Must be the day for trespassers. I'm on the CS and we hit a trespasser last night north of San Jose. We were stopped for five hours and are now about 7 hours behind. Crew did a great job under the circumstances.
Anyone booking a connection to the #91 Star from #30 is doing so at their own risk, correct? Which is quite risky in the current situation given that the CL has been an average of 129 minutes late to WAS over the past 4 weeks (according to http://www.amtrakdelays.onlineschedulingsoftware.com/). So the average delay is longer than the scheduled connection buffer time at WAS. Since #30(8/05) was already 3 hours late at Cleveland, getting bustituted at PGH may have been the only way they could make the connection to #91 anyway.
Coming home from the RRF, Dick and I had originally booked the Star connection from 30. After seeing the OTP of 30, we changed to the Meteor. It turns out that we arrived in time to connect with the Meteor and tried to switch once we arrived in WAS, but 91 was sold out.
I just made the 30 to 97 connection last week and almost encountered a disaster simply because I failed to study the new ticket the AGR Agent e-mailed me a few daus earlier when I called to switch from the 91. The 30 missed the connection with the 91 that day, but I was comfortable as Chessie the Railroad Kitten since I had made the change.
But then the Coach was now oversold; so I volunteered to give up my seat and sit in the Lounge which was no problem at all; the Crew was most appreciative and I even got to see a cantakerous woman argue with the Conductor she should have a 2 seats to herself and then tell the Condcutor to do something starting with the letter F! You do not say that to a Conductor and she was forcibly removed and taken into custody by 3 of Richmond's finest, even after locking herself into an AmCan pot. That alone was worth the price of admission
From what I learned earlier this week, the arriving 98 turns into that day's 97 and Sunnyside has been having Kittens trying to get the sets in and turned; of course with 98 running late that means a delay for the departure of 97; they need to learn from the FTW Eagle crews
I hope you enjoy your dinner and get compensation for your missed dinner on the Meteor. Maybe you will get dinner before Miami tomorrow. I will check your progress and if I am near the station when it arrives in ORL, I will swing by the station and say hi.
Sorry, You learned wrong.From what I learned earlier this week, the arriving 98 turns into that day's 97 and Sunnyside has been having Kittens trying to get the sets in and turned; of course with 98 running late that means a delay for the departure of 97; they need to learn from the FTW Eagle crews
If that were true then the Meteor would require just 3 consists. It actually uses 4. So no, 97 does not turn into 98 the same day at NYP. Sunnyside is just too lazy to get a consist ready in a timely manner even when they have more than 24 hours to dick around with it. Actually they apparently don't touch the consist until late in the morning of the day of departure, and then if something is found to need work things just get delayed.Thanks for the update; I was just going by what various Crew Members told me but then that confirms Crew Gossip is often just that, Gossip. And here I thought Sunnyside was hands down better than Chicago in getting sets turned.Sorry, You learned wrong.From what I learned earlier this week, the arriving 98 turns into that day's 97 and Sunnyside has been having Kittens trying to get the sets in and turned; of course with 98 running late that means a delay for the departure of 97; they need to learn from the FTW Eagle crews
Having checked Amtrak Status Maps for the past day, the past several days have NOT been good days for most of the LD trains and the medium range corridor trains in the east. The #43 Pennsylvanian is shown as having a service disruption at or after PHL, LSL #(48 (8/05) is 6 hours and 14 minutes late at Utica, and so on. Wonder what happened with the southbound #97 Meteor out of NYP?
If it is the same Agent who handled my SNAFU on the 97s she is indeed top notch and concerned for her customers. Though I fear to think how many times they have had to dish out $25 Meal Comps the past few days; that sure costs more than Dining Car Flowers or Sleeper Cranberry Juice
Sorry, You learned wrong.From what I learned earlier this week, the arriving 98 turns into that day's 97 and Sunnyside has been having Kittens trying to get the sets in and turned; of course with 98 running late that means a delay for the departure of 97; they need to learn from the FTW Eagle crews
Sunnyside could not turn a train in 4 hours with a hurricane in their sail even. That is how much time they have with an 11am arrival and 3:15pm departure. Even if the train arrives on time, it won't make it to Sunnyside until around noon, and it has to be pretty much on its way out of the yard by 2:15pm on the ready track to meet a 3:15pm departure deadline out of NYP.
Indeed on several occasions neorden and I have discussed the desirability of modifying the schedule of the Meteor so that it arrives three hours earlier and leaves a couple of hours later so as to be able to do the single day turn. But with the current timings it is just not physically possible to do the single day turn. That would release an entire consist for use in such wonderful ventures as making the Cardinal daily or adding a third sleeper to the Lake Shore, and release 4 or 5 Amfleet II Coaches, a Diner Lite and a Diner for use elsewhere or for keeping more protect equipment.
