Freda wrote:
> I understood that Amtrak didnt own any track ans as such was at the
mercy of
> the freifght companies who do own the track and as they make their
profits
> from freight not passengers then the Amtrak get las t grab and so
many
> delays may occur without any prior knowledge.
> freda
>
This is a major reason for Amtrak delays out west where they use tracks
that are a little busier with freight traffic than in other parts of
the country. I remember taking the train from Oakland to Chicago and
back about 10-11 years ago - on a regularly scheduled 50-or-so hour
trip, we were about 8 hours late getting in to Chicago in the middle of
the winter; however, we also left Oakland a few hours late due to some
technical problems and had a major delay in Utah. The return trip was
in the spring time and we only managed to lose about 4 hours. 4 hours
or 8 hours are annoying, but when you're talking about maybe 25% of the
scheduled travel time, this isn't too far off of what many folks
experience flying - at least you can get up and walk around on the
train.
For all it's worth, I've only encountered delays of more than an hour
maybe twice out of about 10-20 trips on the City of New Orleans between
New Orleans and Chicago. Likewise, I rarely encounter delays going
from New York to Albany about once a month (it probably helps that I
take the 7:15am train out of New York). Coming back, it depends on
whether the train is coming from Canada - there is almost always a
delay crossing the border due to customs, which doesn't go away by the
time the train gets to Albany.
Anyhow, the short answer to the question is, "Yes, Amtrak does run on
time - sometimes."
:-Dan
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