I'm planning to take the Crescent (#20 & 19) from Slidell, LA to New York and back in February. So I have begun to watch how she is performing to schedule both northbound and southbound. Sadly, this train appears to be running any where from three to seven hours late into New York and into Slidell every day!!! Much of the problem seems to occur between Birmingham and Atlanta, although the segment between Atlanta and Lynchburg appears to be adding to the problem also. One assumption is that CSX having to work around the loss of the NO&M Subdivision may be causing some problem. But I can't see where this would add seven hours to the Crescent's schedule every day...! Does anyone have any information as to the cause?
It would seem to me that so much time lost would have an obvious cause. Makes a person wonder..... Maybe some heavy m-o-w work? Boxcab E50
Ken, I doubt if MOW would cause this kind of delay. There were lots of MOW delays along the route while I was commuting monthly to Washington and we never experienced this kind of schedule problem. There were (are) significant schedule makeups at Atlanta, Greensboro (NC), and between Charlottesville and DC. Many times we were almost an hour down into Charlottesville, and arrived ten minutes ahead into Alexandria, VA. No, this has to be originating with NS and CSX Dispatching.
If so, that really stinks. I'd hope that soon there'd be some stern words coming from DC, to get it right, or....!!! Bummer. Boxcab E50
dag nabbit hank.. I was planning a city of New Orleans ride to visit my folks of your little 'burg.... and now you'll be in gotham?? jeesh.... are you free in November (after hurricane season ??
I talked to a friend of mine who is a car attendant on the City of New Orleans. He said the only thing he has heard it that they are having a lot of crew shortages on the Cresent for some reason.
Crew shortages may be part of it since about half the Crescent's crews were based in New Orleans before Katrina. However, I suspect the major cause of the Crescent's problem is due to CSX losing the use of its NO&M Sub at least through March. CSX now must route about 30 additional trains a day through Meridian, Birmingham, Atlanta, and other available trackage throughout the Southeast. I have been checking the Crescent's status on the Amtrak website daily and am seeing a pattern in the delays. For instance, more than one southbound (#19) arrrived into Atlanta on schedule, then was held for 4-8 hours before departing for NO. Also, I've seen the northbound (#20) out of Hattiesburg, MS on schedule, but into Atlanta 7-9 hours late. My assumption is that CSX traffic through MEI, BHM, and ATL was approaching saturation before Katrina, and then CSX was forced to add 30 more trains, half of which are high-priority double stacks between JAX and LA.....BURP! Even though NS dispatches the Crescent, CSX crosses NS many places between MEI and ATL, which can really cause dispatching conflicts for both companies. Of course there is one more factor. The #19 trainset and crew needs about 8 hours to turn in NO before going out as #20. The schedule provides about 11 hours, but schedules go out the window when #19 arrives into NO 6-8 hours late. [ December 14, 2005, 05:29 PM: Message edited by: Hytec ]
What a mess. I just hope they can unravel the tangle soon. Amtrak sure doesn't need this, in the midst of struggling to survive. Boxcab E50
I agree Ken, especially when the Crescent had one of Amtrak's best on-time records end-to-end. There were many times when I was being met at Alexandria, VA and had to wait 10-15 minutes because the Crescent was that early.
Now it gets worse...! Today, Amtrak is estimating that the Crescent (#20) will be more than 11 hours late into New York. That means it lost more than 3 hours after leaving Atlanta almost 8 hours late last night. I guess once an Amtrak train is out of its assigned time slot, the dispatchers fit it in wherever and whenever there is an available time slot and hope for the best. Is there an active or retired dispatcher who can give us some information?
Hank- Thus we witness one of the fatal errors made precedent, when Amtrak became operational. The Government failed to mandate these trains as having any priority on the lines which they operate. Outside of their Northeast Corridor, Amtrak simply gets shoved aside as an inconvenience. Like a second class freight. When private passenger trains were once a proud symbol, woe be it to any dispatcher, agent/operator/leverman, etc., who caused any delay to such a train. Oh well. Boxcab E50
Ken, I can not agree with you more! What today's RR Executive Suite does NOT understand is that the punctual schedule performance of the "Limited" in the 1920's, 30's, and 40's exhibited a proven statement of that RR's comittment to customer satisfaction. Each RR's credo back then was "Please the riding and pampered Executive/Manager and he/she will 'suggest' to the company's Shipping Dept. that they use RR XYZ for ALL shipments!" Today's Shipping Dept. attitude is "If we can't do it any other way, we might as well use the RR...darnit!" Sadly, the RR Execs did it to themselves. BTW, Amtrak's performance contract with the freight companies has a penalty clause for schedule delays of greater than 30 minutes. Sadly, today's freight profits far exceed these penalties. The freight RRs consider that the Amtrak delay penalty is just one more cost of doing business...! One more thing...CSX and all other Class 1's are claiming the "Force Majeur" (Act Of God) clause regarding Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. This clause negates any schedule delay penalties regardless of the facts. So Amtrak loses all the way around....
I heard them calling for # 20 in Raleigh last week around 8 AM..., This train normally appears before sunrise (in the 5 AM vicinity)... seems like many of the Amtrak trains are off schedule. Harold
Harold, today's #20 was 13 hours and 52 minutes late departing Greensboro. Scheduled departure is 3:45 AM, but she left at 5:37 PM. What does this do to crew morale? The engineers work no more than 12 hours, but the onboard crew is on the train for as long as it takes...regardless!
And just how long can they milk that cow, before it's dry? There will come a point, where continuing to pretend, is little more than a scam. Boxcab E50
I think # 20 made Greensboro only about 9 hours late today! That made # 73, # 80, and # 20 in daylight before noon. Harold
