Why is the Texas Eagle 6 hours behind schedule? (11/21)

My favorite train to ride is the Texas Eagle.  I occasionally, out of curiosity, check to see how well it stays on schedule.  I am shocked that it's 6 hours behind.  For starters it didn't leas San Antonio this morning until about 3 hours after it was scheduled to do so. Now here it late evening and the train has just left Fort Worth! I wonder what happened.  Any one knows?

http://www.dixielandsoftware.net/cgi-bin/gettrain.pl?seltrain=22&selyear=2018&selmonth=11&selday=21

iliketrains said:

My favorite train to ride is the Texas Eagle.  I occasionally, out of curiosity, check to see how well it stays on schedule.  I am shocked that it's 6 hours behind.  For starters it didn't leas San Antonio this morning until about 3 hours after it was scheduled to do so. Now here it late evening and the train has just left Fort Worth! I wonder what happened.  Any one knows?
 
http://www.dixielandsoftware.net/cgi-bin/gettrain.pl?seltrain=22&selyear=2018&selmonth=11&selday=21

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Yesterday’s Eagle from Chicago (No. 21) was 12+ hours late from Texarkana to San Antonio due to a mixture of factors. Amtrak staff cleans and turns the train at SAS to become northbound No. 22, so the severe lateness of No. 21 resulted in the inevitable lateness of No. 22.

It's a day that ends in y, so there has to be a train somewhere on the Amtrak system late enough to cause consternation and despair to its passengers.  It's just how it is.

I guess who can never plan a time sensitive ride on Amtrak!

As said, when a train arrives at its destination late (in this case San Antonio) and the same train set is used for the return, it may be delayed on its departure due to servicing. And if it has the same crew (T&E), federal law requires a specific rest period.

Another thing is because it’s out of it’s time slot, many times a late train just gets later.

iliketrains said:

I guess who can never plan a time sensitive ride on Amtrak!

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And that's a big part of the problem. Even if the trains ran no faster than they're scheduled to now, if you could reliably count on their being on time (well, within 20-30 minutes) 90% of the time it would make a huge difference in their appeal to passengers, especially occasional passengers...and it would get rid of a lot of the "never agains!" you hear.

Today’s TE left San Antonio onetime without the 6 hour late SL cars.  Interesting. 

frequentflyer said:

Today’s TE left San Antonio onetime without the 6 hour late SL cars.  Interesting. 

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That mean #422 pax are getting bussed? :unsure:

cpotisch said:

That mean #422 pax are getting bussed? :unsure:

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Or flown? 

F900ElCapitan said:

Or flown? [emoji20]

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Now, wouldn’t that be something.