Westbound Zephyr delayed for hours in Denver until Sept 1

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mikecbu

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Train 5's departure from Denver has been delayed per the current Amtrak reservation system from 8:05am to 11:45am until September 1st. There is nothing on the Amtrak website, and the reservation agents appear to not know the reason for the train's scheduled temporary 4 1/2 hour dwell time. The station ticket agent staff at DEN report that the reason is track work at the Moffat Tunnel. The temporary arrival time at EMY is 6:05 pm instead of the published schedule of 4:05 pm through Sept. 2nd.
 
Mike, I will be on the CZ on August 31 which means we will arrive in Denver on September 1. I hope that means our train will be exempt from this delay.

I have been checking the performance of the CZ and noted that when looking at Amtrak's train status they have changed the scheduled arrival of train #5 into Reno from 8:36 to 10:20 a couple days ago. I thought the scheduled arrival time was something that could not be changed until they put out new timetables.
 
Please post update if you can, LittleTuck. I'll be traveling Chicago to Denver in mid-Sept, so I'm more concerned about westbound DEN arrival time--but interested nonetheless.

More generally: How does one go about confirming that the arrival/departure times that were in effect when tickets were bought haven't (or have) changed? Are temporary changes like this noted on the Amtrak website?
 
More generally: How does one go about confirming that the arrival/departure times that were in effect when tickets were bought haven't (or have) changed? Are temporary changes like this noted on the Amtrak website?
Amtrak should send you an email or call you. The question is how much of a warning they give you. I guess it's a reason to make sure your contact info is up to date.
 
I've had this happen before. They usually send an email if it's known far in advance or call if it is closer in. I've also had the same thing happen with airlines when they change flight times. Worst was when they changed it so I either had to run across the airport to make my connection or cancelled the connection all together and rebooked onto a later flight. The train I tend to build in extra time in the event of delays as I know they happen quite often. When I fly I generally don't budget much extra time which sometimes comes back to get me.
 
I had an airline change a rez to where I would catch my connecting flight the day before I was scheduled to start my trip. I caught the change before they contacted me...assuming they were going to contact me. Luckily it was far enough in advance that I was able to make other arrangements. I ended up switching airlines for that trip.
 
Yeah, that threw me too, since I had been tracking the OTP performance of 5 & 6 for close to two months. I thought the status tracking feature had broken! I checked it this morning from stop to stop and it dwindles from a nearly 4 hour difference at Denver to about a 2 hour difference at EMY. I didn't know what the cause was, or how long it was going to last.

I was called about 2 weeks ahead of a service disruption last Spring, but that was for some planned repair work. I also got an email.
 
I'm not sure this is correct, ie, we were on #5 thru DEN on Saturday the 23rd and although we arrived an hour and a few minutes late, the stop length was a slightly short 35 minutes.... definitely not 3 hrs plus.
 
I'm not sure this is correct, ie, we were on #5 thru DEN on Saturday the 23rd and although we arrived an hour and a few minutes late, the stop length was a slightly short 35 minutes.... definitely not 3 hrs plus.
The schedule change shows up in the on-line reservation system. The CZ departing CHI on 8/26 is shown as arriving at Fraser, CO at 1:43 PM, over 3+ hours later than usual. You were lucky, you missed the track work delay by 1 day. Checking the archives on Amtrak status maps, CZ #5(8/23) departed DEN on Sunday at 1:01 PM, 1 hour and 16 minutes late (after arriving 5 hours and 48 minutes late!). There is presumably a 1 week track work period.

I don't see a service alert on the website for this change, although there are a lot of service alerts on the website at the present;
 
I thought they were adjusting the schedule to better reflect this year's performance on the Zephyr. It's traditionally been scheduled to get into my neighborhood (SLC) at 11:05 pm but for most of the summer it's been getting in 2-3 hours late. Although Sunday night I swear I heard it go by a little early (around 10:30pm); the next day is when the 'scheduled arrival/departure' times seemed to change.
 
Pasted here for convenience sake:

California Zephyr Train 5: Schedule Change from Denver to Emeryville

Effective through September 1, 2014

Westbound California Zephyr Train 5 will operate according to a temporary schedule at all stations from Denver to Emeryville, due to critical railroad repairs being performed by Union Pacific Railroad. This temporary schedule change will remain in effect through the train's arrival in Emeryville on September 1, 2014.
 
The temp schedule includes a 3.5 hr scheduled stop in Denver, yet #5 still is running late into Glenwood Springs.

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum
 
I'm scheduled on CZ from DEN-SAC on 9/24 an just got updated e-ticket showing 11:45AM departure from DEN, so I guess this may be continuing. The website shows a normal arrival time into Denver, so I guess the train sits in the station for 4 hours?

Any guess as to whether we could board when the train arrives in Denver and have the breakfast that we paid for? Assuming it arrives on time, of course.
 
I'm scheduled on CZ from DEN-SAC on 9/24 an just got updated e-ticket showing 11:45AM departure from DEN, so I guess this may be continuing. The website shows a normal arrival time into Denver, so I guess the train sits in the station for 4 hours?

Any guess as to whether we could board when the train arrives in Denver and have the breakfast that we paid for? Assuming it arrives on time, of course.
I'm scheduled for the week before you, and I haven't gotten anything, Maybe the work is restarting around the time of your trip.
 
Just this AM got a robocall from Amtrak, re: our scheduled trip on the CZ in a week:

Westbound CZ (5) is now scheduled to leave Chicago at 2:50PM on Friday Sept 12 and arrive at DEN 8:05AM the following day, about an hour later than usual. Denver's as far as I'm going, so don't know when it's now scheduled to leave the station westbound.
 
I am scheduled out of Omaha on the CZ (5) on Sunday 9/14. Normal departure time is 11:05 PM...Amtrak called me and said the new departure time is now 11:55 PM for 9/14. I also got an updated eticket. I called and talked to an agent who confirmed this. I asked what the arrival time was for Omaha and he said 11:55 PM. I also asked what the arrival time was for Denver and he said 11:45 AM. So something here doesn't make sense...maybe they lengthened the Chicago - Omaha run time to account for the fact #5 is at least an hour late into Omaha, but I think the Denver arrival time of 11:45 AM is the departure time based on what has been going on with the Moffat Tunnel work. It will be interesting to see what happens!
 
Since I just came west on #5 (also from OMA) and I'd been keeping an eye on the OMA arrival/departure times so as to get a sense as to when I should nominally expect to be at the station... this was the search I did http://juckins.net/amtrak_status/archive/html/history.php?train_num=5&station=oma&date_start=06%2F01%2F2014&date_end=09%2F01%2F2014&sort=schDp&sort_dir=DESC&limit= so, yes, adding an hour to the old schedule time moved the on paper time closer to reality.... I'd been fearing having to catch the CZ at something like 2 or 3am... but I got lucky (ie, got a seat and got to sleep at a reasonable hour), and it was only 30ish minutes late (though didn't leave for a long time in that they had to hitch up some private varnish to our tail and had problems doing such). But either way: you might keep an eye on the above link, likewise the Dixieland status map, and even Amtrak's Track-a-train.
 
That would be a record... since the 1st of May, and up until the 4th of Sept (more recent data), #5 has only been less than a half-hour late 5 times in total (with one actual on time, or within 5 minutes thereof, in and out of RNO). ... maybe as we get off summer season OTP will improve - 'twould be a welcome change.
 
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Train 5(5) departed Winnemucca, NV at 7:32am on the morning of the 7th, 1 hour, 52 minutes late. It arrived in Reno, NV at 10:12am, 1 hour, 49 minutes late. Must have been a freight train you heard that early! Thanks to a wonderfully padded schedule (and no further notable delays), 5(5) arrived into EMY at 4:41pm, 31 minutes late. That's not bad at all given the track record of the past few weeks.

Some of the crew (I assume the dining car crew) were already changed and ready to hop into their taxi van at EMY to go to the hotel. Conductor hopped into the locomotive with the Engineer, the Asst. Conductor helped clear out the rear-most car (sleeper), and the train left out towards the yard around 4:53pm. All and all it was pretty smooth (minus one passenger leaving some luggage on board that went with the train to the yard) but from the looks of it most people seemed happy (about 100+ got off the train) for a close to on-time arrival and the crew was ready to go home/to the hotel.
 
This is a little strange - I have a paid ticket from FMG to DEN next week, and a points ticket from DEN to EMY. I got an email and call Friday that the departure time from FMG had been changed from 5:05 AM to 5:55 AM. Not a problem, half an hour more sleep, no complaints there.

What's strange is that the arrival time into DEN is then changed to 8:05 AM (from 7:15 AM; the new arrival time is the same time it was originally scheduled to depart) and the new departure time is now 8:10 AM. So theoretically the train would be at the DEN station 5 minutes! I realize that the schedule is kind of a joke anyway but 5 minutes at DEN?
 
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