A stunner of an evening
So, I promised a coworker that I'd mark this momentous occasion by coming home and writing about it in my journal.
In a moment of high coincidence, on the day I started working for Amtrak, a speed restriction was imposed on our stretch of tracks by the freight company that owns it. Instead of being able to run 80 miles an hour, which was the norm (and around which assumption our schedule was created), the whole way between stops, any train with less than 30 axles had to slow to 60 mph for any crossing with lights and gates. The Canadian National freight jerks claimed that this was because the sensors for the lights and gates were not picking up our trains in time to give sufficient warning, but it was generally acknowledged by all that it was really a power play to dick with our schedules.
On a day to day basis, this causes a train that was scheduled to arrive at 7:59 to regularly arrive around 8:30, if that. Yes, Viriginia, it does affect us that much. This situation, of course, leads to grouchy, cynical customers who bitch about our inability to ever arrive on time. The City of New Orleans, our famous long-distance train from Chicago to New Orleans, circumvented this problem by adding a baggage car. Given that they regularly have more cars than our in-state trains, this gives them enough axles that they can go full speed, thumb their noses at the CN restriction, and arrive on time at least a few times a week.
Yesterday, one of my conductors told me that some of the restrictions had been lifted.
Today, each of my three trains arrived no more than 10 minutes late.
That is a first in my 7 months at Amtrak. I was about to have a heart attack from the shock of it all. And I can die content, knowing that the cynical people who count on the trains being at least 20 minutes late will actually miss the train for it again.
In a moment of high coincidence, on the day I started working for Amtrak, a speed restriction was imposed on our stretch of tracks by the freight company that owns it. Instead of being able to run 80 miles an hour, which was the norm (and around which assumption our schedule was created), the whole way between stops, any train with less than 30 axles had to slow to 60 mph for any crossing with lights and gates. The Canadian National freight jerks claimed that this was because the sensors for the lights and gates were not picking up our trains in time to give sufficient warning, but it was generally acknowledged by all that it was really a power play to dick with our schedules.
On a day to day basis, this causes a train that was scheduled to arrive at 7:59 to regularly arrive around 8:30, if that. Yes, Viriginia, it does affect us that much. This situation, of course, leads to grouchy, cynical customers who bitch about our inability to ever arrive on time. The City of New Orleans, our famous long-distance train from Chicago to New Orleans, circumvented this problem by adding a baggage car. Given that they regularly have more cars than our in-state trains, this gives them enough axles that they can go full speed, thumb their noses at the CN restriction, and arrive on time at least a few times a week.
Yesterday, one of my conductors told me that some of the restrictions had been lifted.
Today, each of my three trains arrived no more than 10 minutes late.
That is a first in my 7 months at Amtrak. I was about to have a heart attack from the shock of it all. And I can die content, knowing that the cynical people who count on the trains being at least 20 minutes late will actually miss the train for it again.