Southwest Chief question

I have an upcoming trip this week on the chief, from Chicago to Lawrence Kansas. I notice the train arrives in KC at 10:18 while it arrives in Lawrence at 12:20. That's about a 30 minute drive between the two. Is the two hour period a layover or is it schedule padding? If it's a layover, and I'm stuck sitting for 90 minutes, I'll have people pick me up in KC. If the train is typically that late, though, I'll just ride to Lawrence.

Thanks for the input.

While I should rightly defer to an active Member residing in the Kansas City area, #3 is serviced (watered) at a facility to the West of the KCY station. Furthermore, during the M%E initiative, a stop was added at De Soto, KA to add and/or cut M&E cars from the consist. I'm not certain if the time allotted has been removed from the schedule or it remains to give some "pad' - and in the process enable BNSF to more readily earn performance payments under their cperating contract.

There is still time in the schedule for M&E operations at DeSoto. Amtrak hasn't stripped that out yet.

John Perkowski

Mr. Perkowski,
But do they stop there anymore? All they haul is the Express Trak Reffers from my Observation of 3/4.

I do not know.

10:30 at night is bedtime for me. Additionally, the ATSF tracks between Argentine and DeSoto are "not the best" places to be after dark.

John Perkowski

The SW Chief doesn't stop at DeSoto, Kan., anymore. That business has ended, the agent from Newton told me recently. The train is fueled and serviced in Argentine yard, west of Union Station on the Kansas side.
The extra time is likely padding. Check Amtrak's web site for train arrivals that way.

I got an email from Amtrak regarding my June trip on the Chief. The new departure time from KCY is 10:55pm. Arrival time LAX is still the same: 8:15am. So this would shorten the time discrepancy you're talking about I think.

cityofmiami wrote:I got an email from Amtrak regarding my June trip on the Chief. The new departure time from KCY is 10:55pm. Arrival time LAX is still the same: 8:15am. So this would shorten the time discrepancy you're talking about I think.

Nonetheless, in answer to the original poster's question about a Chicago-to-Lawrence trip, there definitely is an inconvenient layover in KCY plus the Argentine Yard service stop between KCY (Kansas City, MO) and LRC (Lawrence, KS). This is true in both the current and the new schedules, and it actually gets worse in the new schedule (probably at least in part to improve the 303-3 connection). In short, if someone is willing to drive from Lawrence to Kansas City to pick you up, you generally will arrive in Lawrence sooner.

There is an important consolation, however. If you were to drive the 567 highway miles from Chicago to Lawrence, you would have to average 61 mi/h for the entire trip (stops included) to arrive in Lawrence in the 9:27 elapsed time in the new schedule, and almost 63 mi/h for the 9:03 time in the current schedule. In other words, because an on-time Southwest Chief is distinctly faster than (legally) driving CHI-KCY (you'd have to average over 75 mi/h driving), even with the train taking over two hours for those last 40 miles KCY-LRC, the overall rail trip remains time-competitive with driving. (This is due to the shorter-than-highway distance of the rail route and the 90 mi/h speed limits of the old Santa Fe "transcon" across much of Missouri.)

By entering CHI-KCY and KCY-LRC city pairs in amtrak.com reservations, I find the following.

currently:
dep CHI: 15:15
arr KCY: 22:11
dep KCY: 22:20
arr LRC: 00:18

in June:
dep CHI: 15:15
arr KCY: 22:11
dep KCY: 22:55
arr LRC: 00:32

After the timetable change next week, you'll spend a little less time moving between KCY and LRC, but you'll actually arrive in Lawrence 14 minutes later. (On the other hand, someone driving LRC-KCY-LRC to pick you up would spend about 1.5 hours in the car, and you would spend about 2.3 hours on the train.)

It was a great trip other than sitting on the (cough) racetrack BNSF east of Aurora for 1:15 to wait for god knows what - there were BN scoots sailing past us continually. And the 90 mph running in Missouri is always a good time, even in the dark. You look out the window, and the treeline looks as if you're moving slowly, but they one notices the line poles are sailing past and the normally smooth superliners are throwing an extra sway motion at you... it's 90. And yes, it is faster than driving, because I've driven, flown, and trained to KC. In fact, if one adds in the hour to the airport, two hours at the airport, hour in the air, and hour to KC from that crummy northside airport, it's not that different anyway compared to an airplane. Now if only Amtrak could keep CUS waiting room below 90 degrees farenheit.

Second update - trainwatching in Lawrence is great, especially for us Indiana people. BNSF maintains a GP35 switcher at the depot, while UPRR services a monster elevator and has frequent coaltrains as well.

Do I really have to fly Southwest home?