CZ Service Disruption (6/25) and more delays

[afigg]

What does the abbreviation CT stand for?

Central Time

 

[justinslot]

An 11 hour delay between Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs? That must have been infuriating...wonder what the reason was. Colorado's where my 8 hours late 5 lost about 4 hours I think.

 

[chakk]

I think the big delay between GJT and GSC was another sun kink requiring track repair

 

[justinslot]

BARELY made the 30 via today's 6--the red cap met us as we got out, 30 started moving minutes after we got on board and exactly at 6:40, as scheduled. I'm pretty sure some people got left behind, and I have no hope my luggage made it over given how rapidly everything happened. What's the rationale behind not holding 30 for like 20 minutes? 20 minutes is nothing in Amtrak timeliness terms.

 

[OBS]

Well, other than it ruins the bonus $$ for the person in charge of Initial Terminal OTP,.....LOL

ETA... this same system has been in use for YEARS... Get the train out, let others down the road worry about lost/delayed luggage, or people missing connections waiting to p/u up checked luggage in CHI, etc.

It sometimes just makes you bang your head against the wall...

 

[neroden]

If the train departs late from its initial terminal, the abusive freight railroad dispatchers often take this as carte blanche to stab it further. So I totally understand doing this on the trains which run on freight-dispatched territory. :-(

 

[TylerP42]

So how late has the CZ been lately into chicago? I'm taking the trip for my birthday and I need t connect to the LSL.

 

[justinslot]

If the train departs late from its initial terminal, the abusive freight railroad dispatchers often take this as carte blanche to stab it further. So I totally understand doing this on the trains which run on freight-dispatched territory. :-(

Well that's a better rationale than "whatever whoever was in charge that day felt like doing."

And of course my baggage did not come with me, and it was kind of a production getting somebody to agree to transfer my bags whenever they arrive to Philly (I take the 30 to DC when I'm going home, as opposed to getting off at Pittsburgh because 1. there are a lot more trains out of DC if something goes wrong and 2. lots more amenities at DC--again, if something goes wrong. Oh, and 3. I don't have to get off at like 5 in the morning in Pittsburgh. Plus 4. the Acela is awesome.) Apparently you can check your bags even if the train you're riding on doesn't offer checked bags? (Like the Acela.) They just go on a different train from yours and arrive at a different time. I don't know why anyone would use this--why would you not want your luggage in the same train with you?--but because they do offer that the baggage dude acted like he was doing me a favor in getting new claim checks for when my bags hopefully head up to Philly tomorrow. Whatevs.

 

[acelafan]

So how late has the CZ been lately into chicago? I'm taking the trip for my birthday and I need t connect to the LSL.

CZ performance has been mediocre - past 3 weeks it's been solidly 3+ hours late into Chicago on a typical day.

 

[SurebetVA]

Just an update - I was watching the CZ earlier this month and started this thread because I was taking a vacation to Nebraska and Colorado and was worried about making connections with airlines. Just a follow up my trip went great and all trains were on a reasonable time. We flew into Omaha and caught the #5 to MCK and it was about an hour late and lost another hour on the way. Then took the #5 to DEN from MCK later that week and it was about two hours late. Returning from DEN to MCK on #6 train was an hour late. When we went from MCK to OMA to catch our flight home train was only about 8 minutes late. So I was very very lucky and train worked wonderful for this trip. It was my first time in a Roomette and it was ok. Didn't love it but it worked. Not overly comfortable and pillow was small but I was able to catch some sleep. A lot of bathrooms seemed to be out of order on the sleeping cars but it wasn't a real problem that time of night.