amamba
Engineer
Are you connecting to a cruise in New Orleans? If so, I would HIGHLY recommend leaving at least one day earlier so that you have a planned overnight in New Orleans. It would be terrible for you to miss your cruise!
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Swadian Hardcore
Engineer
Why did BNSF trains get derailed?
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Yes, I am and I had planned to arrive the day before the cruise, however, if the train is running late and I must stay in Chicago overnight, I would still miss my cruise, thus I may need to plan to arrive in New Orleans 2 nights prior to embarking on the cruise.
EB_OBS
Conductor
Chances are extremely good that by October the Empire Builder's On-time-Performance will be much much better. Heat restrictions will be done and thus the resulting freight congestion and train derailments due to heat restrictions will be over.
My suggestion would be to not make any changes to reservations and such, unless it's absolutely necessary to do so very early, and wait 'til mid-late September to gauge the OTP of the Empire Builder into Chicago.
My suggestion would be to not make any changes to reservations and such, unless it's absolutely necessary to do so very early, and wait 'til mid-late September to gauge the OTP of the Empire Builder into Chicago.
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Thank you for your advice. I will hold off making any changes for now. I will be sure to watch this forum for updates, unless someone can tell me where I can go to see the status of a train.
yarrow
Engineer
amtrak status maps is a great link. as is a site called amtrak delays. google them and follow them. also you can get train status by clicking on that in the amtrak.com site
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Thank you for both of the links, I have them saved and will be monitoring them closely.
yarrow
Engineer
i certainly respect EB OBS advice. he actually works on the eb. however, if i had a connecting train i had to make to catch a cruise i would book the extra day in chicago. the problem with waiting to change your reservation is that sleeper space may be sold out or available only at a higher price than your original reservation on the new date. we took the eb to chicago last september. amtrak had a bad summer due to dakota flooding but things were pretty much back on schedule. due to a couple engine failures and problems that caused we were 16 hours late into chicago. you just never know
Pat Harper
Lead Service Attendant
If the EB is so late that several people will miss connections in Seattle, at what point will they bus passengers in order to make those connections? Or will the PAX be given vouchers for travel on a later train? We will be on the EB soon, and have only an hour layover if the EB would be on time, but due to the recent OTP, I seriously doubt we'll get there on time.
amamba
Engineer
Hi Pat - I asked about this when I was on the very late EB two weeks ago, and the consensus was that passengers are almost never bussed from the EB to Chicago. I guess the buses aren't faster than the train in this instance because of traffic, congestion, etc.
What train are you trying to connect to?
Again, I can only relate my one personal experience, but we loaded a customer service rep onto our train somewhere before Milwaukee. The customer service rep literally hopped out of a westbound train and jumped onto ours at a grade crossing.
Then they called folks with connections down to the SSL. Those that had tickets for the CL were given hotel vouchers on the actual train. They ended up holding the CONO and the LSL for my train. People that were going to places that are served by both the CL and LSL were mostly reticketed for the LSL.
I don't know what they did for people with non LD connections. I think sometimes they do bus them to their destinations from CHI.
Amamba, on my late EB trip recently they bussed people to Illinois destinations (I'm not familiar with the train numbers but there seemed to be a bunch of shorter trips), held the CONO and CL people got hotels.
I think Pat Harper is going the other way? Pat, I think there are a fair few connections north from Seattle, if that's what you are doing. We were an hour late into Seattle on the CS and they were holding the bus for Vancouver people. Also the situation going into Seattle might be different than going into Chicago, what with the mountains. They bus EB people from the CS at Klamath falls if they'll be late into Portland. Though an hour seems tight for the best of times and this summer sure isn't the best of times for the poor EB...
I think Pat Harper is going the other way? Pat, I think there are a fair few connections north from Seattle, if that's what you are doing. We were an hour late into Seattle on the CS and they were holding the bus for Vancouver people. Also the situation going into Seattle might be different than going into Chicago, what with the mountains. They bus EB people from the CS at Klamath falls if they'll be late into Portland. Though an hour seems tight for the best of times and this summer sure isn't the best of times for the poor EB...
Ispolkom
Engineer
Not me. I'm old school. Since I ride the Empire Builder regularly, I've made an brazen idol of Rocky, the Great Northern's iconic mountain goat. I plan to sacrifice to it before every trip. I'll get back to you on the results.
Rocky's mad.
yarrow
Engineer
amtrak also needs to put that glaring picture of jj hill back in the dining car. i believe it was retained for a brief while in the amtrak era. anyway, james j would whip things into shape
You guys have it nailed. Between Rocky and James J. Hill, things would be back to normal in no time. 
Pat Harper
Lead Service Attendant
We'll be connecting to the Cascades in Seattle, that is if the EB is on time or less than an hour late.
Another thought I had is that if it is late getting to Seattle, would they allow us to continue on to Portland, which is where we would have to board the EB again to return to Chicago?
So, your reservation is, on a same-day trip, taking train 7 to SEA, 513 to PDX, and 28 back from PDX? That seems a little risky, just because there really is no backup.
fairviewroad
Engineer
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Yeah, the back-up in this case would be to hop off the EB in Spokane and wait for the e/b train the next day. :blink:
However, assuming you are not making the same-day turnaround, if you arrive in SEA too late to catch the 513, they will simply put you on the 507 (or the 509 if you're really late). That's
what happened to our family in early July...the 7 was 3 hrs late into SEA so we missed the 513, but we were switched over to the 507. The downside is that BC was sold out on the 507
so we got downgraded to coach, but an alert conductor moved us back up to BC after Kelso when space was available. So it wasn't the end of the world (the agent in Seattle gave
us our BC cafe coupons, so we didn't miss that perk.)
Bottom line, I wouldn't sweat it since you are blessed with having multiple later-in-the-day options, unlike some people making connections in CHI to other LD trains.
amamba
Engineer
Sorry on my reading comprehension fail about Pat going to SEA. Whoops.
Swadian Hardcore
Engineer
Who's Rocky? I know James Jerome Hill, but I don't know Rocky.
Did you not read the thread? See this post: Ispolkom, on 01 August 2012 - 10:04 AM
Swadian Hardcore
Engineer
So the mountain goat's mad. Seriously? Why are BNSF trains getting derailed?
Ryan
Court Jester
Because Rocky's mad!
Swadian Hardcore
Engineer
Could you guys quit joking with me? How does Rocky been mad derail a train?
How do the trains get derailed? :help:
Um? Bent/broken tracks? Debris on tracks? Cars/trucks/people on tracks? Some possible reasons, I presume.
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