Empire Builder Summer Blues Started Early this year

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I think that you're right about the continuing delays. I'm still riding the train between St. Paul and Minot, because it's still better than driving, but I don't think that I'll plan any trips further west on the Empire Builder for a while.

Frankly, I can deal with the delays, since I travel in a sleeper and like being on a train. The air conditioning problems on our last trip, on the other hand, were much harder to bear.
 
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Ispolkom said:
I think that you're right about the continuing delays. I'm still riding the train between St. Paul and Minot, because it's still better than driving, but I don't think that I'll plan any trips further west on the Empire Builder for a while.
Frankly, I can deal with the delays, since I travel in a sleeper and like being on a train. The air conditioning problems on our last trip, on the other hand, were much harder to bear.
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Still better than Carnival Cruise.
 
RRUserious said:
Ispolkom said:
I think that you're right about the continuing delays. I'm still riding the train between St. Paul and Minot, because it's still better than driving, but I don't think that I'll plan any trips further west on the Empire Builder for a while.
Frankly, I can deal with the delays, since I travel in a sleeper and like being on a train. The air conditioning problems on our last trip, on the other hand, were much harder to bear.
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Still better than Carnival Cruise.
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Given that a cruise ship is already my idea of hell, yes.
 
I had just asked the BNSF folks locally--they said the slow orders are still in effect-even without construction, AND there was a fair amount of heavy freight traffic this weekend.
 
As I am writing this (4:47am Wednesday), #8/28 is sitting still in Grand Forks waiting for the on-time #7/27 to clear the FO switch south of the station. They will be waiting around an hour, and addition to the usual half hour or so delays due to slow speed between Grand Forks and Fargo, they will be losing significant time, unfortunately.
 
<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="yarrow" data-cid="467151" data-time="1378302790"><p>

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="montana mike" data-cid="467139" data-time="1378298256"><p>#8/28 now 4 hours and 35 minutes behind,<br />

:-((</p></blockquote>

<br />

you must be mistaken. the service advisory said 8/28 would be 2 hours late</p></blockquote>

The alert says two hours or more.
 
yarrow said:
Ryan said:
jebr said:
The alert says two hours or more.
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Don't go confusing the issue with facts.
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the facts are that since the service alert was issued 8/28 has averaged well over 4 hrs late into chi. which, to me, brings into question the value of the alert.
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If the alert said four hours or more, though, and people relied on that and decided to show up 4 hours late to the station and they missed their train, they'd be complaining to Amtrak as well.

Amtrak has to lowball the low number and then caveat it with "or more", because it'll likely be more but it doesn't want people to miss the train because it was less late than usual.

The fact is that Amtrak has stated that delays will be two hours or more. Averaging four hours is more than two hours.

Frankly, since they're not breaking connections, this is an adequate service alert as far as I'm concerned. It lets people know delays are inevitable and to expect them.
 
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fairviewroad said:
Adequate, except issued about two months too late.
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My thoughs exactly. If I were a newbie, and my train was several hours late, and then found out being that late was "normal" and Amtrak didn't have any advisory out to that effect, I'd be very upset. I wonder how many such newbies are now saying "Never again" with regards to Amtrak because of this??
 
You're right, though the ironic thing is that newbies wouldn't know how long the train is "supposed" to take except for the

guidance of a printed timetable. I mean, the EB is scheduled to take 45 hours from Seattle to Chicago. But if you were

to tell the average rider that the journey will take 49 hours I don't think most people would blink, UNLESS they think it's

supposed to take 45 hours. It's the lateness that bothers folks, not the overall length of the journey.

(Obviously that calculation doesn't hold up for shorter segments)

But as has been discussed here, temporarily extending the scheduled length of the trip to "eliminate" delays has a whole

host of practical issues.
 
Does anybody in the Seattle area know if engine 156 left on the eastbound EB this evening (9-4)?
 
aurbo said:
Does anybody in the Seattle area know if engine 156 left on the eastbound EB this evening (9-4)?
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No it didn't. Accroding to Status Maps, the train left with a regular Phase V Genesis. If the 156 was used, Status Maps would show a special ticker.

Edited to add: I'm glad Amtrak say two hours or more. The 7 (3) is only running 2:06 late right now, but it's getting gradually worse and worse. Must be stuck behind a freight again. It actually only lost 21 minutes on the terrible stretch FAR-GFK. Talk about train congestion!

Meanwhile, disaster seems to have struck the 6 (3) and 21 (3) instead of the EB.
 
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Swadian Hardcore said:
aurbo said:
Does anybody in the Seattle area know if engine 156 left on the eastbound EB this evening (9-4)?
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No it didn't. Accroding to Status Maps, the train left with a regular Phase V Genesis. If the 156 was used, Status Maps would show a special ticker.

Edited to add: I'm glad Amtrak say two hours or more. The 7 (3) is only running 2:06 late right now, but it's getting gradually worse and worse. Must be stuck behind a freight again. It actually only lost 21 minutes on the terrible stretch FAR-GFK. Talk about train congestion!

Meanwhile, disaster seems to have struck the 6 (3) and 21 (3) instead of the EB.
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On the other hand, 2:06 out of Havre doesn't suggest complete disaster if your final destination is Seattle or Portland. The Amtrak Delays website for Havre only goes out five days, but here is the data: (note dates are the arrival days in each station)

Havre (8/31).... 1:52 late

Seattle (9/1)......38 minutes late

Portland (9/1) 2 hrs 2 minutes late

Havre(9/1)..........3 hrs 13 minutes late

Seattle(9/2).........1 hr 7 minutes late

Portland (9/2)......1 hr late

Havre(9/2)........2 hrs 19 minutes late

Seattle(9/3)........13 minutes EARLY

Portland(9/3)......20 minutes late

Havre (9/3).........2 hrs 14 minutes late

Seattle 9/4).........14 minutes EARLY

Portland (9/4).......40 minutes late

Havre (9/4).......2 hrs 6 minutes late

Seattle (9/5).........??

Portland (9/5)......??

There is a lot of padding in the schedule into Seattle in particular and into Portland as well. Most of the time a 2 hr late train into/out of Havre isn't a disaster in terms of missed connections.
 
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