My trip is timed perfectly to arrive into JAX on the 15th. If a connection goes awry, I'll fly to catch up!.Chris, you have had some bad luck lately.I hope weather cooperates and I get to see you next week.
Empire Builder Summer Blues Started Early this year
- Thread starter montana mike
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EB_OBS
Conductor
#7 & 27 (8) will terminate in SPK. There are on-time buses as well as enough buses for all passengers on the train. There is an additional bus for Coast Starlight connections which will run to Klamath Falls, OR.
montana mike
Conductor
#8 just heading into MN this AM dropped almost 4 hours last night thru the slow orders area--ouch. #8 from SEA yesterday is already just under 2 hours behind in western MT this AM. Last night's arrival in CHI was also verrry late. It looks like a grim several days for the EB. Bummer
I was on the EB on Monday and when we arrived in MKE I thought it was odd to see #7 still in the station-since we were just under 3 hours behind ourselves at that point and if #7 had been close to on time it would have been long past MKE, so things must have started unraveling even before it left MKE. Sorry to hear of all of the issues this week.
I was on the EB on Monday and when we arrived in MKE I thought it was odd to see #7 still in the station-since we were just under 3 hours behind ourselves at that point and if #7 had been close to on time it would have been long past MKE, so things must have started unraveling even before it left MKE. Sorry to hear of all of the issues this week.
yarrow
Engineer
bus from spk to k-falls. brutal
D.P. Roberts
Conductor
I just got off of 8 a few hours ago, arriving 3 hrs 36 minutes late into Chicago. We were running about an hour late on Monday night, woke up Tuesday morning near Staples, MN almost 4 hours late. The conductor soon came over the intercom and said that we had been under slow orders due to a massive thunderstorm that had been raging all night. The lightning had apparently also hit some signals on the track that had to be reset, which also slowed us down.
montana mike
Conductor
Even Mother Nature is conspiring against the EB this summer. Good Grief!! Nothing much one can do about the weather.
:-(
:-(
I just got off #7 in SPK today, about 11 hours late. BTW, the scenery between WFH and SPK is spectacular and I always thought the town of Sandpoint was some podunk place. It's a on a huge lake surrounded by mountains. It looks beautiful!
Anyway, I chose against the any of the bus option, and really didn't want to ride a bus between SPK and KFS. 9-10 hours I would've had. I was able to convince AGR to move my reservation back a day as I was willing to pay for a place in Seattle. They even upgraded me to a bedroom for the CS tomorrow for my inconvenience.
We were pulled by a BNSF engine too, which explains the breakdown out in Wisconsin. I was also told that it can't go as fast, so that added to the delays. I always thought they could at least do 70 mph.
Anyway, I chose against the any of the bus option, and really didn't want to ride a bus between SPK and KFS. 9-10 hours I would've had. I was able to convince AGR to move my reservation back a day as I was willing to pay for a place in Seattle. They even upgraded me to a bedroom for the CS tomorrow for my inconvenience.
We were pulled by a BNSF engine too, which explains the breakdown out in Wisconsin. I was also told that it can't go as fast, so that added to the delays. I always thought they could at least do 70 mph.
Generally most freight loco's can do 70 MPH. But that's still essentially 10 MPH slower than what an Amtrak loco can do. That slightly slower speed does add up over 2 days.
I have always thought it was too bad the EB's route between Whitefish and Spokane is under normal circumstances run at night. The scenery as you say is spectacular. If I didn't mind how late I was running, I'd love to be able to be on the EB as it crossed Lake Pend Oreille, the big lake at Sandpoint. Sandpoint is truly beautiful and IMHO a hidden gem of the EB's route.
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D.P. Roberts
Conductor
I'm glad to hear they were able to accommodate you! When 8 missed the connection to the CL yesterday, we were told onboard that everyone who missed the CL or the Cardinal would be put on a bus. I was somewhat surprised to hear that, as all the stories I've heard about people missing the 8 to 30 connection ended up with passengers being put up in a hotel overnight & onto the next day's CL, or moved to the LSL if possible. We were only going to be on the CL for a few hours, but being extremely prone to motion sickness, I really didn't want to take a bus. When we got to Passenger Services, they had already moved us to a roomette on the LSL, no bus necessary. I really liked that about Amtrak - they had fixed the problem (missed connection) for us before we even had to bring it up. I don't know how many airline connections I've missed over the years, but no airline has EVER addressed/fixed/rebooked a missed connection for me, I've always had to race other passengers to the nearest agent in order to straighten things out.
At least you get to have a good meal in Bend Oregon and to see the beautiful snow capped Cascades from the east side.The CS does not leave Klamath Falls until 10 PM.
Depending on how many transfers there are they could leave them at the new building in Chemult before 8 PM.
When the Northbound CS used to run late, they ran the bus from K-Falls to Pasco to meet the Eastbound EB.
Swadian Hardcore
Engineer
Hey guys, here's the latest update on my old favourite EB:
Train 7: http://dixielandsoftware.net/cgi-bin/gettrain.pl?seltrain=7&selyear=2013&selmonth=07&selday=09.
Train 8: http://dixielandsoftware.net/cgi-bin/gettrain.pl?seltrain=8&selyear=2013&selmonth=07&selday=09.
Looks like 7 departed on time but lost some in Wisconsin, made it up by MSP. Then it was OK until Fargo, when the delays piled upand stablized around 2:15. The 8 departed 1:30 late but managed to hold the delays between 1:50 and 2:30 until a big delay set it back one hour between Glasgow and Wolf Point. Now it's nearly four hours late. But overall it looks like the EB situation is kinda stable compared to the 11-hour delay a few days back.
Train 7: http://dixielandsoftware.net/cgi-bin/gettrain.pl?seltrain=7&selyear=2013&selmonth=07&selday=09.
Train 8: http://dixielandsoftware.net/cgi-bin/gettrain.pl?seltrain=8&selyear=2013&selmonth=07&selday=09.
Looks like 7 departed on time but lost some in Wisconsin, made it up by MSP. Then it was OK until Fargo, when the delays piled upand stablized around 2:15. The 8 departed 1:30 late but managed to hold the delays between 1:50 and 2:30 until a big delay set it back one hour between Glasgow and Wolf Point. Now it's nearly four hours late. But overall it looks like the EB situation is kinda stable compared to the 11-hour delay a few days back.
yarrow
Engineer
for the past 4 weeks(checking the amtrak delays website)the eb has not once arrived in chi on time. average delay 164 min. according to montana mike's information a 2 hour delay into chi will be standard through sometimes in october. afaik, amtrak has not posted a service advisory. why not? the delays are not, generally, amtrak's fault but this is no excuse for not informing those who will be or are considering riding.
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Last October, my father and I took our first train trip from Portage, WI to New Orleans, LA.
The EB was running late, so they ran a bus from MPLS to MKE and those of us going on to CHI caught the train there. As it turned out, we were still late in arriving into CHI, about 30 minutes, but since we were taking the CONO, this was fine. I am hoping that the delay issues are finished or resolved by October this year as we have the same tripped planned and I while the bus was fine, it is not the same as the train.
The EB was running late, so they ran a bus from MPLS to MKE and those of us going on to CHI caught the train there. As it turned out, we were still late in arriving into CHI, about 30 minutes, but since we were taking the CONO, this was fine. I am hoping that the delay issues are finished or resolved by October this year as we have the same tripped planned and I while the bus was fine, it is not the same as the train.
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Sorry for going off topic, but the pic of the Greyhound bus brings a smile to my face. My dad worked for Greyhound for over 20 years.
montana mike
Conductor
Looks like todays #8 to CHI will arrive just under 5 hours behind schedule!!! Ouch No one would make any connections with that kind of performance. Anyone know what happened? I didn't see any whether delays. I asked my BNSF contact for any updates on their maintenance efforts and he said if anything it will likely get a bit worse, since they are ramping up a couple additional projects in MT and ND. I agree Amtrak should at least put out something to alert EB riders, especially into CHI town, that significant delays are possible due to extensive track work and heavy freight track.
Swadian Hardcore
Engineer
Do you know what kind of maintainence they are doing. I'm not sure why the EB route has so much track work compared to other routes. All I can assume is the very heavy usage by oil trains.
Look like the eastbound EB Train 8 of 10 July suffered a serivce disruption. There's no status of it that I can find. Anybody know what happened?
Care to tell his name?
Most likely it started in Spokane, not Seattle. Thus a "service disruption" and no one knows where it is (via automated means.)
montana mike
Conductor
Both track replacement and bed upgrades, but BNSF does this all of the time and ANY regular maintenance program will have these types of items built into their yearly schedule, and one would think AMTRAK schedules would accountant for this when they built their schedules for the EB. But the increase in freight traffic, along with BNSF perhaps playing catch up in some areas is just taking a huge toll on the Empire Builder performance this summer. Since the construction will continue thru October and the freight increases are more or less year around I don't see a lot of relief next winter, better hopefully than what we are seeing now (eg. over 5 hours late into CHI yesterday!!), but still chronically late. Frustrating for a train that used to be one of the best in on time performance. C'est La Vie'
Swadian Hardcore
Engineer
Argh, can't Amtrak just give the EB timetable a seasonal makeover? I'm not confidant that more padding would help, but at least more travel time to account for lower speeds.
Thanks for explaining. If anyone knows its status, please post it so we can know how bad things are going with a SPK departure.
It got into Chicago 5 hrs and a handful of minutes late.
Because they have a contract with BNSF to run that train on time. If BSNF can't do that, then they need to pull a few of their freight trains off the line until such time as they can properly accommodate Amtrak.
Rail Freak
Engineer
When do you anticipate them considering that?
Swadian Hardcore
Engineer
Looks like the SPK departures aren't even pecking off the delays.
What are the chances of Amtrak making a new seasonal contract with BNSF. The delays aren't going away anytime soon.
Amtrak doesn't want to do that. Doing so means breaking connections. Broken connections mean fewer tickets sold.
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