Empire Builder 8 Schedule Change 1/11/16

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CHamilton

CHamilton

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Got word today that effective January 11, 2016, schedule of the eastbound Empire Builder will change to move some (but not enough) of the fat toward the east end of the run, rather than the west end, which does no good for an eastward train.

Trains 8 and 28 will still leave Seattle and Portland at the same time. Train 28 arrives in Spokane at the same time, but train 8 will arrive in Spokane 10 minutes earlier and depart 10 minutes earlier at 120 AM instead of 130 AM. (Why Amtrak thinks they still need 45 minutes dwell in Spokane is a mystery; their claim is they need it for "switching"). The train will operate 10 minutes earlier as far as Cut Bank, but then, instead of 58 minutes of running time for the 30 minute (including station dwell time) trip to Shelby, running time will be reduced to 43 minutes, which still allows for a a bit of padding at Whitefish and Shelby. Departure time from Shelby will be 25 minutes earlier, and the train will operate 25 minutes earlier to Stanley departing there at 746 PM. Times in Minot remain unchanged at 922 PM arrival and 942 PM departure. Times between Minot and St. Cloud inclusive remain unchanged, but times for St. Paul change a few minutes to 743 AM arrival and 800 AM departure (3 minutes earlier than at present). Times for stations Red Wing to Chicago are unchanged.

The main reason for the change to help BNSF to make incentive payments for the train, which is measured in segments, Seattle-Spokane, Portland-Spokane, Spokane-Shelby, Shelby-Minot, and Minot-St. Anthony (where the train enters Minnesota Commerical Railroad trackage). BNSF often made incentives west of Shelby where the all the fat in the schedule was, but east of Shelby, if delayed at all, the train would be late arriving at Minot and St. Paul and lose those segments, which amount to about $15,000 per train.
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https://www.facebook.com/groups/AmtraksEmpireBuilder/permalink/1676177812664078/

The source is reliable, AFAIK.
 
I am all for realistic schedules that can be adhered to rather than fantasy ones that are impossible to abide by, even if BNSF makes some money as a result.

I can never figure out why the departure time published is used as the arrival time apparently for time keeping purposes and the departure is usually shown as a minute or two behind schedule at intermediate stops when the train is supposedly running on time. In other systems trains running on schedule arrive at stations showing only a departure time a couple of minutes before it and departs at the departure time.
 
$15,000 per train is nearly $5.5 million per year. Expect the reported subsidy for the Empire Builder to go up by that much. :-(
 
I was on the westbound Empire Builder yesterday and had a discussion with a couple of rail fans on similar issue- there seems to be a lot of padding lying around in its schedule and if it would be possible to rationalize some of it.

Why does 27 need additional 30 minutes at Spokane after the 7 section of it has been removed and gone on its way to Seattle? Can it not depart at, say 0225 instead of 0245, since Seattle section leaves at 0215 (let's give 10 minutes to attach the engine to the stub train)?

After that, between Vancouver and Portland it seems to have excessive padding built in which it does not need as frequently- if you check status over last 10 days, almost everyday it has reached PDX ~30 minutes early.

If Amtrak can shave off 20 minutes at Spokane and 30 minutes before PDX, they can have a PDX arrival of 0920 which sounds much nicer to advertise something like, "Arrive in time to get a full day of work done"
 
Texan Eagle said:
If Amtrak can shave off 20 minutes at Spokane and 30 minutes before PDX, they can have a PDX arrival of 0920 which sounds much nicer to advertise something like, "Arrive in time to get a full day of work done"
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I don't think 9:20 versus 10:10 really makes a difference to most passengers in this case. No one with a passing knowledge of Amtrak would book a trip on the Builder on the basis of having a full day of work at the endpoint. And I don't really see Amtrak marketing its LD trains to business travelers, especially not on the basis of a precise arrival time. If I were arriving in PDX on the Builder, I don't think I'd plan anything before lunch. Anything you get done prior to that is just a bonus.

And for leisure travelers there's a huge psychological difference between being on a 10:10 train that arrives at 9:40 versus a 9:20 train that arrives at 9:40. The arrival time is the same in each case but you somehow feel a lot better about the former scenario.

But I do agree that there is certainly padding that could be shaved.
 
Based on the national winter/spring timetable that was posted on Amtrak's website, the westbound Builder has some internal

schedule changes too, particularly between MSP and MOT.

I noticed the new timetable still lists checked baggage service as being available in GFK, even though Amtrak hasn't felt the need

to offer it there since last June. I guess Amtrak can't be bothered to fact-check their own timetables.
 
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