#5 (11) Held up by flooding in Colorado

My cousin who is on CZ #5 (11) is sitting in his roomette at the Denver station. The conductor has told the passengers they can't go west and they can't go over the Wyoming detour. No more details yet.

I would have been on the train, but I needed to fly home yesterday.

Jim

I heard on the radio about evacuations in Boulder due to flooding during my drive to work this morning and figured that this meant bad news for the California Zephyr.

I did an eastbound trip on #6 a couple of years ago during a period of flooding and rockslides and wound up being on the only train to get through without being hours late or annulled for a week on either side of the day I was riding.

The status report indicates the train is on the move and left Denver over 2 hours late.

Excuse me. I punched up the wrong day. It does show as a service disruption.

5(11) and 6(11) are both showing Service Disruption now.

Train 5(11) still at the Denver station. They served breakfast and lunch in the diner and told passengers they are prepared to serve dinner as well. Some passengers bailed and headed for the airport. No specific alternate travel plans have been announced.

Good thing they did not get stuck 5 miles out of Denver on the Front Range.

With Boulder experiencing flooding, I'm guessing that some issue on the UP line north of Denver is why they are not detouring through Wyoming.

I heard that some rooms many parts of Boulder were flooded and most likely other areas of the Front Range. I myself would rather have breakfast, lunch and maybe dinner on the CZ while sitting at the Denver station then sitting stuck in flood waters somewhere in the mountains trying to keep my feet dry!

Posts on trainorders say that there is a derailment and washouts in the Mountains above Denver and no-one seems to know where #6 is Waiting? Also no-one is sure if the Interstate through the Mountains is Open so a Bus Bridge could be used between #5 and #6??? If I was on #5 Id check into taking the AMBus and connecting with #3 to LAX if Rooms are avaialble! I did notice that todays #5 wass Sent out of CHI On Time and #6 is also Running, wonder if the Re-Route through Wyoming will open up before the Mountain Route through Colorado? It would be something if 4 LD Trains were all Stranded on this Route close to Denver!!

Also there is the Question of Crew Hours and the T&E Crews going Dead on the Law, wonder if Denver has enough Crew members to man 4 LD Trains even if a Bus Bridge is established???

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

If your cousin likes a drink or two while chilling in times like these, and the train is going to be there a while longer, there is a small liquor store not far from the temp. station. You head across Wewatta St., go past the station on 21st. St., then make a right at the next street, where 21st ends, on Delgany Street, go one block, turn left onto W 29th Ave., and it is down about another block on the right hand side - I'm remembering it on a far right corner. Sorry, don't remember the name.

Just tell your cousin to make sure 5 isn't going to pull out of the station. I'd check with one of the conductors before heading off.

Operating crews (engineers and conductors) have a set hour limit, but OBS staff do not. They stay with and work the train from the start of the run to the end of the run - including any delays or bus-titution s!

The foothills of the Front Range get really flat. It's easy for the area to be flooded. They can't take the Wyoming detour because the boulder flooding could block off the route north. 5(11) may have to wait indefinately. A bustition won't work either.

The Zephyr was in Cheyenne around 6pm this evening.

There's nothing at all on Status Maps. All of the CZ trains are showing disruptions with no information. 5 (12) disappeared around GBB and 6 (12) disappeared around TRU. I didn't heard the 6 (12) passing through this evening, so it might have been halted.

As Guest_Phil_L reports, 6(11) has been rerouted from Salt Lake City on the original UP route through Wyoming and its passengers bound for Denver were bussed from Cheyenne.

There is a report on TO this morning quoting Amtrak as source, that 6(11) was routed via Wyoming to Cheyenne where it will turn to become 5(11) and head west. Train 5(11) will be turned in Denver to become 6(11) and head east back to Chicago. Passengers bussed between Denver and Cheyenne.

jis said:

There is a report on TO this morning quoting Amtrak as source, that 6(11) was routed via Wyoming to Cheyenne where it will turn to become 5(11) and head west. Train 5(11) will be turned in Denver to become 6(11) and head east back to Chicago. Passengers bussed between Denver and Cheyenne.

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Both 5(11) and 6(11) are back on the status maps in Salt Lake and Lincoln respectively. It appears the reroute for the 9/11 departures happened last night. I guess they used the old UP Cheyenne station for the transfer.

It looks like 5(12) and 6(12) have indeed not reappeared in the Status Map yet, and show up as "Service Disruption" on Amtrak Status. That of course never necessarily means that they are not running. And as usual in the most informative amtrak.com there is no mention of any of this.

So there's two separate points where the track is disrupted: somewhere west of Denver on the usual Moffat Tunnel route, and somewhere between Denver and Cheyenne on that UP route. (And presumably also Boulder on the BNSF route.)

Reminds me of the Midwest flooding some years back which took out all five parallel lines from Chicago to Minneapolis.

Nathanael said:

So there's two separate points where the track is disrupted: somewhere west of Denver on the usual Moffat Tunnel route, and somewhere between Denver and Cheyenne on that UP route. (And presumably also Boulder on the BNSF route.)

Reminds me of the Midwest flooding some years back which took out all five parallel lines from Chicago to Minneapolis.

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According to reports there are multiple places between Denver and Winter Park where the track is disrupted by landslides and washouts.

It is also reported that there is major flooding around Greeley where the UP line crosses the South Platte River which is fed by the stuff coming down Boulder Canyon.

With both lines out of Denver blocked, will they be using the Overland Route across NE directly into Wyoming and bus passengers to and from Denver out of Cheyenne?

The train would run on its normal route to Omaha and then switch over to the UP.

Any thoughts on this or will the continue to turn the trains in Denver and Cheyenne respectively until they can open the line from Denver north?

I am a first time Amtrak traveler and am really confused reading your excellent posts about bus to/from Denver/Cheyenne . I am scheduled to leave Emeryville on Sunday for Chicago, Train 6. If the tracks aren't clear by then, what route might I be taking? I have called Amtrak and they are just useless as far as info goes. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated by this novice. Thx

With both lines out of Denver blocked, will they be using the Overland Route across NE directly into Wyoming and bus passengers to and from Denver out of Cheyenne?

The train would run on its normal route to Omaha and then switch over to the UP.

Any thoughts on this or will the continue to turn the trains in Denver and Cheyenne respectively until they can open the line from Denver north?

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You'll will go through Wyoming and probably into Nebraska via the UP linesm depending on. Lines in Utah and Wyoming are fine as far as I know, or at least what I am hearing here in Denver. The Colorado front range right now is a mess, to say the least. You're trip will run late, but you'll make it fine

Thank you so much. I am hoping that means no bus bridge. I don't need to go to Denver.