# Coast Starlight 14(11) Delay



## Jim (Mar 13, 2016)

Kind of surprised to not see anything on here yet.

My Coast Starlight departed LAX on time Saturday, then the little issue below had us sit about half the train length short of SBA for 4 1/2 hours. We got a beautiful sunset over the water on our coastline run, but missed half of it and the climb into SLO. We did get daylight from RDD to PDX, so got to see some really great scenery well south of KFS that is extremely rare to see.

We made up 3 hours enroute and arrived SEA about 90 mins late.

http://m.keyt.com/news/police-action-stops-amtrak-train-15-miles-from-santa-barbara-station/38470122


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## Jim (Mar 13, 2016)

I mean Friday**


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## KmH (Mar 13, 2016)

The time gained was from padding in the schedule.

Speed limits and not being allowed to leave a scheduled stop more than a few minutes early, if at all, preclude - making up time.


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## Jim (Mar 13, 2016)

Of course, how could I forget about speed limits??

Of course there are speed limits, and of course any delay reduced enroute is the result of schedule padding. I don't think anybody reading this post assumed the train traveled at 110mph through the curves of the cascades.

Please allow me to rephrase in a way that will hopefully eliminate (or at least reduce) the possibility that the next reply will be one of nonsensical semantics that contribute nothing to this website.

Here goes:

The train completed the run from Santa Barbara to Seattle in approximately 3 less hours than the allotted time in the published timetable.


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## KmH (Mar 13, 2016)

Actually, I would expect most people using the Guest forum section to not know all that much about train speed limits and schedule padding.

So I think my comments were not nonsensical semantics, and did indeed contribute to this web site.


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## NW cannonball (Mar 16, 2016)

Jim said:


> Kind of surprised to not see anything on here yet.
> 
> My Coast Starlight departed LAX on time Saturday, then the little issue below had us sit about half the train length short of SBA for 4 1/2 hours. We got a beautiful sunset over the water on our coastline run, but missed half of it and the climb into SLO. We did get daylight from RDD to PDX, so got to see some really great scenery well south of KFS that is extremely rare to see.
> 
> ...


Sorry to hear that some threatening loony could delay the train so long, better safe than sorry, probably.

Like you said, seeing some of the scenic bits of Oregon is partial compensation. And watching the sunset over the sea near Santa Barbara -

Good that there's enough slack in the schedule so that you arrived only 1.5 hours late at SEA.

My last trip that way 2 years back was great for scenery -- hey the whales off the coast - and the grandma and the grandkid that spotted the whales first! Didn't see Mt Shasta - new moon, overcast, fog -meh.


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## AferVentus (Mar 16, 2016)

I was on this train, too. I thought the Amtrak employees handled it extremely well. I was in the Parlour Car during this time. Sleeping Car passengers were free to move about the train, but they held the coaches (it appeared). The diner even ran later so these passengers could get lunch.


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