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I have yet another question as to how the connections work...please be patient, I'm a novice at this! I will be traveling on the City of New Orleans to Chicago this summer. I understand that the Empire Builder (my connecting train) and the City is the same train, so to speak. Well, I've been checking on the status of the trains almost daily to see what kind of delays there were. I noticed on the 4th that the train going into Chicago was over 11 hours delayed! But when I checked the Empire Builder's status for the next day, it left on time! Did part of the train leave without the "City"? In this case, what happens? I know people have posted messages asking the same question as far as bussing and hotels. I just wasn't sure if this was the reason.
piedpiper13 Member # 2473
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JudAnnS - you misunderstood the concept - usually the City of NO arrives on time and is then cleaned and serviced and the train group becomes the Empire Builder. On the 5th, however, since the City was so late; they must have used another train group at Chicago and made that the Empire Builder. Then when the City of NO arrived they turned it into a different route. I hope this explaination helps!
------------------ "My other car and my plane is AMTRAK!" - Bob
Geoff Mayo Member # 153
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I believe they keep a nearly full set of Superliners at Chicago ready to roll (30th St yard?) for just such an eventuality.
But you are right for other locations, if the inbound train is late, the outbound may well also be late depending on the time available for servicing and cleaning. At Los Angeles they can swap the Sunset and Southwest Chief sets around to give them more time (only 3 days a week of course).
Geoff M.
JudAnnS Member # 2419
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Thanks for the info. As I mentioned before, I'm a novice at this, yet very curious as to how train travel works. I appreciate the responses, and am starting to get a better understanding
rmiller Member # 341
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quote:Originally posted by JudAnnS: I understand that the Empire Builder (my connecting train) and the City is the same train, so to speak.
I was in Chicago Union Station today and learned that the City and Empire Builder no longer share equipment and haven't since mid March, which answers your later question. The City of New Orleans and the Texas Eagle now share equipment.
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