Why Amtrak Sucks?

So, I travel to the Amtrak station in Rennselaer, NY to catch my 1:30pm train to Rochester for a trial tomorrow morning. The taxi gets me to the train station on time despite the heavy snow and 4" of accumulation we had on the ground alreeady. I arrived 1/2 hour before my train departed to learn that the Locomotive broke down in Penn Station, NY and hadn't left. HAVE YOU SEEN HOW MANY EXTRA AMTRAK LOCOMOTIVES THEY HAVE SITTING AROUND? Instead, it took them 2 1/2 hours to get a new locomotive to bring the train to Albany. Finally at around 4pm the train arrives. I board the train and we start hauling west toward rochester. Not so fast. 7 Miles away at Schenectady, the train is stopped and we learn that there's another train coming east-bound and that there is only 1 track in that area. Being the nice train controllers that they are, they let the other train come 1st...it should onlyt be 10 minutes.

About 1/2 hour later we find out that there is a switch problem in Amsterdam and the east-bound train was stopped. After about 1 hour of sitting in Schenectady, NY, we finally get moving. As of this writing, I am just west of Syracuse and if we stay on schedule and all goes well, I should be arriving by around 9:30pm.

All Aboard Amtrash!!
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WEEKEND NOR'EASTER UPDATE:

Models have come into excellent agreement that the Northeastern U.S. will get a huge kick-ass storm Sunday into Monday morning. This storm is going to be in the perfect location for some incredible snow totals in some areas. There will be some sleet mixing in in some spots and that can become very tricky as far as snow accumulations go. But as of this writing (7:30pm Thursday), I think a 12-18" snowfall is certainly not out of the question. Northern NJ and the NYC area could see 6-10" from this storm. Parts of the Adirondacks and Catskills should see 18-24" or more if all plays out. The snow should begin early Sunday morning.