SELECTED ON-TIME PERFORMANCE 2/6/22 THROUGH ?????? COMMENTS

Mr Lustig
As I handle the ALB to NY side of things today perhaps I can get some answers. Looks like I will have plenty of time to kill waiting around for the expected 425pm arrival.

From the performance of Sunday 3/13 of trains Dpg. CHI:
#27 "Empire Builder" Dp. 2' 49" late; 6' 54" late at Glenview (1st stop, 30" from CUS);
#21 "Texas Eagle" Dp. OT; 6' 25" late at Joliet;
#307 to STL Dp. 1' 50" late; and
#364 "Blue Water" Dp. 1' 50" late.

All were @ mechanical issues according to Amtrak Twitter site.

Great way to encourage repeat ridership!!!

Mr. Lustig, for how long can Amtrak expect this latest sob "we haven't got any people" to have shelf life?

Enquiring mind wants to know.

A few tidbits from current performance:

#7 (19) westbound "Empire Builder" Dp. CHI 4'51 late. no reason given;

#3 (19) westbound "SW Chief" Dp. CHI 4'05" late @ engine issues;

#1 (19) westbound "Sunset Limited" running 6' 29" late;

#1 (21) bus bridge NOL / SAS 575 miles @ track damaged by fire (no location given);

#30 (20) eastbound "Capitol Limited" 2' 35" late Ar. PGH @ 7:41AM, but #42 (21) eastbound "Pennsylvanian" Dp. 7:30AM OT.

I thought that things were supposed to improve.

Mr. Lustig, your immediate report has me "shuddering" when I think of a neighbor I saw yesterday.

Knowing that I have railroad as part of my CV, she says "Gil, did you know we took a train ride earlier this month (I did; #5(3) NPV-GJC) and we just loved it and want to do it again!!"

All I could think was "Vida, you lucked out" (turns out they were OT at all stations and "everything worked"). The conversation went on with "we really liked the 'Social Car' (Sightseer Lounge) with its big windows. I wish we had gone all the way to San Francisco (well that's a bus ride) and got a "Big Room" instead of the "Tiny One" we had (they can well afford it).

They flew home from that; anyone care to place their bets if they do another LD journey, they will come back raving????

Sort of reinforces the cliche of Amtrak being nothing more than a big amusement park ride vs essential transportation.......

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Amtrak tidbits for today:

#20 (26th) northbound "Crescent" Dp. NOL 1'11" late; 3' 15" late at MEI; but with the extra added padding now only 1' 30" late.

#6 (25th) eastbound "Cal Zephyr" Dp. Emeryville 2'00" late; now 3' 45" late @ Lincoln.

#30 (27th) eastbound "Capitol Limited" no sleepers; Passengers were notified yesterday that they were downgraded to coach. Amazing that CHI has no spares, and what happens when this equipment will start to run through on a western train?

#42 (27th) eastbound "Pennsylvanian" cancelled after leaving time @ mechanical issues. Passengers bussed to HAR and can then take a "Keystone" eastward, but could wait 2 to 3 hours for the Keystone connection on the weekend schedule.

Seems like Amtrak's senior management is doing its best to kill as much service as possible. With the BOD apparently all honor graduates of the Penn Central BOD Oversight College of Management, looks like they will allow this to occur.

shlustig wrote: ↑Sun Mar 27, 2022 8:27 am .#30 (27th) eastbound "Capitol Limited" no sleepers; Passengers were notified yesterday that they were downgraded to coach. Amazing that CHI has no spares, and what happens when this equipment will start to run through on a western train?

Bet someone going to NARP's "pow-wow" this weekend was booked on there.

Seems like all this, combined with the Capitol Limited's runthrough that doesn't allow the toilet tanks to be emptied in Chicago, is Amtrak's stealth attempt to exit the LD business. I was considering a trip to Chicago on the Cap using Amtrak points I saved up during Covid, but the ruthrough issue, the terrible OT record and lack of the Sightseer Lounge has me canceling that plan. These days if anyone asks me about taking an Amtrak LD train, all I can say is "If you do, don't blame me for the experience." And once again. this stuff is bipartisan. Neither party is really interested in insisting that Amtrak improve its LD service. I figure my next LD trip will be when Brightline inaugurates its Orlando service. Hopefully the Auto Train will retain some amenities, and I won't care if it's a couple of hours late because CSX decided to run a freight train.

Mr. Grossman, it's time to do what should have been done 45 years ago. The LD'S were simply to have been a five year "ease the pain" with an orderly phase out starting about '76.

All I know is that the washroom walls at the offices heard when the Superliners were ordered was "we're going to be stuck with these trains for the next thirty years".

And now, thirty has become fifty with no end in sight.

shlustig wrote: ↑Sun Mar 27, 2022 8:27 am #30 (27th) eastbound "Capitol Limited" no sleepers; Passengers were notified yesterday that they were downgraded to coach. Amazing that CHI has no spares, and what happens when this equipment will start to run through on a western train?

Oooohkay... why no sleepers? Although that would of been a contract-breaker and I'd be demanding rebooking on the Cardinal or Lake Shore Limited. I paid for a bed and meals, you're going to provide bed & meals.

JoeG wrote: ↑Sun Mar 27, 2022 2:26 pm Hopefully the Auto Train will retain some amenities, and I won't care if it's a couple of hours late because CSX decided to run a freight train.

Mr. Grossman, so far as I'm concerned, the Auto Train amenities are gone.

Based on my likely final trip, Voyage 24 or 52(the day Kobe Bryant was killed), the Short Ribs were "edible", but Sky Chefs does a far better job for United Airlines to and from overseas.

But the utter indignity of having a waiter making rounds with two milk cartons saying "you get one complimentary glass (should say "plastic"); Red or White", is what they did.

The pre-departure Happy Hour is long gone. At one time, that was a "tasting" when various Virginia winemakers would be aboard to explain their varietals and offer tastes in a reasonably civilized environment. To my knowledge, there is no longer a Sleeper Lounge. The 3350X car is there, but is an "overflow Breakfast Diner".

So I think they have done a job."rationalizing" the Auto Train- and for $1500 to save me 400 miles of driving and no time whatever, "just not worth it" anymore.

Soooooo, for #30 (27th) CHI found a couple of sleepers after all, maybe because of the NARP / RPA people riding the train to the Spring Meeting. However, #30 Dp. CHI 1' 40" tardy.

Also of note:

#91 (27th) "Silver Star" Dp. NYP 2' 35" late with no information on the Twitter site;
#351 (28th) "Wolverine" Dp. PNT 30" late @ mechanical issue; and
#380 (28th) "Illinois Zephyr" cancelled @ mechanical issues.

And so it goes, on and on.

Am at the RPA/NARP event and staffing came up. I can tell you the staffing situation is undoubtedly real - and legal marijuana is entertainingly causing an issue in hiring attrition. People are passing the urinalysis and then washing out by flunking the hair test.

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Mon Mar 28, 2022 6:27 am So I think they have done a job."rationalizing" the Auto Train- and for $1500 to save me 400 miles of driving and no time whatever, "just not worth it" anymore.

I've been asked to clarify how I arrive at a 400 mile drive saving when the AT route is close to 800.

Here goes; if a passenger's destination is anywhere in Northeast, let's say defined as East of Harrisburg (40'26"N, 76'88"W) or Syracuse (43'07"N, 76'15"W), then the 800 mile saving is "on mark". However, my destination is home in the Chicago area (42'00"N, 87'.58"W). Compare the highway mileage of, say, Boca - the place I mostly go to "down below" - SR 91 (that's the Turnpike)-75-24-57 with that of 95-AT-95-70-76-80-294 and the excess "behind the wheel" of the former over the latter is about 400 miles.

And the $1500?; that was auto on the rack and me in a Bedroom on #52(26 FEB). Just for sport, I checked rates about 30 days in advance of my trip that began Feb 19, and $1500 was the result. Instead of two nights enroute in hotels driving, it's one night AT and one hotel via AT.

Can either be done cheaper? Of course it can! But get to be 80yo, and compromising accustomed "creature comforts" becomes "difficult".