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The Coast Starlighter (#14) has been at least 4 hours late arriving in
Seattle every day this week. The station agent told us this train
ALWAYS runs late. If that's true, why don't they just amend their
schedules to reflect reality?

Aaargh. We were supposed to meet my 80-year old mother-in-law's train
at 7:05 PM in Tacoma. The train finally came in at 12:25 AM. She was
exhausted. So were we! Terri

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I have had great luck with Amtrak in the Northeast Corridor. It is good to
know about lateness in the West though, as I am considering train Seattle to
Vancouver before a cruise in 2006.

Juliey

azzure@olypen.com wrote:


> The Coast Starlighter (#14) has been at least 4 hours late arriving in
> Seattle every day this week. The station agent told us this train
> ALWAYS runs late. If that's true, why don't they just amend their
> schedules to reflect reality?

> Aaargh. We were supposed to meet my 80-year old mother-in-law's train
> at 7:05 PM in Tacoma. The train finally came in at 12:25 AM. She was
> exhausted. So were we! Terri


--
Julie
**********
Check out my Travel Pages (non-commercial) at
http://www.dragonsholm.org/travel.htm

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Terri Azzure:
> The Coast Starlighter (#14) has been at least 4 hours late arriving in
> Seattle every day this week. The station agent told us this train
> ALWAYS runs late. If that's true, why don't they just amend their
> schedules to reflect reality?

One reason is that reality not only involves significant delays, but
significant delays that may happen at one point along the route one
day, and a completely different point another day. The schedule has
to show a time when the train is supposed to be at each of about 28
different places along the route. If you distributed an extra 4 hours
all along the route, the result would be needless extended stops until
the first delay happened, and the trip would take even longer.

But if you just added 4 hours to the arrival time in Seattle, and left
the rest of the schedule alone, then it'd be no help for people who
care about the arrival time in Tacoma. See what I mean? Train
schedules *do* often include some padding on the final arrival time,
but not hours of it.

If the truth is that delays are large enough and random enough that
arrival times can't really be guaranteed, there isn't a way to "just
amend" the schedule to reflect that. And if the delays are not
Amtrak's fault, they're in a no-win situation.

Having said that, I have no information specific to the causes of
lateness of this particular train.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto "People say I'm a skeptic --
msb@vex.net but I find that hard to believe."

My text in this article is in the public domain.

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<azzure@olypen.com> wrote in message news:41CCB9BE.8070702@olypen.com...
>
> The Coast Starlighter (#14) has been at least 4 hours late arriving in
> Seattle every day this week. The station agent told us this train
> ALWAYS runs late. If that's true, why don't they just amend their
> schedules to reflect reality?
>
> Aaargh. We were supposed to meet my 80-year old mother-in-law's train
> at 7:05 PM in Tacoma. The train finally came in at 12:25 AM. She was
> exhausted. So were we!
>

You think that's bad? We took the Auto Train last January and it was 16
hours late pulling into Sanford, FL! Coming back north the train was
canceled the day we were supposed to leave so we had to pay for an
additional night of hotel. I don't blame Amtrak so much as they can't
account for accidents on the tracks they share with the freight rail
companies or the weather, but I sure wish they had dedicated passenger train
tracks on most of their network.

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>I sure wish they had dedicated passenger train
>tracks on most of their network.

A friend of mine used to work for Amtrak and said
that many of the delays are due to the fact that
frieght trains usually get priority over passenger
trains, since the majority of their revenue comes
from freight.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Remove "NOSPAM" from my address when sending me e-mail.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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I understood that Amtrak didnt own any track ans as such was at the mercy of
the freifght companies who do own the track and as they make their profits
from freight not passengers then the Amtrak get las t grab and so many
delays may occur without any prior knowledge.
freda

--
Please reply to the list as my email address is a fake
<azzure@olypen.com> wrote in message news:41CCB9BE.8070702@olypen.com...
>
>
> The Coast Starlighter (#14) has been at least 4 hours late arriving in
> Seattle every day this week. The station agent told us this train
> ALWAYS runs late. If that's true, why don't they just amend their
> schedules to reflect reality?
>
> Aaargh. We were supposed to meet my 80-year old mother-in-law's train
> at 7:05 PM in Tacoma. The train finally came in at 12:25 AM. She was
> exhausted. So were we! Terri
>

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"JamesStep" <jamesstep@aol.comNOSPAM> wrote in message
news:20041225003413.08086.00002600@mb-m05.aol.com...
> A friend of mine used to work for Amtrak and said
> that many of the delays are due to the fact that
> frieght trains usually get priority over passenger
> trains, since the majority of their revenue comes
> from freight.


That's no way to run a passenger railroad. They got it backwards, the
people should always come first.

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The rails are owned by the freight companies, so they get first priority.
Freight is more profitable, and it doesn't complain about tracks that are so
rough that the trains tip off the tracks every now and then. When traveling
via Amtrak, the secret is to simply resign yourself to Amtrak standard time
which in no way resembles the published schedules. Amtrak has a website
where you can check on the status of any train before heading off to the
station. .

"Mark Brader" <msb@vex.net> wrote in message
news:10spk505kfsq5d@corp.supernews.com...
> Terri Azzure:
>> The Coast Starlighter (#14) has been at least 4 hours late arriving in
>> Seattle every day this week. The station agent told us this train
>> ALWAYS runs late. If that's true, why don't they just amend their
>> schedules to reflect reality?
>
> One reason is that reality not only involves significant delays, but
> significant delays that may happen at one point along the route one
> day, and a completely different point another day. The schedule has
> to show a time when the train is supposed to be at each of about 28
> different places along the route. If you distributed an extra 4 hours
> all along the route, the result would be needless extended stops until
> the first delay happened, and the trip would take even longer.
>
> But if you just added 4 hours to the arrival time in Seattle, and left
> the rest of the schedule alone, then it'd be no help for people who
> care about the arrival time in Tacoma. See what I mean? Train
> schedules *do* often include some padding on the final arrival time,
> but not hours of it.
>
> If the truth is that delays are large enough and random enough that
> arrival times can't really be guaranteed, there isn't a way to "just
> amend" the schedule to reflect that. And if the delays are not
> Amtrak's fault, they're in a no-win situation.
>
> Having said that, I have no information specific to the causes of
> lateness of this particular train.
> --
> Mark Brader, Toronto "People say I'm a skeptic --
> msb@vex.net but I find that hard to believe."
>
> My text in this article is in the public domain.

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On 12/24/2004 7:52 PM azzure@olypen.com after seeing Puppetry of the
Penis remarked:

>
>
> The Coast Starlighter (#14) has been at least 4 hours late arriving in
> Seattle every day this week. The station agent told us this train
> ALWAYS runs late. If that's true, why don't they just amend their
> schedules to reflect reality?
>
> Aaargh. We were supposed to meet my 80-year old mother-in-law's train
> at 7:05 PM in Tacoma. The train finally came in at 12:25 AM. She was
> exhausted. So were we! Terri
>
Didn't anybody tell you. It's a well known fact that Amtrack runs on
Caribbean Time! No problem mon! 8-)

--
________
To email me, Edit "xt" from my email address.
Brian M. Kochera
"Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once!"
View My Web Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~brian1951

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I frequently use Amtrak between Albany, NY and New York City. It is a
frequently run train and well used. Must of the time it is on time for the
2 hour and 20 minute run. However one day we were 1/2 hour late pulling
into NY's Penn Station. The conductor got on the intercom and apologized
then announced that we at least were within Amtrak's parameters of same day
service. I know it was meant as a joke, but to me it is indicative of a
service which does not value service.

<azzure@olypen.com> wrote in message news:41CCB9BE.8070702@olypen.com...
>
>
> The Coast Starlighter (#14) has been at least 4 hours late arriving in
> Seattle every day this week. The station agent told us this train
> ALWAYS runs late. If that's true, why don't they just amend their
> schedules to reflect reality?
>
> Aaargh. We were supposed to meet my 80-year old mother-in-law's train
> at 7:05 PM in Tacoma. The train finally came in at 12:25 AM. She was
> exhausted. So were we! Terri
>

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"Juliana L Holm" <jholm@osf1.gmu.edu> wrote in message
news:cqie47$8mqs$1@osf1.gmu.edu...
>I have had great luck with Amtrak in the Northeast Corridor. It is good to
> know about lateness in the West though, as I am considering train Seattle
> to
> Vancouver before a cruise in 2006.
>
> Juliey
>
> azzure@olypen.com wrote:
>
The Coast Starlight's punctuality or lack thereof has no relevance to the
Seattle to Vancouver schedules, which I think you'll find more reliable.

Seattle to Vancouver is operated by the Talgo train.

Regards

David Bennetts

Australia

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In article <3ihzd.5706$tG3.5197@trnddc02>, "Pan" <pan_dc@yahoo.com>
wrote:

> "JamesStep" <jamesstep@aol.comNOSPAM> wrote in message
> news:20041225003413.08086.00002600@mb-m05.aol.com...
> > A friend of mine used to work for Amtrak and said
> > that many of the delays are due to the fact that
> > frieght trains usually get priority over passenger
> > trains, since the majority of their revenue comes
> > from freight.
>
>
> That's no way to run a passenger railroad. They got it backwards, the
> people should always come first.

It's two different companies. One runs the freight trains and owns the
tracks, the other (Amtrak) borrows the tracks for its passenger trains.
Can you guess which one will have priority?

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Several years ago a flood forced the rerouting of the 'Cardinal' from
Chicago to Cincinnati. It normally ran at least two hours late. The
rerouting allowed the train to arrive and depart on time. Frequent
passengers, who were used to the 'two hours late' schedule, arrived at the
station to find that they had missed the train.
Go figure.

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Freda wrote:
> I understood that Amtrak didnt own any track ans as such was at the
mercy of
> the freifght companies who do own the track and as they make their
profits
> from freight not passengers then the Amtrak get las t grab and so
many
> delays may occur without any prior knowledge.
> freda
>

This is a major reason for Amtrak delays out west where they use tracks
that are a little busier with freight traffic than in other parts of
the country. I remember taking the train from Oakland to Chicago and
back about 10-11 years ago - on a regularly scheduled 50-or-so hour
trip, we were about 8 hours late getting in to Chicago in the middle of
the winter; however, we also left Oakland a few hours late due to some
technical problems and had a major delay in Utah. The return trip was
in the spring time and we only managed to lose about 4 hours. 4 hours
or 8 hours are annoying, but when you're talking about maybe 25% of the
scheduled travel time, this isn't too far off of what many folks
experience flying - at least you can get up and walk around on the
train.

For all it's worth, I've only encountered delays of more than an hour
maybe twice out of about 10-20 trips on the City of New Orleans between
New Orleans and Chicago. Likewise, I rarely encounter delays going
from New York to Albany about once a month (it probably helps that I
take the 7:15am train out of New York). Coming back, it depends on
whether the train is coming from Canada - there is almost always a
delay crossing the border due to customs, which doesn't go away by the
time the train gets to Albany.

Anyhow, the short answer to the question is, "Yes, Amtrak does run on
time - sometimes."
:-Dan

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