What's a "Service Disruption"?

Sorry for the n00b question, but I can't seem to find a clear answer.

Looking at some of the "on time" performance data linked at another thread, I find that #6 from last month (I was on that train) that arrived in CHI 5 hours and 51 minutes late had a "Service Disruption."

Does that simply mean that the "lateness" crossed some kind of a threshold?

We were late for several reasons (Medical emergency, bad weather affecting signals, and the usual suspects).

See these three:

http://dixielandsoftware.net/Amtrak/status/StatusMaps/#q8

http://dixielandsoftware.net/Amtrak/status/StatusMaps/#q20

http://dixielandsoftware.net/Amtrak/status/StatusMaps/#q21

Those are my explanations. One other thing - Amtrak doesn't handle service disruptions uniformly. It depends on who's on duty, making the call.

jb

Speaking generally, a 'service disruption' is more severe than regular lateness......... something that throws an additional wrench into the unpredictable nature of how much later the train will become or something that even causes the train to terminate and neccessitates a bustition.

In your case, the medical emergency may be the thing that crossed you over the border into 'service disruption'.

Other examples might be - a) a rockslide overnight on the Front Range causing #5 to hold up in Denver for hours until either permission to detour through Wyoming is secured or enough charter buses are rounded up for a bustition, b) a UP derailment in West Texas causing the Sunset Limited to turn back at El Paso and San Antonio with buses carrying the passengers between the two trains, c) The Crescent strikes a car near Salisbury, NC delaying the train for hours, d) the station in Minot, ND has flooded.

FWIW - I have been directly affected by 'service disruptions' a, b, and c. Another time I changed my itinerary 48 hours before the trip so as not to have the rest of my itinerary thrown into limbo by service disruption d!!!

Thanks for the replies - iow, it's a "severe lateness" caused by external, or unanticipated factors.

Our medical emergency caused us to stop for about an hour (and back the train up to the nearest crossing to get the passenger off). After that it was one thing after another (weather, as I mentioned) compounding the situation. So, by the time we arrived in Denver, all hope was lost.

I tend to think of 'Service Disruptions' as a sort of "organized delay" such as derailments, breakdowns, track work, etc. Whereas late non-service disrupted trains are late mainly due to things like getting held up at signals. for the 'Nons', the original cause of the delay is usually short; but then the train seems to keep getting delayed more now that it's off schedule.

peter

Near Tokyo - there are something similar -- the engrish display is -- "delayed -- passenger in jury"

the trains there are almost always on time. passenger in jury " means a damned jumper on the chuo-shobu --

Face it people -- the USA is third world and sliding as far as infrastucture.

I tell my kids -- find someplace else to be.

Rome fell (or was taken over by the Christians) --

USA likewise.

Damn all our senators to Hell