example of padding built into Amtrak schedule

Just yesterday afternoon, 20 departed Anniston, Ala. late by 1 hour 16 minutes -- but this morning it's on-time at Charlottesville, Va. This happens to the Florida trains too, although you have to beware of the proverb that "late trains get later"... often true, but not always.

Well, even Julie says that trains can make up time enroute...

The southbound Crescent has 24 minute padding into Atlanta from much smaller

Gainesvile,GA

If padding is defined as the difference between the actual time table published time and the theoretical best time possible while staying within speed limits using the best equipment in best state of repair, then I think it can be easily established that all routes have some padding. Heck even the 200mph TGV route from Paris to Strasbourg on LGV Est has padding amounting to a total of almost 5 mins or so.

Indian Railways actually used to specify two speeds for a route - Maximum speed and Booked speed, the latter being the speed at which the train needed to operate to meet the time tabled arrivals. Of course Booked speed was always less than Maximum speed. I have not seen them continue that practice after computerization, since you can actually do tighter timetabling using specific paddings at specific places instead of spreading it out all over the route.

The LD Trains that have the most obvious padding built into the Schedule @ the end of their runs are the SWC between Fullerton and LAX, the Sunset Ltd. thru Calif. into LAX and the Texas Eagle between Austin and San Antonio!

afigg said:

jis said:

Orie said:

I can't speak to train 59, but I just took #90 from NY to Savannah. The schedule was depart Penn at 6:05am and arrive in Savannah at 9:03pm. We had about half an hour of freight delays and another 45 minutes due to an emergency brake trip (or some other unexplained sudden stop we encountered), but we still got into Savannah by 9:15. I assume there were about an hours worth of expected delays padded into the schedule, it turned out to work perfectly sans ten minutes.

Click to expand...

What is interesting is that 89 and 90 probably has the tightest schedule of all the LD trains (LD as in more than 750 miles Amtrak system trains).

Click to expand...

Checking Amtrak Status Maps Archive Database tool, the #89 Palmetto has gotten into SAV early 7 times out of 37 trips since August 1. And over an hour late 7 times, so the padding gets used most trips.

The database tool is quite useful as I used it to display all the arrival times for #89 into SAV for a month. I then looked up the individual trips that were more than a little late, > 45 minutes for the Palmetto, in the Status Map Archives. I then did it for the month of May. The pattern jumps out: when the southbound Palmetto gets into SAV late, it is almost always due to delays encountered between Alexandria and Rocky Mount. This came up in a recent discussion, but improve that segment - which will see some improvements in the coming years from HSIPR grants and VA funds - Amtrak could take padding out for the Palmetto, the Silvers, and the Carolinian.

Click to expand...

afigg posted a little info about Train 89 (Palmetto) arriving late into SAV last week. I wanted to see it in a table entry so here are some screenshots.

The biggest example of padding throughout a schedule I've seen lately. I was on this route behind schedule and all I noticed was they cancelled a smoking break here and there.

* Train 21 of 09/09/2014.

* Texas Eagle

* +---------------- Station code

* | +----------- Schedule Arrival Day

* | | +-------- Schedule Arrival time

* | | | +----- Schedule Departure Day

* | | | | +-- Schedule Departure Time

* | | | | | +------------- Actual Arrival Time

* | | | | | | +------- Actual Departure Time

* | | | | | | | +- Comments

* V V V V V V V V

* CHI * * 1 145P * 145P Departed: on time.

* JOL * * 1 240P * 332P Departed: 52 minutes late.

* PON * * 1 327P * 427P Departed: 1 hour late.

* BNL * * 1 404P * 500P Departed: 56 minutes late.

* LCN * * 1 437P * 531P Departed: 54 minutes late.

* SPI * * 1 514P * 611P Departed: 57 minutes late.

* CRV * * 1 549P * 707P Departed: 1 hour and 18 minutes late.

* ALN * * 1 622P * 749P Departed: 1 hour and 27 minutes late.

* STL 1 721P 1 800P 903P 930P Departed: 1 hour and 30 minutes late.

* PBF * * 1 1142P * 228A Departed: 2 hours and 46 minutes late.

* WNR * * 2 1237A * 326A Departed: 2 hours and 49 minutes late.

* LRK * * 2 310A * 536A Departed: 2 hours and 26 minutes late.

* MVN * * 2 355A * 623A Departed: 2 hours and 28 minutes late.

* ARK * * 2 420A * 644A Departed: 2 hours and 24 minutes late.

* HOP * * 2 509A * 726A Departed: 2 hours and 17 minutes late.

* TXA * * 2 558A * 804A Departed: 2 hours and 6 minutes late.

* MHL * * 2 750A * 920A Departed: 1 hour and 30 minutes late.

* LVW * * 2 828A * 952A Departed: 1 hour and 24 minutes late.

* MIN * * 2 925A * 1039A Departed: 1 hour and 14 minutes late.

* DAL 2 1130A 2 1150A 1211P 1225P Departed: 35 minutes late.

* FTW 2 125P 2 210P 138P 223P Departed: 13 minutes late.

* CBR * * 2 252P * 307P Departed: 15 minutes late.

* MCG * * 2 400P * 416P Departed: 16 minutes late.

* TPL * * 2 443P * 454P Departed: 11 minutes late.

* TAY * * 2 536P * 547P Departed: 11 minutes late.

* AUS * * 2 630P * 643P Departed: 13 minutes late.

* SMC * * 2 712P * 740P Departed: 28 minutes late.

* SAS 2 955P * * 937P * Arrived: 18 minutes early.