I notice a lot of disruptions and huge delays on the Texas Eagles lately. Is this due to the track problems in southern IL? Any ETA on when they're fixed?
Yesterday's TE (01/09) was over 5 hours late leaving Chicago. Problem, according to a TO thread, was a broken water pipe over the south tracks at CUS plus generally rotten weather.
The black hole between St. Louis and Little Rock has terrible problems with broken rails, frozen switches etc in the winter and flooding in the Spring and Summer!
The broken rails/ frozen switches just happened there this week causing delays for the Eagles which, combined with UP freight and coal traffic, caused the UP Dispatchers to put Amtrak @ the end of the line for Dispatching! Please read the two threads about delays into/out of CHI for LD Trains.
Amtrak is also having it"s annual Winter Meltdown ( pun intended!) in CHI which is causing Delays and Service Disruptions for all Trains!
While I lucked out and didn't encounter any major problems (a couple of weeks ago), it DID seem like freight traffic was quite heavy this time around. The only delays standing out in my mind were both on train 21 -- being held for a stacker before entering Springfield, IL., and switching out a car in St. Louis. But, at least with my destinations, I arrived basically on time. So, there is still hope!