Question about times?

[basketmaker]

I am curious as to where Amtrak gets the posted station arrival/departure times that show on Track Your Train? I know transit.com pulls from that database. Not wondering about the train movement since that comes from GPS. But the times that show arrival/departure at each stop. On Track Your Train only the arrival time is posted. On transitdocs.com both arrival and departure is available. The Conductor or AC (if on board) is usually hanging out the door window then on the ground helping detraining passengers then assisting passenger boarding. Finally hanging out the door window watching for "runners". Do the times come from the head-end crew or where? I know the GPS updates are delayed (understandably for security reasons). I know that when #6 passes my house the tracking is 2 updates behind. Anyway if anyone knows where they come from please enlighten me. Thanx

 

[daybeers]

The conductors use a tool on the Amtrak-supplied iPhones to report arrival and departure times I believe. Transitdocs updates about every five minutes.

 

[acelafan]

The train arrival and departure times are recorded by a GPS unit attached to the locomotive. There is a "geofence" established for each station where the system detects if the train goes to speed 0, thus recording a "stop".

It's all automated unless the system misses a report and the train crew manually enters a correction. From what I know from my friend who works in Amtrak operations, this is a rare condition.