Actually my comment comes from some involvement in the past. Yes. UP is being a bunch of..... But there is a bit more to it. However, ATK is late frequently through my area. (BNSF.) And I hear frequent complaints from riders about the condition of ATK equipment. So there are plenty of troubles to go around. Boxcab E50
Interesting question, Hemi. When Katrina shut down the CSX New Orleans & Mobile sub, CSX re-routed traffic through Meridian, Montgomery, Birmingham, and/or Atlanta, which created chaos in already crowded areas and Crescent's schedule went out the window. Since February when CSX re-opened the NO&M, Crescent's performance got better, but did not return to its pre-Katrina record of +/-30 minutes. What I see now is that between Atlanta and Washington, NS DS is still doing a fine job. But between New Orleans and Atlanta, schedule keeping is dismal. I can only attribute this to interference at the various places where CSX crosses NS. For instance, the southbound Crescent is usually on-time into Atlanta, but will be anywhere from 30-120 minutes late leaving Atlanta station. Likewise, the northbound performance will be fine until it hits the first CSX interference at Meridian, MS. After that, forget schedule between there and Atlanta. Please understand that this is my un-informed opinion based solely on status reported by the Amtrak website.
