Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
It's interesting to note that of those seven delays, only one—
the equipment failure near Harpers Ferry—can be laid directly
at Amtrak's door. The others were caused by weather, one of the
freight railroads, or quirky human beings. The delays experi-
enced by the Empire Builder
are fairly typical; this one occurred
because the BNSF dispatcher gave priority to the other trains.
By the way, if the train is delayed for more than just a few
minutes, the conductor should provide an explanation over the
PA system. (One of my pet peeves: they often don't do that.)
Don't bother asking one of the service crew, your car attendant,
or one of the servers in the dining car—they're usually too busy
with their duties and probably won't know why the train has
stopped anyway.
Hard-core rail fans traveling with their scanners (see chap-
ter 6, “Life Onboard”) can usually find out why the train has
stopped by eavesdropping while the engineer and the conductor
discuss the delay on their radios.
Even when a train is late, it can still be considered “on time.”
Most airlines record a flight as having left on time if the plane
pushes away from the gate within 15 minutes of its scheduled
departure time. In much the same way, Amtrak determines if a
train has arrived on time by establishing what are called
on-time
tolerances
. They vary according to the length of the trip, but if a
train's arrival falls within this grace period, it's still considered to
be on time.
AMTRAK ON-TIME TOLERANCES
Length of Trip
Grace Period
0-250 miles
10 minutes
251-350 miles
15 minutes
351-450 miles
20 minutes
451-500 miles
25 minutes
501 or more miles
30 minutes
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