LSL woes

[rile42]

I'm departing early tomorrow morning on the LSL from Cleveland on a trip to Boston. I've been following the OTP of train 48 for several days. It seems that since the EB resumed, the OTP of the LSL has been horrible. I'm assuming they are holding 48 in Chicago for the arrival of the Builder. If that is so, how long would they hold a train to wait for a late arriving connection. It seems the Lake Shore Limited is being held hostage in a way. It makes it worse when the arrival time into Boston is scheduled after 9:00 PM anyway and to add 4 or 5 hours onto that makes it impossible to get MBTA trains out of the city. Since it is the terminus of the LSL, it also lets Amtrak off the hook for any recompense for the delay. Although, a couple of years ago, Amtrak paid cabfare for us to go clear up to Rockport, probably a 45 minute drive.

 

[bkylnkenny]

I'm curious too since I'll be on the 48 next week going from Chicago to NYP. Are they letting passengers board the train on time in CUS or do they keep everybody in the waiting room until it's close to the departure time?

 

[AlanB]

I'm not sure if they are holding the train, checking the status for departures for the last few days however could show such a pattern. However, if they are indeed holding it for the EB, I would not expect them to hold it for more than a 1/2 hour or so. Any more than that they really start to get hammered by their freight hosts for being late.

And if they are holding the train, they might delay boarding by a bit, but not substantially. They'll want to have everone in Chicago on the train and ready to go and out of the way when they rush the EB passengers down the platform. Generally for sleeping car pax they board between 8:30 & 8:45 for the 9:30 departure, so as to allow some time for the wine & cheese reception in the dining car. I could see them pushing the boarding back to 8:45 - 9:00 at most.

 

[bkylnkenny]

On Saturday, the Empire Builder arrived at 10:27pm and the LSL limited left at 10:51pm. On Friday, the EB arrived at 11:09pm and the LSL left at 11:38pm. There definitely seems to be a pattern; we'll see what happens tonight.

 

[bombcar]

The LSL I was on a month or so ago was held up for 5+ hours out of CHI because the trainset didn't arrive anywhere near on time.

 

[bkylnkenny]

Was that during the time when there was a problem with a bridge in New York and the 49 had to be rerouted?

 

[bombcar]

Yeah. It was a bit annoying because we had to wait in the lounge. At least when the trainset's there you can usually wait in the train.

It worked out well for me, however, as my friends didn't have to get up incredibly early to pick me up at ELY.

 

[ThayerATM]

I'm not sure if they are holding the train, checking the status for departures for the last few days however could show such a pattern. However, if they are indeed holding it for the EB, I would not expect them to hold it for more than a 1/2 hour or so. Any more than that they really start to get hammered by their freight hosts for being late.

And if they are holding the train, they might delay boarding by a bit, but not substantially. They'll want to have everone in Chicago on the train and ready to go and out of the way when they rush the EB passengers down the platform. Generally for sleeping car pax they board between 8:30 & 8:45 for the 9:30 departure, so as to allow some time for the wine & cheese reception in the dining car. I could see them pushing the boarding back to 8:45 - 9:00 at most.

Since Nov 24, 2010, I've been tracking the arrival of train 8 (Empire Builder) into CHI, and comparing that with the departure of train 48 (Lake Shore Limited) out of CHI. The LSL (train 48) has been late out of Chicago lots of times, but since Nov 2010 there have been ONLY 10 instances when the late arrival of the EB (train 8) could conceivably have had anything to do with the late departure of the LSL, and the numbers include Friday and Saturday nights.

I'm inclined to agree with Alan, that Amtrak will only hold a departing train for about a half hour in order to connect with a late arriving connecting train. I've seen it happen with the arriving LSL (train 49) into CHI and the departing California Zephyr (train 5) from CHI. :unsure:

Other than that, I'm inclined to think that the LSL (train 48) had issues of its own.

 

[Rider]

Friday's 448 from CHI left because there was a bad ordered sleeper and it took a long time to get the consist in order. It ended up that there was not another available, so a new coach was prepared instead and a whole lot of folks were very unhappy in the Met lounge.

We did not leave until around 11:30 , over 2 hours late. Delays "dominoed" after that, because as a conductor told me, we "lost our slot" between freights. It is true we spent a lot of time on sidings the whole way to Boston. We arrived this morning in Boston more than 5 hours late - about 2 AM.

 

[Tracksentinel]

Wow.

Been watching OTP of LSL lately also.

Taking family on LSL on July 10th from CLE to NYP to catch a Carnival Cruise ship to Halifax.

We have a window of expected arrival of LSL @ 6:00PM thru the next day when we need to be at cruise ship dock no later than 4:00PM. Wondering if there's enough padding there.

 

[bkylnkenny]

On Sunday, EB arrived at 11:07pm, LSL departed at 11:30pm.

 

[AlecL]

Yeah the LSL has been a disaster lately. All within the past couple of weeks there's been a bad ordered diner, bad ordered sleeper, a freight derailment near Utica, and that's just what I can think of off the top of my head. Plus, when 49 has been arriving hours late into CHI, they need to give the OBS crew a certain amount of time to rest and then restock the train before they turn back that evening as train 48. All these factors and then some have been contributing to the LSL woes as of lately.

 

[Anderson]

What time are the CHI arrivals looking like?

 

[Mackensen]

What time are the CHI arrivals looking like?

Average over the last month is nearly two hours, but that's skewed by that really bad spell in the second week of June. I'm on the LSL in a week so we'll see what happens.

 

[bkylnkenny]

Sunday's LSL arrived in CHI 1 hr 25 min late.

Saturday's LSL arrived 2 hr 33 min late.

Friday's LSL arrived 2 hr 5 min late.

 

[PRR 60]

Since the Empire Builder re-started, it sure seems like the eastbound Lake Shore is being held in Chicago for the Builder's arrival,even if that means leaving two hours late.

Scheduled departure from Chicago of the eastbound Lake Shore Limited is 9:30pm

6/17: EB arrived Chicago 11:09pm, LSL departed Chicago 11:38pm

6/18: EB arrived Chicago 10:27pm, LSL departed Chicago 10:51pm

6/19: EB arrived Chicago 11:07pm, LSL departed Chicago 11:30pm

 

[Anderson]

Thanks. Two hours is nothing to panic about; I'm just worried about a catastrophe with anything over about 3.5 hours (i.e. anything that will make me miss the SWC...though this is why I build a "spare" day into my trips).