Passenger Trains > Long Distance Train Arrivals at Chicago Today

Long Distance trains arrived at Chicago Union Station today, Friday June 19, 2015 as follows :
                                                          
#4 - Left Mendota 2 hrs, 32 mins late.                                                   
#6 - Left Galesburg 3 hrs, 14 mins late.                   
#8 -  Left Columbus 3 hrs, 26 mins late.                                                         
#22 - Left Saint Louis 3 hrs, 52 mins late.            
#29 - 2 hrs, 17 mins late. Left Washington 45 mins late.                                                        
#49 - 1 hr, 26 mins late.                          
#851 - 1 hr, 44 mins late.                                                     
#58 - 15 mins late.                                                        

All trains departed their originating stations within 5 mins of "On Time" (or were reported On Time, or early, at some point in their route) except #29.
 

John Webb
Trinidad, CA

John Webb (winnemuca) said on 06-19: ".. trains arrived at Chicago Union Station today, Friday June 19, 2015 as follows :                                                                  ..#6 - Left Galesburg 3 hrs, 14 mins late.."

Well, there is a lot more to be said about that report. I was on that Zephyr #6, having boarded in Emeryville Tues 16th. The train departed late, roughly 30m late. It was in fact two trains, the regular Zephyr plus an exhibit train of about 5 cars. Total was 15 cars. There were four Amtrak locomotives on the train, although I heard on the scanner that one of the four was not being used on the run, except maybe on the climb from Granby to Winter Park. The length of the train resulted in multiple cases of stopping the train in more than one position in stations and crew change points. Large parts of the run in Colorado were under slow orders due to UP's big tie replacement project. After leaving Denver Union Station the train moved a short distance and made another long stop, I think for refueling. So the train was really late leaving Denver, and could not catch up. I was to board #30 Cardinal at CHI, and it was obvious that I was not going to make that connection. I was not feeling happy about this, even if Amtrak paid for the hotel. Ugggh. And then, somewhere around Ottumwa or Mount Pleasant, the #6 Conductor came to my roomette. He told me that, provided #6 Zephyr got to Galesburg, IL, before 7pmCDT, Amtrak proposed to put me on a bus to Indianapolis to meet #50 Cardinal. Wow. Well, #6 did indeed get to Galesburg before 7pm, and I and 19 other passengers transferred to a Burlington Trailways bus at the station. There were also 3 passengers to transfer to #59 City of New Orleans and 3 other passengers to connect with a Lincoln service train to St Louis. So, off we went. At the Bloomington/Normal station the St Louis 3 got off, and at Champaign/Urbana the New Orleans 3 got off, and two more hours later the Cardinal 20 walked out of the bus into the Indianapolis station and boarded their cars on #50. This was around midnight EDT (Galesburg was CT, Indianapolis ET). If you look at a map, you can see that Galesburg, Chicago and Indianapolis form a big triangle, so this bus trip was a shortcut, travelling on Interstates all the way. I was impressed. I expect that Amtrak has done this maneuver before. -Don

That's cool, I bet you guys were happy about that!