Every time my kids come into town on Amtrak, the train is 30-45 minutes late. Every. Single. Time. Same route each time. Anyone else have this experience? Can’t understand why they don’t just change the schedule.
Why isn’t there proper government funding to create a high-speed train service in this country??
Why do we have outdated infrastructure?
Let’s start there–since the 1970s the push has been for defunding the train system and we have what we have.
S2’s train is almost always late going from DC to CT, but almost never late going in the opposite direction.
The train tracks from NYC to Chicago are actually owned by CSX, not by Amtrak as is the case on some of the other east cost corridor lines. So Amtrak trains need to yield to CSX traffic. That’s one of the reasons trains on that line are always behind schedule. At least that’s what one of the Amtrak employees working that line told me a couple of years ago.
The AmTrak folks can tell you when the train between LA and Seattle will likely reach all the destinations in each direction (not the times on the schedule) and they’re pretty accurate. Makes no sense to me that they don’t print the schedule with the best estimate times instead of times they rarely ever hit.
This is on this route (Vancouver, OR to Seattle). My kids have taken it four times in the past year. It has been 30-45 minutes late every single time. I just don’t understand why they retain the fictional schedule showing that it will be arrive earlier.
I’m not a huge train traveler, but I took Amtrak to Philly for a conference in November. My train was on time in both directions. Guess I was lucky.
My D’s train is always an hour late. She normally rides at 7am or 4 pm. She just took the 3am train home yesterday. It was exactly on time, surprising us all. My son comes in from another state and is usually 15 minutes late. It can be annoying, especially when circling the block in a busy city, waiting to pick them up, but I’m grateful they live in areas where they can easily take Amtrak home.
Amtrak runs on freight lines and doesn’t own its tracks. Sometimes the freight trains pre-empt the passenger trains Sometimes the freight trains don’t pre-empt the passenger trains.
But when it is happening every time (and not always on the same day of the week), you’d think they might just change the schedule.
We were two hours late once because there was a standoff between police officers and some bad guys who were on opposite sides of the track. We had to wait it out a few miles away.
But usually they are delayed because of the freight trains. If the CSX trains are off schedule, then Amtrak is off schedule.
They aren’t completely consistent… over an hour late now. Apparently a car came off the end of another train, and they are sitting on the tracks 5 miles from the station. Waiting for inspectors to make sure there is no problem with the tracks. Sigh.
No issue between Boston and DC for me. But here, they’re bears about getting the train loaded and out fast.
There’s an online tracker.
I was just going to ask if there’s something equivalent to the FlightTrack app I have on my iPhone to follow plane travel. I guess so!
Here’s one http://www.asm.transitdocs.com
Very cool interactive map!
@intparent Is that the Coast Starlight?
No… I think it is the Amtrak Cascades. Arrived 1:45 late in Seattle tonight. 
Ah,OK. When I was in college, I used to take the last leg of the westbound Empire Builder back to school in Seattle. By the time the train picked me up in my hometown it was invariably running several hours late, having been on the road as it were for almost 3 days at that point. If you were talking about the Coast Starlight, same principle. Seattle is the end of the northbound route so it wouldn’t surprise me if it were running late by the time it got to Vancouver.
Chicago- California run over 3 hours late. D has taken it several times and we took it once. It’s not Germany or Japan for that matter, but it was beautiful scenery.