SW Chief odd Train Number

Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

doodaa

Train Attendant
Joined
May 23, 2008
Messages
16
While planing a trip from Chicago to LA next year I was checking on Amsnag and found that on Saturday 9th of March the SW Chief has the Train Number 1003 and no name allocated, the start time of 2.50pm and arrival time of 8.00am are the same. Any reason for this train number change?

I will be getting the Texas Eagle out to LA in May, waiting to see what happens in the new year with the Chief, The Zephyr is plan B

Steve in the UK
 
While planing a trip from Chicago to LA next year I was checking on Amsnag and found that on Saturday 9th of March the SW Chief has the Train Number 1003 and no name allocated, the start time of 2.50pm and arrival time of 8.00am are the same. Any reason for this train number change?

I will be getting the Texas Eagle out to LA in May, waiting to see what happens in the new year with the Chief, The Zephyr is plan B

Steve in the UK
Yeah, that's certainly odd. Honestly this seems more like a site glitch to me than anything else.

Screen Shot 2018-10-05 at 3.41.32 PM.png
 
To be more specific, arrow, Amtrak’s ticketing system, doesn’t like having two trains with the same number scheduled to depart a single station in a single calendar day. This means that, since Arizona doesn’t observe daylight savings time, they need a solution for the spring time change only, and only for train 3.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The same numbering changes will occur when a schedule change occurs for trackwork (or, potentially, other reasons) that moves a just-after-midnight schedule to just before midnight.

Somewhere in my collection I have a ticket for train 1014 that I printed just for the hell of it back when UP trackwork was causing the Starlight's schedule to shift by 2 hours every few months or so.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
To be more specific, arrow, Amtrak’s ticketing system, doesn’t like having two trains with the same number scheduled to depart a single station in a single calendar day. This means that, since Arizona doesn’t observe daylight savings time, they need a solution for the spring time change only, and only for train 3.
I think the Kingman stop before the change is 12:28am, but 11:28pm after, so that'd mean an Amtrak 3 would depart Kingman twice in a day, so the second is numbered 1003. Trains 1, 2, and 4 don't have this problem because they don't have a stop in Arizona between 12am and 1am before the time change.
 
6 months out of the year it's 2 hours earlier at my sister's house (outside of Phoenix, AZ) and 6 months it's 3 hours. I learned that lesson calling too early in the morning....What do you mean it's only 7AM? oops.....BTW, on Navajo Nation land, DST is observed......
 
Back
Top