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AFTER WE MADE RESERVATIONS TO CONNECT TO THE CAPITOL LIMITED FROM THE EMPIRE BUILDER OUT OF PORTLAND, WE LEARN THAT THE TRAIN IS SO LATE 8 DAYS OUT OF 10 THE CONNECTION CAN'T BE MADE. AMTRAK SHOULD HAVE INFORMED US WHEN THE RESERVATION WAS MADE.
Liberty Limited Member # 4300
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For what month did you make the reservation?
Looking at the past few weeks, the ratio of connects to disconnects actually appears to be 7 made to 11 missed, but this is VERY abnormal for the Empire Builder which is usually one of the most dependable Amtrak trains. It appears the Winter weather has been killing the train's OTP.
notelvis Member # 3071
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Are you sure you don't have the Empire Builder confused with the California Zephyr? Short of abnormal weather conditions the Empire Builder is usually within three hours of on-time.....or there in plenty of time to make the connection you have booked.
If, by chance, you miss your connection, Amtrak will have some plan in place for misconnects. Might be a night in a Chicago hotel and continuing the following day or some other arrangement.
Regardless, welcome to the forum. You'll find that there are a number of savvy Amtrak travelers here who have 'been there, done that' and who will be happy to offer suggestions when you're planning future rail trips.
Although this site is unofficial, the information reportedly is "mined' from Amtrak Train Status.
While nothing is 100% guaranteed in this life, Amtrak 'goes that extra step" to accommodate misconnect passengers when compared with air transport. Naturally, if you are traveling Sleeper, they will 'do more', including offering you air transportation to destination.
smitty195 Member # 5102
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quote:Originally posted by G E HURN: AFTER WE MADE RESERVATIONS TO CONNECT TO THE CAPITOL LIMITED FROM THE EMPIRE BUILDER OUT OF PORTLAND, WE LEARN THAT THE TRAIN IS SO LATE 8 DAYS OUT OF 10 THE CONNECTION CAN'T BE MADE. AMTRAK SHOULD HAVE INFORMED US WHEN THE RESERVATION WAS MADE.
Since this is your first post, I'd like to kindly suggest that you do not use all capitol letters when making posts. In internet language, this indicates you are shouting. Maybe you intended to shout??
Next point......We can probably help you out a little bit more if you let us know where you got your information. You said that "we learned" that the connection is late 8 out of 10 times and you can not connect. I have a fairly good deal of experience with riding Amtrak trains and making connections in Chicago. Your information about connecting from #28 (Empire Builder out of Portland) to #30 (Capitol Limited out of Chicago) is not correct. Train #28 (which is also the same train as #8 by the time it gets to Chicago) generally runs on-time and sometimes early. It is extremely rare for #8 or #28 to arrive into Chicago so late that you miss the connection with #30. Since you didn't state where you learned this information, I will go on the assumption that your source was wrong. I think you have a safe connection, and if for some reason the train-to-train connection at Chicago is missed, Amtrak will do everything it can to get you on the Capitol Limited somehow. There are several ways to do this. Only under the worst circumstances will you be put up in a hotel overnight (at Amtrak's expense), and put on the next day's #30.
G E HURN Member # 6950
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The sources were AMTRAK'S webite and amtrakdelays.com.
smitty195 Member # 5102
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What date did you book your trip? Since you are looking at the amtrakdelays.com website, you are only seeing three weeks of on-time-performance with the Empire Builder. Unfortunately during this time period, there have been unusual events that have delayed this train. There have been a few freight derailments causing extraordinary delays of the Empire Builder, as well as severe winter weather which has also caused severe delays. Normally, this does not happen. So just keep in mind that the three week snippet you are looking at with this train is very limited in it's scope of the true performance of this train.
Now if we were talking about the California Zephyr, that would be a different story. ALWAYS stay overnight in Chicago and NEVER rely on that train to get you ANYWHERE at a decent time.
wayne72145 Member # 4503
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In the nearly 2 dozen times I've been through Chicago going both east and west in the past five years I've never missed a connection. The closest I came was from the CZ to the LSL in the summer and they held the LSL for 20 minutes for us to get there. Never even came close to missing the Capitol Limited on the CZ or EB and going east to west its more a matter of killing time for the connection.
Doc Brown Member # 4724
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quote:Originally posted by smitty195: What date did you book your trip? Since you are looking at the amtrakdelays.com website, you are only seeing three weeks of on-time-performance with the Empire Builder. Unfortunately during this time period, there have been unusual events that have delayed this train. There have been a few freight derailments causing extraordinary delays of the Empire Builder, as well as severe winter weather which has also caused severe delays. Normally, this does not happen. So just keep in mind that the three week snippet you are looking at with this train is very limited in it's scope of the true performance of this train.
Not to hi-jack the thread, but I've been wondering about this myself. We're taking a short trip to the Wisconsin Dells this Sun. Though I'm not overly concerned, the idea of sitting in the Dell's station for 5 hours of waiting on the way back doesn't sound too appealing.
Anyway, I won't be too concerned when I'm getting flushed down the toilet bowl at the Kalahari Resort water park.
TwinStarRocket Member # 2142
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The EB was on-time or early into CHI the last 4 days. I suspect on some days on amtrakdelays.com a very early EB gets recorded as 23 hours late due to their software algorithm. It seldom rolls by my house late in St. Paul.
BTW, Garrison Kiellor just rode the EB Saturday from MSP to do his Prairie Home Companion radio show in Winona. There is a discussion over at trainorders about the possibility he is a railfan. His father was an RPO mail clerk who worked St.Paul-Jamestown, ND.
Henry Kisor Member # 4776
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Keillor IS sympathetic to passenger trains but I don't know if we could call him a railfan -- he probably does not spent a whole lot of time thinking about trains, but when he does take a train, he enjoys it for the same reasons we do.
He did a nice blurb for my book.
Henry Kisor Member # 4776
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We shouldn't forget that the upper Midwest is having one of the worst winters in many years. I don't know exactly how much it has affected OT performance but it certainly has.
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