CHICAGO — Washouts in California, plus heavy snows there and along BNSF Railway’s Hi Line across North Dakota and Montana, are among obstacles thrown at Amtrak’s national network the last several days, precipitating cancellations, significant delays, and route truncations.
A washout north of San Luis Obispo, Calif., caused the Coast Starlight to be cancelled in both directions between Los Angeles and Emeryville, Calif., on Sunday; the train is showing “sold out” on that segment for the next few days.
Another washout over the weekend near Bellingham, Wash., canceled all Canada-bound Cascades service at least through Sunday.
Zephyr woes
After avoiding the California-Salt Lake City portion of its route for more than a week because of heavy snows over Donner Pass and resulting Union Pacific freight congestion in Nevada, the California Zephyr departing Emeryville on Wednesday, March 8, bravely soldiered east through the Golden State’s continuing “atmospheric river” snows. But it was 7 hours late departing Salt Lake City after getting tripped up by UP freight congestion, mostly east of Elko.
For the remainder of the week, the Zephyrs encountered similar delays on the pass and in Nevada. Westbound arrivals in Emeryville around midnight, 6 to 7 hours late, delayed eastbound departures by an average of 4 hours. The route’s biggest obstacle, however, occurred in Colorado between Granby and Glenwood Springs on Saturday, when a track outage delayed the westbound train 9 hours. The eastbound Zephyr that departed California on Thursday, March 9, was already 17 hours late into Glenwood Springs after delays across Nevada and Utah, and arrived in Chicago at 9:48 p.m. Sunday night — 1 day, 5 hours, 58 minutes late. (The eastbound train that left Emeryville on March 10 arrived just 3 hours, 5 minutes behind that train, although it was running 9 hours, 3 minutes late.)
Without any available equipment, Sunday’s westbound Zephyr was canceled out of Chicago. And Amtrak announced this morning on its Amtrak Alerts Twitter feed that today’s eastbound departure from Emeryville is canceled because of “disabled snow removal equipment blocking the tracks.” Sunday’s eastbound departure from Emeryville was terminated east of Colfax, Calif., just 137 miles into its journey. The westbound train that left Chicago on March 10 was, as of a 5:07 a.m. tweet, holding in Reno for an open track. The westbound train that left Chicago on March 11 terminated at Salt Lake City and has flipped back from there to represent the eastbound Zephyr of March 12 that never made it past the line blockage. Westbounds leaving Chicago through Wednesday March 15 are set to terminate at Salt Lake City, but with equipment out of position, there will be no eastbound Zephyr departing Salt Lake City on Tuesday, March 14, or Emeryville to Chicago on Thursday, March 16.
More Builder adversity
Freight congestion and heavy snows also played havoc with the Empire Builder. After leaving Chicago on time, both the March 10 and March 11 westbound Builders were routed through New Rockford, N.D., instead of over BNSF’s Devils Lake Subdivision between Fargo and Minot, N. D. Still, the March 10 westbound train was 6 hours late leaving Minot and 13 hours late out of Sandpoint, Idaho; Amtrak’s website shows the Portland section arriving at 1:01 a.m. today, 12 hours, 44 minutes late. As a result, Sunday’s eastbound Builder was cancelled out of Seattle and Portland, Ore. Without a spare trainset to fill the gap, the westbound train out of Chicago is now cancelled on Wednesday, March 15.
Westbound delays earlier in the week caused eastbound trains on March 10 and March 11 to leave the West Coast about 5 hours late. The train due in Chicago on Sunday afternoon arrived at 3:34 a.m. this morning (Monday, March 13), 9 hours, 49 minutes late; the one due in Chicago today is currently projected to arrive at 2:33 a.m. on Tuesday, some 8 hours, 48 minutes late. Both did or will miss all Chicago connecting trains. With the westbound train that left Chicago more than 7 hours late approaching Spokane, significant eastbound delays are continuing along the route.
More sellouts
Reduced capacity of both long-distance and state-supported trains also effectively eliminates connection possibilities and thereby limits Amtrak’s revenue potential. On Sunday afternoon, March 12, the Texas Eagle and three subsequent Lincoln Service trains were all either “sold out” or “100% full” leaving of Chicago, as were the westbound Empire Builder and Southwest Chief, the eastbound Capitol Limited, and three afternoon trains headed for Michigan. Although Sunday is a normally heavy travel day, the situation is not unusual.
The only space available aboard the westbound Lake Shore Limited from New York to Chicago on March 12 was one bedroom; it cost $1,497.
Staying “on time”
At least that train has been running “on the advertised.”
The annual nationwide shift from standard to daylight time normally makes every Amtrak overnighter an hour late, though this year the company added an hour to Sunday schedules after 2 a.m. on many routes to give trains a fighting chance to arrive at intermediate and final destinations “on time.” Indeed, the Lake Shore was 5 minutes “early” into Chicago at 11:07 a.m., though the Capitol Limited from Washington, D.C. got in 44 minutes “late.” Perhaps this is one of the few advantages of not publishing printed timetables.
— Updated at 7:20 a.m. CDT with arrival time for several trains; updated at 7:35 a.m. with additional Zephyr cancellations and terminations; updated at 11:33 a.m. with more Zephyr information.
