RUGBY, N.D. — With extreme winter weather expected tomorrow (Friday, Nov. 11) and Saturday, BNSF Railway has notified Amtrak that it will enact directional running between Minot and Fargo, N.D., for those days, forcing the westbound Empire Builder to miss scheduled stops in Grand Forks, Devils Lake, and Rugby.
Forecasts are for 10 to 15 inches of snow, 35-mph wind gusts, and 15-degree temperatures, so the railroad will fleet all eastbound trains — including the eastbound Empire Builder — via the passenger train’s normal route. Westbound trains, including the westbound Builder, will use the New Rockford Subdivision between Fargo and Minot. The directional operation will minimize meets to lessen the opportunity for power switches at remote passing tracks to become clogged with snow.
Blizzards are no stranger to upper North Dakota from November through March, but that usually doesn’t force Amtrak trains Nos. 7 and 8 to detour off a line BNSF had threatened to abandon back in 2010. The railroad argued the Builder was the only train using the route and overhead traffic could run on the more direct New Rockland sub. It succeeded in getting Amtrak and the state to help it match a federal grant to shore up embankments against persistent flooding and rebuild Devils Lake Subdivision tracks east of Rugby. The comprehensive rebuild aided by public money also saw an upgrade of the signal system installed by predecessor Great Northern.
And so today, “BNSF has so many trains running through Rugby that they just don’t want Amtrak to get in the way,” says Rugby funeral director Dale Niewoehner.
The town’s former mayor and longtime advocate for improved Amtrak service keeps an eye on the now-unmanned, caretaker-only station and the Builder’s comings and going. He tells Trains News Wire that the eastbound train has been especially unreliable lately, often arriving hours after its scheduled 11:49 p.m. arrival time.
“This week, Monday night’s train arrived at 5:50 a.m. Tuesday morning and the westbound didn’t show at all,” he says. That was because Saturday night’s eastbound arrived into Rugby after 2 p.m. Sunday after encountering freight congestion and recrewing delays. It was almost a day late into Chicago, and without sufficient standby equipment, Amtrak never ran a Monday, November 7, westbound Builder out of the Windy City.
Anyone attempting to reach the three missed North Dakota stops from the east Friday and Saturday morning is advised on the Amtrak website that the train is “sold out;” there is no mention the trains do have coach and sleeping car space to Minot.
Between the recent crash mear Mendon, MO and the Gulf Coast situation, why is BNSF still fooling with this government freeloader?
freeloader? How so?
Freeloader?! I’s pretty clear from the artial that we the publick paid for a good bit of it.
pardon my misspelling.
Sounds like your just anti Amtrak. Not sure how Amtrak is a freeloader as they pay to operate on BNSF tracks and have payed for upgrades on the railroad.
Mr. Pinckney,
Amtrak is not a freeloader. They’re a mooch.
Why can’t the passenger that miss the stations west bound go to Minot and take east bund to their destinatios? That is if there are seats available on west bound.
When the BNSF was going to abandon the Devil’s Lake sub, the Builder was going to be rerouted through New Rockford. That of course did not happen since as stated in th article, the Devil’s Lake sub was rebuilt. I worked the Minot Amtrak station for 14 months 2004 to 2005.
The route between Fargo and Surrey through New Rockford, ND is the BNSF KO subdivision, not New Rockland.