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ARKANSAS RAIL
- Arkansas Association of Railroad Passengers -
Texas Eagle Schedule Revision
Effective May 17, 1999
Train #22 operates fifteen minutes earlier from San Antonio to Fort Worth. At Fort Worth, station dwell time is increased five minutes (from 25" to 30".) Dwell time at Dallas is reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. At Dallas, when picking up express cars, the customary practice has been to leave at the scheduled departure time, move to the end of the station tracks, and back onto waiting express loads. The train frequently waited for departure time in Dallas, and then incurred delay in picking up express cars, so the reduced dwell time in Dallas should help expedite movement through the station. The schedule was also restrung between Dallas, Mineola and Longview, adding time between Dallas and Mineola and reducing time between Mineola and Longview, all to correct previous schedule imbalances. Under normal conditions, train #22 should still arrive in Longview twenty minutes early.
While the above fine tuning of schedule times should be helpful, the net effect is to provide
additional schedule pad time benefitting the Union Pacific Railroad. This timetable adjustment
still does not address the existing serious shortcomings of #22's schedule:
- Train #22 still departs Little Rock after midnight (12:49am). Particularly in the case of a
non-daily
train, every effort should be made to schedule a "near-midnight" departure PRIOR to midnight to
minimize confusion to passengers. Train #22 should depart Little Rock no later than 11:59pm.
- Train #22 still fails to make connection with train #301, the Kansas City Mule at St.
Louis. Assuming a 11:59pm departure from Little Rock, train #22 could easily be scheduled into
St. Louis at 6:45am. Train #301's present St. Louis departure time of 7:30am should be moved to
7:45am, allowing guaranteed connections from #22 at St. Louis. The present Eagle
"connection" to Kansas City requires almost six hours layover at St. Louis. The "near miss"
between #22's arrival at 8:07am and #301's departure at 7:30am is reminiscent of one of the most
infamous Amtrak "misconnects" of the 1970s, when the eastbound National Limited
departed St.
Louis about 45 minutes before the arrival of the northbound Inter-American. The present
poor
connectivity between the Eagle and the Kansas City service is shameful, reflecting poorly
on both Amtrak and the Missouri Department of Transportation. Under the present schedule,
Eagle passengers destined for Kansas City would be better served to simply rent a car at
St. Louis thus arriving in Kansas City well before the departure time of #303 from St. Louis.
- It remains difficult and problematic to make connections from Train #22 to westbound trains at Chicago. Connecting van service is currently provided from Springfield to Galesburg, IL (to trains #3 and #5) and to Columbus, WI (to train #7). When train #22 is late, connecting passengers are normally carried into Chicago and handled as misconnects, with Amtrak providing overnight accommodations or alternate transportation. Continuing the scenario beginning with an 11:59pm departure from Little Rock, a departure from St. Louis at 745-800am is easily achievable, thus providing an additional hour which would significantly reduce westbound connection difficulties.
Hopefully these scheduling problems will be addressed and corrected with the next schedule change, in the fall of 1999.
The Eagle's last major schedule change took place on September 1, 1998.
NEW SCHEDULE -- Effective May 17, 1999
21 STATIONS 22-old 22-new
555pm Chicago 245pm 245pm
650pm Joliet 147pm 147pm
810pm Bloomington 1215pm 1215am
922pm Springfield 1104am 1104am
1028pm Alton 949am 949am
1140pm Av St. Louis Lv 900am 900am
1159pm Lv St. Louis Av 807am 807am
403am Poplar Bluff 354am 354am
457am Walnut Ridge 249am 249am
Newport
727am Little Rock 1249am 1249am
812am Malvern 1134pm 1134pm
833am Arkadelphia 1110pm 1110pm
Hope
958am Texarkana 956pm 956pm
1113am Marshall 833pm 833pm
1148am Longview 800pm 800pm
1235pm Mineola 627pm 637pm
236pm Av Dallas Lv 515pm 455pm
256pm Lv Dallas Av 455pm 445pm
419pm Av Ft. Worth Lv 350pm 340pm
439pm Lv Ft. Worth Av 325pm 310pm
531pm Cleburne 221pm 206pm
639pm McGregor 109pm 1254pm
722pm Temple 1240pm 1225pm
815pm Taylor 1132am 1117am
909pm Austin 1041am 1026am
951pm San Marcos 950am 935am
1159pm San Antonio 800am 745am
Email: arkrail@arkansas.net
Posted: Saturday, May 8, 1999.
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