Posted on 07/22/2014 11:23:07 AM PDT by Paul46360
On 21July2014 Amtrak Wolverine was due to arrive in New Buffalo Michigan at 8:10pm from Chicago. But it was over 2 hours late.
When my wife FINALLY talked with a REAL person she was told that AMTRAK's own dispatch center could NOTcontact the train and to call back in 10 min for update!!!!!!!!
every ticket sold loses money for the taxpayers
In 2014, railroad engineers aren't allowed to carry cell phones - for same reason drivers shouldn't use them while driving. The California commuter train collision with a freight train was the direct result of the train's engineer texting instead of paying attention to the signals that told to stop ahead.
I thought everyone knew that already about Amtrak.
i believe you, i was just thinking a basic flip phone couldn’t be more distracting than a 2-way radio, and i would guess they have these for comm issues.
A two hour late train is now worth a vanity on FR?
I ride the Surfliner from San Diego to Los Angeles. Service is usually pretty good. I would rather be on the train drinking a cold beer as opposed to being on the freeway. Sometimes people commit suicide by sticking their heads on the train tracks and that screws things up. I wish they would not do that.
When he was on the job, he carried a 2-way (VHF?) radio. I understood that was all he was permitted to carry. I also understand that cell coverage along rail routes can be very poor. The flip phone might not be distracting, but it might also not be very useful.
Hey C Yokel..expected but that THEIR OWN DISPATCH CAN’T contact the train...
Other railroads own the tracks (capitalism - because they built or bought them).
Amtrak uses the tracks through the graces of the owners. Amtrak passenger trains have last priority.
Amtrak schedules and freight schedules are exactly the same as the trains of the 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's and 60's prior to Amtrak taking over all passenger operations. Their New York to/from Florida passenger service is exactly the same, to the minute, as the Seaboard Airline's Orange Blossom Special and Atlantic Coast Line's The Champion.
Those timetables were established to allow passenger trains prime use of the tracks with freight taking over odd hours when the mile long freight trains would most benefit from reduced crossing traffic allowing for faster freight movement. Speed limits for freight are higher during off hours than during daylight hours.
Amtrak, through inefficient central planning and bureaucratic bungling cannot follow the timetables as private passenger trains used to do and thus freight takes precedent as they cannot allow their schedules to be disrupted by the inept operations of a government boondoggle.
Passenger trains, including Amtrak, have always been given the best time schedules for their needs and freight only takes precedent when passenger cannot operate on a regular time schedule.
To blame Amtrak delays on freight traffic is on a par with Obama blaming Bush for everything Obama's ineptitude has caused.
That’s by design.
And you think ^I’m^ the yokel?
:-)
+1
good points.
Yes, they did this just to annoy you. Sheesh.
Track time is scheduled in advance to allow for the efficient fleeting of traffic by the owning railroad. If Amtrak were to remain within its allotted time slot, it would operate on time. The problem is, Amtrak can't operate with anything approaching the sort of efficiency necessary to stay within its slot, so once its window closes, it has to run against the flow of traffic.
That may be part of the problem but the real problem is that Amtrak needs to just go away and let the market dictate need.
Amtrak is a pleasant, quaint but expensive thing that is heavily subsidized today. It is inefficient and a waste of money. On routes where ridership is high enough someone will provide the service.
A couple of years ago I looked into taking the train from Houston to Raleigh... waste of time. You could walk from Charleston to Raleigh in the time of the layover to catch the next train.
Amtrak should have been gone a long time ago and this comes from a minor train buff.
Perhaps you define "graces" differently than I do. They pay to use those rails and are therefore at the mercy of the contract they sign, not the good graces of the owner.
Rail cargo is not generally high-priority stuff, but they do have to pay to have the train underway.
Rail lines do have to be repaired and up north summer is the time for doing it.
If it went away ... It would be really really late then ... LOL ...
It was Charlotte not Charleston. But you could still walk to Raleigh from there faster.
Fly out of Chicago some time. You're lucky if you're only two hours late leaving.
Amtrack uses other company rail lines. They're at the mercy of their schedule and if any of their freight trains run late that'll delay the passenger train.
Yep, slower than driving costs more than flying, worst of both worlds.
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