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3rd cook

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For weeks now the EB has been off schedule or service disrupted . What is the cause ? Weather ? Track ? What ? Any statement from Amtrak on this ?
 
I've been wondering that myself. I know there has been some weather, but the delays seem pretty constant. Has today's EB even left Chicago yet?
 
Today's EB #7 hasn't left CHI, as of 04:45 pm. Yesterday's is running 7 hours late somewhere in North Dakota. Yesterday's #8 is close to ontime.

There was a lot of bad weather in the north country - snow and threat of avalanches. All EB runs were cancelled on the 14th. I imagine they're still suffering from equipment being in the wrong places.
 
Yesterday's #7 has now dropped off the face of the status map and has a service disruption. What does it mean??
 
Meghan said:
Yesterday's #7 has now dropped off the face of the status map and has a service disruption. What does it mean??
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Probably means Amtrak hasn't been updating their website. The data for the Status Map comes from Amtrak. Click the little red 7 in the lower left corner and you'll see the raw data.
 
The last report had #7(15) departing Minot ND just over seven hours late. My guess (and it is only a guess) is that Amtrak decided to terminate it at Spokane and turn it there to become eastbound #8 & #28 (with bus connections to and from points west). Once the train is taken off its normal route it is put into "Service Disruption" status.
 
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PRR 60 said:
My guess (and it is only a guess) is that Amtrak decided to terminate it Spokane and turn it there to become eastbound #8 & #28 (with bus connections to and from points west).
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That's exactly what has happened. The train developed locomotive problems in North Dakota and had a BNSF unit placed on at Minot. This is slated to lead the train until Shelby, where it will be taken off and AMTK 1 (stationed in Shelby for some reason) will be put on. Train 8-17 will originate in Spokane.
 
#7(16) left Chicago 2:45 late today. Hard to get back on schedule when the train starts out three hours in the hole...
 
3rd cook said:
For weeks now the EB has been off schedule or service disrupted . What is the cause ? Weather ? Track ? What ? Any statement from Amtrak on this ?
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This is getting old:

Status for train 7 arriving into SEA

2010-12-15: Scheduled: 10:25 am Actual: 6:42 pm Delay: 497 minutes

2010-12-14: Scheduled: 10:25 am Actual: 10:07 pm Delay: 702 minutes

2010-12-11: Scheduled: 10:25 am Actual: 3:23 pm Delay: 298 minutes

2010-12-10: Scheduled: 10:25 am Actual: 2:00 pm Delay: 215 minutes

2010-12-09: Scheduled: 10:25 am Actual: 10:45 am Delay: 20 minutes

2010-12-08: Scheduled: 10:25 am Actual: 11:22 am Delay: 57 minutes

2010-12-07: Scheduled: 10:25 am Actual: 10:01 am Delay: -24 minutes

2010-12-06: Scheduled: 10:25 am Actual: 3:16 pm Delay: 291 minutes

2010-12-05: Scheduled: 10:25 am Actual: 10:08 am Delay: -17 minutes

2010-12-04: Scheduled: 10:25 am Actual: 12:52 pm Delay: 147 minutes

Average delay is 219 minutes

I have already cancelled one EB trip this month due to long delays, and early this week had to bustitute one direction. I am booked to travel on EB again this weekend, but it is still looking ugly out there. Makes it tough to plan day of arrival get togethers with friends or family or business meetings.

I cancelled my trip
 
Hey even the almost-never-on-time-Zephyr is beating it!!!

But more seriously - say our train were cancelled by Amtrak - would we be put on the next day's train in a Roommette again? How does baggage check work when the train is more than a couple hours late? Do we still need to check it early?
 
I understand the problems with the mudslides and everything -- BUT why has the train (#7) been late out of Chicago?? I live in Milwaukee and my family lives down in Illinois -- last I checked -- there are NO mudslides around here -- in fact, at 6 degrees outside -- I dont think much of anything is moving around out there!! Hahahaha.

I do think its a little ridiculous #7 has been leaving Chicago 2 or 3 hours late almost EVERY DAY!

I took it just from Chicago to Milwaukee on MONDAY (bought a ticket to CBS, but hopped in MKE... often do that because I like #7 better than the Hiawathas) -- and it left Chicago 2 hours late... and it looked like #7(16) came off every worse.

There is no real excuse why #7 should be leaving Chicago that late every day. While it's been cold in Chicago (single digits to 20 degree highs) -- it's not like it's 20 below zero either -- or there has been a real heavy snow yet (over 6") in Chicago either to cause it getting out so late from the yards!!

I dont blame people who have said they plan on cancelling their plans on the EB.
 
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We arrived in Chicago (Tuesday evening) on the Eastbound EB about 5 hours late - missing our Capital Limited connection. I hate to say it - but the real culprit was BNSF. Too much freight traffic, for example... in Minot - I understand that they dropped us on a siding for two westbound freights, and also put us behind an Eastbound freight. And throughout the trip we were "put in the hole" for passing freights. There were no other delays. We did leave Portland about 45 mins late - but Seattle had a bus, which should have sped things up slightly in Spokane. Anyway, prior to heading westbound out of Chicago - another fellow passenger shared the same story - missed connection at Chicago, due to BNSF. He mentioned going in the hole on almost every passing freight... Maybe 15 delays or so.

*also our single biggest delay was a strange situation - BNSF had a "dead" engine on a train that they left blocking our travel. Not sure why it took so long to get a crew to move it - we just sat near West Havre for about an hour. It seemed like the Empire Builder was a low priory for BNSF. I think that Amtrak should seek compensation from the Railroad.

Our date of travel was Sunday (12/12/2010) leaving Portland around 5:30 PM. Arrived Chicago at 8:20 PM on Tuesday evening.
 
abcnews said:
We arrived in Chicago (Tuesday evening) on the Eastbound EB about 5 hours late - missing our Capital Limited connection. I hate to say it - but the real culprit was BNSF. Too much freight traffic, for example... in Minot - I understand that they dropped us on a siding for two westbound freights, and also put us behind an Eastbound freight. And throughout the trip we were "put in the hole" for passing freights. There were no other delays. We did leave Portland about 45 mins late - but Seattle had a bus, which should have sped things up slightly in Spokane. Anyway, prior to heading westbound out of Chicago - another fellow passenger shared the same story - missed connection at Chicago, due to BNSF. He mentioned going in the hole on almost every passing freight... Maybe 15 delays or so.

*also our single biggest delay was a strange situation - BNSF had a "dead" engine on a train that they left blocking our travel. Not sure why it took so long to get a crew to move it - we just sat near West Havre for about an hour. It seemed like the Empire Builder was a low priory for BNSF. I think that Amtrak should seek compensation from the Railroad.

Our date of travel was Sunday (12/12/2010) leaving Portland around 5:30 PM. Arrived Chicago at 8:20 PM on Tuesday evening.
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Possibly because of the mudslide, lots of BNSF freight trains were blocked until recent days. So heavy rail traffic is imaginable.
 
Well - the mudslides were between Portland and Seattle on a "North-South" coastal line. Our delays due to BNSF were on an "East-West line (the Highline) in Montana and North Dakota.
 
abcnews said:
We arrived in Chicago (Tuesday evening) on the Eastbound EB about 5 hours late - missing our Capitol Limited connection.
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Did Amtrak put you in a hotel overnight? Did you get the same accomodations on the next Capitol Limited?
 
Yes - we did get a hotel, and $44 for cabs and meals. But we were quite lucky to get a sleeper. At first they were sold out of Roomettes, and would not give us an available bedroom. Later - we did get the family bedroom since it was not booked and it showed a lower rate. But I was concerned, when the lady in charge at Chicago said we could not get a BR. She said it was too much money for them to eat, and mentioned that we would have to travel in coach. But then she offered the Family room.

I think later some Roomettes opened up, but we just kept the family room (two of us).
 
I've ridden the EB when BNSF put all their hotshot freights in the hole for us, so I wouldn't say they don't care. My guess is this: Much of BNSF's high-priority traffic (which makes up perhaps 1/3 to 1/2 of the trains on the high line) has guaranteed arrival times with the shippers, and if BNSF is late they pay for it either directly or with loss of customers. When the dispatcher can delay the freights for Amtrak and still make the guaranteed times, all is good, but when weather slows things to the point that the freights are in danger of being late, then Amtrak takes a hit. And when freight traffic is heavy sometimes there aren't enough sidings available to keep the EB running on green signals.

I would hazard a guess that the high line is the busiest mostly-single-track mainline in the West, and it doesn't take much in the way of weather or engine troubles to really jam things up.

Mark
 
Agreed, I was on the Southwest Chief several years ago when BNSF derailed a freight train on their very busy main line through New Mexico blocking all tracks. We pulled into Albuequerque more or less on time. There we were taken off the train and put on buses to Gallup, NM. Passengers going east likewise were bused from Gallup to ABQ and Amtrak turned the trains around in both places so as to keep things moving.

In any event, despite freight trains backed up for miles (this line probably sees 100+ trains per day, we were only about an hour late into LA. I don't know what the dispatchers did to keep a track open for us, but they did. We were like 2 or 3 hours late out of Gallup thanks to the busing operation, but between padding and excellant dispatching by BNSF, we made up some of that time.

Bottom line, if BNSF is causing interferrence with Amtrak, it's a pretty safe bet that things are in very bad shape for them as they normally try very hard to keep Amtrak on time.
 
abcnews said:
Well - the mudslides were between Portland and Seattle on a "North-South" coastal line. Our delays due to BNSF were on an "East-West line (the Highline) in Montana and North Dakota.
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Mudslides were between Seattle and Everett as well, which though geographically north and south, is on the ex-GN mainline. Held up a lot of freight traffic.
 
Aloha

Most of these reports seem much different from last years reports and our recent news reported that Chicago had 1000 flights canceled. So at least you got to where you were going safely
 
#7(17) 2:38 late out of Chicago today.

Sure if the inbound is really late it can cause a delay, but the #8 trains have only been running 1-3 hours down, and the trainset has about an 18-hour turnaround time in Chicago. I'm curious what the cause is.

Mark
 
anir dendroica said:
#7(17) 2:38 late out of Chicago today.

Sure if the inbound is really late it can cause a delay, but the #8 trains have only been running 1-3 hours down, and the trainset has about an 18-hour turnaround time in Chicago. I'm curious what the cause is.

Mark
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The cold weather has been causing issues with Amtrak car storage and maintenance in Chicago with frozen waterlines and assorted other issues. This disrupts the entire operation and could be why things are not running well there. Todays Chief left on time, but the Zephyr left over 3hr, 28min late, and the Builder left 2hr, 28 down.

Cold weather problems seem to be an annual event for Amtrak in Chicago.
 
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