Amtrak Southwest Chief Discussion

CPSK:

Virtual Railfan webcams have a four hour time period in which one can go back and watch trains
pass their webcams by fast forwarding or rewinding the video. One does not need to constantly
watch in real time with this feature. http://www.virtualrailfan.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There are many rail passengers that do not fly for various reasons - the "hassle factor" of what one
must do to travel by air is perhaps the most persistent problem. Many people that choose to travel
by train are not in a hurry - and the best part of traveling by train is enjoying the trip.

Thankfully not everyone has the "Are we there yet?" mentality...MACTRAXX

The west-bound Chief actually has one of the better LD route on-time records. They occasionally do have some LONG delays, but there are other times the get into LA up to an hour early. Today's #3 is estimate to arrive in LA 56 minutes early as of 6:45pm edt.

The SW Chief runs most of the legacy route of the ATSF Chief,believe the segment between La Junta to Lamy is only used by Amtrak for now,
Freight moves between those 2 point has not happened for a few years,there have been some MW trains run for washout repairs near the Red River, just(RR)east of Glorieta Pass.
There should be a tie gang working this summer on both Raton and Glorieta Subs paid for by grant money awarded this year.

R&DB wrote:The west-bound Chief actually has one of the better LD route on-time records. They occasionally do have some LONG delays, but there are other times the get into LA up to an hour early. Today's #3 is estimate to arrive in LA 56 minutes early as of 6:45pm edt.

Agreed. The Chief and the City of New Orleans are two of my favorites and that is because they have the same host for virtually the entire ride. The lack of handoff between Class 1's seems to affect the OTP in a positive way.

I took the Chief earlier this month all the way to LA, and we were right on time—though that snaps a 2 year streak of being 6-8 hours late on the Chief!

National Association of Railroad Passengers sends letter: CJOnline.com

Rail passenger group sends letter supporting Amtrak’s Southwest Chief
...
In the letter dated May 9, Jim Mathews, president and chief executive officer of the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Railroad Passengers, took issue with statements made earlier by Amtrak’s office of Government Affairs in response to Congressional inquiries about the status of the Southwest Chief.

Mathews contended that a letter to Congress from Amtrak’s office “misrepresents both the value and the cost of service” for the Southwest Chief route, which cuts diagonally across much of the western half of the United States from Chicago to Los Angeles.

In particular, Mathews disputed Amtrak’s claim that ridership on the Southwest Chief was “steadily declining,” noting ridership was down 1 percent in 2017 from its peak in 2015, and actually was up 14 percent from 2009.

Mathews also said the Southwest Chief, which serves 36 communities in eight states, ranked in the top 40 percent of Amtrak’s national network; that Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico have invested more than $9 million in state funds in partnership with Amtrak; and that Amtrak should look at “per passenger mile” in addition to only the “per passenger” metric when capturing public benefits provided by the route.
...

I was on 3(28). It had a hot journal after La Plata. We were down over an hour into Kansas City.

Do the car tonks inspect the running gear before a twin is released from the coach yard for its run?

R&DB wrote:The west-bound Chief actually has one of the better LD route on-time records. They occasionally do have some LONG delays, but there are other times the get into LA up to an hour early. Today's #3 is estimate to arrive in LA 56 minutes early as of 6:45pm edt.

Schedule padding on a schedule slower than the steam driven Chief in the 30s?

Admin note:

Click here for discussion of summer 2018 debarkings at Raton, Las Vegas, or Albuquerque enroute Philmont Scout Ranch.

At the present time a wreck between a BNSF freight and a welded rail train neat Truxton Az is making havoc with #3 and # 4,delays up to 1 hour,
and plenty of congestion on the Transconn in western Az as well.

Backshophoss wrote:At the present time a wreck between a BNSF freight and a welded rail train neat Truxton Az is making havoc with #3 and # 4,delays up to 1 hour,
and plenty of congestion on the Transconn in western Az as well.

#4 is over 10 hours late into Chicago tonight. Also, its consist was backwards at La Plata.

The wreck has been cleared, but the rails are not ready to resume operation.

Amtrak is now bustituting around the accident.

Please pray for the family of the fatality.

https://azdailysun.com/news/local/updat ... bee16.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

SW Chief sets are Short turning at Flagstaff and Kingman,also the PTC was online in this area of the Transconn.

Latest: Southwest Chief to be truncated Albuquerque-Dodge with a busteetoot. This would save capital costs of activating PTC and Amtrak being charged by BNSF with all maintenance costs:

https://www.growtrains.com/amtrak-plans ... stitution/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Also those who have been around here for a while, note theentire of my nemesis back when I was "at the throttle" around here.

The upshot,Mr Anderson did meet with the NM senators and other parties and "painted" a biased picture of the SW Chief, operating costs,and passenger counts.
His intended plan is to split the SWC into 2 trains,Chicago to Dodge City(or La Junta)as a day train,ABQ to LAUS as a day train or overnight train.
Thruway style bus service Dodge City(or La Junta) to ABQ to serve the "abandoned" rail segment.
He "claims" there's no total commitment from the "stakeholders"and no plan.
Senator Heinrich(D,NM) intends to find ways to handle the costs to keep the SW Chief intact,working with the other states involved.
This was a feature story on tonight's 6:00 pm news http://www.kob.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;