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ARKANSAS RAIL

- Arkansas Association of Railroad Passengers -

Texas Eagle Schedule Revision

Effective May 17, 1999

The Texas Eagle schedule for train #22 will be modified effective May 17, 1999 to provide 15 minutes of additional time between San Antonio and Longview, Texas. The schedule is unchanged for train #21, and for train #22 north of Longview.

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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