Leaving Early???

[PJRACER]

When I look at Amtrak Status it sometimes (not very often) shows a train leaving early. Whats up with that......i.e.: today I see the @#97 leave 17 minutes early. How can they leave a station early....or do they know ahead of time no ticketed passengers are coming on board????

 

[Trogdor]

Trains can leave early from stops marked in the timetable with "L" or "D".

 

[gregoryla]

From what station did the 97 leave early?

 

[PJRACER]

According to Amtrak Status......it left Ft Lauderdale 17 minutes early today.

 

[pennyk]

Train 98 (northbound Silver Meteor) quite often leaves WAS (and stops thereafter) early.

 

[PRR 60]

According to Amtrak Status......it left Ft Lauderdale 17 minutes early today.

Fort Lauderdale (FTL) is a "discharge only (D)" stop for the southbound Silver Service trains. Since no passengers can board at FTL, the train can leave as soon as the station work is done, even if it is early.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

According to Amtrak Status......it left Ft Lauderdale 17 minutes early today.

Fort Lauderdale (FTL) is a "discharge only (D)" stop for the southbound Silver Service trains. Since no passengers can board at FTL, the train can leave as soon as the station work is done, even if it is early.

Yes, and to elaborate more, all stops below Ft Lauderdale are Discharge only. That means it will leave nobody behind by leaving early.

Then look at page 48 of the current timetable. See how all the trains LD from Alexandia to Newark are Discharge only. Again, they can leave early at all of those stops since they carry no local business within the NE Corrider.

Southbound from NYC to ALexandria they stop to receive only so in that case they cannot leave early since in that direction they WOULD be leaving people behind.But the southbound Carolinian for some reason is not Receive only southbound.

This arrangement of NE travel by LD trains has a checkered history back before Amtrak. It has not historically always been true.

 

[rtabern]

According to Amtrak Status......it left Ft Lauderdale 17 minutes early today.

Fort Lauderdale (FTL) is a "discharge only (D)" stop for the southbound Silver Service trains. Since no passengers can board at FTL, the train can leave as soon as the station work is done, even if it is early.

Yes, and to elaborate more, all stops below Ft Lauderdale are Discharge only. That means it will leave nobody behind by leaving early.

Then look at page 48 of the current timetable. See how all the trains LD from Alexandia to Newark are Discharge only. Again, they can leave early at all of those stops since they carry no local business within the NE Corrider.

Southbound from NYC to ALexandria they stop to receive only so in that case they cannot leave early since in that direction they WOULD be leaving people behind.But the southbound Carolinian for some reason is not Receive only southbound.

This arrangement of NE travel by LD trains has a checkered history back before Amtrak. It has not historically always been true.

This is the case on several trains as Trogdor said... look for the "L" or "D"

For example, the Eastbound Empire Builder #8 can leave Milwaukee and/or Glenview early because you can't buy a ticket and no one is getting on. I mean it makes sense... why sit and wait in Milwaukee for no new passengers getting on when you can leave early and get everyone into Chicago early?

In the NEC, I know this is the case also for the Cardinal #50... no one can get on past some stop in Virginia... so DC and all point north of that are "Drop Only"... We made up almost an hour by making quick stops up the NEC on the Cardinal when I took it CHI-NYP last year.

 

[Acela150]

The only reason trains go Discharge only is mostly because there are trains that go from say WAS to NYP every hour twice sometimes three times an hour. In Florida Commuter Rail can take passengers to Miami. Just another reason why Trains Discharge or Receive only.

 

[railiner]

This practice of long distance trains D or R only occurs when the long distance train travels on a route that also has frequent local or regional trains, most especially the Northeast Corridor, but also the Empire Corridor and some other examples around the country. It is done to prevent local traffic from interfering with long distance traffic. Back in the days of more frequent long distance trains, often the 'premier' trains on a route would have a lot of restrictions to allow only long distance passengers. Back then they had some so-called 'conditional stops'.