Empire Builder affected by Montana freight derailment

[anir dendroica]

From BNSF:

As stated in a Service Advisoryissued on Sunday, August 28, 2011, manifest train H SPONTW4-27 derailed 4 miles east of Havre, Montana.
The main track is estimated to return to service midday Monday, August 29, 2011. Customers may experience delays of 12 to 24 hours on shipments moving through this area. BNSF will continue to provide you with additional information as it becomes available.

News article:

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20110829/NEWS01/108290301/Train-cars-derail-near-Havre?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage

Mark

 

[yarrow]

the poor eb. it had actually gotten to chicago within a couple hours of on time a few days in the past week

 

[fairviewroad]

Given all that the EB has been through this year, a freight derailment seems almost quaint in comparison. Clean 'er up and send 'em through!

 

[hessjm]

I have a friend on the EB today, they made it through the derailment area and are down about 40 minutes.

 

[anir dendroica]

Apparently Amtrak had a hard time finding buses in the middle of Montana, so elected to wait it out. Train 7(27) was 19 hours and 32 minutes late at Cut Bank and will terminate in Spokane to become 8(29).

(Information courtesy of Mark M. on the EB Yahoo Group.)

Mark

 

[lionelhoguy]

Is this what is effecting #28 from Portland to Spokane?

 

[anir dendroica]

Is this what is effecting #28 from Portland to Spokane?

Yes. #28 will be a bus from PDX to Spokane.

 

[EB_OBS]

Is this what is effecting #28 from Portland to Spokane?

Yes. #28 will be a bus from PDX to Spokane.

Yep, #7(27) arrived into Spokane at 8:43pm, 19 hours late. It's terminated here and #8 and #28 will bus to Spokane. Expect about a 2 hours late departure from Spokane.

 

[lionelhoguy]

Is that due to a lack of equipment on the west side of the wreck? Do you think it will be cleared up by Friday? We are taking #7 from CBS to SEA.

 

[EB_OBS]

Is that due to a lack of equipment on the west side of the wreck? Do you think it will be cleared up by Friday? We are taking #7 from CBS to SEA.

No, it's pretty standard. There's 5 trainsets that make up the Empire Builder run. The #7 and #27 that arrive into Seattle and Portland in the morning are turned and serviced to depart in the late afternoon the same day. If #7/27 is very very late it makes for a really very very late #8/28.

The tracks are already open.

 

[yarrow]

i happened to be down at the spokane amtrak station last night redeeming a voucher for future travel when 7/27 rolled in 19 hours late due to problems from the derailment in montana. heard some interesting conversations from passengers, amtrak employees and the general public. 7/27 passengers were unhappy and incredulous at what had happened to their trips and not looking forward to getting to sea or pdx at 3 or 4 in the morning by bus. there were folks waiting for the train to be turned to depart as a late 8/28 whose general tone was "never again amtrak". the station security guard was complaining about "subsidizing" all the ot for amtrak employees. i was just thinking how much this was costing amtrak (3 busses to sea/pdx as 7/27, 6 busses from sea/pdx as 8/28, the vouchers, hotels, food, etc for those with missed connection) and that western long distance passenger rail was an enjoyable anachronism that wouldn't last much longer

 

[anir dendroica]

I'm guessing you'd see the same general sentiment in an airport during a blizzard, volcanic ash advisory, mechanical failure etc. Whatever the chosen means of transit, about one in 50 trips will go majorly haywire. Not that I think Amtrak does a great job of handling various disruptions (particularly when it comes to customer awareness of what is happening), but ridership keeps increasing despite all of those "never again" passengers.

 

[yarrow]

I'm guessing you'd see the same general sentiment in an airport during a blizzard, volcanic ash advisory, mechanical failure etc. Whatever the chosen means of transit, about one in 50 trips will go majorly haywire. Not that I think Amtrak does a great job of handling various disruptions (particularly when it comes to customer awareness of what is happening), but ridership keeps increasing despite all of those "never again" passengers.

i understand your thinking and i keep riding (though almost only with agr points). as a system, i would guess amtrak probably does only have 1 in 50 trips turn sour. however, the eb in the past 9 months averages closer to 1 in 50 trips on time. no other travel modality could do this and remain solvent. from my viewpoint as an armchair observer, even though i love riding, i just don't see western long distance passenger rail lasting much longer.

 

[anir dendroica]

I'm guessing you'd see the same general sentiment in an airport during a blizzard, volcanic ash advisory, mechanical failure etc. Whatever the chosen means of transit, about one in 50 trips will go majorly haywire. Not that I think Amtrak does a great job of handling various disruptions (particularly when it comes to customer awareness of what is happening), but ridership keeps increasing despite all of those "never again" passengers.

i understand your thinking and i keep riding (though almost only with agr points). as a system, i would guess amtrak probably does only have 1 in 50 trips turn sour. however, the eb in the past 9 months averages closer to 1 in 50 trips on time. no other travel modality could do this and remain solvent. from my viewpoint as an armchair observer, even though i love riding, i just don't see western long distance passenger rail lasting much longer.

There is a certain degree of lateness to be reasonably expected with Amtrak or any long-distance ground-based transportation, probably about four hours. In the past few years I've been on EBs that ran on time, one hour late, three hours late, four hours late, and seven hours late. Only on the seven-hour late train did I detect above-average grumpiness on the part of the passengers. Granted this year about one in five EBs has been running over four hours late, which I would consider unacceptable. But still, at this point things are improving...

 

[yarrow]

I'm guessing you'd see the same general sentiment in an airport during a blizzard, volcanic ash advisory, mechanical failure etc. Whatever the chosen means of transit, about one in 50 trips will go majorly haywire. Not that I think Amtrak does a great job of handling various disruptions (particularly when it comes to customer awareness of what is happening), but ridership keeps increasing despite all of those "never again" passengers.

i understand your thinking and i keep riding (though almost only with agr points). as a system, i would guess amtrak probably does only have 1 in 50 trips turn sour. however, the eb in the past 9 months averages closer to 1 in 50 trips on time. no other travel modality could do this and remain solvent. from my viewpoint as an armchair observer, even though i love riding, i just don't see western long distance passenger rail lasting much longer.

There is a certain degree of lateness to be reasonably expected with Amtrak or any long-distance ground-based transportation, probably about four hours. In the past few years I've been on EBs that ran on time, one hour late, three hours late, four hours late, and seven hours late. Only on the seven-hour late train did I detect above-average grumpiness on the part of the passengers. Granted this year about one in five EBs has been running over four hours late, which I would consider unacceptable. But still, at this point things are improving...

we are on the eb connecting to the cl in a little less than 3 weeks. i hope we make the connection but am not too hopeful. i know amtrak wil lodge and feed us for the night if we don't but it will play havoc with our trip. maybe i have been lucky but travelling by car, bus or my limited experience by air i have only been a day late when travelling by amtrak

 

[jmbgeg]

I'm guessing you'd see the same general sentiment in an airport during a blizzard, volcanic ash advisory, mechanical failure etc. Whatever the chosen means of transit, about one in 50 trips will go majorly haywire. Not that I think Amtrak does a great job of handling various disruptions (particularly when it comes to customer awareness of what is happening), but ridership keeps increasing despite all of those "never again" passengers.

i understand your thinking and i keep riding (though almost only with agr points). as a system, i would guess amtrak probably does only have 1 in 50 trips turn sour. however, the eb in the past 9 months averages closer to 1 in 50 trips on time. no other travel modality could do this and remain solvent. from my viewpoint as an armchair observer, even though i love riding, i just don't see western long distance passenger rail lasting much longer.

Does that opinion include the Coast Starlight?

 

[ColdRain&Snow]

from my viewpoint as an armchair observer, even though i love riding, i just don't see western long distance passenger rail lasting much longer.

With all due respect Yarrow, I've heard you beat this same drum several times before about your love for riding Amtrak's long distance trains on one hand, yet in the next breath prognosticating their imminent demise. How about directing some of that energy towards supporting Amtrak and the future of its LD network? Have you written to your senators and congressmen in the past 6 months to request their undivided support for Amtrak? Long distance trains in America need not go extinct, and those of us that "love riding" Amtrak should not be resigned to foreclosing upon its future.

 

[yarrow]

from my viewpoint as an armchair observer, even though i love riding, i just don't see western long distance passenger rail lasting much longer.

With all due respect Yarrow, I've heard you beat this same drum several times before about your love for riding Amtrak's long distance trains on one hand, yet in the next breath prognosticating their imminent demise. How about directing some of that energy towards supporting Amtrak and the future of its LD network? Have you written to your senators and congressmen in the past 6 months to request their undivided support for Amtrak? Long distance trains in America need not go extinct, and those of us that "love riding" Amtrak should not be resigned to foreclosing upon its future.

i do love trains. i would like to ride those that used to come through spokane. the gn empire builder and western star, the milwaukee's hiawatha. i would love to be back in the age of the streamliners or of steam. those days are pretty much gone. they are gone, imho, because of changes in our ways of travel and changes in the railroads (no more mail contracts, no more viewing passenger service as a loss leader to improve the freight business). amtrak was given the near impossible task of maintaining western long distance routes with inadequate funding and equipment. i don't see the funding for these routes getting much better and i'm not sure it should given the demands on our limited resources.

i'm not sure there are good, non-nostalgic reasons to keep the western ld trains. they may serve, with poor frequency, some small communities abandoned by greyhound but why subsidize transport to some towns and not others? we often bring our kids home from school on the train because they enjoy it but they can come, probably more conviently by bus or plane (highly subsidized by tax dollars modes of travel).

i am glad that my family and myself have had and look forward to travel by train but, to mix metaphors, i think western ld rail is a sinking ship.