The rails are owned by the freight companies, so they get first priority.
Freight is more profitable, and it doesn't complain about tracks that are so
rough that the trains tip off the tracks every now and then. When traveling
via Amtrak, the secret is to simply resign yourself to Amtrak standard time
which in no way resembles the published schedules. Amtrak has a website
where you can check on the status of any train before heading off to the
station. .
"Mark Brader" wrote in message
news:10spk505kfsq5d@corp.supernews.com...
> Terri Azzure:
>> The Coast Starlighter (#14) has been at least 4 hours late arriving in
>> Seattle every day this week. The station agent told us this train
>> ALWAYS runs late. If that's true, why don't they just amend their
>> schedules to reflect reality?
>
> One reason is that reality not only involves significant delays, but
> significant delays that may happen at one point along the route one
> day, and a completely different point another day. The schedule has
> to show a time when the train is supposed to be at each of about 28
> different places along the route. If you distributed an extra 4 hours
> all along the route, the result would be needless extended stops until
> the first delay happened, and the trip would take even longer.
>
> But if you just added 4 hours to the arrival time in Seattle, and left
> the rest of the schedule alone, then it'd be no help for people who
> care about the arrival time in Tacoma. See what I mean? Train
> schedules *do* often include some padding on the final arrival time,
> but not hours of it.
>
> If the truth is that delays are large enough and random enough that
> arrival times can't really be guaranteed, there isn't a way to "just
> amend" the schedule to reflect that. And if the delays are not
> Amtrak's fault, they're in a no-win situation.
>
> Having said that, I have no information specific to the causes of
> lateness of this particular train.
> --
> Mark Brader, Toronto "People say I'm a skeptic --
> msb@vex.net but I find that hard to believe."
>
> My text in this article is in the public domain.
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