Passenger Trains > A tale of 4 late Western Amtrak trains:

#4 EB SW chief: 7 hours late into Gallup (due to detour via Mojave on Wednesday)

#1 WB Sunset Limited: 7 hours late into Del Rio

#11 SB Coast Starlight: 6 hours late into Oakland

#14 NB Coast Starlight: 6 hours late into Klamath Falls

rms492 Wrote:
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> #4 EB SW chief: 7 hours late into Gallup (due to
> detour via Mojave on Wednesday)
>
> #1 WB Sunset Limited: 7 hours late into Del Rio
>
> #11 SB Coast Starlight: 6 hours late into Oakland
>
>
> #14 NB Coast Starlight: 6 hours late into Klamath
> Falls
>
>
That's the normal state of affairs for three out of the four trains.

Only the SW Chief is unusual, and if it happened, it was truly unavoidable. The SW Chief is a top-notch operation that is usually early into it's endpoints.


>

How about #28(20) being annulled? Bus substitute PDX/SPK.

#27(19) being annulled, bus substitue, and being turned in Spokane to become #28(20).

jb

DutchDoor Wrote:
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The SW Chief is a
> top-notch operation that is usually early into
> it's endpoints.
>
>
> >
>
>
>

I'll say. I was looking at taking it from Chicago on a business trip to Palm Springs. I planned on de-training in Riverside & taking a cab, bus or whatever to Palm Springs. Since the scheduled arrival is about 6am, I decided to check on the on-time performance for the last week and for the most part, it has been right on time. Since I would rather sleep in a little more, I was hoping to see regularly 2 hours late or more but BNSF sure gets it over the road most effectively. Now I have to decide if I will be ready to de-train at 6am.

BTW, I rode the Chief to Flagstaff about 4 years ago and I can remember passing train after train stopped in sidings all through New Mexico. Kept us on time then. No doubt BNSF is a class operation especially in its dispatching of Amtrak trains. Perhaps the BNSF way of doing things (i.e. doing the right thing for its customers) is part of the reason it has fared far better than the UP the last few years - in profits, better operations, public opinion, the stock market, etc etc.

jdb Wrote:
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> How about #28(20) being annulled? Bus substitute
> PDX/SPK.
>
> #27(19) being annulled, bus substitue, and being
> turned in Spokane to become #28(20).


This was due to the shut down of the rail line just west of Wishram, due to the propane tank explosions and a wildfire caused by that. Annulling the train wasn't so bad, it had 50% of its consist bad-ordered. The Dash-8BWH #507 hauled the bad-ordered cars up to Seattle in the afternoon yesterday, and they hoped to bring it back down today to have it go out as tonight's complete set.

The cars went east on train 8 from Seattle, so at Spokane, all back together again.

P Wrote:

> I'll say. I was looking at taking it from Chicago
> on a business trip to Palm Springs. I planned on
> de-training in Riverside & taking a cab, bus
> or whatever to Palm Springs. Since the scheduled
> arrival is about 6am, I decided to check on the
> on-time performance for the last week and for the
> most part, it has been right on time. Since I
> would rather sleep in a little more, I was hoping
> to see regularly 2 hours late or more but BNSF
> sure gets it over the road most effectively. Now
> I have to decide if I will be ready to de-train at
> 6am.
>
> BTW, I rode the Chief to Flagstaff about 4 years
> ago and I can remember passing train after train
> stopped in sidings all through New Mexico. Kept
> us on time then. No doubt BNSF is a class
> operation especially in its dispatching of Amtrak
> trains. Perhaps the BNSF way of doing things
> (i.e. doing the right thing for its customers) is
> part of the reason it has fared far better than
> the UP the last few years - in profits, better
> operations, public opinion, the stock market, etc
> etc.


I agree with you on that P, especially when congestion warrents, it's amazing how they don't even put class on trains just to make sure they can get to their end points in a timely manner, even when Amtrak's due!