Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
outbound
delays (late departure), but they're closely related. In
fact, the most common cause of an outbound delay is the late
arrival of an inbound train. Amtrak will often hold up a depar-
ture if there are passengers on the arriving train who are expect-
ing to make that connection. (You can see how this puts Amtrak
in a no-win situation: passengers on the Southwest Chief will be
unhappy if their departure from Chicago is delayed waiting for
the Texas Eagle to arrive. But if Amtrak doesn't hold the Chief,
15 or 20 passengers on the Eagle will miss their connection and
then
they
will be unhappy.)
Inbound delays can cause other major problems for Amtrak
too. Arriving trains must be “turned” for the return trip, and if
the trains are significantly late, Amtrak crews have less time than
they need for that process. And there are a lot of other things to
do. The train has to be cleaned, of course, and a mind-boggling
variety of supplies have to be checked and restocked: food, fresh
linens, and clean tableware for the dining car; ice, snacks, and
drinks for the lounge car; fresh pillows for the coaches; and clean
sheets, pillowcases, and towels for the sleepers. Most of those
beds have to be made up too. There's also a lot going on outside
the train, because every arriving train must be inspected before it
can go out again.
Once en route, trains can be delayed for any number of rea-
sons, and they often are. An engine can break down with the
closest replacement unit hours away. Perhaps there's an electrical
problem in the dining car, and an Amtrak electrician has to come
aboard somewhere along the way to fix it. If it's unusually hot
outside, perhaps there are heat kinks in the rails caused by the
steel expanding; under those conditions the train could be pok-
ing along under a “slow order.” Maybe it's nothing more than an
unusually heavy amount of freight traffic that slows the train's
progress. Causes for delays seem to come in an endless variety.
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