Passenger Trains > Bad San Diego Sub dispatching

Today Pacific Surfliner 572 was running right on time until CP Avery where we sat for 22 minutes waiting a late running Pacific Surfliner 573. Had the dispatcher  ran us on we would have stopped at SJC or San  Juan Capistrano then would have met 573 at   CP Capistrano then moved on down the railroad on time. Instead, we sat then 573 came but got stopped dead in his tracks by Metrolink 803 leaving on time.  572 met 777 on double track then waited at CP Ponto for Coaster 345. We then went to CP Scipps and waited 7 minutes for Pacific Surfliner 579 and arrived into San Diego 5 minutes before 583 was to leave,

Coming home north we left San Diego 15 minutes late then slowed to met 774 at CP Moreno, waited for Coaster 640 at CP Miramar, waited at CP Songs for Pacific Surfliner 580 moved to CP Capistrano for Metrolink 602 then got stopped at CP El Toro for 10 minutes waiting for Metrolink 689 to leave Irvine.

This laat delay  have   not happened if the DS would have had  Metrolink 686 pulled into Irvine detrain its passengers then pull into CP El Toro to switch end and it would have allowed 583 to come in do its station work and leave instead
of following it on its yellows and losing more time to Santa Ana,

Chris
 

The whole line should be double-tracked to avoid this nonsense.

I suggest you send this to the Chief Dispatcher.

DavidJustinLynch Wrote:
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> The whole line should be double-tracked to avoid
> this nonsense.

Just needs money and the means to defeat the NIMBY's.

PHall Wrote:
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> Just needs money and the means to defeat the
> NIMBY's.

Something to cause housing prices to fall will take the #1 incentive away from NIMBYs (Gollum voice): "My Precious property value!"

Send them a check.

DavidJustinLynch Wrote:
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> The whole line should be double-tracked to avoid
> this nonsense.

Do you have all the particulars of why each train was at the location it was at each moment? Could be there was a good reason why they were run in a particular order.

Mudrock Wrote:
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> Today Pacific Surfliner 572 was running right on
> time until CP Avery where we sat for 22 minutes
> waiting a late running Pacific Surfliner 573. Had
> the dispatcher  ran us on we would have stopped
> at SJC or San  Juan Capistrano then would have
> met 573 at   CP Capistrano then moved on down
> the railroad on time. Instead, we sat then 573
> came but got stopped dead in his tracks by
> Metrolink 803 leaving on time.  572 met 777 on
> double track then waited at CP Ponto for Coaster
> 345. We then went to CP Scipps and waited 7
> minutes for Pacific Surfliner 579 and arrived into
> San Diego 5 minutes before 583 was to leave,
>
> Coming home north we left San Diego 15 minutes
> late then slowed to met 774 at CP Moreno, waited
> for Coaster 640 at CP Miramar, waited at CP Songs
> for Pacific Surfliner 580 moved to CP Capistrano
> for Metrolink 602 then got stopped at CP El Toro
> for 10 minutes waiting for Metrolink 689 to leave
> Irvine.
>
> This laat delay  have   not happened if the DS
> would have had  Metrolink 686 pulled into Irvine
> detrain its passengers then pull into CP El Toro
> to switch end and it would have allowed 583 to
> come in do its station work and leave instead
> of following it on its yellows and losing more
> time to Santa Ana,
>
> Chris
>  

Those with REAL railroad operating experience know that things are often very different from how they
look to a casual passenger riding a train and judging from what is seen out the window. 

Unless you have access to the dispatch tapes, and know what the circumstances were, you
don't have enough information to judge.

The sad part is that the first part of Mudrock's complaint is about dispatching the ORANGE SUB while the rest is about the SAN DIEGO SUB.  They are two different dispatchers working for two different agencies with completely different priorities and aren't even in same building.  Metrolink has a reputation for good and fair dispatching, so to sit here and complain about it, without having all the information, is just poor taste and given his self proclaimed "greatest railfan ever" title, he should know all of this.  Ultimately he and his fellow passengers got to their destination safely and fairly close to on-time.  Doesn't seem the day was that bad afterall.

The World's Best Dispatchers are often found on the right-hand seat of a locomotive -- or back in a coach.

The World's Best Engineers are often found in the Trick Dispatcher's seat.

All this hand-wringing, and no Angus Burger to sop up the tears.   I can think of several dispatchers that are high-fiving at the moment.

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/13/17 15:11 by darkcloud.

And they wonder where the new dispatchers are going to come from...

This has veen happening 6 or 7 times to this train 572 over the last couple of weeks. Can't these dispatchers think outside the box ro keep the on time train moving,

Chris

Mudrock Wrote:
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> This has veen happening 6 or 7 times to this train
> 572 over the last couple of weeks. Can't these
> dispatchers think outside the box ro keep the on
> time train moving,
>
> Chris

​Send them your resume since you can do it better. AS JLY says, so many experts, so few jobs

Theres no need to send this to the Chief Dispatcher. The conductors delay report has already been sent, which accounts each delay encountered.

Train 573 left OSD 13 mins late. Its possible, the DS attempted to run 573 so they would not get held up behind 804. By the time 573 got to Orange County it had lost another 3 mins, which allowed 804 to leave ahead of them. Maybe a case for 572's schedule being 20 minutes earlier, meeting 573 at Serra.

Mudrock Wrote:
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> This has veen happening 6 or 7 times to this train
> 572 over the last couple of weeks. Can't these
> dispatchers think outside the box ro keep the on
> time train moving,

I haven't examined the timetabling so I don't know for sure (but is certainly prevalent in those that I have examined). If the timetable doesn't allow all trains to be on time within some small tolerance, there is nothing that the dispatcher can do about it.


TAW

Maybe one of the Metrolink dispatchers will come down to your classroom one of these days and critique you and make suggestions as to how you can be a better teacher's aide.  



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/24/17 13:34 by CA_Sou_MA_Agent.

Mertolink disp = stab Amtrak ... Amtrak disp = stab Metrolink ... nothing new ... it's beem going for decades upon decades ... as for the chief ... he probably approved it ...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/24/17 15:05 by Out_Of_Service.

CA_Sou_MA_Agent Wrote:
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> Maybe one of the Metrolink dispatchers will come
> down to your classroom one of these days and
> critique you and make suggestions as to how you
> can be a better teacher's aide.  

Best response so far!