Empire Builder is running on time.

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gingee

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I just thought I would let others know that the Empire is running on time (or maybe earlier). We are in Shelby, Montana (headed to Chicago). Was told that it is pretty much on time now. Have not seen any flooding. Just rain.
 
NOOOOOO, what have you been smokin? :giggle: Seriously, that is great news, especially for you! Man, they have had one hell of a rough time this year. I experienced it in Feb.!!!!
 
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Not to rain on your parade, but the #8 in front of you just arrived St. Cloud, MN 7.5 hours late. That is a bit unusual, but I suspect you will lose 1-3 hours crossing North Dakota on the slow track.

Mark

gingee said:
I just thought I would let others know that the Empire is running on time (or maybe earlier). We are in Shelby, Montana (headed to Chicago). Was told that it is pretty much on time now. Have not seen any flooding. Just rain.
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anir dendroica said:
Not to rain on your parade, but the #8 in front of you just arrived St. Cloud, MN 7.5 hours late. That is a bit unusual, but I suspect you will lose 1-3 hours crossing North Dakota on the slow track.

Mark

gingee said:
I just thought I would let others know that the Empire is running on time (or maybe earlier). We are in Shelby, Montana (headed to Chicago). Was told that it is pretty much on time now. Have not seen any flooding. Just rain.
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Last Saturday we hit Shelby 20-30 minutes early, but then lost several hours in Williston and Minot waiting for freight traffic to clear. Eventually hit Chicago 4 hours late.
 
Empire trains run in New York. The Empire Builder runs between Chicago and Seattle/Portland.
 
Mackensen said:
anir dendroica said:
Not to rain on your parade, but the #8 in front of you just arrived St. Cloud, MN 7.5 hours late. That is a bit unusual, but I suspect you will lose 1-3 hours crossing North Dakota on the slow track.

Mark

gingee said:
I just thought I would let others know that the Empire is running on time (or maybe earlier). We are in Shelby, Montana (headed to Chicago). Was told that it is pretty much on time now. Have not seen any flooding. Just rain.
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Last Saturday we hit Shelby 20-30 minutes early, but then lost several hours in Williston and Minot waiting for freight traffic to clear. Eventually hit Chicago 4 hours late.
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EXACTLY my experience arriving in Chicago yesterday. We ran a little early the first full day and then woke up 5 hours late yesterday mostly due to freight traffic. They were only able to make up 30 minutes throughout the day putting us into CHI 4 1/2 hrs late.
 
Update. Now running hour late. Not due to flooding but to freight traffic. Only have a two hour time between our train to galesburg. Hope they don't send us home on a bus.
 
I heard that the BNSF is re-routing some of its westbound freights onto the Devils Lake Sub, which is causing some additional congestion for the eastbound #8 to get through.
 
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Does the Empire Builder generally run late or is there bad weather going on? On June 16 my daughter is getting on in Spl to Chi and is catching a connection to Galesburg. As Gingeee said above, there is only a 2 hour differance between these trains. Will they put her on a bus or put her up for the night?
 
When we took the Empire Builder five years ago, it was right on time. Had lots of traffic this time.
 
It's hilarious when just being on-time is considered news. It's even more amusing when it turns out that the presumption of on-time performance was just a misunderstanding of the situation. Oh well, I'm sure it's nothing that Amtrak can't fix with a complaint to the FRA for fines and sanctions. Make that several more hours of additional padding. As the rest of the industrialized world works on improving infrastructure and speeding up their passenger trains America's trains just keep getting slower and slower.
 
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EB_OBS said:
I heard that the BNSF is re-routing some of its westbound freights onto the Devils Lake Sub, which is causing some additional congestion for the eastbound #8 to get through.
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I got back from my PV/Empire Builder #7/27 trip last night and will write a travel report about it shortly, but will just add here that a conductor in Montana told me that BNSF is using the Devil's Lake sub because flooding has caused mud bubbling and thus track destabilization on the Minot to Fargo sub. I find this pretty hilarious considering BNSF's wanting to abandon the Devil's Lake sub. Too bad Amtrak didn't have the cash to buy the line, then they would have BNSF over a barrel. :lol: The good news is that maybe all this will help to keep the Devil's Lake sub open.

BTW, the #8 due into Chicago today is running over 10 hours late...
 
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A temporary adjustment to the schedule may not be a bad idea......it will be quite sometime before the high water in th Devils Lake area subsides. Perhaps the departure time from

CUS and PDX/SEA could be moved back about four hours to give them a chance to make connections......but then that would affect connections on the opposite end....oh well.....
dry.gif
 
Westbound, all things considered, the EB hasn't been as late as has the eastbound EBs. Only twice in the last four weeks has the EB gotten into Portland after the scheduled departure time of the CS. Keep your fingers crossed!
 
JayPea said:
Westbound, all things considered, the EB hasn't been as late as has the eastbound EBs. Only twice in the last four weeks has the EB gotten into Portland after the scheduled departure time of the CS. Keep your fingers crossed!
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On Friday 5/27 #7 was not very late, but #27 did not get into PDX until the late afternoon because there was a freight that broke down TWICE :angry: in front of it.
 
The Davy Crockett said:
JayPea said:
Westbound, all things considered, the EB hasn't been as late as has the eastbound EBs. Only twice in the last four weeks has the EB gotten into Portland after the scheduled departure time of the CS. Keep your fingers crossed!
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On Friday 5/27 #7 was not very late, but #27 did not get into PDX until the late afternoon because there was a freight that broke down TWICE :angry: in front of it.
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Ahhh, that explains it. I had noticed #7 wasn't too late but #27 was 7+ hours late into Portland. I wondered why there was such a great discrepancy between the two.
 
The Davy Crockett said:
I got back from my PV/Empire Builder #7/27 trip last night and will write a travel report about it shortly, but will just add here that a conductor in Montana told me that BNSF is using the Devil's Lake sub because flooding has caused mud bubbling and thus track destabilization on the Minot to Fargo sub. I find this pretty hilarious considering BNSF's wanting to abandon the Devil's Lake sub. Too bad Amtrak didn't have the cash to buy the line, then they would have BNSF over a barrel. :lol: The good news is that maybe all this will help to keep the Devil's Lake sub open.
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Yep, the KO Sub (Fargo to Minot) developed some severe subgrade problems after the spring thaw and flooding. BNSF did the logical thing and started rerouting some traffic over the Devils Lake line, but I can't imagine they are happy about that at all. Their whole argument for why they shouldn't have to contribute any money to raise bridges and tracks near Churchs Ferry rested on being able to say "only Amtrak uses the tracks between Devils Lake and Churchs Ferry; we haven't run anything on that stretch of tracks for X weeks/months/years."
 
I am mad as hell at AGR. Just spoke with supervisor Bill. No relief at all on AGR no stopover policy. All I asked for is the right to stay in CHI at my expense. Will climb the ladder Tuesday.
 
Steve4031 said:
8 is very late today into Chicago. Not due until 2 am. Buses substituted msp-chi. I'm on 8 tomorrow so will see what happens.
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I'm on the EB eastbound, leaving PDX 6/4/2011. I'd be interested to hear your experience with the delays and how they're being handled.

Have they been bustituting? I'd assumed that, although the EB has been running very late, it was still trains, not bus. Is there someplace that has information of when bustitutions have been made? Since I'm not making a connection in CHI, I don't mind so much having the extra train time, but spending it on a bus -- yuck.
 
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