Passenger Trains > Is there any hope?

I just watched the northbound Starlight roll into Dunsmuir at 10:45am which seems to be pretty close to being the time it creeps through here nowdays. Does Amtrak publish the ontime stats for this train? I know some of the airlines post performance records for some of their flights for connecting purposes I would assume that Amtrak could pretty much state that "Never" would be a fairly good estimate. An Amtrak ride most be pretty much of an adventure to some of our vistors from abroad whose passenger rail systems make ours look like a joke. In 15 years of watching the Starlight roll through Dunsmuir its never been this bad for this length of time. Is there any hope?

Before the Coaststarlite even leaves LAX it is automaticly 3 hrs late. Lots of slow orders on the route. This includes the roughly 90 minutes from DUN-KFS and the 45 minutes between KFS-EUG. Between LAX and SAC there is about 45 minutes to 1 hour. This for some reason changes daily. This does not count the track work being done from EUG-PDX, which is about 15 min to 30 min slow order which also changes daily. Hope? I have given up on train 14. The managers have taken out the inventory on train 14 from PDX-SEA thru mid August to see if the UPRR can get the train down to a more manageable delay. Untill then most of the ticket clerks are pushing the Cascade trains from EUG-SEA....Most believe that train 14 and train 11 are going just like the Sunset. Soon to be eliminated.

Not until Gunn goes to court and gets a restraining order prior to other civil action.

Todays 14 Coaststar"late" over 2hrs late departing LAX. Holding for crew rest. Same crew off #11 turns back on #14. No available extra crews at LAX.

I arrived Eugene on Train 14 last night at 8:45 PM. We were held south of the station while Train #11 was in the station. We were 8 hours late they were already 3 hours late.

Train 14 (20) departed LA 21 minutes late and just got later. We were through Salinas around 10:00 pm then held at Elkhorn Slough until the astonomical high tide subsided. Departed Oakland about 3:30am. Saw everything from below Chico to Eugene in daylight.

Met lots of freights and crept along through slow order after slow order.

After this weekend's Coos Bay trip I bring the Pony Express back to LA on Train #11(26). I won't be offering rides down the coast to LA or points in between simply because the train is likely to be so late that no one could enjoy the trip. Besides, if it gets as late as it has been I'm going to go to bed and get up whenever i feel like it the next morning.

The crew rest issue is the way it is because the LA-SLO crew base for #11/14 is SLO.

See ya down the line.

It's a small chance, but if the Starlight goes the Daylight has a chance of coming back. CalTrans is interested in keeping San Francisco to Los Angeles as a passenger train route. Now where they would get the money to keep it going is the million dollar question.

rpcn Wrote:
>Most believe that train 14 and train 11 are going just >like the Sunset. Soon to be eliminated.

Who is the "most" who believe 11 & 14 will be eliminated? It was not that long ago that the Starlight was one of Amtrak's most popular trains.

Dave

NormSchultze Wrote:
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> Not until Gunn goes to court and gets a
> restraining order prior to other civil action.


Restrain what???

David Gunn said a year or two ago that Amtrak is the canary in the coal mine--what's happening to it is a sign of what's happening to the railroad at large. BNSF can get Amtrak across its lines on time; the UP cannot. BNSF can also get its freights across its lines fluidly; UP cannot. While part of the problem for Amtrak is UP dispatching--failing to give Amtrak the necessary priority--a large part is that UP simply does not not have a railroad that is in condition to the carry the traffic that it's supposed to carry. Right now UP's working the Willamette Valley to replace ties and otherwise fix up that part of the railroad. Once it's done maybe that stretch will operate better. However, as rpcn suggests, there are so many slow orders in so many places that an occasional blitz simply can't deal with them. What seems to be necessary is a much higher level of routine maintenance than UP has been willing (or able?) to provide. That doesn't even consider the inadequate capacity that causes problems in some locations (especially the Sunset route) even if everything is otherwise in good repair. Maybe UP's stockholders need to be willing to let the company plow everything it's got into capital expenditures and repairs now, and to accept higher expenditures on maintenance permanently for the future, thus giving up immediate gains in order to create a railroad that will be viable for the long term. Heavy traffic (such as the railroads are experiencing) requires heavy expenditures or otherwise it's not sustainable in the long run.

BobB Wrote:
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> BNSF can also get its
> freights across its lines fluidly; UP cannot.
> While part of the problem for Amtrak is UP
> dispatching--failing to give Amtrak the necessary
> priority--a large part is that UP simply does not
> not have a railroad that is in condition to the
> carry the traffic that it's supposed to carry.

Agreed, see below...

> However, as rpcn suggests, there
> are so many slow orders in so many places that an
> occasional blitz simply can't deal with them.
> What seems to be necessary is a much higher level
> of routine maintenance than UP has been willing
> (or able?) to provide.

I rode the TUT special from Mt. Shasta to Klamath Falls on July 3. That morning, I drove from Klamath to Mt. Shasta City. I was amazed at the number of yellow flags I saw along the right of way.

Coming back on the train, I figured out why the Starlight runs so late. In 1989, an Amtrak engineer told me that assuming clear track, it took 2'20" to get No.14 from Dunsmuir to Klamath Falls - one hour for Dunsmuir to the big trestle near Hotlum, twenty minutes to Grass Lake, and an hour into Klamath.

The TUT train departed Mt. Shasta at 11:00 and arrived Klamath at 13:55. It took the TUT train 35 minutes longer to make a 15 mile shorter trip. The climb from Dunsmuir to Mott, which the TUT train did not cover, is the slowest part of the run.

Egad...

- gb -

BobB Wrote:
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> While part of the problem for Amtrak is UP
> dispatching--failing to give Amtrak the necessary
> priority--

What is the current statutory or regulatory priority for Amtrak trains on freight railroads? (Please cite references)

Goatboat Wrote:
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> BobB Wrote:

>
> The TUT train departed Mt. Shasta at 11:00 and
> arrived Klamath at 13:55. It took the TUT train
> 35 minutes longer to make a 15 mile shorter trip.
> The climb from Dunsmuir to Mott, which the TUT
> train did not cover, is the slowest part of the
> run.
>
> Egad...
>
> - gb -

The slow orders really have an impact because Shasta-KFS has the one of the longest segments of 79 mph on the whole Starlate route.

The two days I chased the TUT special Sacramento-KFS, I thought the TUT train and No 14 got pretty good handling from the dispatchers. Into Eugene on Sunday and up to PDX the following day was a different story. The dispatcher known as "Scar" was clearly over his/her head handling that desk and was somewhat condescending to crews on the radio. Bob