by Blillpers
I've recently returned back home to Sweden from my first trip to the US, as well as my first time on Amtrak. I flew from Stockholm to New York, spent a few days there and then went across to Los Angeles via the Lake Shore ltd and the Southwest Chief. What a trip! Great scenery, nice people and good food. As a Swedish railroad employee (dispatcher), I have a few questions about the rail operations in the US.
I've understood that most of the trackage Amtrak operates on is owned by the major freight railroads. A few areas around the major cities are state owned/operated considering the large amount of commuter traffic. Amtrak also owns some trackage themselves, but this is restricted to the Northeast Corridor? With so many different infrastructure managers, I've understood that delays often occur to Amtrak as someone else is doing the dispatching (or traffic control, or whatever the correct term is). Who gets priority? Does the freight railroads have the right to prioritise their own trains even if Amtrak is on time and gets delayed? Are the freights run on a timetable? The way I've been told they are run completely randomly, but surely that can't be true?
The Amtrak trains are usually slower than their historical counterparts, in my case I went on the Lake Shore Ltd (19 hours) compared to the 21st Century Ltd (16 hours) and the Southwest Chief (42 hours) compared to the Super Chief (39 hours). Where is the time lost? Both trains seemed to have plenty of "air" in their schedules. Did the historical trains have tighter schedules? To me it looked like you could shave todays timetables down to the 60s timings by reducing the time spent in stations, but then punctuality would drop, of course. Were speed limits significantly higher in the 60s? As I understand it some form of cab signalling is required above 79mph. How many railroads have this? With the federal requirement for such systems, will more lines have their speeds raised above 79 as a byproduct?
Our lead unit broke down in Trinidad and we were eventually rescued by an BNSF engine some 3 hours late. Arrival in LA became 6 hours late. I suppose we had low priority and a lower top speed. But why were the freight engine still with us all the way? As I understood it the only reason one loco wasn't enough was Raton pass, and I had sort of expected the BNSF engine to be decoupled in Albuquerque. And how common is this? I suppose Amtrak gets the bill from whoever lended their engine.
Lots of questions, I'm sure I'll come up with more. And sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes.
I've understood that most of the trackage Amtrak operates on is owned by the major freight railroads. A few areas around the major cities are state owned/operated considering the large amount of commuter traffic. Amtrak also owns some trackage themselves, but this is restricted to the Northeast Corridor? With so many different infrastructure managers, I've understood that delays often occur to Amtrak as someone else is doing the dispatching (or traffic control, or whatever the correct term is). Who gets priority? Does the freight railroads have the right to prioritise their own trains even if Amtrak is on time and gets delayed? Are the freights run on a timetable? The way I've been told they are run completely randomly, but surely that can't be true?
The Amtrak trains are usually slower than their historical counterparts, in my case I went on the Lake Shore Ltd (19 hours) compared to the 21st Century Ltd (16 hours) and the Southwest Chief (42 hours) compared to the Super Chief (39 hours). Where is the time lost? Both trains seemed to have plenty of "air" in their schedules. Did the historical trains have tighter schedules? To me it looked like you could shave todays timetables down to the 60s timings by reducing the time spent in stations, but then punctuality would drop, of course. Were speed limits significantly higher in the 60s? As I understand it some form of cab signalling is required above 79mph. How many railroads have this? With the federal requirement for such systems, will more lines have their speeds raised above 79 as a byproduct?
Our lead unit broke down in Trinidad and we were eventually rescued by an BNSF engine some 3 hours late. Arrival in LA became 6 hours late. I suppose we had low priority and a lower top speed. But why were the freight engine still with us all the way? As I understood it the only reason one loco wasn't enough was Raton pass, and I had sort of expected the BNSF engine to be decoupled in Albuquerque. And how common is this? I suppose Amtrak gets the bill from whoever lended their engine.
Lots of questions, I'm sure I'll come up with more. And sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes.