#3 Southwest Limited

trainbooks@hotmail.com Apr 8, 2005

  1. trainbooks@hotmail.com

    trainbooks@hotmail.com TrainBoard Member

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    I will be riding #3 into Los Angeles in mid June. Does anybody have any advice or tips for this train? I need to book a connecting flight, so I need to know if it runs on time, or how late it typically runs. Any pointers would be appreciated.
     
  2. Sten

    Sten TrainBoard Member

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    It depends on how BNSF is running. I've caught it westbound to Flagstaff and it was on time then the next night continuing to LA and that one was 90mins late. The timetable has alot of recovery time in is and with the cut in mail and express they should be able to keep it. I would on a safe side give 1 to 2 hours padding just in case something goes wrong.
    Anyways if the train is on time, then that time will be lost getting to LAX in heavy road traffic [​IMG]
     
  3. TheS.P.Caboose

    TheS.P.Caboose TrainBoard Member

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    I heard that it would get slowed down around Kansas City. It would get stuck behind a local in the area. I don't know if it's still going on.
     
  4. r_i_straw

    r_i_straw Mostly N Scale Staff Member

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    Welcome S.P.Caboose. Great to have you on board.

    As to Amtrak on time performance, I would not count on the timetable unless you are on the Northeast Corridor. In spite of the incentives that the freight line get for letting passenger trains arrive on time, they are quite often late. The Southwest Chief does have a better record but I would allow at least a half day before trying to connect with anything else. Two years ago I did the Los Angles turn on the Sunset and planed on taking the Surfliner down to San Diego and back during my layover in LA. Turned out we were so late into LA they just turned the train, cleaned it a little and let me back on to come home.
     
  5. Hytec

    Hytec TrainBoard Member

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    The following Timekeeping results are listed on the March 21, 2005 edition of the National Corridors Initiative Newsletter. These data represent all trains during the month of February.

    You will see that the Southwest Chief had a nearly 80% on time operation during February. However, the list does NOT show how far off schedule a train was when it was late.

    (I believe that Amtrak still defines "On Time" as any train that arrives within 30 minutes of schedule. Although this may be true only for non-Northeast Corridor trains.)

    Key:
    Train Service- # Trains Operated, # Trains Late, % On Time, % On Time Goal.

    Acela Express- 671, 150, 77.6, 94.0
    AutoTrain- 56, 32, 42.9, 70.0
    California Zephyr- 56, 54, 3.6, 70.0
    Capitol Limited- 56, 38, 32.1, 70.0
    Capitols- 624, 113, 81.9, 85.0
    Cardinal- 24, 6, 75.0, 70.0
    Carolinian- 56, 39, 30.4, 85.0
    Cascades- 307, 97, 68.4, 85.0
    City of New Orleans- 56, 5, 91.1, 70.0
    Clocker/Keystone- 616, 125, 79.7, 90.0
    Coast Starlight- 56, 23, 58.9, 70.0
    Crescent- 56, 18, 67.9, 70.0
    Downeaster- 224, 18, 92.0, 85.0
    Empire Service- 644, 150, 76.7, 85.0
    Empire Builder- 112, 14, 87.5, 70.0
    Heartland Flyer- 56, 13, 76.8, 85.0
    Hiawatha- 384, 16, 95.8, 85.0
    Hoosier State- 32, 20, 37.5, 85.0
    Illinois/Missouri- 280, 59, 78.9, 85.0
    Lake Shore Limited- 112, 58, 48.2, 70.0
    Metroliner- 100, 14, 86.0, 94.0
    Michigan- 280, 135, 51.8, 85.0
    Pacific Surfliner- 671, 185, 72.4, 85.0
    Piedmont- 55, 23, 58.2, 85.0
    Regional- 1500, 255, 83.0, 90.0
    San Joaquins- 336, 190, 43.5, 85.0
    Silver Service- 168, 114, 32.1, 70.0
    Southwest Chief- 54, 12, 77.8, 70.0
    Sunset Limited- 24, 24, 0.0, 70.0
    Texas Eagle- 56, 15, 73.2, 70.0
    Three Rivers- 56, 15, 73.2, 70.0

    If you ride the Sunset, you'll be lucky if you arrive on the scheduled DAY! I have seen the westbound #1 come through here over 15 HOURS late, and that's after only 500 miles on CSX. :rolleyes:
     
  6. Sir_Prize

    Sir_Prize TrainBoard Member

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    Hmmm...
    Sunset Limited
    24 Trains
    24 Late
    0 On time
    70% On time Goal
    [​IMG]
    Every school I've attended would have marked that a wrong answer...
    What gives? ...wrong data? ...book playng? :confused:
     
  7. Hytec

    Hytec TrainBoard Member

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    Ken, the data showing the Sunset's schedule performance to be 0% is right on the money. The Sunset has NEVER been on time any where! Well, maybe the instant it leaves the Orlando or Los Angeles terminals.

    That 70% figure is just Amtrak's (hoped for) Goal for the Sunset's performance to schedule. But this will never happen when you factor in UP and CSX management policies and dispatcher cooperation.

    You may have read where Amtrak moved up the eastbound Sunset's departure time from Los Angeles by eight (8) hours with the hope that it could make it into Houston and New Orleans on time according to the OLD schedule...hasn't happened yet thanks to UP!

    UP and CSX could not care less about their contractual commitments with Amtrak. They view the Amtrak schedule penalties as a drop in the bucket when compared to the performance bonuses for ontime freight deliveries.

    I'm not sure what would change this attitude. After all, it was the freight railroads that wanted to dump passenger trains all together and lobbied Congress to create Amtrak in 1971, with a "good riddance" attitude.
     
  8. trainbooks@hotmail.com

    trainbooks@hotmail.com TrainBoard Member

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    Trip Report. My friends and I had a very good trip. The delay in KC was caused by waiting for a St. Louis connection to arrive. However, each time we were delayed (as much as an hour) the time was made up within 6 to 8 hours. This is an amazing train travelling on excellent road bed and utilizing ATS (we cruised at 90 mph much of the time). The only negative part of the trip was that our SightSeer Lounge was bad order, so Chicago substituted a coach-snackbar for our #3...that is a poor substitute. The only place we could see to our satisfaction was sitting in the diner.
     

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