More bad press for the Sunset

[NativeSon5859]

Here's a little mini article from the New Orleans' Times Picayune newspaper.

Late train leaves passengers in lurch

The Amtrak Sunset Limited train scheduled to arrive at Union Passenger Terminal on Friday at 8:30 p.m. didn't show until Saturday at 2:45 p.m., more than 18 hours late. And rather than continue the run to Orlando, Amtrak redirected more than 80 passengers to buses. Officials at Union Pacific Railroad, which controls most of the track used by Sunset Limited between Los Angeles and New Orleans, blamed the delay on snowy weather in southern California. Even though Amtrak has priority over freight trains on the track, the Sunset Limited arrived 12 hours late in Tucson, Ariz., 14 hours late in El Paso, Texas, and 15 hours late in Houston, said Mark Davis, spokesman for Union Pacific. When the train got to Berwick, near Morgan City, it took three hours to find a conductor to replace one whose 12-hour work shift had ended, Davis said. One passenger, business writer Guy Span, 53, called the Sunset Limited "the train of forever" and said many riders were furious about fouled-up trip plans. "I'm not going in a bus" to Florida, he said Saturday. "I'm just going to fly out."

 

[jccollins]

The really sad news is that there were only 80 passengers onboard. I suppose this is good that only this many people had to experience the inconvenience (courtesy of the Union Pathetic), but a train like the Sunset traveling between so many popular destinations should carry at least 200 passengers on a regular basis during the winter and more during the summer to minimize financial losses and show that it has strong ridership. I am sure ridership will suffer even more when the train is cut down to 1 sleeper and 2 coaches, not to increase over the summer. I know that this number into NOL doesn't really represent how many were on board during earlier legs, but it still suggests the train's ridership was pretty weak.

That said, this article is quite interesting in that the paper went straight to the U.P. for an explanation on why the train was late. Usually the press goes to Amtrak for these explanations. Their excuses were quite pathetic, like them (snow in southern California, along the Sunset route? Come on!) Still it shows that some press cares when U.P. screws Amtrak this badly and it gives them a little bad press, taken with a grain of salt by U.P. management and customers. However, repeated bad press such as this from multiple press sources is what needs to happen before U.P. might begin to have just a little heart for the train and not purposely try to screw it at every opportunity. This doesn't mean they'll go out of their way to try to run it on time, but rather stop playing their games of purposely targeting it and trying to run it as late as they can. Thanks for sharing this with us NativeSon.

 

[MrFSS]

Even though Amtrak has priority over freight trains on the track, the Sunset Limited arrived 12 hours late in Tucson, Ariz., 14 hours late in El Paso, Texas, and 15 hours late in Houston, said Mark Davis, spokesman for Union Pacific.

Amtrak has priority??? A UP spokesman saying this? WOW!!!

 

[Save Our Trains Michigan]

i pulled along side of that train at Berwick LA i was on the mainline and let him out in front of me and i followed him into NOL.

 

[Save Our Trains Michigan]

I will say the lounge car was full of passengers and the sleeper's were full.The passengers seemed happy they were and waving at me when we came up along side of them.