In looking at the new Hiawatha schedule, why is running time southbound from Sturtevant to Chicago one and a half hours vs. only 59 minutes northbound??
Is CP doing heavy maintenance on the southbound main???
[This message has been edited by VANHANDEL (edited 06-07-2001).]
Posted by Eric (Member # 674) on :
I haven't seen that schedule yet, but is there a service stop, or (time consuming)RoadRailer drop-off (if it hauls 'em)somewhere on the southbound?
Posted by MLC (Member # 58) on :
Eric said "I haven't seen that schedule yet, but is there a service stop, or (time consuming)RoadRailer drop-off (if it hauls 'em)somewhere on the southbound?"
Why not? Hauling road-railers is one of AMTRAK's ways of covering its costs and making a profit. So what if the paying passengers are inconvenienced!
Posted by Eric (Member # 674) on :
I wasn't implying at all that RoadRailers are a bad thing. The more, the better! I just wasn't sure if the Hiawatha hauled them, or not. This was just a possible reason for the time of the southbound.
Posted by John B. Bredin (Member # 109) on :
Eh?!?! I'm looking at the timetable right now, and it shows one hour or slightly more from Chicago to Sturtevant and essentially the SAME from Sturtevant to Chicago. It takes an hour and a half from MILWAUKEE south to Chicago, but it shows the same 1.5 hours to go north CHI-MKE.
To pick some trains randomly:
northbound 333 337 339 CHI 10:20 3:15 5:08 SVT 11:19 4:14 6:13 time 59m 59m 65m
southbound 332 336 340 SVT 8:24 1:24 6:09 CHI 9:29 2:29 7:14 time 65m 65m 65m
By some chance, were you comparing MKE-CHI times with CHI-SVT? There's a 24 mile difference between Sturtevant and Milwaukee, you know.
Posted by VANHANDEL (Member # 851) on :
John Bredin, I just went back to Amtrak's web page to double check the times...I will make a minor adjustment: 1 hour and 20 minutes southbound vs. 59 minutes northbound.
I still haven't recieved an explanation...Bill Stephens wasn't sure of the reason either.
I can't for the life of me, imagine Amtrak hauling roadrailers on a commuter train!!
TVH
Posted by John B. Bredin (Member # 109) on :
I must not be looking at the same timetable as you. The schedule in the National Timetable booklet effective April 29, 2001 shows for Chicago-Sturtevant 59 minutes for all northbound trains and 1h5m (NOT 1h20m) for all southbounds except #330 southbound which takes 73m.
As to the entire travel time CHI-MKE, it's 1h29m for every train, NORTH and SOUTH, with the exception of the 339 northbound and 330 southbound, which both come in at 1h37m.
Considering that the 330 enters the Chicago metro area after 7am, and the 339 operates in the metro area between 5 and 6PM, the rush hour priority of Metra commuter trains is the most likely explanation of these two exceptions. This also explains why the only outlier to the 59m north/65m south CHI-SVT is #330 southbound -- the train is delayed between Sturtevant and Chicago because Metra has priority between Rondout and Chicago.
Posted by reggierail (Member # 26) on :
Amtrak pads schedules arriving to final destinations routinely. This allows for a late train to pick up the time to arrive on time. Reggie
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Posted by VANHANDEL (Member # 851) on :
quote:Originally posted by reggierail: Amtrak pads schedules arriving to final destinations routinely. This allows for a late train to pick up the time to arrive on time. Reggie
Posted by VANHANDEL (Member # 851) on :
To everyone involved: Just got off the phone with Amtrak...they had no idea there was a discrepancy in the printed timetable and their web page.
When they asked the help desk, they were informed that the southbound schedule was in deed padded for CP maintenence...
It will remain padded until the work is complete, the revert back to original schedule.
Now, if we can only find out exactly what CP is doing and where??
TVH
Posted by Konstantin (Member # 18) on :
I don't know about this particular train, but I have seen mistakes on Amtrak's schedules in the past. They don't seem to proof-read them very well before posting them on the internet.
I tend to trust the printed schedules, and I am wary about the schedules on the internet.
------------------ Elias Valley Railroad (N-scale) www.geocities.com/evrr
Posted by VANHANDEL (Member # 851) on :
I will be getting a full report on CP track maintenance between Sturtevant and Chicago this weekend(6/16/01)...will post what I find out. TVH
Posted by VANHANDEL (Member # 851) on :
Well, here's the scoop...C.P. is doing heavy tie replacement between Sturtevant and the Illinois border.
Because of the vey limited number of crossovers, it was decided the southbound trains would take the hit on the schedule to allow for meets with northbounds to accomodate the tie gangs(2 gangs working)