How late will a connecting train be held

[johnny.menhennet]

I saw under the Newbie Questions topic that the Southwest Chief has arrived a few times in the last couple of weeks into Chicago at 6:28P, 6:33P, etc. Knowing that the Capitol leaves Chicago at 6:10P, what is the chance that they would wait 25 or 30 more minutes to be able to get all of those connecting passengers. I know of the Pittsburgh-DC track work thing, but ignoring that part of it, would they wait, just so Amtrak doesn't have to pay to send them the next day?

 

[Mackensen]

I saw under the Newbie Questions topic that the Southwest Chief has arrived a few times in the last couple of weeks into Chicago at 6:28P, 6:33P, etc. Knowing that the Capitol leaves Chicago at 6:10P, what is the chance that they would wait 25 or 30 more minutes to be able to get all of those connecting passengers. I know of the Pittsburgh-DC track work thing, but ignoring that part of it, would they wait, just so Amtrak doesn't have to pay to send them the next day?

Probably not. Depending on your destination they'd try to re-book you on the Lake Shore Limited.

 

[johnny.menhennet]

That's what I was thinking... but that would only work if someone were traveling the entire route to WAS... but I'm not just talking about eastbound connections in Chicago, I'm being general

 

[jdcnosse]

I am curious about this as well, as in the past I've gone from FLG to GRR via the SWC and then transferring to the Pere Marquette in CHI, and of course the SWC has always been early enough to make my connection, but the Pere Marquette leaves at 5:20pm and it's the only train to GRR for the day. If I recall, the Wolverine/Blue Water does run at like 7:30pm out of CHI, but that only gets me to KAL, an hour south from GRR.

 

[kal-tex]

To "jdcnosse" - We have often missed our connection to the Pere Marquette. In those instances, Amtrak would hire a van to transport us to Grand Rapids. After having had this occur several times, we started driving to Kalamazoo for our departures. Kalamazoo offers a greater selection of trains both to and from Chicago. If your trip is not of a long duration, this might be a good option for you. Long-term parking is available in a covered ramp right across the street from the station.

 

[AlanB]

I believe that even with the tunnel issue on the Cap that they will hold the train if the window is under 30 minutes. More than that, they have to let the Cap go so as to not miss the construction window.

 

[Michael061282]

a good while (10 years ago or so) I asked a conductor the same question. He said the policy was to hold a train 90 seconds per connecting passenger. If a certain time was exceeded they'd have to let the train go of course, but the general rule was 90 secs per passenger. I'm SURE that policy has changed now, but its the best explanation I ever got from Amtrak.

 

[jdcnosse]

To "jdcnosse" - We have often missed our connection to the Pere Marquette. In those instances, Amtrak would hire a van to transport us to Grand Rapids. After having had this occur several times, we started driving to Kalamazoo for our departures. Kalamazoo offers a greater selection of trains both to and from Chicago. If your trip is not of a long duration, this might be a good option for you. Long-term parking is available in a covered ramp right across the street from the station.

Well usually I just get dropped off at GRR because I actually live a half hour west of GRR. But I have noticed that I could drive to KAL.

 

[reefgeek]

1322331399[/url]' post='331715']

1322327903[/url]' post='331710']I saw under the Newbie Questions topic that the Southwest Chief has arrived a few times in the last couple of weeks into Chicago at 6:28P, 6:33P, etc. Knowing that the Capitol leaves Chicago at 6:10P, what is the chance that they would wait 25 or 30 more minutes to be able to get all of those connecting passengers. I know of the Pittsburgh-DC track work thing, but ignoring that part of it, would they wait, just so Amtrak doesn't have to pay to send them the next day?

Probably not. Depending on your destination they'd try to re-book you on the Lake Shore Limited.

That's what happened to me recently. The SWC was just 40 minutes too late and they didn't hold it.

 

[doggy1]

Interesting discussion. We will be on the SWC in March round trip from GRR to ABQ thru Chicago. I wondered what would happen if we missed our connection to the PM coming home. Its our 30th wedding anniversary trip to Abq. We will have less than 48hrs in Abq, if the Chief is on schedule. I just made our hotel reservations yesterday at the Holiday Inn Express Old Town which I know is not exactly in "Old Town". Back to lurk status!

 

[ScottC4746]

I saw under the Newbie Questions topic that the Southwest Chief has arrived a few times in the last couple of weeks into Chicago at 6:28P, 6:33P, etc. Knowing that the Capitol leaves Chicago at 6:10P, what is the chance that they would wait 25 or 30 more minutes to be able to get all of those connecting passengers. I know of the Pittsburgh-DC track work thing, but ignoring that part of it, would they wait, just so Amtrak doesn't have to pay to send them the next day?

Probably not. Depending on your destination they'd try to re-book you on the Lake Shore Limited.

That is probably true about not holding a train. Unlike air travel, train schedules are set up with the host railroads and their frieght schedules. Since some sections on some routes are single track,they don't wait their freight having to weight while a guest, Amtrak, clogs up their tracks.

 

[MikefromCrete]

A lot would depend on the number of passengers transferring. If there's only two or three, the train wouldn't be held. if it's 100, then the train would be held, depending on circumstances such as construction windows.

 

[jis]

That is probably true about not holding a train. Unlike air travel, train schedules are set up with the host railroads and their frieght schedules. Since some sections on some routes are single track,they don't wait their freight having to weight while a guest, Amtrak, clogs up their tracks.

Actually the situation is similar in case of airlines too. They have to coordinate with FAA ATC and the destination airport before they can arbitrarily hold a flight, or spend a lot of time sitting in the ballpark while their new slots and routing gets sorted out. This can get particularly hairy if a slot controlled airport is involved in the itinerary.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

Amtrak is utterly incompetent in this area. The Cap wasn't held 15 minutes for over 50 connecting Pax from the Zephyr.

 

[Mackensen]

Amtrak is utterly incompetent in this area. The Cap wasn't held 15 minutes for over 50 connecting Pax from the Zephyr.

Is this a recent incident? Amtrak has almost no wiggle room from CSX right now because of track work, and anything later than an hour into Pittsburgh you're getting bussed the rest of the way. Combine that with the NS track work around Hammond and you get a lose-lose situation.

 

[Stellar1]

I was on the SWC into Chicago near the end of August (on a Tuesday). I was worried about the connection issue with the track construction also, as I didn't want to get bussed. Our train was late and they told us that we would be arriving into Chicago too late and would miss the CL. They said they would put us up for the night in a Chicago hotel.

Once we did arrive into Chicago, we got off the train and they had Amtrak personal right there on the platform telling us that they were holding the CL after all and we were to go to the end of the platform, around and onto the next platform. We arrived into Chicago about 20 - 25 minutes late, got directly on the CL. It took them about another 10 to 12 minutes to transfer all the baggage before we got going. We had no problems and made it all the way to Washington without any other major delays.