Wolverine Delays & Disruptions? (Summer 2019)

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Josh M

Train Attendant
Joined
May 30, 2015
Messages
71
Location
Ferndale, MI
I'm taking 353 to Chicago in a couple weeks, then boarding the LSL the same evening to head out east for vacation. Has anyone else been noticing what seems like an unusually high number of delays and disruptions on all of the Wolverine trains lately? I started following Amtrak Alerts on Twitter a few weeks ago, and it seems like a constant stream of "Wolverine Train X is running Y amount of time behind due to [engine trouble/mechanical issues/freight congestion/speed restrictions/some combo thereof] earlier." In fact, it looks like there is no 353 or 354 at all today due to an unspecified service disruption.

I'm not overly worried about my own trip, because if something goes awry I should have enough time to spare to change my LSL booking and get myself to Toledo to board there in the middle of the night.

It just seems odd that things just don't seem to be going well for our Michigan services as of late. Maybe they're still ironing out issues with integrating the Chargers?
 
They’re doing construction along the tracks through Galesburg, MI. I know this because they shut down the crossing for a week and borked my commute.
 
I too keep an eye on those Wolverines, just to get a sense of ongoing reliability. It seems that on any given day you might encounter some delay but usually to 30-60 minutes. (not enough to threaten the LSL connection). The Twitter account gives reasons like rail congestion and signal issues.
 
365 was running restricted speed through Kalamazoo today near campus. Chargers for power. A possible explanation was that they didn’t have enough time to get to Lawton to meet 350 but I think they were late too.

Summer trackwork on the AML wreaks havoc with the schedule. Always does, and likely always will. MDOT should seriously be looking at double tracking the west end of the line so meets aren’t an issue and at least one track is open. I always seem to lose time at Lawton for an EB...
 
365 was running restricted speed through Kalamazoo today near campus. Chargers for power. A possible explanation was that they didn’t have enough time to get to Lawton to meet 350 but I think they were late too.

364 was crawling too. I was stopped at the tracks on Drake Road today, and it took for-ev-er for the train to show up. It usually blasts through that crossing. I estimate it was going maybe 25 mph.

It had Chargers on each end, though, which was pretty cool to see.
 
364 was crawling too. I was stopped at the tracks on Drake Road today, and it took for-ev-er for the train to show up. It usually blasts through that crossing. I estimate it was going maybe 25 mph.

It had Chargers on each end, though, which was pretty cool to see.

My guess is that either track gangs are in the area between Howard and Drake or for some reason a slow order was put into place. They’re usually doing 40-45 paralleling Stadium by campus.
 
Does anyone know why #353 was canceled on Friday the 2nd? Never left Pontiac according to the computer.
Andy
Still trying to figure that one out. I can confirm it never left. When I drove by the station on my way home Friday evening (around 5:15), there were 2 train sets parked just south of the station. One of them only had a locomotive, a P42, on one end. I'm assuming it was the 353 that never left. Maybe a mechanical problems? It was very unusual to see 2 Amtrak trains there at the same time, that's for sure.
 
Summer trackwork on the AML wreaks havoc with the schedule. Always does, and likely always will. MDOT should seriously be looking at double tracking the west end of the line so meets aren’t an issue and at least one track is open. I always seem to lose time at Lawton for an EB...

Connecting the sidings between Niles and Kalamazoo to create two mains is mentioned in Amtrak's Infrastructure Asset Line Plan that came out earlier this year, so someone is looking at it. When it might actually happen is another question.
 
Connecting the sidings between Niles and Kalamazoo to create two mains is mentioned in Amtrak's Infrastructure Asset Line Plan that came out earlier this year, so someone is looking at it. When it might actually happen is another question.

I never saw that! Makes me happy that someone realizes it’s an issue. I’ll go back and check it out. I imagine that if it does end up happening, the trains accelerating west from KAL will be traveling faster than they are now.
 
I never saw that! Makes me happy that someone realizes it’s an issue. I’ll go back and check it out. I imagine that if it does end up happening, the trains accelerating west from KAL will be traveling faster than they are now.

It gets mentioned briefly on page 49 in the Strategic Initiatives. I do not recall seeing it elsewhere in the document, but it is 356 pages long. The fact it gets mentioned is why I suggest that they know it's an issue. But I have not seen it mentioned elsewhere, so I have no idea where it is on the priority list.
 
Indiana Harbor Canal and the Calumet River bridges. They have to let marine traffic pass through first because “they can’t stop as easy”.

That I can appreciate. Between Ann Arbor and Detroit though? Well, maybe it's residual delay that started in IN.
Scanning the Twitter informally, the most common issues appear to be mechanical, "signal issues" whatever that means, freight train interference and occaisonal boarding delays. (It seems problematic to be able to complete boarding at some of the Michigan stops in only 1-3 minutes). My impression is there has been a general uptick of mechanical issues in general this summer, although maybe it's just that I'm noticing it more.
A final note, the freight train interference around Ann Arbor is interesting, I believe there is an old freight line that has been resurrected between Ann Arbor and maybe Toledo, was looking around for info on this the other day.
 
That I can appreciate. Between Ann Arbor and Detroit though? Well, maybe it's residual delay that started in IN.
Scanning the Twitter informally, the most common issues appear to be mechanical, "signal issues" whatever that means, freight train interference and occaisonal boarding delays. (It seems problematic to be able to complete boarding at some of the Michigan stops in only 1-3 minutes). My impression is there has been a general uptick of mechanical issues in general this summer, although maybe it's just that I'm noticing it more.
A final note, the freight train interference around Ann Arbor is interesting, I believe there is an old freight line that has been resurrected between Ann Arbor and maybe Toledo, was looking around for info on this the other day.

That freight line is likely the Ann Arbor RR. I don’t know if GLC gets that far south and I’m pretty sure that the tracks are grade-separated.

The mechanical issues could be anything from the coaches to the engines. My guess is that the P42s that are in use for some of the turns are starting to die and the SC44s are having some teething troubles. The cars could be having problems with doors too.

Agreed on the boarding stuff. It’s ridiculous that boarding is expected to be completed in 1-3 minutes for some stations even though those stations only get one service a day, hence you can expect increased traffic and delays. It’s not a subway with a frequency of every two minutes.

It might bloat out the run time a bit but your OTP would likely increase some as well. The only way I can see them eliminating boarding delays AND maintaining the current schedule is if the crew opens all doors.
 
Yep, boarding high-level coaches from low-level platforms through only a couple doors leads to some rather lengthy dwell times at moderate to busy stations. I'm concerned that this practice may continue when new coaches arrive in the Midwest - which is rather frustrating because reducing station dwell times is a great way to reduce travel times.
 
Yep, boarding high-level coaches from low-level platforms through only a couple doors leads to some rather lengthy dwell times at moderate to busy stations. I'm concerned that this practice may continue when new coaches arrive in the Midwest - which is rather frustrating because reducing station dwell times is a great way to reduce travel times.

Funny you mention station dwell times, since NICTD(which operates South Shore Line in Northwest Indiana, between South Bend and Chicago) has been trying to rebuild the platforms at their busier stations, to be high platform stations. Years ago they rebuilt Hammond to be a high platform station, and later went on in the 2000s to rebuild East Chicago and Hegewisch to be high platform. More recently earlier in the 2010s(in 2013 I think?) they rebuilt Dune Park(by Chesterton, and Indiana Dunes State Park), to be a high platform station.

They are trying next to rebuild Ogden Dunes/Portage to be high platform, though at least that low level station(to my surprise) has a handicap accessible ramp on the end of each platform, which can be used in case someone needs it. They also want in the long term to rebuild Michigan City-11th Street (the downtown station, of South Shore's 2 stations there) to be a high platform station. That would also be part of a bigger project to eliminate street running via separating the South Shore track into a new 2 track section, and making both 10th and 11th Street one way streets. Currently in Mich. City these 2 streets are an old fashioned 2 way street, with a single track in the middle of the street. Supposedly there is talk about eliminating Carroll Ave. as a stop, but not sure if that'd be a good idea considering all the commuters who drive and board at Carroll Ave. Cannot believe I nearly forgot to say, that NICTD is about to embark on a double track project for South Shore between Gary and Michigan City, as currently only a few portions (i.e. by Ogden Dunes) are double tracked or have a siding track.

And on a separate note, NICTD is talking about building a new track route to the western edge of South Bend Airport, along with a new station there. This'd be to both fix the problem of the current South Bend station only being able to board 3 cars at a time, and they'd be able to shave some number of minutes(5-10?) off of the running time to South Bend.
 
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NS is the biggest culprit

I’m on 354. We left right on time at 5:50pm, proceeded to Gary IN and have been parked for 45 minutes (so far) while THREE (so far) westbound NS freight trains have passed. This is ridiculous. We didn’t miss our slot, we didn’t have a breakdown. Just a horrifically run Class I that can’t deliver its own customers’ freight on time let alone passenger trains.
 
Hallelujah. We’re off the NS mainline - 9 freight trains given priority over us in IN alone - adding up to 105 minutes in delays.

If Fedex & UPS planes were given priority over passenger jets there would be hell to pay. Wait a minute - the feds are in charge of air traffic control.

Hmmmmmm.....
 
Just left Battle Creek 25 minutes late on 351 this morning. Was 12 minutes late leaving Dearborn earlier. Estimate now is only 4 minutes late into Chicago, but I’m only going to believe that once it happens.

354 eastbound pulled into Dearborn at 2 am this morning over 2-1/2 hours late!
 
I ride 352 regularly - from Chicago to New Buffalo - what SHOULD take 1:10...I have had delays more than twice that long...to go what, 60 miles? It's terrible.
 
The new Michigan Attorney General is pretty good at suing people - I wonder if we could convince her to sue NS. Michigan does pump some money into that route - and NS gross disregard for prioritizing passenger traffic over that short section in IN has got to be harming Michigan citizens...
 
Had a great trip on 354 from Chicago to Dearborn last night. Left on time, no NS or other freight delays at all. Clocked at 109.5 mph on Amtrak track and pretty much on schedule all the way. Ran with a single non-Charger engine and arrived Dearborn only 9 minutes late. This was the best experience I’ve had on this train in years.
 
I took a round trip from Ann Arbor to New Buffalo earlier this week - wanted to enjoy Lake Michigan during the freak warm weather we had earlier this week. In both directions I arrived about 40 min late. 355 departed ARB around 20 min late (seemingly due to waiting for 352, as tracking showed it on time until 352 arrived in ARB), and then got a bit worse en route. On 350 yesterday the train was around 20min late to NBU, and then got a bit worse en route. It seems like the track between KAL and ARB is particularly delay-prone my past few trips - a bit surprising, as I figured MDOT taking over KAL-DER would drastically reduce delays east of Porter (where NS begins). Regardless of this, I did enjoy the trip - though I wish we could see improvements in on-time performance.

Side note - for those of you considering an Amtrak trip to New Buffalo, the hotel closest to the NBU station (Harbor Grand) is going to be closed 8-10 months due to a fire resulting from lightning strike and water damage that happened as a result. I was originally booked there, but reaccomodated at the Marina Grand after this happened (a few days before my trip) - which is also a great place, though an 8-10min walk to the station as opposed to 1-2min.
 
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