Illinois Service Disruption 2024-11-21

River Cities · Nov 21, 2024

I'm on Train 305 right now trying to head home from Chicago, and they announced they're not taking us south of Bloomington-Normal. (Passengers were given the option of accepting the ride to BNL or staying in Chicago "with no alternate transportation".) 21 is already at BNL holding. The conductor is talking about plans for combining the trains and 307 all together to head back to Chicago. I have a checked bag on 21, so I hope I can snag it in BNL. (I can make it back to STL a different way, at least.)

They said a truck hit a railroad bridge near Springfield and the line won't reopen until noon tomorrow at the earliest. Haven't been able to find any info about it in the news at all.

Cal · Nov 21, 2024

307 seems to be doing the full run. Sucks that the Eagle was cancelled in full.

railiner · Nov 21, 2024

River Cities said:
I'm on Train 305 right now trying to head home from Chicago, and they announced they're not taking us south of Bloomington-Normal. (Passengers were given the option of accepting the ride to BNL or staying in Chicago "with no alternate transportation".) 21 is already at BNL holding. The conductor is talking about plans for combining the trains and 307 all together to head back to Chicago. I have a checked bag on 21, so I hope I can snag it in BNL. (I can make it back to STL a different way, at least.)

They said a truck hit a railroad bridge near Springfield and the line won't reopen until noon tomorrow at the earliest. Haven't been able to find any info about it in the news at all.

That “no alternate transportation” is being the all too common standard for Amtrak nowadays.
Truly sad. Especially in a state like Illinois with so many possible alternate routes…

River Cities · Nov 22, 2024

Funny enough as we approached BNL the conductor got a call that they might be able to arrange buses for folks on our train after all. He was like "but I kicked them all off already!"

I did manage to track down the conductor of 21 at the station and get my bag out of the baggage car. If I hadn't picked it up it would've gone back to Chicago and then I'm not sure what! They were in the process of putting folks for intermediate stops north on board the cars from the Eagle and everyone north to Chicago would ride in the cars from the train I came down on.

AmtrakBlue · Nov 22, 2024

railiner said:
That “no alternate transportation” is being the all too common standard for Amtrak nowadays.
Truly sad. Especially in a state like Illinois with so many possible alternate routes…

Apparently it’s been hard for Amtrak to get buses. It’s not like bus companies have buses just sitting around waiting for someone to need them.

railiner · Nov 22, 2024

AmtrakBlue said:
Apparently it’s been hard for Amtrak to get buses. It’s not like bus companies have buses just sitting around waiting for someone to need them.

That may be true at certain peak times, such as busy holiday or football game season, but I believe that most of the time, they could find if they'd look.
My current company, Academy, could accommodate them in most of our terminals along the East Coast...

NorthShore · Nov 23, 2024

AmtrakBlue said:
Apparently it’s been hard for Amtrak to get buses. It’s not like bus companies have buses just sitting around waiting for someone to need them.

They ought to get a contract with the very well run Peoria Charter bus company, which ought to be able to handle any runs through Central Illinois, when needed.

ryanwc · Nov 23, 2024

There's a difference between chartering a bus at a given time and calling on the spur of the moment to say we need 4 buses right now.

jpakala · Nov 25, 2024

When a freight wreck in 1956 near Jesup, IA prevented IC's Chicago to Waterloo "Land O'Corn" from reaching Waterloo, we fairly quickly were routed on the CGW (Chicago Great Western) up to Oelwein and then down to Waterloo, being only an hour late despite the longer route. With most of the CGW long gone, that wouldn't be possible today, but traditionally passengers were gotten to their destinations thanks to cooperation, more rail routes (and in good condition) taken for granted, and passenger service a priority.

railiner · Nov 25, 2024

jpakala said:
When a freight wreck in 1956 near Jesup, IA prevented IC's Chicago to Waterloo "Land O'Corn" from reaching Waterloo, we fairly quickly were routed on the CGW (Chicago Great Western) up to Oelwein and then down to Waterloo, being only an hour late despite the longer route. With most of the CGW long gone, that wouldn't be possible today, but traditionally passengers were gotten to their destinations thanks to cooperation, more rail routes (and in good condition) taken for granted, and passenger service a priority.

While the vast network of redundant, alternative rail routes are by now mostly gone with the wind, there still remain some. Unfortunately, current Amtrak practice seems to be to quickly throw in the towel, and not seek imaginative solutions to disruptions.

River Cities · Nov 26, 2024

Yeah, it would've been a few hours late, but I was imagining they could at least send the Eagle on the common detour they use from Chicago to St. Louis to get folks who're headed farther on their way. No idea how easy that is to arrange last minute.

Amtrak did send me a voucher for $70 for my trouble, which is a bit more than the original ticket cost, so... that's nice at least

Would've rather had a train ride though.

Illinois Service Disruption 2024-11-21

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