Passenger Trains > Very Late Amtrak 92 swaps engineer with 91

Yesterday at Winokur, Georgia (Video captions provide details)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/18 09:30 by RFandPFan.

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Posted from iPhone

To me, this is a horror video

Looking at that pitiful passenger train - knowing people have been trapped in there for 8.5 hours - probably hungry - all of their travel plans destroyed  - makes me realize I am looking at a trainload of never-againers.  

We can only hope Congress will take measures to force the freight railroads and Anderson to do something about  the chronic lateness to LD trains as depicted here.

Maybe Amtrak should have more realistic schedules to match those of the freight trains they share the tracks with. . . .
 

Narnaima:

What do you mean by "more realistic schedules" ? If you mean - run passenger trains at freight trains speeds- you must realize freight trains average 20mph if they're lucky.

And todays long distance train schedules have a lot of padding already - and are almost always slower than they were in the 1950's (I have an 1954 Official Guide to prove it)

so, the freight railroads need to be "more realistic" in their handling of passenger trains.  They should be heavily fined for their miserable service provided Amtrak--but for this we need Congress to legislate new regulations on them.

Actually the train was 10 hrs 5 mins late arriving NYP. Whether passengers were, in fact, hungry is unknown.

Given that the train was delayed primarily because a CSX coal train ahead of it struck and killed a pedestrian -- in other words, the delay is attributable to the combination of LEO on-scene investigation and re-crewing the CSX train -- I wonder what you would propose should have been done... bustitution? This is single track territory and no simple detour was available. Backing the Amtrak train to a point where it could run up the S-line would have taken just as long if not longer. 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/18 12:35 by ctillnc.

Very good assessment of “cause”.  Random acts that delay all trains on a route are in effect a type of “force Majeur”.

PLUS we all need to remember that AMTRAK operates on the freight railroads with a Congrssionally approved AVOIDABLE COST business plan.  That economically translates into a d finitiinnof service cost and asset minimization.
The resukts we get in terms of service quality may indeed be disappointing.  But that is all th3 taxpayers and the Congress was willing to pay for.

We can’t expect a TGV French like service quality on a cost of subsidy minimal payment plan.  Can we?
 

ronald321 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> To me, this is a horror video
>
> Looking at that pitiful passenger train - knowing
> people have been trapped in there for 8.5 hours -
> probably hungry - all of their travel plans
> destroyed  - makes me realize I am looking at a
> trainload of never-againers.  
>
> We can only hope Congress will take measures to
> force the freight railroads and Anderson to do
> something about  the chronic lateness to LD
> trains as depicted here.

what measures can congress take to stop the delays from pedestrians from being struck by freight trains running ahead of a passenger train?

66

Has anyone posted a summary of delay causes?

Freight train congestion, Amtrak equipment failure, train vs car or pedestrians, late start, etc would be high on my list.

Posted from Android

ronald321 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Narnaima:
>
> What do you mean by "more realistic schedules" ?
> If you mean - run passenger trains at freight
> trains speeds- you must realize freight trains
> average 20mph if they're lucky.
>
> And todays long distance train schedules have a
> lot of padding already - and are almost always
> slower than they were in the 1950's (I have an
> 1954 Official Guide to prove it)
>
> so, the freight railroads need to be "more
> realistic" in their handling of passenger
> trains.  They should be heavily fined for their
> miserable service provided Amtrak--but for this we
> need Congress to legislate new regulations on
> them.

If someone needs to get somewhere in a hurry they should drive, take a bus, or fly. 

2.3 billion "long distance" trips per year: 31 million of those trips were by train; 17.8 million of those trips were made on the Northeast Corridor, which is on dedicated track. 

Which means that 99%+ of long distant travel was done by other than rail. 

When you consider that outside of the Northeast Corridor, only offers service in the many areas it serves maybe once a day, and offers service that is slow and sporadic. . . 

It makes no sense at all to hamstring an enterprise that supports commerce and that grosses $74 billion dollars a year -- so that the less than 1% of the population that likes to travel by train can enjoy a leisurely trip across the country. 



 

Amtrak publishes delay causes--but used to publish much more detail until Anderson decided to be more secretive

To the best of my knowledge - Amtrak takes responsibility for 22% of total system delays..  The reasons given are--holding for connecting passengers, and "passenger train interference", which means mainly delays caused by NJT on the Corridor, and Metro North between New Rochelle and New Haven.  Locomotive failure is not a significant cause, and is not identified.


The Freight Railroad cause the vast majority of delays, with the 3 main causes being:  freight train interference--slow orders--signal failure



 

 

Not Amtrak's fault.  But boy what happened to the Silver Star....That is more like the Cardinal now....

91/92 face multiple challenges:

• 92 passes through central Florida during the evening Sunrail rush.
• From Columbia to Cary, many sidings were removed when the line was downgraded to 60 mph. Meets between 91 and 92 can be awkward, not to mention CSX locals.
• From Rocky Mount to Petersburg, 92 is bunched with other Amtrak trains in mainly single-track territory.
• If 91 is late departing DC, it conflicts with VRE.
• PSR on CSX means that longer freight trains often won't fit into sidings on the single track segments of the A-line.
• A late 92 can conflict with 80 from Cary northward, and a late 91 can conflict with 78 at the Raleigh station.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/18 15:57 by ctillnc.