Passenger Trains > Early Sunset arrival on May 1

Amtrak Train 1, Sunset Limited arrived LAX on May 1 at 0424, 1 hour 11 minutes early.

Sleeper passengers were supposed to be able to remain aboard until 0530ish
as promised, and the Metropolitan Lounge was supposed to be open for
them at 0500.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/15 19:50 by GenePoon.

So what happened? Also I can't wait to hear Railcity's rant when he's on No. 1 in a few weeks!

So lets see. A 4:30A arrival. Assuming a half hour to get dressed, that means in order to get 8 hours of sleep one would need to retire at 8:00PM. At that time, they are still making dinner calls on the PA which can't be turned off in your room. I'm pretty sure most that book this train have no idea it could arrive that early given Amtrak's normally poor timekeeping.

andersonb109 Wrote:
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> So lets see. A 4:30A arrival. Assuming a half hour
> to get dressed, that means in order to get 8 hours
> of sleep one would need to retire at 8:00PM. At
> that time, they are still making dinner calls on
> the PA which can't be turned off in your room. I'm
> pretty sure most that book this train have no idea
> it could arrive that early given Amtrak's normally
> poor timekeeping.

I just knew we could depend on you to find fault with an early arrival!

Right on, Bob Anderson!  The situation is a joke.  Amtrak runs the train as an obligation, not a service.

PHall Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> andersonb109 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > So lets see. A 4:30A arrival. Assuming a half
> hour
> > to get dressed, that means in order to get 8
> hours
> > of sleep one would need to retire at 8:00PM. At
> > that time, they are still making dinner calls
> on
> > the PA which can't be turned off in your room.
> I'm
> > pretty sure most that book this train have no
> idea
> > it could arrive that early given Amtrak's
> normally
> > poor timekeeping.
>
> I just knew we could depend on you to find fault
> with an early arrival!

It's a legitimate post and concern. Stick the train in the yard or a siding near the station till 6:00 am, and then do an arrival at 6:30.

jp1822 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> PHall Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > andersonb109 Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > So lets see. A 4:30A arrival. Assuming a half
> > hour
> > > to get dressed, that means in order to get 8
> > hours
> > > of sleep one would need to retire at 8:00PM.
> At
> > > that time, they are still making dinner calls
> > on
> > > the PA which can't be turned off in your
> room.
> > I'm
> > > pretty sure most that book this train have no
> > idea
> > > it could arrive that early given Amtrak's
> > normally
> > > poor timekeeping.
> >
> > I just knew we could depend on you to find
> fault
> > with an early arrival!
>
> It's a legitimate post and concern. Stick the
> train in the yard or a siding near the station
> till 6:00 am, and then do an arrival at 6:30.

Which would cause complaints about how the train was parked in a siding when it could have gone to the station so the passengers could get off.
That's a "no win" solution.

 Since complaits about lateness of this train have dropped to absurd minimums this is a new form of punishment to get the Sunset back in the running for the 'most complaints' contest. 

RailNet802, owevaaaah

You can please all of the people some of the time.
You can please some of the people all of the time.
You can NEVER please all of the people all of the time.

Isn't Amtrak's mandate up this year on that agreement with the schedule? In order for UP to agree to change the schedule back to a 10pm departure for #2, Amtrak couldn't ask for a daily Sunset or schedule change until this year. So theoritically (in a perfect world) they could push the issue again and try to address daily service with a schedule change included. Or at least repeal or reditribute some of the padding in it's schedule.

This westbound schedule should never have seen the light of day in the first place....an 0430 arrival is not acceptable, or viable in the long term.  I say move the whole schedule back 3 or 4 hours.  If that move makes the San Antonio connections unfeasible,then I suggest a re-routing of the Chicago cars.....to the Chief, via El Paso.  AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

The big market on the Eagle thru section is Arizona. Tucson-FTW, Marcopa-Dallas for example. And quite frequently it's the Eagle that causes a domino effect with late sets. I was just recently on #421 (18) that was over 9 hours late into San Antonio. Because of this one set, both Sunsets arrived into San Antonio and were forced to wait. #1 which had arrived an hour early at 11pm the night before finally left just after 9am, and #2 which had arrived at 4am left just after noon. The resulting domino caused a late #1 out of New Orleans the next day. The thing about the San Antonio connection is that the entire process takes about 2 hours from time of arrival to time of departure because of manuevers required to transfer the baggage car to the Eagle. Back before the schedule change a lot of thru passengers would head to the riverwalk during the layover at that time of night, the other few that remained onboard would simply be asleep. There was nothing wrong with it back then, they simply decided they needed to speed up the schedule. In my opinion #2's schedule is just fine, just minor tweaks here and there, but #1 should be pushed back 2 hours.

agentatascadero Wrote:
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> This westbound schedule should never have seen the
> light of day in the first place....an 0430 arrival
> is not acceptable, or viable in the long term.  I
> say move the whole schedule back 3 or 4 hours. 
> If that move makes the San Antonio connections
> unfeasible,then I suggest a re-routing of the
> Chicago cars.....to the Chief, via El Paso.  AA

The thing I see her to improve No.  1 is to 1ST reduce that dwell time in San Antonio, why have the train sit there for 3 hours and it shouldn't take no more than 45 minutes to service the train besides adding the cars off of 21 and the only other deal is to have it leave New Orleans later, like an hour or 2 and get it into LA around 7-7:30 like they used to do!

How much influence does Metro link have on the Sunset''s arrival in LA?  I thought the 4 o'clock arrival was to avoid congestion for Metrolink inbound commuter trains.  Still, passengers should be allowed to remain on board until the scheduled arrival time.

The 5:30 scheduled arrival is fine, which is really 7:30 or 8:30 for passengers from central and eastern time zones.  The implied problem seems to be a lazy, selfish crew that rushed passengers off the train more than an hour before scheduled.  'IF' true, then they ought to be given an unpaid month off to relearn customer service, but being Amtrak probably nothing will be done.

Say what you will, this is an awful arrival time, whatever time zone you call home.  I have ridden the westbound Sunset in the past, but I will not ride on this ridiculous schedule.

Reminds me of the Hilltopper in the east.  It died eventually.  So will the Sunset at this rate. 

Amtrak needs to learn to stand up to the UP bullies.

Actually they've hired a D. J. Russell clone to manage Amtrak Customer Satisfaction department!

PHall Wrote:
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> I just knew we could depend on you to find fault
> with an early arrival! 

He's good at finding fault with almost everything.

jst3751 Wrote:
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> You can please all of the people some of the
> time.
> You can please some of the people all of the
> time.
> You can NEVER please all of the people all of the
> time. 

You can never please some of the people.