Empire Builders settling into better timekeeping for the Summer

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montana mike

Conductor
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Apr 21, 2012
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Whitefish, Montana
As the crises of derailments and ramping up of the BNSF construction season has passed, the Empire Builders are settling into at least a more predictable timekeeping pattern. East bound they are consistently "only" around 3 hours late arriving in CHI-town most days, with slightly better timekeeping on the weekends. West bound the average arrival is just under one hour behind schedule. If we can keep the wildfires at bay and avoid any more major derailments, this pattern would appear to hold thru the 2015 construction season, with perhaps modest improvements, especially East bound, after BNSF stops work in the late Fall.

Three hour delays do not help those pax wanting to connect with most trains in CHI, but at least this is an improvement over the past several summers and west bound pax are arriving most days within an hour of the posted schedule!
 
On time (or close, train 7 is 2:20 down at Malta) is nice. On the other hand, I was dismayed at the track condition west of Williston. At speed, there is more jerking and swaying than I recall on the Empire Builder in past years. It's not as continuous but almost as bad as my first trip on the Lake Shore Limited across Ohio. Unfortunately, I have no objective sway-o-meter to quantify the lateral movement.

Do the track projects of the last few years have less stringent specifications than the track maintenance requirements from a few years ago?
 
I too noticed the poor condition of some of the track in that area when we were on our last trip. Some was newer track, but the parts were old track. The winter weather wreaks havoc with tracks in this region. I have seen frost heaves of 3 feet in this area. I will ask my BNSF contacts about the track situation and see what they say.
 
Checking the status maps database for the stats, the EB has been doing ok the last several weeks since the last service disruption. Certainly having a better summer overall for staying close to schedule than the CZ and TE.

For the 16 trips departing SEA from 7/22 to 8/05, #8 arrived at CHI a mean average of 2 hours and 40 minutes late.

For the 16 trips departing CHI from 7/22 to 8/05, #7 arrived at SEA a mean average of only 11 minutes late with the median at 2 minutes early.

The stats for the summer so far are worse for the TE and CZ. Although the CZ has a similar pattern in that the CZ #6 over the past month is averaging arriving at CHI 4:48 late while the westbound #5 is arriving at EMY an average of 2:24 late. So the eastbound CZ is prone to more delays than the westbound CZ, same as the EB.
 
I must have jinxed today's EB--Now running over 4 1/2 hours late and still west of MSP. I guess it's indicative of the state of Amtrak's LD service when we are all "heartened" by trains only being 2-3 hours late. The first decade or so I took the EB's it was on time most of the time. I could actually even plan on catching late evening flights out of CHI, confident that #8 would arrive around 4PM. Now we plan on an evening stay in downtown Chicago and leave the next morning!
 
I've been looking at the recent performance, and for the past two weeks or so the train has averaged about an hour late out of northern Minnesota (SPL/SCD) and that (or sometimes even less or early!) into Chicago.

Any particular reason why this is, and should I expect it to stay consistent?
 
I would say the pattern may stay like this going forward, and once the track works are done, I'd say be on time. As why it's been doing good for most part, I'd say it's less oil train as the gas price is lower.
 
On time (or close, train 7 is 2:20 down at Malta) is nice. On the other hand, I was dismayed at the track condition west of Williston. At speed, there is more jerking and swaying than I recall on the Empire Builder in past years. It's not as continuous but almost as bad as my first trip on the Lake Shore Limited across Ohio. Unfortunately, I have no objective sway-o-meter to quantify the lateral movement.

Do the track projects of the last few years have less stringent specifications than the track maintenance requirements from a few years ago?
About the rough ride west from Williston, I'm thinking that's where a lot of the double tracking work has been and is being done. I hope and expect that BNSF will go through and re-level and re-align the tracks after the double-tracking is completed. Riding that stretch last May, it was obvious that they are not just laying a second main track alongside the old track, I saw the new roadbed was on one side of the old for a few miles, then on the other side, new sidings on either side, etc. So that whole stretch has the old (and new) main weaving back and forth from old to new roadbed. Just my 2 cents.
 
Thanks. I just saw that as well. Bummer. And I saw the #7 yesterday was involved in an accident on MN, which delayed its travels by around 4 hours. Not a good weekend for the EB's. Hopefully things will settle down some more going forward.
 
From what I can see, the EB has been near on-time lately.

Thanks to - firefighters, track-workers, fewer frackers.

Comments?
 
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Except for today's #8 now in Wisconsin, yes, the EB's appear to be running only modestly behind schedule eastbound and close to on time west bound. BNSF's 2015 construction plans are winding down according to my local guys, but they are noticing an uptick in Intermodal and grain shipments, so I think the status quo is likely going to continue at least thru the Fall. I'm planning on a trek all the way the Washington, DC in October (connecting in CHI), I hope the the better timekeeping keeps up.
 
It appears BNSF continues with some work in Eastern MT, which is delaying both east and westbound EB's about 90 minutes each day. Supposed to be wrapped up some time later in October.
 
Some significant traffic and construction issues in Eastern MT today. #8 lost 3 1/2 hours in that area and #7 lost just under 2 hours in the same area. Bummer.
 
Note that #7(24) that lost 2 hrs in Eastern Montana also lost 30 minutes between Red Wing and MSP (stopped a few times near Horrible Hoffman the congested 3-railroad interchange just east of MSP), and another 30 minutes (strangely?) between Staples and Detroit Lakes, but made most of that time up on the padding by the time it got to Minot.

Here's hoping that the bad delays in ND and MT will "finally" be alleviated by the end of next year, that the track upgrades will be enough to handle the likely resurgence of the oil patch and the ever-increasing intermodal traffic, and help keep the EB to better timekeeping.

Same-day connections from the eastbound EB to Chicago departures would make me and many others really really happy.

Now, to pray for rain, and snow. But not floods. :)
 
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#8 is now just under 5 hours behind this morning in MN. This is not been a good run for this train. Will almost surely miss all connections in CHI today. Rats.
 
The train really got whacked between Malta MT and Williston ND, and we know that's single track territory. It left Seattle about 25 minutes late, and got into Shelby early. The Northern Transcon must still be quite clogged in spite of the lower number of oil trains running to/from the West Coast.
 
It may be a combination of heavy intermodal and agriculture freight traffic plus a still busy construction effort ( warm and dry weather on the Hi-Line continues). Actual oil train count is not down that much either (especially eastbound). Unless the weather suddenly turns bad, BNSF expects to continue work at a brisk pace until early November. My local guy says we should expect some lengthy delays on and off until that time.
late PM Update: today's #8 going thru Eastern MT "only" lost just under 2 hours in the same area the previous EB lost 4 hours. Apparently somewhat less congestion over the weekends.
 
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The oil train count won't really drop much for a couple of years. The *rig* count dropped this year. The number of wells drilled will drop this year; the number of wells completed will drop next year; the production will start dropping *after* that, and it'll take a few years to drop off. In 5-7 years we should see about half as much oil shipped out of the Bakken, maybe somewhat more.

Of course, with yearly bumper crops in the area due to climate change, all that rail capacity will be filled with agriculture traffic. So.
 
Eastbound #8's doing poorly today. Both are well over 2 hours behind. My BNSF guy says the next few weeks will continue to see slowdowns and congestion, so our brief period of good timekeeping appears to be over for a while.

:-(
 
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