Awful timekeeping/on time performance

[Amtrak709]

It was the Desert Wind. It made its last trip in I think April or May of 1997. I was on LAX-CHI the week of the last trip and remember passing through Las Vegas and noticing the skyline. A lot has changed in those 25 years.

 

[The Commissioner]

It is a sad fact of life, but you just can't depend on AMTRAK for timely service. After 45 years of flying, I don't think I missed but one appointment when flying. Had a lot of close calls, got there in time.
AMTRAK, however, is another kettle of fish. I went AMTRAK whenever possible, but I always scheduled my arrival a day early. Irritating thing is, when I am traveling JFTHOI, the dern things always arrive on time, especially the middle of the night or early morning.
And if confronted with a bus ride, I will drive, thank you very much. Life is too short to ride buses.

Strangely enough, in all the years of riding passenger trains, both Amtrak and pre-Amtrak, I've never had a delay like I experienced one time on a North Central Airlines flight from Green Bay, WI to Hancock, MI. We were the last flight into Hancock that night and while on the approach, the pilot was notified of airport closure due to snowstorm. He pulled up and we returned to Green Bay where the airline put us up in a hotel. Didn't get to Hancock until around noon the next day. Guess I'm just lucky that way.

 

[niemi24s]

. . .on a North Central Airlines flight from Green Bay, WI to Hancock, MI.

Ah yes, Whiskey Central's Convair 580's with Herman the Duck on their tails. Most comfortable seating of any passenger airplane I've had my butt in! <sniff!>

 

[west point]

The Convair 580s were a re engining of the Convair-440s. The 440s were structurally built for a future larger engine. The 440s had a R-2800 recip. That power limited its gross take off weight to ~ 43,580 @ max takeoff weight. The 580s had an Allison -501D13 turbo prop same as the Electra . The 580s had ~ 58,000 pounds take off weight. Boy did they really perform. You had to get the landing gear up fast as the gear had a 126 max operating speed. The conversions were relatively easy.

 

[John Webb]

Yes, but it doesn't have to be a fact of life. Contained in the infrastructure bill, about to be hopefully passed very soon, is a new provision that will allow Amtrak to enforce it's legal right to have preference over freight trains. Federal law has, for years mandated that Amtrak gets priority. There has never been an effective enforcement mechanism. The freight railroads took full advantage of that. Hopefully that will improve soon.

 

[west point]

If the bill does not get changed Amtrak can sue directly and not go thru the Department of justice. That also applies to persons who cause damage to Amtrak trains. The monetary awards for both I believe will go directly to Amtrak and not to Federal treasury as now happens. "IF" this is true Amtrak will be able to collect funds for grade crossing incidents to repair damages especially locos. That is if the litigants do not try to avoid award by going to bankruptcy.

 

[AmarilloByMornin]

I've been watching the Sunset Ltd's OTP for a little over a month now - I'm taking a trip in Oct from FTW to SJC, connecting with the Coast Starlight at LAX. ASMAD shows that in the time I've been watching,, the connection was missed 31% of the time. Today's train is going to increase that percentage.

I've heard of connecting passengers on other routes being put on a bus to catch up with their trains, does that happen with this route? Although I don't know how well that would work in some cases. The #1 that was supposed to arrive 4 hours ago is still somewhere between Maricopa and Yuma.

It's a guaranteed connection so I could just stay overnight in Los Angeles if that's offered, CS is a daily train so I'd only lose a day. Also I'm curious: when the train is this late do they offer breakfast (and in today's case, lunch too)?

 

[zephyr17]

They use the San Joaquin Thruway bus/train connections to get misconnecting passengers bound for Bay Area points to their destinations. Since they have already have an alternative service in place, they usually do not have a dedicated bus for Starlight disconnects, but just reroute them.

Typically they do not offer a paid overnight in LA since they can accommodate misconnects on the same day using alternative routings. They usually are willing to to rebook on the next day's Starlight if asked, but they don't pay for a hotel in in that case.

 

[me_little_me]

It's a guaranteed connection so I could just stay overnight in Los Angeles if that's offered, CS is a daily train so I'd only lose a day. Also I'm curious: when the train is this late do they offer breakfast (and in today's case, lunch too)?

WARNING: Even if they put you up overnight, the next train might have its rooms full so if you have a room on your original train, you might not on the connecting one the next day and would have to travel coach.

Amtrak wants to make LD travel experiential in that you plan on staying overnight in the transfer city because they cannot meet their commitments so you are forced to "experience" the transfer city.

The solution on the Crescent's lateness was to simply spread out the arrival times by hours and calling that a good deal in enforcing passenger priority. It's a scam and Amtrak is the scammer. They'll probably be introducing that "solution" on other trains and then declare "victory" over the Class 1s who are laughing at them.

On our upcoming trip, we plan to stay overnight in Chicago in both directions because Amtrak cannot be trusted. Pre-Covid, they often had empty rooms but they are few and far between especially with some trains running reduced numbers of cars.

 

[AmarilloByMornin]

I very much appreciate these answers. I'm not opposed to taking the bus route or even coach the next day but since I paid for a roomette, hopefully customer relations will compensate me somehow. It's only about 10 hours from LAX to SJC but the point of getting a roomette is to 1) catch up on my sleep, 2) be able to breathe without a mask, and 3) have the meals I paid for! Again, thanks for your replies, that helps me know what to expect if the train is too late.

Hopefully the two-thirds chance I make the connection will happen!

Oh, one more question, in the case of a misconnection, if I check some luggage in FTW, when can I expect it will arrive in SJC?

 

[zephyr17]

If put on a San Joaquin or Pacific Surfliner bus/train connection, you will have your LAX-SJC roomette accommodation charge refunded. That used to happen automatically, you did not have to ask for it. With all the glitches Amtrak has been having, I am not sure now, but it probably is still automatic. I'd call after you arrive to make sure you get it, though.

The various alternative bus/train connections don't handle checked bags from LA. They'd send it on the next day's Starlight. If you have time before your new connection you could go to the baggage room at LA and ask them to pull it so you could take it with you.

 

[Cal]

I've been watching the Sunset Ltd's OTP for a little over a month now - I'm taking a trip in Oct from FTW to SJC, connecting with the Coast Starlight at LAX. ASMAD shows that in the time I've been watching,, the connection was missed 31% of the time. Today's train is going to increase that percentage.

I've heard of connecting passengers on other routes being put on a bus to catch up with their trains, does that happen with this route? Although I don't know how well that would work in some cases. The #1 that was supposed to arrive 4 hours ago is still somewhere between Maricopa and Yuma.

It's a guaranteed connection so I could just stay overnight in Los Angeles if that's offered, CS is a daily train so I'd only lose a day. Also I'm curious: when the train is this late do they offer breakfast (and in today's case, lunch too)?

They will sometimes take you off at an earlier stop and bus you to meet the starlight or put you on a bus/San Joaquin as others have said.

also I assume you are looking at transit docs, be careful, Amtrak feed was stale so the train was actually further along. It left Maricopa at 7 AM local time.

 

[zephyr17]

I really would not look for a westbound bus bridge from Palm Springs (if that stop ever opens back up) or Ontario. The main reason is Amtrak has a lot of options for passengers northbound out of LA with Thruway buses, Surfliners and San Joaquins. Eastbound, there is just one 3 day a week train, so they will bus bridge Sunset passengers from a late Starlight. Not so much the other way around.

Plus there is a slight problem of inbound LA hour traffic getting to LA from Palm Springs or Ontario by 10:10. The San Bernardino, Pomona and 210 freeways coming in from the east are all parking lots.

 

[me_little_me]

Plus there is a slight problem of inbound LA hour traffic getting to LA from Palm Springs or Ontario by 10:10. The San Bernardino, Pomona and 210 freeways coming in from the east are all parking lots.

A good reason for taking the train! PFFFTTT!