[Bordercollie]

My 2 cents: it is better to have a schedule that reflects the actual times the train will be there than having an idealized schedule. Doing so takes both the carrier and the user to work together to maintain it through.

For sure. There is no point in having a theoretical schedule that they can't meet. Resulting in credits paid out. At least this way they can better predict when they will arrive at their destination.
And travelling by car is no better. Especially with these unqualified truckers on the road, it's so easy to get delayed by hours just by one accident.

 

[Urban Sky]

All they did was reflect the actual travel time in the schedule.

May I ask you which schedules were extended to account for the increased travel times resulting from the speed restrictions imposed by CN on the Venture fleet? I somehow struggle to identify any such changes…

 

[Bordercollie]

May I ask you which schedules were extended to account for the increased travel times resulting from the speed restrictions imposed by CN on the Venture fleet? I somehow struggle to identify any such changes…

I was under the impression that that's what they did. Since you can't meet the schedule due to speed restrictions so without extending the travel time how would you increase the on time performance metrics?

 

[micheal_can]

For sure. There is no point in having a theoretical schedule that they can't meet. Resulting in credits paid out. At least this way they can better predict when they will arrive at their destination.
And travelling by car is no better. Especially with these unqualified truckers on the road, it's so easy to get delayed by hours just by one accident.

We all want fast service, but why advertise a schedule that seems faster when delays will happen? For the Corridor,5 minutes late should be a bad thing. The LDRs can be late by an hour and make it up.The Corridor routes don't have that kind of luxury.

 

[Urban Sky]

I was under the impression that that's what they did. Since you can't meet the schedule due to speed restrictions so without extending the travel time how would you increase the on time performance metrics?

By raising these speed restrictions and thus limiting their negative impact on travel time. Which is exactly what VIA managed to do a few weeks ago and has drastically reduced the severity of the problem…

 

[Trackside_Treasure]

It's been better since they added the permanent slow orders. It's easier to predict the schedule.

All they did was reflect the actual travel time in the schedule.

I'm not so sure. Yes, there has been improvement with the introduction of CN's PSOs. The 'real time' or 'ahead of schedule' arrivals only pertained to the flawed, failed and forgotten direct-service pilot for four trains per day. I did not hear VIA promising improvements to Venture OTP otherwise. Yes, capturing an 85% OTP in one window of time is great!

My Monday Venture monitoring, ongoing since introduction of CN's crossing speed reduction looked like this (image):

And since then, the numbers continue to improve. The numbers don't lie. In the ensuing five weeks not yet added to the above table:
Ottawa/Toronto Ventures' OTP : 22, 29, 34, 15, 37 minutes.
Montreal/Toronto Ventures' OTP : 24, 22, 55, 30, 41 minutes.
With an important caveat. Since I'm averaging all Venture arrival times, the averages would be lower using a different methodology that did not result in an average. One or two 'bad actors' each Monday arriving 44, 55 or 88 minutes late skew the average! But I'm committed to using the same methodology going forward, for consistency.

 

[stevensontransit]

I'm not so sure. Yes, there has been improvement with the introduction of CN's PSOs. The 'real time' or 'ahead of schedule' arrivals only pertained to the flawed, failed and forgotten direct-service pilot for four trains per day. I did not hear VIA promising improvements to Venture OTP otherwise. Yes, capturing an 85% OTP in one window of time is great!

My Monday Venture monitoring, ongoing since introduction of CN's crossing speed reduction looked like this (image):View attachment 687770
And since then, the numbers continue to improve. The numbers don't lie. In the ensuing five weeks not yet added to the above table:
Ottawa/Toronto Ventures' OTP : 22, 29, 34, 15, 37 minutes.
Montreal/Toronto Ventures' OTP : 24, 22, 55, 30, 41 minutes.
With an important caveat. Since I'm averaging all Venture arrival times, the averages would be lower using a different methodology that did not result in an average. One or two 'bad actors' each Monday arriving 44, 55 or 88 minutes late skew the average! But I'm committed to using the same methodology going forward, for consistency.

what a via and the cn rail show has become.

 

[smallspy]

Via's on-time performance is currently 85%, which is the highest I've seen since the start of CN speed restrictions. Maybe freight traffic is reduced on the long weekend?
View attachment 687709
View attachment 68770822/

Historically, as the Thanksgiving long weekend is the busiest set of travel days for VIA, CN has worked extra hard with VIA to keep VIA's trains on time at the expense of CN's.

I guess that in spite of everything else going on, they are continuing with that arrangement.

Dan

 

[crs1026]

Historically, as the Thanksgiving long weekend is the busiest set of travel days for VIA, CN has worked extra hard with VIA to keep VIA's trains on time at the expense of CN's.

I guess that in spite of everything else going on, they are continuing with that arrangement.

My take is a little less generous.... ie few CN Managers work Thanksgiving, and so less oversight that would impose on RTC's to favour CN freights over VIA.

Just a theory

- Paul

 

[DSCToronto]

My take is a little less generous.... ie few CN Managers work Thanksgiving, and so less oversight that would impose on RTC's to favour CN freights over VIA.

Just a theory

- Paul

Both of you could be correct. There could be less freight traffic and fewer CN Managers around and at same time CN could be giving VIA more 'rail time' than normal because they know that they have high passenger load.

 

[Trackside_Treasure]

It's been one year already!

Happy Birthday, CN Crossing Supplement!

You will not see this post's title on any greeting card. It's an unusual title for an unusual time. One year ago this weekend, CN decided ...

tracksidetreasure.blogspot.com

 

[smallspy]

My take is a little less generous.... ie few CN Managers work Thanksgiving, and so less oversight that would impose on RTC's to favour CN freights over VIA.

Just a theory

- Paul

While the RTCs have a fair amount of leeway in how they can keep their part of the system running, they also are given specific instructions on how they keep that part of the system running, and they get audited regularly on their decisions and how they are following those instructions.

Just because their managers aren't there doesn't mean they aren't watching.

Dan

 

[Urban Sky]

Historically, as the Thanksgiving long weekend is the busiest set of travel days for VIA, CN has worked extra hard with VIA to keep VIA's trains on time at the expense of CN's.

The most striking exception being last year when they slapped their speed limits on VIA right before the Thanksgiving weekend…

 

[Sauga89]

Michigan announced yesterday that it would build a new train station in Detroit to serve cross-border trains. The station is to be built adjacent to the old Michigan Central station so that trains can use the existing CPKC tunnel.

Under the plan, Amtrak trains will cross the border and passengers will have to switch to VIA in Windsor. The Detroit Free Press is reporting that there will be a customs facility on the Canadian side, and that Amtrak is waiting on approval for $50 million from the Canadian federal government for new platforms and other infrastructure.

 

[Bordercollie]

Michigan announced yesterday that it would build a new train station in Detroit to serve cross-border trains. The station is to be built adjacent to the old Michigan Central station so that trains can use the existing CPKC tunnel.

Under the plan, Amtrak trains will cross the border and passengers will have to switch to VIA in Windsor. The Detroit Free Press is reporting that there will be a customs facility on the Canadian side, and that Amtrak is waiting on approval for $50 million from the Canadian federal government for new platforms and other infrastructure.

It will be a different political climate once the project is completed. But I wonder if there will be improvements to the Dundas Sub? Currently passenger trains are limited to 80mph.