53(25) Auto Train Arrived Sanford ~14hr Late

[Seaboard92]

It's still losing time over the road. The Meteor lost about five hours between RMT and PTB I'm guessing it or someone else hit something. And 52 lost three hours and is now four hours late again.

 

[Thirdrail7]

It's still losing time over the road. The Meteor lost about five hours between RMT and PTB I'm guessing it or someone else hit something. And 52 lost three hours and is now four hours late again.

There were multiple issues but nothing involved any sort of collision.

 

[lo2e]

It's still losing time over the road. The Meteor lost about five hours between RMT and PTB I'm guessing it or someone else hit something. And 52 lost three hours and is now four hours late again.

There were multiple issues but nothing involved any sort of collision.

I'm guessing there were three issues - C, S, and X.

 

[Thirdrail7]

It's still losing time over the road. The Meteor lost about five hours between RMT and PTB I'm guessing it or someone else hit something. And 52 lost three hours and is now four hours late again.

There were multiple issues but nothing involved any sort of collision.

I'm guessing there were three issues - C, S, and X.

One could argue that if the Auto Pain had departed on time, it would have avoided some of the issues.

In any event, 53 departed "47 down on the turn. The ITD is under an hour. Hopefully, it will remain that way.

 

[FormerOBS]

My Auto Train friends are telling me I should get a life & not worry about the fate of the wayward consist, but my curiosity just won't let it go. I have been tracking it since Feb. 26, and even resorted to creating a graph to show how much time was gained at turnarounds and how much was lost over the road. That graph looks like the track of a hurricane that follows a predictable course for a while, then becomes wildly erratic. From Feb. 26 through March 3, it looked like the train would get back on schedule around March 7. Then things improved on the 4th, and it began to look like it could be back on time on the 6th. Then on the night of March 5-6, the train lost 2 hours & 55 minutes traveling on CSX. A fast turnaround gained 3 hours and 12 minutes at Lorton, but 2 hours and 56 minutes were lost on the road this morning. This was caused by the train being stopped due to another train hitting a bicyclist! To carry the hurricane analogy further, the graph looks like it's just following the coast, and may never make landfall (i.e., on time status).

Departure from Lorton on March 6 was only 47 minutes late, but that's the best the train has been able to manage. Since Feb. 25, that consist has made 5-1/2 round trips. Remarkably fast turnarounds have helped a lot, particularly at the Lorton end, where the personnel have been able to cut the time deficit by over 3 hours on 3 separate occasions. Time has been saved at every turnaround, for a total of 25 hours and 49 minutes gained. This would have been much more than enough effort to bring the consist back to time after the 14 hour lateness. However, operations over CSX have lost a total of 13 hours and 32 minutes. That's why departure today was 1 hour and 43 minutes late. If that train loses time again on its run tonight, it will have made 6 round trips (12 one way trips) without gaining time on a single run. (Some folks say consistency is good, but I'm not convinced in this case). This is a train that historically has consistently made its "17 hour" run in less than 16 hours.

Go figure.

Tom

 

[chakk]

OK, I'll figure. That cover photo on "Sports Illustrated" posted a few days ago jinxed the Auto Train and turned around its recovery. Just check the timing.

Same thing happened to the Golden State Warriors in their game against the Los Angeles Lakers yesterday.

 

[neroden]

CSX is now second only to CN in causing passenger train delays, according to the January 2016 report.

CN seems to particularly like to cause humungous delays to the Adirondack north of the border, which we Americans can do very little about (other than ask Canada for help); CSX may actually be the worst *within* the US at the moment.

 

[Thirdrail7]

Departure from Lorton on March 6 was only 47 minutes late, but that's the best the train has been able to manage. Since Feb. 25, that consist has made 5-1/2 round trips. Remarkably fast turnarounds have helped a lot, particularly at the Lorton end, where the personnel have been able to cut the time deficit by over 3 hours on 3 separate occasions. Time has been saved at every turnaround, for a total of 25 hours and 49 minutes gained. This would have been much more than enough effort to bring the consist back to time after the 14 hour lateness. However, operations over CSX have lost a total of 13 hours and 32 minutes. That's why departure today was 1 hour and 43 minutes late. If that train loses time again on its run tonight, it will have made 6 round trips (12 one way trips) without gaining time on a single run. (Some folks say consistency is good, but I'm not convinced in this case). This is a train that historically has consistently made its "17 hour" run in less than 16 hours.

Go figure.

Tom

Before you slow roast CSX, you may want to look at the major reason the Auto Pain lost so much time today:Bicyclist hit, critically injured by Amtrak train

Please allow a brief fair use quote:

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A bicyclist crossing tracks on the Westside was struck and critically injured Monday morning by an Amtrak train.

According to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, a northbound freight train had just cleared the tracks on McQuade Street about 8 a.m. and a man on a bicycle wearing ear buds proceeded across the track while the crossing arm was still down. He was struck by the southbound Amtrak train.

One could argue if the Auto train was on time, odds are it wouldn't have been delayed by this incident since it would have been ahead of 91(6).

 

[FormerOBS]

I did mention the bicycle accident towards the end of my first paragraph. The 2 hours and 56 minutes lost on that southbound run is a relatively small percentage (21-1/2%) of the total time lost on CSX over the past 11 days (13 hours, 32 minutes since 2/26/16). If there had been no over-the-road delays at all, the train could have left Lorton on time as early as March 2, and we wouldn't consider the March 7 bicycle accident relevant to the discussion.

Tom

 

[Thirdrail7]

I did mention the bicycle accident towards the end of my first paragraph. The 2 hours and 56 minutes lost on that southbound run is a relatively small percentage (21-1/2%) of the total time lost on CSX over the past 11 days (13 hours, 32 minutes since 2/26/16). If there had been no over-the-road delays at all, the train could have left Lorton on time as early as March 2, and we wouldn't consider the March 7 bicycle accident relevant to the discussion.

Tom

That's pretty tortured logic but if insist, let's take it from the top...if the engines hadn't crapped out days ago, resulting in the initial major delay, perhaps CSX could have done a better job running it, since it would be somewhere near or/in its slot. Then, this thread wouldn't exist and wouldn't have to worry about it making up all of this time.

I'm not an apologist for CSX, but call it what it is. The late Auto Train isn't the only thing out there. All things considered, I think this is the best you could hope for considering this set hasn't departed its initial terminal on time in a while. All you can do is chip at the delays until it is not necessary to blow out a trip.

 

[PaulM]

After just over an hour, the train was allowed to proceed on its route.

Only an hour to determine that the train in the person the engineer and conductor were not responsible. Must be some kind of record.

 

[FormerOBS]

The delay of over an hour may not have been the fault of Law Enforcement, as the comment implies. It may have been due to the need to inspect the entire train after an emergency brake application. This means the conductor must detrain and walk the length of the train, and back. It's a long train. This is in addition to any time needed to discuss the situation with Law Enforcement.

We can close this whole sorry chapter by saying the Auto Train arrived in Lorton today at 10:29 am, one hour and 29 minutes late. This arrival marks the first time that consist has not lost time over the road since February 25. The Lorton Terminal personnel made up 2 hours and 6 minutes, so that the train left 37 minutes early. So the consist finally left on time, and I'm going to stop paying such close attention to it, since my sanity is precious. There's so little left of it, after all.

Paul Harvey would add "the rest of the story" by referring you to this evening's delays in the Richmond area, on another thread. I ain't going there, since it's a new chapter.

Tom