Well, waiting for 97 at BAL, and it's 15 minutes late. The station is kind of like the holiday rush as the northbound 196 is also late, and so are a bunch of MARC trains. I've been following the performance of 97 at BAL, because my usual MARC train home arrives at about 6:05 and 97 is scheduled to arrive at 6:06 (leaving at 6:14). Sometimes I get to see the consist, but over the past year, more likely than not, the Meteor is 15 minutes late, just like today. I've always wondered why that's the case, as you can't blame this on a host freight railroad, right? The train is coming from NYP over the NEC.
97 is 15 min late into BAL, seems to be pretty common
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Long Train Runnin'
Engineer
Just a wild guess around 5:00 PM in Philly there would be a lot of NJT and SEPTA trains running on that part of the NEC so they could interfere with train 97.
Ispolkom
Engineer
I ride the Empire Builder. First world problems.
ronkstevens
Service Attendant
If I remember without looking at any schedules, if 97 is even a couple of minutes late leaving Philly this happens. I believe either a Regional or Acela has priority on the fast line south, so 97 has to take the slow line. A slight delay puts it behind a SEPTA train instead of in front of it, causing a nice slow trip down to Wilmington.
Green Maned Lion
Engineer
That would make sense. 97 has a limit of 110 vs a Regionals 125 or an acelas 135.
"First world problems", eh? Well, to a rider of the Swiss railways, the NEC would be a third world experience, no? 
(And don't a lot of third world countries have rail service that puts ours Including the NEC) to shame?)
Just an update on the trip: The schedule padding at WAS did the trick, we left on time and arrived into SAV 5 minutes early. My sleeping car attendant, Ishmael, gave good service, and the dining car crew all pitched in to handle the busy 8 PM seating out of WAS. By the way, all three of my table-mates were coach passengers, which was interesting because the last time I rode coach on a Silver Service train southbound, no dinner reservations could be had for the coach pax. The difference, I think is that I was riding 91, which serves dinner around Richmond, so they had to deal with all the passengers who have boarded between NewYork and Alexandria. However, with 97, they serve all the NY - WAS passengers north of WAS, so they can spread out the dinner service some more and this accommodate more customers (and maybe generate some additional revenues.)
(And don't a lot of third world countries have rail service that puts ours Including the NEC) to shame?)Just an update on the trip: The schedule padding at WAS did the trick, we left on time and arrived into SAV 5 minutes early. My sleeping car attendant, Ishmael, gave good service, and the dining car crew all pitched in to handle the busy 8 PM seating out of WAS. By the way, all three of my table-mates were coach passengers, which was interesting because the last time I rode coach on a Silver Service train southbound, no dinner reservations could be had for the coach pax. The difference, I think is that I was riding 91, which serves dinner around Richmond, so they had to deal with all the passengers who have boarded between NewYork and Alexandria. However, with 97, they serve all the NY - WAS passengers north of WAS, so they can spread out the dinner service some more and this accommodate more customers (and maybe generate some additional revenues.)
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