5 ms·

For those that don't know, the Empire Builder from Seattle stops in Spokane to hook up with a train that is coming from Portland. The combined train then goes

by Zimahl 8y ago

For those that don't know, the Empire Builder from Seattle stops in Spokane to hook up with a train that is coming from Portland. The combined train then goes all the way to Chicago. If either are delayed it can result in waiting for the other and long delays are apparently the norm and not the exception. My wife and her grandfather took the train from Portland to Minnesota in the fall of last year. There were a number of issues with the service on the train that make it bad enough, but the speed of the train is a major problem of why these trains are somewhat worthless for travel. Freight trains get priority on the rail lines so many times the train was stopped for possibly hours waiting for freight trains to pass. On my wife's trip the refrigeration went out at some point so cold food was no longer available, nor was food that required refrigeration before it was cooked. Fortunately they disembarked soon after that happened. The rest of the train was still a day or so from Chicago and those passengers were stuck with god knows what to eat.

Aloha 8y ago
Passenger trains do get priority in the US, your mileage may vary by railroad to how forgiving they are for schedule delays. Basically Amtrak has to keep to a specific schedule, if ut misses it's window it loses the priority it had.
- pacala 8y ago
  I took a train from Chicago to LA almost 20 years ago. There were 6 passenger cars attached to 60+ freight cars. There was a 20+ hours delay. All the stops were in dilapidated industrial areas. A ridiculous experience. Never again. For a transcontinental trip: drive a car or a van.
  - Aloha 8y ago
    Amtrak has never run Mixed freight trains, so this must not have been on amtrak.
    - TkTech 8y ago
      That is not true, Amtrak used to run a service called Mail & Express. One of the trains was indeed mixed passenger and freight. That said, Amtrak engines are also often leased to other freight companies so you can frequently see freight trains being hauled by Amtrak branded engines.
      - Kadin 8y ago
        In case anyone is interested in Mail and Express: http://utahrails.net/pass/amtrak-mail-express.htm http://utahrails.net/pass/amtrak-mail-express.htm It stopped in 2004, presumably due to declines in mail volume. (Which I wonder if it would make sense again now, due to more mail-order package shipping.) Anyway, it's not really "freight" in the sense that most people think of a freight train. It's all Amtrak rolling stock. They still do offer Express shipping services between some stations. It's a very cheap way to send something between NYC and Washington for same-day arrival, especially if it's a big box. You have to have someone go to the train station on either end to get your stuff, though. They move them around on the passenger trains that have baggage cars (the 'named' trains, typically at least on the East Coast).
    - pacala 8y ago
      Alas, the pictures I took were on film, and it's been lost in various relocations. Very likely it was Amtrak, with the "sightseeing car" and all.
- Spooky23 8y ago
  If you’re on CSX track, you sit. I’ve been on trains that left precisely on schedule that were impacted this way.
  - nerdponx 8y ago
    Train service between Utica and Buffalo is routinely affected by this.
- brownindian 8y ago
  Wendover did a video on this a couple years ago. Basically saying why trains suck in America. And the reason is the same: freight gets priority because Amtrak does not own the track, freight companies do. https://youtu.be/mbEfzuCLoAQ https://youtu.be/mbEfzuCLoAQ
  - bobthepanda 8y ago
    It’s the law that passenger trains should get priority, but actual enforcement of this law is nonexistent, and Amtrak does not have as much money to spend on counsel.
stcredzero 8y ago
>> We were 8 hours late leaving Seattle and couldn't get into our cabin until we got to Spokane because of some sort of merge of trains coming from Portland and Seattle. Got to Spokane, got our cabin, another 6 hour delay. By the time we reached the upper Midwest, they were rationing food, literally cutting every meal (that we had already paid for) in half. We eventually arrived in Chicago about 22 hours late. >> The train was disgustingly dirty and the employees were surly and unhelpful. > On my wife's trip the refrigeration went out at some point so cold food was no longer available, nor was food that required refrigeration before it was cooked. Fortunately they disembarked soon after that happened. The rest of the train was still a day or so from Chicago and those passengers were stuck with god knows what to eat. Stuff like this makes it feel like the USA is falling apart from being a 1st world nation, crumbling in bits and pieces into a 3rd world one.
- peteretep 8y ago
  As much as I like trains, the that the passenger ones in the US are crumbling sounds like resources are being efficiently allocated?
- rtpg 8y ago
  US quality of life for many is already pretty close to what you'd see in (granted, middle-class-level) China. The system is able to handle it because a lot of people don't even get to experience how so many other developed nations have a stronger foundation for everyone. They just assume that life sucks and that there isn't a better way. And even rich people in the US are satisfied with pretty terrible experiences because US culture is so disconnected from everything else that they don't get that things are a lot nicer elsewhere! Nothing like visiting someone's multi-million dollar home with worse plumbing than cheap 1-room studios elsewhere in the world.
- PhantomGremlin 8y ago
  Stuff like this makes it feel like the USA is falling apart from being a 1st world nation, crumbling in bits and pieces into a 3rd world one. That's exactly the wrong take-away! Amtrak is totally irrelevant for trans-continental travel. There is a "daily" departure from Seattle to Chicago. I.e. one train per day. Probably a few hundred passengers on a good day. I just did a quick check and there are 7 non-stop flights tomorrow from Seattle to Chicago. Average air travel time is about 4 hours. Cheapest fare for tomorrow is $262. So this train exists for a few tourists and for a few people who can't or don't want to fly. Everyone else takes a non-stop plane and gets there in hours not in days. It's an indication of the USA's wealth and bounty that we are willing to waste billions of dollars a year on useless vanity projects like this. Long distance Amtrak runs at a loss, the US congress provides $1.3 billion a year to make up the difference. In addition there is a $650 million subsidy for passenger trains between Washington DC and Boston. That's arguably something useful, since the route is heavily traveled. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/03/21/amtrak-gets-nearly-2-billion-federal-spending/447301002/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/03/21/amtrak-gets-n...
null000 8y ago
> Freight trains get priority on the rail lines so many times the train was stopped for possibly hours waiting for freight trains to pass. This mentality weirds me out. As in: Why are we explicitly valuing the time of companies over the time of actual people? Companies can probably adjust to getting their shit 8 or 12 or 24 hours late (or, if they can't, they can charter a plane). It's a lot harder to deal with for people who need to be somewhere.
sschueller 8y ago
You would probably have a better experience renting and entire rail car and shipping it as cargo across the US.

by Zimahl 8y ago

Aloha 8y ago

Passenger trains do get priority in the US, your mileage may vary by railroad to how forgiving they are for schedule delays. Basically Amtrak has to keep to a specific schedule, if ut misses it's window it loses the priority it had.

pacala 8y ago
I took a train from Chicago to LA almost 20 years ago. There were 6 passenger cars attached to 60+ freight cars. There was a 20+ hours delay. All the stops were in dilapidated industrial areas. A ridiculous experience. Never again. For a transcontinental trip: drive a car or a van.
- Aloha 8y ago
  Amtrak has never run Mixed freight trains, so this must not have been on amtrak.
  - TkTech 8y ago
    That is not true, Amtrak used to run a service called Mail & Express. One of the trains was indeed mixed passenger and freight. That said, Amtrak engines are also often leased to other freight companies so you can frequently see freight trains being hauled by Amtrak branded engines.
    - Kadin 8y ago
      In case anyone is interested in Mail and Express: http://utahrails.net/pass/amtrak-mail-express.htm http://utahrails.net/pass/amtrak-mail-express.htm It stopped in 2004, presumably due to declines in mail volume. (Which I wonder if it would make sense again now, due to more mail-order package shipping.) Anyway, it's not really "freight" in the sense that most people think of a freight train. It's all Amtrak rolling stock. They still do offer Express shipping services between some stations. It's a very cheap way to send something between NYC and Washington for same-day arrival, especially if it's a big box. You have to have someone go to the train station on either end to get your stuff, though. They move them around on the passenger trains that have baggage cars (the 'named' trains, typically at least on the East Coast).
  - pacala 8y ago
    Alas, the pictures I took were on film, and it's been lost in various relocations. Very likely it was Amtrak, with the "sightseeing car" and all.
Spooky23 8y ago
If you’re on CSX track, you sit. I’ve been on trains that left precisely on schedule that were impacted this way.
- nerdponx 8y ago
  Train service between Utica and Buffalo is routinely affected by this.
brownindian 8y ago
Wendover did a video on this a couple years ago. Basically saying why trains suck in America. And the reason is the same: freight gets priority because Amtrak does not own the track, freight companies do. https://youtu.be/mbEfzuCLoAQ https://youtu.be/mbEfzuCLoAQ
- bobthepanda 8y ago
  It’s the law that passenger trains should get priority, but actual enforcement of this law is nonexistent, and Amtrak does not have as much money to spend on counsel.

stcredzero 8y ago

>> We were 8 hours late leaving Seattle and couldn't get into our cabin until we got to Spokane because of some sort of merge of trains coming from Portland and Seattle. Got to Spokane, got our cabin, another 6 hour delay. By the time we reached the upper Midwest, they were rationing food, literally cutting every meal (that we had already paid for) in half. We eventually arrived in Chicago about 22 hours late. >> The train was disgustingly dirty and the employees were surly and unhelpful. > On my wife's trip the refrigeration went out at some point so cold food was no longer available, nor was food that required refrigeration before it was cooked. Fortunately they disembarked soon after that happened. The rest of the train was still a day or so from Chicago and those passengers were stuck with god knows what to eat. Stuff like this makes it feel like the USA is falling apart from being a 1st world nation, crumbling in bits and pieces into a 3rd world one.

peteretep 8y ago
As much as I like trains, the that the passenger ones in the US are crumbling sounds like resources are being efficiently allocated?
rtpg 8y ago
US quality of life for many is already pretty close to what you'd see in (granted, middle-class-level) China. The system is able to handle it because a lot of people don't even get to experience how so many other developed nations have a stronger foundation for everyone. They just assume that life sucks and that there isn't a better way. And even rich people in the US are satisfied with pretty terrible experiences because US culture is so disconnected from everything else that they don't get that things are a lot nicer elsewhere! Nothing like visiting someone's multi-million dollar home with worse plumbing than cheap 1-room studios elsewhere in the world.
PhantomGremlin 8y ago
Stuff like this makes it feel like the USA is falling apart from being a 1st world nation, crumbling in bits and pieces into a 3rd world one. That's exactly the wrong take-away! Amtrak is totally irrelevant for trans-continental travel. There is a "daily" departure from Seattle to Chicago. I.e. one train per day. Probably a few hundred passengers on a good day. I just did a quick check and there are 7 non-stop flights tomorrow from Seattle to Chicago. Average air travel time is about 4 hours. Cheapest fare for tomorrow is $262. So this train exists for a few tourists and for a few people who can't or don't want to fly. Everyone else takes a non-stop plane and gets there in hours not in days. It's an indication of the USA's wealth and bounty that we are willing to waste billions of dollars a year on useless vanity projects like this. Long distance Amtrak runs at a loss, the US congress provides $1.3 billion a year to make up the difference. In addition there is a $650 million subsidy for passenger trains between Washington DC and Boston. That's arguably something useful, since the route is heavily traveled. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/03/21/amtrak-gets-nearly-2-billion-federal-spending/447301002/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/03/21/amtrak-gets-n...

null000 8y ago

> Freight trains get priority on the rail lines so many times the train was stopped for possibly hours waiting for freight trains to pass. This mentality weirds me out. As in: Why are we explicitly valuing the time of companies over the time of actual people? Companies can probably adjust to getting their shit 8 or 12 or 24 hours late (or, if they can't, they can charter a plane). It's a lot harder to deal with for people who need to be somewhere.

sschueller 8y ago

You would probably have a better experience renting and entire rail car and shipping it as cargo across the US.