*** NINE HOURS and 11 minutes LATE! ***

Our April travel plans on the Sunset are being changed, and we are now planning to spend the night in a LA hotel, rather than hope to be somewhere north of Morro Bay.

Say what you will about the glory of Amtrak and its employees; write and plead with your Congresspeople about saving Amtrak; stand up and be counted when they ask for a show of support for long-distance Amtrak trains -- I, too, have done all those things.

But I ask you: Honestly, how shall we support a carrier who can't even get to scheduled destination within a reasonable amount of time on its own published schedule?

This goes beyond blind (yet willing) support for Amtrak -- this problem is fundamental. There will be those here who'll say we should just chill out and realize that trains arrive late and that's that. There will be others who will say Well, ya know, Amtrak employees are on the bubble and their poor performance should be overlooked cuz their jobs are in jeopardy.

I disagree.

As long as Amtrak cannot arrive within a reasonable time, somewhere near the printed schedule, no one (other than railfanners) will ever take them seriously.

Awhile back, a poster here suggested trashing all the timetables and instead saying that "the train will arrive sometime in the afternoon" or "before midnight" or similar.

Heck, even with that kind of leeway, the Sunset's 3/15 arrival would still be noteworthy.

NINE HOURS+ late ....

P.S. For those of you who think I'm picking on Amtrak, check the ontime averages for the Sunset into LA for Jan, Feb, and March (so far). Not a pleasant picture.

To paraphrase a popular campaign slogan "It's the infrastructure, stupid." There is no money to expand the antiquated infrastructure, so the trains run later and later....

Theproblem is the average Amtrak passenger doesn't understand that so Amtrak gets blamed first.

------------------
Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth.
-Mr. Toy

I AM just an average Amtrak passenger, perhaps clueless, but willing to learn and listen to those with more experience. I fear that other average passengers will not be so accomodating, and will instead just bash Amtrak for late arrivals and vow to avoid them in the future. That spells trouble, and it's something Amtrak management should be worried about.

Mr Cajon: And did YOU even bother to read the entire post? Or did you stop at the second paragraph? I'm not a railfan in this case -- I'm A PAYING CUSTOMER, get it? As such, I expect to get value for my hard-earned money, not an arrival time that's nine hours late. Because you've shown a remarkable inability to grasp the facts, let me say it again: As long as Amtrak cannot arrive within a reasonable time, somewhere near the printed schedule, no one (other than railfanners) will ever take them seriously.

As for finding out what really happened: is it incumbent on paying passengers to ascertain the CAUSE of the delay? Will that make my incredibly late arrival any more palatable? Will I be happier and more forgiving if I've missed important connections simply because I know the reason for the delay? I doubt it. Late-arriving passengers (and those seeking reasons to disband Amtrak) are only going to complain about the delay -- NOT the reasons for it.

You must be part of Amtrak management or customer service. You sound suspiciously like the rude and defensive Amtrak person I talked to on the phone about this (while trying to find out the reasons for the delay).

Do me a favor and keep the name-calling to yourself.

For a long time, I have viewed Amtrak's schedules as a sham. I think Amtrak need to tell their customers the truth. All of their published schedules need disclaimers in very visible places that give typical on-time statistics and let the potential customers know the truth about when they might arrive at their destination. Amtrak needs to quit hiding the facts about their on-time status. Railfans like us know the truth, but the general public does not. And if the general public is paying for it, they deserve the right to know the truth.

Amtrak does have major problems with timekeeping on Union Pacific rails that are UP's fault (BNSF generally does better), and this cannot be blamed on Amtrak. The fact that it's somebody else's fault, however, is of little comfort to Amtrak passengers on hours-late trains. Union Pacific is often to blame (Amtrak does have it's own schedule problems, too), but as Konstantin pointed out, it's Amtrak's problem to deal with. Thing is, Amtrak has been quite unable to deal with UP over this issue (and with the uncertainty over what's going to happen this fall, I don't see this changing much anytime soon).

Here's the bottom line: in transportation (as in any service business), perfection is the only acceptable standard. Do it right less than 100% of the time, and people will complain. If you don't like that, find another occupation. Those of us in the business just have to put up with it, since none of us is perfect.

Forgot to mention. On that November Southwest Chief trip, because we were on time, all freights had to wait for us, even Z trains! I heard the dispatcher on my scanner more than once say,"we have to clear the line for #3!"

Yes, this is true. I don't know how much Amtrak pays, though. The January 1995 TRAINS magazine had a story about it which you might want to try and locate for more info.