Capitol Limited & Lake Shore Limited Delays Summer/Fall 2014

[montana mike]

Interesting observation this AM. Amtrak puts out the "memo" yesterday to expect delays of 4 hours or longer on the CL and LSL from now until January and lo and behold today ALL of the CL's and LSL's are more than 4 hours late in transit. Purely coincidental I am sure, but how ironic. It's like the host RR's said, OK, not to worry dispatchers, you can delay the pax trains all you want now.......

 

[AmtrakBlue]

But what is bad is they're 4 hours late before hitting the area where they expect to be held 3 to 4 hours. Hope they're bussing the connecting passengers from Toledo.

I'll be on 49 tomorrow. I know someone who will be on 29 tonight.

 

[neroden]

I found this on Amtrak's Service Disruptions page today: Significant Delays between Chicago and Washington/New York/Boston via Cleveland Effective through January 12, 2015

Finally. Thank you, Amtrak. (I emailed the website team about the lack of notice yesterday -- I wonder if that was what got them to put up a notice?)

 

[neroden]

If I were running BNSF, I could solve all the problems quite quickly; I'd phone Buffett, tell him the dividend was cancelled this year; call the head of training and recruitment and start a serious program to hire a lot more people; issue more bonds; have the marketing department tell me where shipping demand is increasing, have the operations department tell me where they need extra capacity to feed that demand, and build it. It would a bit trickier for NS, which has to float on the stock market, but it should be possible.

Berkshire Hathaway does not pay dividends, so there is no dividend to cancel.

BNSF pays a dividend to Berkshire Hathaway, which goes into Berkshire Hathaway's insurance/investment pot. (Internal company accounting.)

My point is that BNSF should retain this capital for reinvestment rather than spitting it out to the insurance parent which doesn't need it.

Yes, I know more about this than you. I do investing for a living.

 

[montana mike]

But what is bad is they're 4 hours late before hitting the area where they expect to be held 3 to 4 hours. Hope they're bussing the connecting passengers from Toledo.

I'll be on 49 tomorrow. I know someone who will be on 29 tonight.

Yup, I noticed that as well. Not a good sign at all.

 

[neroden]

FWIW, January 12 is a *weirdly* specific date -- quite a long way in the future, but in the middle of a month, and on a *Monday*. I guess the new (twice a year) schedule usually comes out around then, so maybe that's it...

Anyway I wonder if Amtrak has some specific plans to actually change things then. Implementing the Performance Improvement Plan recommendations would be nice (I can dream, eh?).

 

[montana mike]

Perhaps like they have done with the Empire Builders: A new "temporary schedule" that adds more time to the transit? This isn't going away any time soon, so my guess is that the announcement may involve a longer run.

 

[neroden]

With the current delays, it would be faster to go via Michigan. On either of several routes.

 

[Trainbuff T]

See the review of Amtrak posted on Chicago Yelp on October 1, 2014. This may have motivated the addition of service alerts on Amtrak.com on Oct. 3.

 

[montana mike]

I spent almost an hour on the phone with a great AGR agent last night trying to salvage my trek back east on the EB's and LSL. I reluctantly added another dray to my travels at the front end of my trip-fully expecting that there is a good chance I am going to miss my EB/LSL connection in CHI-town. I was going to bite the bullet and fly, until I saw the cost--ouch! On the way back I kept things status quo, figuring that, OK, if I miss my connection in CHI again, they can put me up for the night and I just arrive home a day late. One heck of a way to try to plan a trip, but as the agent said, not many options open now. He was somewhat surprised Amtrak had not pulled the plug on connections for these trains. He too had the information that most connections were being missed for the westbound trains and that the EB's connectability with the LSL was a "crap shoot" at best.

Much of his time lately has been spent trying to "repair" the messes that have been created by hundreds of missed connections each week he said. He also stated it has not been a fun time on the phone with most people. I could certainly understand the issues he and the others were facing.

 

[Guest]

I have heard on monday a new interlocking with universal crossovers will be placed in service just east of porter

 

[neroden]

The interlocking east of Porter should help long term (it's one of the Indiana Gateway projects). It won't help short term, because the current problem is gross mismanagement by Norfolk Southern; they keep running out of crews on their freight trains, but keep sending more freight trains through anyway. They ought to embargo traffic until they can catch up.

There was a well-thought-out comment by someone else at another forum: he said that most businesses now had software which tracked exactly how much business they could handle, and could tell potential new customers immediately if they couldn't handle extra business right away. Apparently the Class Is are in the stone age of IT, aren't tracking their capacity, and are routinely accepting business they can't actually serve.

 

[montana mike]

Good point. Even in my business (Marketing Agency) we have software that enables us to schedule clients so we don't "overbook". The worst thing you can do is over promise and underperform!

 

[Railroad Bill]

As of 3:45pm eastern both LSL, which passed the CL at Cleveland this morning, are sitting west of South Bend. CL lost 3 hours between PGH and Alliance this morning. ?? No connections made to the Texas Eagle 21. They are still holding SWC and CZ, but for how much longer is in doubt. Again I say. What a mess!! :angry:

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Uh. Oh. 49 turned around (on Track-a-Train). Does it normally have 2 engines? Maybe the lead died and they're switching them causing the GPS to record an easterly direction? Also, 29 had passed 49. Another reason I wonder if there was engine problems.

 

[Railroad Bill]

29& 49 are still waiting to enter Chicago as of 5:30pm CST. Yes, the CL has passed the LSL in a great battle to see which train can get to CHI first. Neither of course made their western connections today so everyone in that category was a loser again.

 

[greatcats]

How revolting!!!! Call in the National Guard!! What a sorry mess.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Hopefully since they were so late getting into OH they bussed them from TOL.

 

[Barciur]

Jeebus. So I'm starting to seriously worry about making 5:05 pm connection to the Hiawatha. That's the last train I can get on for the event I am travelling to. Ugh. It's now twice in the past week that they didn't make THAT connection.

 

[Orangesaint]

After today's latest mess, I just bit the bullet on my trip and added an overnight in Chicago as to not worry about the LSL-SWC connection any longer. Sacrifices a day to sight-see San Francisco, but it was for the best. I've never actually stopped and did sight seeing in Chicago before so there's good in it. Amtrak agent on the phone was pleasant and very knowledgeable of the issues concerning the LSL.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

29& 49 are still waiting to enter Chicago as of 5:30pm CST. Yes, the CL has passed the LSL in a great battle to see which train can get to CHI first. Neither of course made their western connections today so everyone in that category was a loser again.

I dread to see what time tonight's (tomorrow mornings?!?) 48 and 30 will depart since once those sets make it in they have to be turned.

 

[benale]

Today's 29 was almost nine hours late into Chicago missing all LD connections with the exception of The CONY. This is absurd. Were passengers with connections bused from Toledo or South Bend? If this keeps up, AGR should allow an overnight in Chicago at the passengers expense and be able to take the next days connection on the same reward.

I never thought i would have to worry about making a connection in Chicago the same day, This ungodly mess is giving Amtrak headaches galore and probably losing many potential customers. I really hope this is cleared up by next Spring.

 

[Slasharoo]

what are the chances that now the arrival of 48 into New York is averaging after 10:30 pm, they start serving dinner?

 

[neroden]

Higher odds if you complain to Amtrak and demand dinner. Do it now.

 

[Railroad Bill]

Hopefully since they were so late getting into OH they bussed them from TOL.

Not sure whether they bussed anyone from TOL. But I believe I paid for a train ride to Chicago in sleeper, not a .... bus ride on the Indiana Turnpike. :angry: