Amtrak has a Chicago problem. I don’t know why. Possibly a combination of leadership, staffing levels, and tools to do the job. There was a Fourteenth Street Coach Yard 45 years ago, a primitive slum of a place compared to today’s palatial infrastructure. Yet Penn Central’s demoralized workforce still got the trains out on time, in all seasons. And don’t tell me it’s cold. It’s always cold in Chicago this time of year. Friday, there was no snow or gusty winds, and the temperature reached the mid-teens. This week for me was a repeat of last week, when Amtrak sent the Cardinal out of Chicago almost four hours late yet without a functional sleeping car. It was my bad luck to be in that sleeping car....
This is an indictment of Amtrak. You cannot blame Amtrak for all the late arrivals (yes, almost all trains were late arriving) but you can hold it accountable for late initial departures, and this is pathetic. You can’t just blame the weather. It has been a cold, wet winter on the Northeast Corridor, too, and the NEC may have bent at times, but it never broke. And you can’t say the freight railroads aren’t running well, either, because the freight railroads don’t run Fourteenth Street Coach Yard.
One other thing: Screw me once, and I may say it’s happenstance. Screw me twice, and I smell a rat. The last operating switcher died on Thursday? Use the road power to couple the Pullman cars. Stuck valve on Friday? I don’t think the people at Fourteenth Street give a damn. Pullman Rail Journeys is a customer. Pullman should matter....