Capitol Limited & Lake Shore Limited Delays Summer/Fall 2014

[keelhauled]

In a truly shocking turn of events, the 10/14 CL #29 arrived Chicago just an hour and a half late today, actually making up time between South Bend and Chicago, while the 10/14 LSL #49 is following right on its heels and may make it into Chicago less than an hour late. Meanwhile, the 10/14 #30 is just an hour and a half late in West Virginia. #48 was the only train of the 14th to be delayed by several hours, and was down a little over three hours at Erie. Still much better than the previous day's train, which limped into New York six and a half hours late.

Ironically, the much hyped reliability of the Cardinal seems to have failed it today, as #50 of 10/14 is about three hours late in West Virginia.

No one needs to hype the OTP of the Cardinal. Although the eastbound Cardinal( #50) has struggled somewhat with it's OTO the westbound Cardinal(#51) has not. According to data from status maps.net archives here is the OTP of #51/Cardinal for the mont of September and October so far:

10/12 3 minutes early 9/28 22 minutes early 9/14 41 minutes late

10/10 8 minutes late 9/26 2 minutes early 9/12 on time

10/8 1 hour,7 minutes late 9/24 40 minutes late 9/10 22 minutes early

10/5 10 minutes early 9/21 35 minutes early 9/7 15 minutes early

10/3 12 minutes early 9/19 1 minutes early 9/5 52 minutes late

10/1 15 minutes early 9/17 6 minutes early 9/3 on time

That is a total of 18 trips during which 51/Cardinal arrived CHI either ON TIME or EARLY 13 times out of 18 trips! Only once was it over an hour late(10/8 -1 hour,7 minutes) That is an OTP of 72.2% for this route. If I am traveling from NYP or WAS or points in between and need to get to CHI for LD West Coast connections then the 51/Cardinal is the train I would take( provided that you have the travel flexibility to fit it's 3/day/week schedule into your itinerary). I think that the OTP of Westbound 51/Cardinal speaks for itself without any hype from me or anyone else.

Oh sure, I wasn't making light of it or anything, I just thought it was interesting that for one day at least the normal roles were reversed.

 

[Bob Dylan]

We left CHI on time (30/15) and here we sit an hour later in South Chicago.

Is Penny giving Yoga Lessons to pass the time? Y'all have a good night thru the Ohio/Indiana Twilight Zone!!

 

[neroden]

Fortunately CP is looking to sell the old D&H and a lead contender to buy it from CP is NS, the last I heard. So NS will most likely own the CP line at least from Rouses Point, if not somewhere closer to Montreal down to Wilkes Barre via Schenectady, Binghamton, Scranton, if that comes to pass. Which will probably bee good for the Adirondack and Ethan Allen.

The rumor, unfortunately, was that CP was only planning to sell the line south of Schenectady. So. :-(

Oh well.... I of course fail to understand why CP wants to hold onto the north of Schenectady part. They no longer exercise any of their trackage rights except on the portion that plan to sell to NS. So just keeping that part makes little sense. But c'est la vie.

Supposedly there's one freight customer north of Schenectady who CP serves from the north, and who they still want to serve. I forget who.

 

[neroden]

We left CHI on time (30/15) and here we sit an hour later in South Chicago.

Well, it's interesting in and of itself that you made it to South Chicago. This means the current problems are in Indiana, not Illinois.

 

[pennyk]

I am on 30 also right now. We made it to SOB but not Elkart. We have been sitting west of Elkart for quite a while.

 

[Shanghai]

I hope you will make your connection in WAS. As for being in SOB, it is better than being SOL!!

 

[AmtrakBlue]

They are bussing #91 (SS) pax. Penny is still on the train. We're just a little over 2 hours late into PGH.

(I'm still in bed - needed a LOT of beauty sleep )

 

[Barciur]

Glad to hear things are a lot better in the recent days and connection to the Pennsy is being made!

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Pennsy was in the station and left before us.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Surprised that they bused the #91 pax from PGH-WAS since the connection from #30 to #91 is "temporarily" suspended and only the #30 to #97 connection is Guaranteed!

 

[Ryan]

I'm sure they were guaranteed connections when the tickets were sold, and a bus ride to the train you're supposed to be on is better than an involuntary downgrade to coach or a night in DC on Amtrak's dime.

 

[pennyk]

Pax connecting to 125 were also bused to WAS. It is my understanding that the 91 connection is no longer guaranteed but was when I made my reservation. I chose 97 instead.

 

[Ryan]

Good choice. Looks like a very reasonable trip for you guys, more daylight for the scenic part of the route!

 

[Barciur]

Pennsy was in the station and left before us.

A connection was made though I'm sure?

 

[pennyk]

30 just left Harpers Ferry on its way to Rockville and WAS.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Pennsy was in the station and left before us.

A connection was made though I'm sure?

I think so. I woke up after we were stopped and the Pennsy was sitting on the next track and left maybe 10 mins later.

 

[afigg]

I think so. I woke up after we were stopped and the Pennsy was sitting on the next track and left maybe 10 mins later.

According to the time stamps, #30(10/15) arrived at PGH at 7:14 AM and the Pennsylvanian departed at 7:30 AM. The CL arrived just in time for the connection. It has made few of the connections eastbound in recent weeks.

 

[Orangesaint]

49 was almost on-time today, just 34 minutes late.

It's still had some tough days but you can see the signs of it having turned the corner from its worse days, somewhat.

 

[benale]

Looking at on time performance, it seems things are improving for 29 and 30. Hope I don't regret this, but I want double points and to ride on a Superliner and I booked a same day trip from Martinsburg to Rockville and back.. The first leg is with their Smart Fares, so I'm stuck with that. For $9. I can live with that. I figure if 30 is five hours late, I can get off in Harpers Ferry and return from there. Any further delays, I'll have to bag it... I used to routinely do Martinsburg to DC and back the same day with no problem. Haven't been able to do it since Double Days began because of the horrendous timekeeping. I'm traveling a week from Monday 10/27.

 

[afigg]

The situation has improved this week for the CL and LSL where the extreme delays (>5-6 hours late) getting to CHI have gone away (for now). But we still seeing on one or more of the four trains (east and westbound) running over 2-3 hours late.

For the trains that departed on Wednesday Oct. 15, westbound #49 got delayed on CSX territory: departed ALB 15 minutes late, arrived at CLE 3 hours late, then arrived CHI 4 hours and 11 minutes late. #30(10/15) departed CHI on-time, arrived WAS 2 hours and 52 minutes late and #48(10/15) arrived

NYP 2 hours and 22 minutes late.

Today, for the trains that departed Oct. 16, it is #30 which departed PGH over 3 hours late enroute to WAS, while #29, #49 did ok getting into CHI in time for mid/late morning coffee. LSL #48, still enroute, departed Buffalo on-time before getting delayed by CSX and may still have a shot at arriving at NYP on-time.

 

[acelafan]

Looking at on time performance, it seems things are improving for 29 and 30. Hope I don't regret this, but I want double points and to ride on a Superliner and I booked a same day trip from Martinsburg to Rockville and back.. The first leg is with their Smart Fares, so I'm stuck with that. For $9. I can live with that. I figure if 30 is five hours late, I can get off in Harpers Ferry and return from there. Any further delays, I'll have to bag it... I used to routinely do Martinsburg to DC and back the same day with no problem. Haven't been able to do it since Double Days began because of the horrendous timekeeping. I'm traveling a week from Monday 10/27.

Looking at past history for same-day train connections is a good exercise for the Amtrak Status Maps Archive Database.

Below is a screenshot (with some post-editing to add RED X's) that shows the departure time of train #30 versus the departure time of train #29 at Rockville, MD for the last 31 days.

Out of 31 possible connections, 23 were likely missed. Some misses were due to trains not running but mostly it was the late inbound #30. September 20 and 21 were extremely close calls with a 2-minute difference in the trains leaving the station.

Note that these data indicate the trains departing the station, so it's conceivable they arrived a few minutes earlier. Amtrak.com does not have every piece of data available for tracking trains, but you can get the general idea here.

The URL to see this list on a webpage is http://juckins.net/amtrak_status/archive/html/connections.php?date_start=9%2F15%2F2014&date_end=10%2F17%2F2014&a_train_num=30&c_train_num=29&station=rkv&sort_dir=DESC and you can click the links in blue to see the Amtrak Status Maps history for each train and where it got hung up on its journey.

 

[Ryan]

On the other hand, it made it for the last 4 in a row! Things may be turning around.

 

[afigg]

Below is a screenshot (with some post-editing to add RED X's) that shows the departure time of train #30 versus the departure time of train #29 at Rockville, MD for the last 31 days.

Out of 31 possible connections, 23 were likely missed. Some misses were due to trains not running but mostly it was the late inbound #30. September 20 and 21 were extremely close calls with a 2-minute difference in the trains leaving the station.

I had not thought about using the connections history feature in the status maps archive in that way to check turnaround connections on the same train service. Neat.
I ran the connections check for the CL at RKV for the same 9/15 to 10/17 period in 2013 and for the month of April 2014. There were several shortish turnarounds, but no missed connections for either period. Emphasizes just bad the schedule keeping performance of the CL has been in the past month (and since late May) compared to the normal OTP.

Today, it appears that #29, #49(10/17) are doing pretty good heading to CHI, #48(10/17) departed CLE 1 hour and 47 minutes late, but #30(10/17) has taken the hit, arriving at PGH over 4 hours late.

 

[adt1982]

NS has begun routing trains that connect to BNSF in Chicago farther south with new connections in St. Louis or Kansas City. This is apparently in effort to relieve some congestion on the Chicago line.

 

[neroden]

NS is also transferring freight trains to BNSF at Streator (IL), apparently. Anything to get them off the Chicago Line. (I don't know if they're transferring trains as far south as Memphis, though that would be another possibility.)