Everybody Pays for Amtrak Misconnects.
I don’t suppose there’s any way of coming up with an actual number, but Amtrak’s spotty on-time performance is costing them ridership and us money.
For example, I’m going to be attending NARP’s annual Fall meeting in Indianapolis next month and, to get there by train, I have to go through Chicago. Specifically, I’m taking the Empire Builder from Seattle to Chicago and the Cardinal from there to Indianapolis. In theory, I ought to be able to make that connection in Chicago. The Empire Builder is due in at 3:55 in the afternoon and the Cardinal departs not quite two hours later, at 5:45. That’s almost two hours.
But I just checked NARP’s Train Status board and the Empire Builder that left Seattle yesterday afternoon is now about halfway across Montana and running four hours late. Furthermore, over the past five days, that train, Train 8, has been late into Chicago by an average of almost exactly two hours.
So, because I’m a veteran at this, I know that the only prudent thing to do is leave Seattle a day early and spend the night of October 14 in a Chicago hotel, taking the Cardinal to Indianapolis the next day, the 15th.
The trouble is, while that may be the prudent way to go, it’s going to cost me a couple of cab fares, $270 for the hotel, plus a dinner, a breakfast and a lunch. That’s an additional four hundred bucks … at least!
And as annoying as that extra expense may be, it could be worse. All you have to do is wander by Amtrak’s Customer Service desk in Chicago’s Union Station to see the people who aren’t veteran rail travelers with the dazed “missed connection” expressions on their faces, wondering how they’re going to get to Burlington or Utica or Cincinnati or wherever the hell it is they’re going.
There are a lot of reasons why Amtrak’s long-distance trains have such a problem running on time: freight traffic, equipment problems, bad weather, to call out just the most common ones. But passengers don’t care. They just want to know when they’re going to get to their destination … and they want to actually get that pretty close to that time. If they don’t … if an Amtrak trip leaves them stranded because of a misconnect … if they have to pay for an extra day just in case … the next time they’ll opt to fly or to drive or to not go at all.
Surely … surely! … we can figure out how to get Amtrak long-distance trains running on time.
A little redundant there at the end of the second paragraph.
While I have not actually had a misconnect on Amtrak, I did have an annoying experience last July. I was supposed to travel from Boston to Brunswick, ME on the Downeaster and had booked a bike on that reservation. A week before my trip, Amtrak emailed me to say that my train had been cancelled north of Wells due to track work and that alternate transportation was being provided. I called Amtrak Customer Service, and they informed me that I would not be able to take my bike on the bus from Wells to Brunswick. I enquired as to whether there were any other trains that day on which I could take my bike and was told that I would not be able to take the Downeaster with my bike any day for a week on either side of my original date of travel. The customer service agent I spoke to offered to refund my ticket, an offer I accepted. I ended up taking Concord Coach, which actually worked out better as it saved my friend a 1.5 hour drive to pick me up by allowing me to go all the way to his town. It also made my connection in Boston easier, as I was coming in from Worcester on the commuter rail. I was annoyed, however, that Amtrak had not forseen this issue when I booked the ticket just a couple of weeks earlier.
I don’t know, of course, but it could have been that Amtrak hadn’t been notified of the track work by the host railroad.
This in no way is an excuse; however, to what extent is Amtrak under a Sword of Damocles? Aside from customer goodwill, to what extent must Amtrak satisfy the individual state corridor hammer to ensure their trains depart the originating depot on time to receive a specified payment level vs. holding the connecting corridor train for late long distance trains? In essence, does Amtrak potentially lose more from the pocket by holding a corridor run for late connects vs. cost to re-accomodate those mis-connects, via bus, or, overnight?
From a personal experience, I know how painful a mis-connect can be. In February, 1973, I traveled from Washington-NYC on the “Metroliner”to connect with the “TurboTrain” to New Haven for an afternoon of interviews for a very small master’s program in hospital administration. As it was obvious the “Metroliner” was not to make-up lost time, and as I was in the parlor car, I called Amtrak’s regional sales manager in NYC, requesting the “Turbo” connection be held for just 10 minutes. He profusely apologized, but stated they had a specific slot to leave per Metro North dispatching and could not miss it for any reason. I lost over an hour waiting for the “Southern Crescent” running behind us from Washington to make the run to New Haven; was horribly late and delayed all of my appointments with deans and professors. When they heard what I had experienced, they were most forgiving; I was later admitted.
The problems are obvious, but where do we start? Clearly, we need meaningful, and consistent, investment for infrastructure, equipment, frequencies, etc so we are no longer tied to but one train per day, or, the need to overnight just to protect the connecting schedule.