- Joined
- May 14, 2011
- Messages
- 13
Hi, all! We are about to embark on a big train journey next week and are newbies. Today I checked this board and followed a link to a lovely site with a map that tracks the current status of all the trains. I love that tool, but in checking it, I have a few questions.
First of all--our trip. We are a family of 4 travelling on 15-day USA Rail Passes. We are going Chicago to Salt Lake City to Emeryville to Los Angeles to Seattle and then back to Chicago. We are having a short visit in each of those cities, the shortest being 24 hours in SLC, the longest 3 days in L.A. We depart on July 25 and are really looking forward to it.
Today I checked the schedule and I see that the Westbound California Zephyr was 8.5 hours behind arriving and leaving SLC! I looked for the 2nd train 5 which should have left the next day and didn't see it on the map at all but found it under "service disruptions". I clicked on that and saw it left Chicago, got late after a few stops and then just disappeared! So none of this info looks good to a person who stupidly booked a non-refundable hotel room in SLC that would be a complete waste if this schedule is at all typical. And finally, finally!.....to my questions:
1. Is there a website that tracks typical on-time performance for these trains or maybe has the last 30 days of data? I assume 8 hours late is not typical, but any significant lateness is going to be painful to our schedule. If there is no such website, do any of you more experienced riders have any information on on-time performance?
2. What would be the usual reason for a train to steadily lose time like that? I could understand if the train were delayed for some reason in one chunk--something breaks, there is an accident, etc.--but to just steadily fall behind as it crosses the country? That doesn't even seem weather related.
3. Specifically, how would one find out what happened to the second Train 5 that just dropped off the schedule? What was the service disruption and what happened to those people who were riding?
4. Lastly, are there any good mobile tools for tracking trains or even getting live time updates via text or email or something? it would be great to be able to get that information easily on my Android phone or iPad.
And just to clarify, I knew that trains often ran late and that sometimes those delays could be significant, and I understood the risk I was taking booking non-refundable hotel rooms. I just thought significant delays were the exception rather than the rule, and today's schedule seems to be the opposite. We are flexible and can roll with whatever happens, but being prepared never hurt anyone.
First of all--our trip. We are a family of 4 travelling on 15-day USA Rail Passes. We are going Chicago to Salt Lake City to Emeryville to Los Angeles to Seattle and then back to Chicago. We are having a short visit in each of those cities, the shortest being 24 hours in SLC, the longest 3 days in L.A. We depart on July 25 and are really looking forward to it.
Today I checked the schedule and I see that the Westbound California Zephyr was 8.5 hours behind arriving and leaving SLC! I looked for the 2nd train 5 which should have left the next day and didn't see it on the map at all but found it under "service disruptions". I clicked on that and saw it left Chicago, got late after a few stops and then just disappeared! So none of this info looks good to a person who stupidly booked a non-refundable hotel room in SLC that would be a complete waste if this schedule is at all typical. And finally, finally!.....to my questions:
1. Is there a website that tracks typical on-time performance for these trains or maybe has the last 30 days of data? I assume 8 hours late is not typical, but any significant lateness is going to be painful to our schedule. If there is no such website, do any of you more experienced riders have any information on on-time performance?
2. What would be the usual reason for a train to steadily lose time like that? I could understand if the train were delayed for some reason in one chunk--something breaks, there is an accident, etc.--but to just steadily fall behind as it crosses the country? That doesn't even seem weather related.
3. Specifically, how would one find out what happened to the second Train 5 that just dropped off the schedule? What was the service disruption and what happened to those people who were riding?
4. Lastly, are there any good mobile tools for tracking trains or even getting live time updates via text or email or something? it would be great to be able to get that information easily on my Android phone or iPad.
And just to clarify, I knew that trains often ran late and that sometimes those delays could be significant, and I understood the risk I was taking booking non-refundable hotel rooms. I just thought significant delays were the exception rather than the rule, and today's schedule seems to be the opposite. We are flexible and can roll with whatever happens, but being prepared never hurt anyone.
