Crescent operations and schedule performance

[dadonatrain]

I may not have posted this in the right forum so I apologize in advance if it gets relocated. I apparently am not very good at that part of using this board.

I watch the Crescent performance just for fun because it’s the first Amtrak train I’d take going anywhere. Is it my imagination that its schedule performance, which is usually pretty bad, esp. south of Atlanta, is a bit better on weekends? Could it be that freight traffic is lighter on weekends than weekdays? I find that hard to believe but what do I know!?

 

[TinCan782]

You can see any train's history here...
https://juckins.net/amtrak_status/archive/html/history.php

 

[dadonatrain]

You can see any train's history here...
https://juckins.net/amtrak_status/archive/html/history.php

Thx. Sorta bears out my contention that in general its schedule performance isn’t too great.

I did not analyze what I saw in your reference to see if there really is a diff in its weekend vs its weekday performance but I may take a closer look.

I’m still curious if freight traffic on weekends in general is lighter than on weekdays.

 

[dadonatrain]

I did a little more digging on trains 19 and 20 for Clemson, CSN, for the past 30 days. The avg delay southbound, train 19, is around 10-15 minutes. Northbound, train 20, it’s closer to an hour! So there is a difference dep on whether it has already experienced freight traffic south of Atlanta or has it in its future!

 

[TheCrescent]

I take the Crescent southbound pretty regularly and its timekeeping is very good; at Greenville, it arrives early so much of the time.

Northbound, it's often late. I think that the problem is freight congestion around Atlanta, and perhaps in particular between Atlanta and Birmingham.

 

[dadonatrain]

I take the Crescent southbound pretty regularly and its timekeeping is very good; at Greenville, it arrives early so much of the time.

Northbound, it's often late. I think that the problem is freight congestion around Atlanta, and perhaps in particular between Atlanta and Birmingham.

Hehe. Shows what I know! I did the detailed look just now for Greenville and you’re right. It does get in early some of the time! Maybe I should switch to using Greenville vs Clemson for my “home station”. I live almost midway btwn them so it could work.

Now I’m curious why, if it does get to Greenville on time it still gets just a few miles down the track to Clemson not so well on schedule! There’s not a lot out there btwn the two to mess things up!

 

[TheCrescent]

Hehe. Shows what I know! I did the detailed look just now for Greenville and you’re right. It does get in early some of the time! Maybe I should switch to using Greenville vs Clemson for my “home station”. I live almost midway btwn them so it could work.

Now I’m curious why, if it does get to Greenville on time it still gets just a few miles down the track to Clemson not so well on schedule! There’s not a lot out there btwn the two to mess things up!

It arrives early in Greenville and then sits in the station until the scheduled departure time or maybe longer. Who knows why; once all known ticketed passengers are on board it ought to leave.

 

[dadonatrain]

Yeah…I think I heard once that Greenville is a Norfolk Southern crew change point. I’ve been there during weekdays a few times recently, just Trainspotting, and there are always nearly a dozen passenger cars parked in the lot with a logo on them. I looked it up. They belong to a company that specializes in shuttling train crews to and from lodging, homes, etc. I have nomidea at all if Amtrak crews also change there or not so I have no idea if that’s part of what we’re seeing.

 

[TheCrescent]

It might be refueling, although the Crescent also sits in Charlotte for a while and I would think that refueling could be done there. Yes, NS does change crews in Greenville and those minivans in the parking lot shuttle crews around.

 

[TheVig]

It might be refueling, although the Crescent also sits in Charlotte for a while and I would think that refueling could be done there. Yes, NS does change crews in Greenville and those minivans in the parking lot shuttle crews around.

The northbound Crescent typically refuels in Charlotte. I'm not sure about the southbound Crescent.

 

[GaSteve]

The northbound Crescent typically refuels in Charlotte. I'm not sure about the southbound Crescent.

Southbound usually fuels at Atlanta

 

[GaSteve]

Do a little more research and you will likely find that many of the delays, especially northbound, occur between Meridian and Tuscaloosa. I've heard crews refer to that stretch as the Bermuda Triangle.

 

[MARC Rider]

I used ASMAD to look up #20's arrivals in Baltimore. It ran 19 days during the period from March 3-April 3.
The average delay was 47 minutes, but the median delay (which means that half of the time the delay was longer and half the time shorter) was only 7 minutes. Calculation of the average delay was probably severely impacted by the 4 hour 41 minute delay on March 27 and the 3 hour 50 minute delay on March 31. There were 4 other days when the train was delayed between an hour and an hour 30 minutes. That means out of the 19 days, there were 6 when the train was delayed more than an hour. While, of course, timekeeping should be improved (and I'm glad I wasn't riding the train on March 27 or March 31), that's not half as bad as I expected based on the comments in various places on this forum.

It seems that it might be a good idea to look at a larger dataset of delay times and see how they're distributed. I suspect it's really skewed, and most of the trains aren't really all that late. I wish ot was easier to copy data from the ASMAD tables into spreadsheets.

 

[TheCrescent]

I used ASMAD to look up #20's arrivals in Baltimore. It ran 19 days during the period from March 3-April 3.
The average delay was 47 minutes, but the median delay (which means that half of the time the delay was longer and half the time shorter) was only 7 minutes. Calculation of the average delay was probably severely impacted by the 4 hour 41 minute delay on March 27 and the 3 hour 50 minute delay on March 31. There were 4 other days when the train was delayed between an hour and an hour 30 minutes. That means out of the 19 days, there were 6 when the train was delayed more than an hour. While, of course, timekeeping should be improved (and I'm glad I wasn't riding the train on March 27 or March 31), that's not half as bad as I expected based on the comments in various places on this forum.

It seems that it might be a good idea to look at a larger dataset of delay times and see how they're distributed. I suspect it's really skewed, and most of the trains aren't really all that late. I wish ot was easier to copy data from the ASMAD tables into spreadsheets.

There is so much padding in the schedule that even with a significant delay northbound around Atlanta, it can arrive on time in the Northeast.
The northbound Crescent’s timekeeping is atrocious between Atlanta and Charlotte. A departure in Greenville, SC in the middle of the night plus chronic delays even with the new padded schedule makes the Crescent unusable for a lot of people there; no wonder ridership in Greenville is negligible despite it being a pretty decent sized city.

 

[dadonatrain]

The northbound Crescent’s timekeeping is atrocious between Atlanta and Charlotte. A departure in Greenville, SC in the middle of the night plus chronic delays even with the new padded schedule makes the Crescent unusable for a lot of people there; no wonder ridership in Greenville is negligible despite it being a pretty decent sized city.

As one who must use the Crescent for any Amtrak trip anywhere, I certainly agree the times for Greenville and Clemson (I live midway btwn them) are terrible! But like I said, if I want to take Amtrak, there’s no such thing as an unusable Crescent for me.

 

[MARC Rider]

There is so much padding in the schedule that even with a significant delay northbound around Atlanta, it can arrive on time in the Northeast.
The northbound Crescent’s timekeeping is atrocious between Atlanta and Charlotte. A departure in Greenville, SC in the middle of the night plus chronic delays even with the new padded schedule makes the Crescent unusable for a lot of people there; no wonder ridership in Greenville is negligible despite it being a pretty decent sized city.

Yeah, well you're right about Greenville. I've taken the Crescent to Greenville a few times. Even under the old schedule, it arrived close to midnight, and if it was delayed (which is was at least 2 of the times I rode it), it was well in the wee hours when it arrived, but probably not quite as bad as it is now. And there's nothing at all around the station, and the station itself is just an Amshack. Not a fun place to sit around for hours in the middle of the night.

 

[dadonatrain]

It seems that it might be a good idea to look at a larger dataset of delay times and see how they're distributed. I suspect it's really skewed, and most of the trains aren't really all that late. I wish ot was easier to copy data from the ASMAD tables into spreadsheets.

MARCrider, you’re right. Larger data sets are always better. So I used ASMAD to check 20 at Clemson for 2/1/2021 (not a typo) to today. Out of 354 data points reported, it was on time 22 times. Dreadful, IMO!

i think we’re all pretty much preaching to the choir here. I’m going back to watch South Carolina win the women’s championship!

 

[MARC Rider]

MARCrider, you’re right. Larger data sets are always better. So I used ASMAD to check 20 at Clemson for 2/1/2021 (not a typo) to today. Out of 354 data points reported, it was on time 22 times. Dreadful, IMO!

Ah, but what was the median delay? A train can be late most of the time, but a 2 hour delay is a lot more significant than a 20 minute delay.

And I did run the data for last month from Greenville. As expected, the delays were much worse than at Baltimore. What was also interesting was that the median delay (60 minutes) was very close to the average delay (64 minutes), which is different than the situation at Baltimore. Clearly the padding isn't enough to ensure on-time departures at Greenville.

 

[dadonatrain]

Good question. Answer: avg delay 1 hr 5 minutes. Median delay: 40 minutes. Not too much difference.

 

[tricia]

There is so much padding in the schedule that even with a significant delay northbound around Atlanta, it can arrive on time in the Northeast.
The northbound Crescent’s timekeeping is atrocious between Atlanta and Charlotte. A departure in Greenville, SC in the middle of the night plus chronic delays even with the new padded schedule makes the Crescent unusable for a lot of people there; no wonder ridership in Greenville is negligible despite it being a pretty decent sized city.

Ridership in Greenville northbound didn't use to be negligible. In years past, before the schedule change, I've boarded there with at least two dozen passengers.

Remember the schedule change was SUPPOSED to make the schedule reliable. It doesn't, and with still no reliable timekeeping we've lost decent boarding times between Atlanta and Charlotte, and also lost the morning arrival in DC---super important for folks taking an overnight train to do anything planned in DC for the next day.

 

[tricia]

We

As one who must use the Crescent for any Amtrak trip anywhere, I certainly agree the times for Greenville and Clemson (I live midway btwn them) are terrible! But like I said, if I want to take Amtrak, there’s no such thing as an unusable Crescent for me.

Well, it's become unusable for me, and for many of us who previously drove 2-4 hours to catch the train to DC.

 

[TheCrescent]

We

Well, it's become unusable for me, and for many of us who previously drove 2-4 hours to catch the train to DC.

Same. I used to take the northbound Crescent. But now that it’s a day train between Charlotte and NY, if I have to spend the day traveling, I’ll fly.

 

[acelafan]

I wish ot was easier to copy data from the ASMAD tables into spreadsheets.

Hello, I am curious about the issue cutting and pasting from ASMAD tables? I highlight the table rows I want and can CTRL-C, CTRL-V into Open Office (or Excel or Google Spreadsheets.) Does it not work for you?

 

[mp492_5]

I remember boarding at 10 something in the evening and arriving in DC about 9. Now it’s usually around Greenville about 3 to 5 in the morning. I am finished with them now because you loose a night’s sleep plus the next day is wasted. Easier to drive and still cheaper.

 

[Amtrak709]

It has been now nearly a one year (June 2021) since the Crescent changed its northbound schedule to an afternoon rather than morning arrival into WAS. I am wondering are there any real valid statistics on passengers who have abandoned this train due to its significantly later times north of ATL?? If no real statistics perhaps someone on the forum has some unofficial data. I, myself, don't have a problem with the departure time at ATN, but the later arrival in WAS for me has become unacceptable.