timetable for the Texas Eagle, therefore, no change in the schedule. All new schedules are now up on the Amtrak website.
Perhaps a new schedule in March, 2016?
January 11, 2016, has a very large number of Amtrak schedule changes and a new system timetable is coming out for that. Unless they are waiting to collect data on the new timings, I would think they would cut the travel time with the new January timetable.
Geez, adding yet another station stop at Arcadia Valley, MO. This in addition to Hope, AR added about a year or two ago. So approx two new station stops in about two years and none reduced to flagstop service or pulled from the list?
Who cares about a few minutes saved off the schedule? If we’re talking performance improvement, how about restoration of the full diner? This cafe business, supposedly an “experiment” confined to the Silver Comet, is spreading, unannounced, like a cancer thru the Amtrak system.
Fred, you did mean the Silver Star, didn’t you? The Silver Comet died more than forty years ago. To the end, it had a diner.
Bravo, not many remember the old silver comet…another fine private varnish.
The route of the Silver Comet in GA is a 61.5 mile biking trail.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Comet_Trail
The train:
http://www.streamlinerschedules.com/concourse/track1/extras/cometad194706.pdf
http://www.streamlinerschedules.com/concourse/track1/silvercomet194706.html
NYC to Birmingham, with a great coach observation brining up the rear. And a full diner and lounge.
A long train.
Bingo, Deggesty; way too late to speed up the Comet or restore the full diner, either one.
SCL thought enough of the “Silver Comet” to add piggyback cars to the rear end of the train in its later years, even after it was cut back from Birmingham to Atlanta.
I can tell the Eagle has been on time more lately. I always look when I pass the station on my way to work and most of the time it is sitting there. It used to be rare to see it, so I’m glad it’s doing much better. A friend worked for Amtrak as mechanic, retired now and he said it had a rep for being late most of the time. Hope the OT continues.
Amtrak stated in it’s press release about the run time improvement between Dallas and Fort Worth would not be reflected in it’s timetable schedule. So they have increased the padding to it’s schedule because each way the train had to cross the busy Tower 55 interchange 3 times AND back into Fort Worth intermodal Station. Now it only has to do the crossing one time and just pull through the Fort Worth station (without a backup move) So my guess is they cut 30 min of waiting and backing up at least.
There was a lot of this around the country as we sagged toward Amtrak, and I always wondered what the motive was. Was it a way of speeding up service to favored freight customers? (“We’ve got this dog we wish we didn’t have to run going that way anyway, let’s stroke Customer A, instead of holding his load for the freight.”)
Or was accounting fooling itself into thinking it was improving the passenger train’s bottom line? (Usually, a road didn’t try to minimize its passenger losses to the ICC!)