Reason for Speed Restrictions from the norm

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Rover

Conductor
Joined
May 13, 2015
Messages
1,492
Location
N. Texas
I saw in an Amtrak Alert Tweet from 2 days ago, that the "Sunset Ltd. Train 2 which departed Los Angeles on 11/22 is currently operating approximately 4hr late due to speed restrictions between Sanderson and Del Rio."

If they were doing track work, wouldn't they just sat that??
 
I've experienced speed restrictions on the CZ across Nevada due to excessive cold in winter and a fear that there could be "break aparts" at points where two ribbon rails were joined. Also during heavy snow events in the Colorado Rockies when avalanche warnings were in effect.
 
There were "gusty southwest winds" forecast for today starting in the SW portion of the US and moving toward the NE across the country ... not sure how strong these winds were but they were giving driving warnings about them on the Weather Channel this morning along with mentions of cancelled and/or delayed flights.
 
Slow freight trains in front; having to sit on sidings; attempts by the host RR to "pay back" Amtrak for some past issue; unwillingness to spend extra money to have workers on overtime; issue only for "fast" trains i.e. passenger trains but not freight, etc.
 
In my most recent experience on the Star, freight locomotive substitution because of traction failure in the Amtrak locomotive. The failure itself cost 3 hours waiting for the substitute, and then we steadily lost time until we were almost 6 hours late into Orlando. The additional 3 hours lost was mostly due to running at freight speed instead of passenger speed, and of course a few freight congestion and one Silver Meteor congestion issues. :eek:
 
I can understand being disconcerted when a train runs late - thee are many reasons it can happen.

My brother drives a box truck during the week for a newspaper/printer. He has to drive to Tampa and Orlando more than one during the week. There are many time that a trip that should take 1½ hours takes 3-4 hours due to traffic ... an accident, construction and sometimes for no discernible reason.

This week, there have been delayed and cancelled flights at many of the major airports. I heard this morning that there were over 1,000 flights affected at Chicago Airport.

So, trains are not the only things that are delayed - and sometimes we never do find out what the delay was.
 
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