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Just curious, when did your train (6-6/27) get to Denver on the 28th? I only ask because one of the options I considered for a trip we did last month would have had us on that train SAC-DEN (it was a choice between going WB on 6/20 on 5 or EB on 6 on 6/27 and flying the other direction).

And that previous day's late #5 appears to have been waiting at Ottumwa for a rested engineer (I believe OTM is an engine crew only change point). TG I was on the previous day's #5 which ended down only 1:12. :-)

With reference to my post immediately above, this went better than expected. On our less than two hours late CZ, I talked to the conductor (or AC) out of Reno, explained the situation, and since he had no way to sell us on to EMY, he just OK'd staying on to EMY. We were looking at a less than...

Working for an airline and doing most of my travel standby on planes (but CZ and CS next weekend!), I always have a Plan B and Plans C, D, E, and all the way to little plan Z. Even if our Customer Service people could help me (rarely do they have time from handling revenue customers to provide...

"Track A Train" now shows 6 making its way east across Nevada (so apparently 5-11 was turned to 6-13 at Reno) but still with the "service disruption" tag. I very much doubt Amtrak is calling every downline passenger to advise as to ETA so if ture, maintaining the "service disruption" tag is...

If you zoom in on "Track A Train", it appears to be heading east so I would also guess they terminated it at Reno and are taking it back to Sparks to turn and service before becoming 6-6/13. Unfortunate that Amtrak just says "service disruption" rather than putting up some useful information...

Meanwhile, 5 of the 10th is running close to 21 hours late and is just into Utah as I write this. Wonder what this will do to 6 of the 13th.

... But not in today's third Hiawatha (today's was 2 Horizon, Amfleet coach, Amfleet "Northeast Regional" cafe, Horizon)

Actually, it's been part of the set that runs the 1:05 CHI departure. The set that should run at 1:05 sits at CHI to assure the 5:08 (aka the "Commuter Hiawatha") can go on-time. The extra set at 1:05 tends to be short and/or include lounge or cafe cars so doesn't have enough seats for the 5:08.

Not rail but once I had the passenger in front of me on a plane (in First no less) warned that if he did not behave, we would land short and have him removed. This was years ago when pilots would come off the flight deck to deal with this stuff (and when we had three-pilot planes). In this...

I will be doing this in three weeks. Since we're on an AGR reward, connecting (officially) anyplace other than SAC was not an option (I tried). But we have dinner plans (subject to cancellation due to delays) with relatives in the Emeryville area. Since purchasing the CZ SAC to EMY is not...

Based on my experience at an airline, Customer Relations organizations in the travel industry only deal with post-travel issues. The organizations to deal with pre-travel issues are Reservations (by phone) and Customer Service (face-to-face at a station). Reservations is the best place for...

Hmmm. Nothing I do will bring up my AGR reservation for June. Maybe it's because it's paper tickets (due to a Thruway bus in there).

Empire Service trains must use Tracks 5 through 8 (9 in a pinch) at Penn Station as they are the only ones that can access both the Empire Connection on the west end and Sunnyside Yard in Queens on the east end. The locomotives used in Empire Service are unique to that service (dual diesel and...

I rode the EB PDX-CHI in 1986. The consist was: 2 F40 2 Baggage 1 Tran Dorm 3 Coaches 1 Lounge (PDX) 2 Coach (PDX) 1 Diner 2 Sleepers Due to Expo 86 in Vancouver, both sleepers operated to Seattle that summer (as I was already booked in the PDX sleeper before it was dropped, I got a...

You want the taxi to drop you off on Canal between Jackson and Adams. The main entrance is in the middle of the block and the escalators will bring you down to the Amtrak ticket counter and waiting area. I see a lot of taxis dropping people off on Adams or Jackson by the entrances that face the...

I'm not completely sure what you mean by "responsibility" in this context since no business has to provide wi-fi but you do know that Amtrak owns Chicago Union Station, right? So Amtrak certainly could provide wi-fi throughout the building just as the building owner where I work has provided...

Having gone to the Grand Canyon last summer and taken the Grand Canyon Railway, as far as I know, the van from Williams Junction takes you to the Grand Canyon Railway station in Williams, not to the Grand Canyon itself. IMHO, the Grand Canyon Railway is well worth it and between it and the...

A more technically correct answer is that a dispatcher gives a train authority to operate over tracks. How the switches to access those tracks are operated depends on the capabilities of that section of railroad: the dispatcher may control the switches directly, he may direct a tower operator to...

Where did you get that idea? While commercial pilot HOS rules were extensively changed at the beginning of 2014, there have always (for some definition of "always") been HOS rules for pilots. However, they were mostly based on "flight" time (which includes taxi time), not duty time. Sitting at...