Train 20 (14)

Train 20 departed Slidell 1 hour and 44 minutes late and is now listed as a service disruption. It is estimated as 3 hours and 42 minutes late for departure from Piscayune but no further estimates have been given. I am supposed to ride this train from Atlanta to Washington. Does anyone know what happened to it and how the stations further up the line will be affected?

Can't really say what happened, but engine failure,trespasser Strike or freight hindrance would be the most likely reasons.

As the saying goes, "Late Trains tend to get Later!"

Look for a Very late Arrival/Departure in Atlanta!

You can track the Train by any of the several means available on-line or via your phone.

Go to the AMTRAK website, click on Check Train Status, click Arrival Status, then enter ATL, 20, and today's date, then select Search.

Currently, the site is showing Unavailable for #20. However, I suggest you keep checking every few hours for updates.

Good Luck, and hope for the best.

The train is moving again, but is now estimated to arrive Washington 1 hour and 52 minutes late, which seems to be a best case scenario. I am actually booked to travel north of Washington on 140, which leaves only 2 hours and 20 minutes after 20 arrives. I am travelling to New York, but I scheduled a 3 hour layover in Philadelphia so I could see a little bit of the city. Would it be a good idea to try and modify the Northeast Regional segments of the trip?

I would think that as long as you are on one (or a linked) reservation (if not, you're screwed), you should just let Amtrak handle it unless there's an overriding personal consideration. They should be tracking your train, know who's connecting, and be prepared for it. For all you know you'll arrive in Washington twenty minutes after the scheduled departure of your connection...to find that it has been held and is waiting for you on the very next track. Get fancy on your own and you might be waiting another hour and a half.

According to a friend in the area, train 20 delayed in Slidell by a bad radio on lead engine. Swapped engines than could not get air working. Had to wait for mechanics out of New Orleans to come to their rescue. Now running over 4 1/2 hours late.

hastybob said:

According to a friend in the area, train 20 delayed in Slidell by a bad radio on lead engine. Swapped engines than could not get air working. Had to wait for mechanics out of New Orleans to come to their rescue. Now running over 4 1/2 hours late.

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I'm on 19(13) right now and we knew about the power swap but not the air problem. That's what took four hours. 20 is now a full 5 hours late out of BHM, projected into ATL at midnight. Aren't we glad that we're not doing crew scheduling?

brianpmcdonnell17 said:

The train is moving again, but is now estimated to arrive Washington 1 hour and 52 minutes late, which seems to be a best case scenario. I am actually booked to travel north of Washington on 140, which leaves only 2 hours and 20 minutes after 20 arrives. I am travelling to New York, but I scheduled a 3 hour layover in Philadelphia so I could see a little bit of the city. Would it be a good idea to try and modify the Northeast Regional segments of the trip?

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This should be interesting. With the outage in NYP causing 20 to terminate in WAS, all passengers disembarking between BAL-NYP were scheduled to transfer to 140. Clearly, that is not going to happen. at this rate, the train is likely to connect to the 425pm departure. Hopefully, the train will make up some time. Otherwise, there may not be enough time for you to stay in PHL for three hours...unless you stay overnight.

Even with a perfect run to Washington, the ~12:30, ~1:30, and ~2:30 Regionals will not be made. I am scheduled on the ~4:30 Regional north of Philadelphia, so the best I could do is one hour there. This train is also in jeopardy of missing the connections to 80 and 29. It seems likely that we will arrive Charlotte after the departure time of 80. Passengers to Burlington, Durham, Cary, and Raleigh can take a Piedmont that leaves about 5 hours later, but passengers north of Raleigh may have to wait a day or take the train to Washington and connect to 97 or a Regional, although this may not work for some of the smaller stations. The connection to 29 is 6 hours, which is almost exactly how late we are at the moment. This would likely delay everyone an entire day if missed. Lastly, with a 10 hour scheduled turn around time in Washington, it is likely that today's 19 will depart Washington late. It will be interesting, however to see everything from the SC/NC border to New York in the daylight, unless we become so late that I arrive New York after dark.

brianpmcdonnell17 said:

Even with a perfect run to Washington, the ~12:30, ~1:30, and ~2:30 Regionals will not be made. I am scheduled on the ~4:30 Regional north of Philadelphia, so the best I could do is one hour there. This train is also in jeopardy of missing the connections to 80 and 29. It seems likely that we will arrive Charlotte after the departure time of 80. Passengers to Burlington, Durham, Cary, and Raleigh can take a Piedmont that leaves about 5 hours later, but passengers north of Raleigh may have to wait a day or take the train to Washington and connect to 97 or a Regional, although this may not work for some of the smaller stations. The connection to 29 is 6 hours, which is almost exactly how late we are at the moment. This would likely delay everyone an entire day if missed. Lastly, with a 10 hour scheduled turn around time in Washington, it is likely that today's 19 will depart Washington late. It will be interesting, however to see everything from the SC/NC border to New York in the daylight, unless we become so late that I arrive New York after dark.

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The train is stopped in Charlotte now and 80 is waiting for our departure to pull into the station. It will likely depart at least an hour late. Although this is a two track station, one track is currently occupied by a stopped freight train despite the fact that there are five empty tracks immediately adjacent that do not block the passenger station.

At 9.43 a.m. 7/15, looks like 20 is parked near Lexington, NC.

jb

We are stopped again in Lexington, NC. The ~3:30 Regional is now out of the question.

The train eventually made it to Washington 6 hours 12 minutes late. As previously stated, 80 was held for 20 in Charlotte to eliminate missed connections. The same occurred in Washington with 29. Although 20 arrived before the departure of 642, all NEC connecting passengers were accommodated on the next Regional, 192. The consist was the normal 8 Amfleets, although a Viewliner baggage car was placed in front. The two trains were placed across the platform from each other to allow for easy transfers of passengers and baggage, although I personally chose to spend the hour in the station building and our front. The passengers who really seemed to get messed up were those travelling north of NYP. They were also sent on 192 to NYP, where they were told to visit customer service. My guess is that they ended up on 66 as that was the next Amtrak train travelling up the NEC towards New Haven and Boston. It is also possible that passengers bound for New Rochelle, Stamford, Bridgeport, and New Haven were advised to take Metro-North from New York. The only other reason I can think of why they would be sent to NYP on 192 is that 66 is sold out south of there.

If it were a Sunday they'd be in luck. 192 on Sundays is 166 and goes all the way through to Boston. Which happened to me once. That was a long ride.