montana mike
Conductor
#8 now almost 7 hours behind!!! Arrgh. Looks like it very well could be 8 hours late into CHI--bummer.
Empire Builder Summer Blues Started Early this year
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RRUserious
OBS Chief
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The snooze at the hotel is great. But the checkout is early and then you wait,wait,wait for your connection to arrive on the next day.
montana mike
Conductor
#8 in MN is now well over 7 hours behind-looks like a verrrry late arrival into CHI tonight-perhaps after 11 PM-bummer. I don't see any connections being made on this one. Meanwhile #7 in MT just dropped almost two hours, and it was doing fairly well until the delays in MT and eastern ND. The maintenance laid out above definitely continues to take its toll on the EBs......
montana mike
Conductor
Looks like more than half of the delays this AM on this eastbound EB were due to freight traffic (oil, intermodal and grain)..... The delays today were absolutely terrible. #8, now finally in Wisconsin looks like a midnight arrival in CHI (almost 8 hours behind). #7 in MT lost 4 hours thru eastern MT today, will likely be very late into SEA and PDX (assuming they don't turn the trains, which I hope they don't for the sake of the SEA and PDX people), #8 now in MT lost 2 hours and is just heading into the ND delay areas--ouch!!!!
Swadian Hardcore
Engineer
Hey, my estimate was somewhat correct! I thought it was going to be about 8, and indeed it's 7 hours late, in fact, 7:49 is very close to 8 hours. Back in Montana, 7 (18) is over 4 hours late and 8(18) is 2 hours late. The EB is doing terribly again, while the CZ is recovering.
8 (19) departed SEA with a 1:24 delay and it'll probably get worse.
I feel for your situation, Jebr!
8 (19) departed SEA with a 1:24 delay and it'll probably get worse.
I feel for your situation, Jebr!
montana mike
Conductor
Looks like it will be a late arrival for both 7 and 27 into SEA and PDX today--around 2-3 hours late, which means a later start for both this evening. 8 in ND is almost 6 hours behind now and looks like a very, very late arrival in CHI, probably 10-11 PM tonight. Bummer. Back to the mess like this summer.
My BNSF guy said increases in freight traffic and Mon-Fri track work, especially in MT are the causes and as we discussed yesterday, he said this may continue for several more weeks. He did re-iterate that he was confident once the Fall track work was done the EB should return to "only" 1-2 hour delays, which I guess would be a cause for celebration, given the miserable performance numbers over the past 6 months
My BNSF guy said increases in freight traffic and Mon-Fri track work, especially in MT are the causes and as we discussed yesterday, he said this may continue for several more weeks. He did re-iterate that he was confident once the Fall track work was done the EB should return to "only" 1-2 hour delays, which I guess would be a cause for celebration, given the miserable performance numbers over the past 6 months
yarrow
Engineer
we were on that train. let me tell a little of our story. left spk with one cascades engine and one regular engine. on time into marias pass where we lost time as, apparently, we ran out of sand for the wet, slippery rails on the pass and barely made it over. they turned off power in the cars to give more to the slipping engines to get us over. i guess that put us out of our slot as we spent the rest of the day going 10 miles, taking the siding, waiting for 2 or 3 freights, going another 10 miles and repeating the operation. around 4 hours down out of wtn where we entered "the bermuda triangle" of bnsf track work in western north dakota. around 7 hours down when we woke up yesterday morning. got into chi just before midnight.
had called agr about our connections earlier in the day and they rebooked us for this evening on the cl in the last accomodation available. we were all bused to a hotel 40 minutes out of chi, slept well(getting to bed around 1:30 in the morning) and ready(more or less) for the rest of our adventure.
Swadian Hardcore
Engineer
The 28 actually managed to depart on time from PUT. The 8 is still sitting in SEA. Awkward, eh?
montana mike
Conductor
Yup--Looks like 28 will have to wait about an hour or so for 8 to arrive at SPK. Since it's the weekend hopefully this train can minimize the delays and not experience what the last two #8's have experienced for their arrival times in CHI.
tim49424
Engineer
Just got a call from Amtrak....my trip on #8 will consist of a bus out of Tomah. Hopefully it will be to Milwaukee where I'll catch the Hiawatha south to Chicago so I can make my connection, the 6 PM Wolverine to Kalamazoo.
This is nothing new to me.....the only different part of this trip is this will be my first trip on the Wolverine....I have taken the Pere Marquette over 20 times to Holland, however I was informed a month ago that #370 is now not a guaranteed connection from #8 and I had other options, the best being #354 The Wolverine.
This is nothing new to me.....the only different part of this trip is this will be my first trip on the Wolverine....I have taken the Pere Marquette over 20 times to Holland, however I was informed a month ago that #370 is now not a guaranteed connection from #8 and I had other options, the best being #354 The Wolverine.
Just got a call from Amtrak myself as well! They told me that the train was delayed, though, and that's about it. So that wasn't really all that helpful...
No bustitution for me, though. Which is fine, because I'll be on the same train the whole way.
tim49424
Engineer
I think bustitutions are only useful if you're trying to make a connection.
Well, they're useful for timekeeping as well, but I'm personally not too worried about that.
montana mike
Conductor
On one hand Amtrak is trying to minimize the utter chaos in all of the missed connections (I did notice they held the LSL for 34 minutes to allow the LSL pax from the very late EB to catch the train Thursday night, all of the other connections were lost), on the other it would be nice if they recognized that during the week at least the norm on delays into CHI- and thus the calculation for connections is still around 4 hours (or more as we saw again this week). I guess their bustitutions are doing that.
Sort of takes the "fun" out of the trip when you have to hop on a bus doesn't it. Oh, well......
Sort of takes the "fun" out of the trip when you have to hop on a bus doesn't it. Oh, well......
TraneMan
Conductor
What happened yesterday after HAV? 7 was all the sudden 6 hours late.
Golden grrl
Service Attendant
Okay, according to info earlier in the thread, the average delay to Chi on #8 has been around 4 hours on weekdays, pushing arrival to around 8 pm.
Does the dining car remain open after midday? Have sleeper passengers been served supper on those late-arrival evenings?
Does the dining car remain open after midday? Have sleeper passengers been served supper on those late-arrival evenings?
montana mike
Conductor
On the times I have been on the EB when it was really late--eg 8+ hours, they did serve an abbreviated meal, but normally a 4 hour delay just means you get in at 8 PM and no diner service.
montana mike
Conductor
Interesting, Amtrak still does not show a delayed departure from SEA today(normal departure time is 4:40 PM) even though #7 is still 6 hours late and hasn't even arrived yet in SEA. Perhaps they have another train set??? If not I don't see a departure from SEA until perhaps 8 PM or later tonight. Which would make the resulting #8/28 train a verrrrry late one by the time it arrives in CHI-town. I too wonder what happened to #7 around HAV, really took a hit for some reason......
Golden grrl
Service Attendant
Thanks for the info. Just in case, it sounds as if I need to pick up a packaged snack or two before I board. I can't imagine that finding a good supper - without reservations - at 8 pm in Chicago on a Friday night would be easy for a tourist.
Maybe I could pick up some chocolates after a tour of Theos chocolate factory in Seattle.....
Swadian Hardcore
Engineer
Ah, so much for the weekend break! 7 (21) is 2:45 late because it seems to be stuck behind a freight. At least 8 (21) is doing OK, only half an hour behind, could get worse though.
The 8 and 28 of today haven't departed yet. Getting off to a bad start for the week.
The 8 and 28 of today haven't departed yet. Getting off to a bad start for the week.
montana mike
Conductor
The Chocolate sounds great! Actually, I have arrived late on weekend nights and usually have little problem finding a great place to eat. Yes, some of the "big time" restaurants might be booked, but many of the local eateries should be available. In the heart of the city there are surprisingly quite a few really great smaller places to eat.
montana mike
Conductor
I see 28 out of PDX left about 1 1/2 hours late and 8 from SEA is scheduled for an 8 PM departure (if they are lucky), which would get them started well over 3 hours behind.......
Swadian Hardcore
Engineer
Crap, 8 (22) still hasn't departed, and it's 8:30 PM right now. There has go to be extremly late arrivals into CHI on Wednesday. Adding to the problems, 8 (21) seem to be stuck behind a freight now, it's slowly piling up delays and now it's already an hour late. 7 (22) has also been piling up a load of delays already in Minnesota.
On the flip side, 7 (21) has been making up steady time and may arrive into SEA/PUT less than one hour late.
8(22) left SEA at 8:42pm, just over 4 hours late. I wonder if the passengers got dinner.
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