Passenger Trains > LD train arrivals at Chicago today.

Long Distance trains arrived at Chicago Union Station today, April 21, 2014 as follows:

#4 - Left Princeton 5 hrs, 7 mins late.
#6 - 40 mins late.
#8 – 48 mins late.
#22 - 33 mins late.
#29 - 28 mins late.
#49 - 50 mins late.
#51 - 10 mins early.
#58 - 1 hr, 26 mins late.

Nice to see that #8 actually arrived before #4. That's different!

Note: Starting tomorrow my reporting of LD trains arriving Chicago will be uncertain for the next 3 weeks. I will be taking an extensive long-planned train trip and will be frequently out of touch with wi-fi locations. I will attempt to provide this information as best I can depending on my location.

More details on my trip are at:http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,3386862. I will provide more commentary on the trip as I go.

Keep on trackin'

John Webb
Trinidad, CA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/14 16:41 by Winnemucca.

Holiday bleed over - the roads were unusually quiet today too (except the drive through lane in Starbucks in Schaumburg).

I sincerely hope it does well - but it should be noted that this is 48 minutes late added to 4-5 hours of padding added to another 2-3 hours of padding. Padding is a "normal" event in most travel these days, but it's over 15% of the total trip here.

I suspect, though, that the next week - or perhaps the week after (given that this is a quiet week as well as start to one) - that we'll be back to seeing 3-5 hour late arrivals.

rswebber Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Holiday bleed over - the roads were unusually
> quiet today too (except the drive through lane in
> Starbucks in Schaumburg).
>
> I sincerely hope it does well - but it should be
> noted that this is 48 minutes late added to 4-5
> hours of padding added to another 2-3 hours of
> padding. Padding is a "normal" event in most
> travel these days, but it's over 15% of the total
> trip here.
>
> I suspect, though, that the next week - or perhaps
> the week after (given that this is a quiet week as
> well as start to one) - that we'll be back to
> seeing 3-5 hour late arrivals.

I don't follow "4-5 hours of padding adding to another 2-3 hours of padding." Before the recent schedule change, the EB was only 15 minutes slower than the EB under Great Northern, and that train ran on the shorter KO subdivision. Now it has been padded by 2 hours 45 minutes. So in total it is only three hours slower than the EB of Great Northern days, and on a longer route. Where do we get the 4-5 plus 2-3 hours?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/14 17:41 by Ptolemy.

Have a great trip.
I always appreciate the time you take to compile the report, each day is a gift.

RsWebber, do you have anything positive to post besides all the negative stuff about the Builder?

Ptolemy Wrote:
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> I don't follow "4-5 hours of padding adding to another 2-3 hours of padding."

Actual figures for 1955 (GN) vs. 2013 (Amtrak)

GN #1 - 44 hours even; Amtrak #7 46 hours 10 minutes (2 hrs 10 mins longer)
GN #2 - 44 hrs 30 mins; Amtrak #8 45 hrs 15 mins (45 mins longer)

If we consider only the Minneapolis-Seattle portion:

GN #1 - 36 hrs 20 mins; Amtrak #7 37 hrs 10 mins (50 mins longer)
GN #2 - 36 hrs 55 mins; Amtrak #8 36 hrs 25 mins (30 mins shorter)

Much of the overall difference is accounted for by Amtrak's use of the Milwaukee Road routing east of St. Paul vs. the CB&Q routing used in 1955.

The current 2014 schedules for #s 7/8 are 3 hours longer than those shown above (all padding added west of Minneapolis, for example on the eastbound run there is a new 1 hr 20 min pad into Minot, a new 1 hr 10 min pad into Fargo, and a new 30 min pad into Minneapolis). It appears from early results that more of the new padding for #8 should have been applied between Minot and Fargo and less east and west of that line segment.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/14 20:06 by illini73.

A couple of hours added, minus the padding, that's not bad on Amtrak's part, be nice if they were able to do that with the other LD Trains!

How much is the "padding" costing since OBS personnel are paid by the hour? A "padded" schedule is like a "padded" bra... neither one of them are the real thing..

ProAmtrak Wrote:
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> RsWebber, do you have anything positive to post
> besides all the negative stuff about the Builder?

That's not his job.

Yeah I know it isn't!