Passenger Trains > Amtrak Westbound Wolverine - Month of November a real winner

Amtrak 351 is all set to miss OTP into Chicago again this morning. Started right out of the gate. Amtrak says it left on-time, but really left 10 minutes late. Lost more time on home property, plus 10 minutes of decay at BTL trying to get PTC up and running for the outbound crew... At least 30 minutes late into CHI, but I'm betting more like an hour late. I think they won't disappoint!

Out of 23 starts, only made OTP into final terminal 7 times so far this month... That includes trains 15 minutes late or less. Only one on-time arrival so far this month when it arrived 1 min early yesterday....

"Dope Is Dope When Your High Upon It".....

Perlman and Saunders would have been proud. 

Especially Sanders with his real estate fancy.. When I think of Wolverines since Penn Central, it's like....

"Everything looks worse in black and white"....

Michigan, which calls the shots, is considering dropping one Wolverine roundtrip and the Blue Water.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/20 09:52 by GenePoon.

GenePoon Wrote:
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> Michigan, which calls the shots, is considering
> dropping one Wolverine roundtrip and the Blue
> Water.

There's currently only one Wolverine round trip. Are you saying no Blue Water or Wolverine service at all is being contemplated?

Under discussion is Post-COVID operation.  Also another source says it's the Pere Marquette that is also under discussion.

MDOT is meeting with Amtrak next week to tell them what is to be done.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/20 14:54 by GenePoon.

While 351 didn't fall much later, like I expected..

We did get bonus round with 352 this afternoon running without PTC making 79mph in 110mph territory loosing time down the line. He's already predicted as a OTP looser at final terminal PNT by the computer...

GenePoon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Under discussion is Post-COVID operation.  Also
> another source says it's the Pere Marquette that
> is also under discussion.
>
> MDOT is meeting with Amtrak next week to tell them
> what is to be done.

With Amtrak’s serial incompetence in operating this corridor who could blame Michigan for pulling the plug? I rode it in 2012 and 110 mph was coming ‘soon’. Here we are at over 8 years later. We still have the same ole running times, and can’t even reliably meet those. It’s just pathetic. Maybe every time a wolverine train is late Stephen Gardner loses $100 on his next pay check? I’ll make a bet that would shake things up. After all, corridors are supposed to be his big baby that he thinks is the future of Amtrak. So why in the hell isn’t he making this work any better? All the big Amtrak boosters are always saying just give them more money and everything will be great. Well folks, on this line and the St. Louis line they have received huge amounts of money, and we still have nothing to show for it except a smoother ride. Maybe Michigan could fire Amtrak and hire Brightline to operate the service. They seem to be a lot more competent at getting things up and running efficiently and quickly. And probably can do it for a lot less money.

Posted from iPhone



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/20 21:01 by alan2955.

If total Michigan service goes to down to a record low level of just 2 Wolverines, not only would Amtrak's ownership and investment in this line look foolish, all fixed costs will be dumped on these 2 remaining trains. With such poor geographic coverage of the state and high cost per train, I could see Michigan eventually pulling the plug on the entire operation. Then Amtrak will possess a white elephant Pontiac line with only little freight operation on much of it.

The Hoosier State had about as miserable OTP. Nobody talks about that defunct train anymore.  At least we did not sink $2 Billion into rebuilding that route.   



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/20 15:12 by joemvcnj.