California Zephyr Reroute: Compensation?

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E

EE Boak

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(We couldn't find another thread addressing the following question; sorry if this is a duplicate)

We're taking the California Zephyr tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon at 2pm CT between Chicago and Sacramento with a roomette. Although we'll travel in California for a bit, we obviously booked to be on the train and enjoy the journey after a fantastic ride of the Empire Builder in March.

Now, we received the following email at 9am CT this morning (Tuesday), just over 29 hours before departure:

We want to let you know that due to track work being performed by the Union Pacific Railroad, Train Number 5 will be rerouted between Denver and Salt Lake City on your date of travel.The train will travel over the historic Overland Route which runs through Wyoming. This route offers unique high prairie vistas.

We appreciate your patronage and apologize for any inconvenience.

Cancelling is not an option in our case. On a positive note (I'm not particularly annoyed, though slightly disappointed), that means we're travelling on a different route, which would make a future California Zephyr ride feel different. Still, do you think that Amtrak might agree to offer a small compensation for the reroute? I guess it depends whether they understand the ticket purchase from a utilitarian perspective (we'll bring you from point A to point B) or touristic purpose like in their route description (e.g.: beautiful Rockies blah blah).

Thoughts?
 
While Amtrak might owe you compensation in principle, in fact I think you will get nothing from them.

If you followed Amtrak Unlimited posts, you would have known about the detour in advance.
 
My guess is that you'll likely get little to no compensation, since you'll be in a roomette the entire trip still (they're not moving to a bus for a portion of the trip) and there's no expectation that you'll be late (typically the reroute actually winds up being faster than the normal route.)

The reroute isn't terribly scenic, but if you're doing the Zephyr both ways I wouldn't worry too much about missing scenery unless your other train is also during the reroute timeframe. It's definitely an interesting reroute, although less scenic for most people. Railfans look forward to the reroute as a "rare mileage" special, but most passengers are either neutral or slightly disappointed about it. That being said, I'd wait until after the trip to call if you feel as though you desire compensation - if the train is late to your destination it'll be easier to justify getting some credit based on that versus just on "missing scenery."
 
My take is that it doesn't hurt to ask, even if they're likely to say no. If I were in your shoes I'd be disappointed too.

As it was explained to me (by an SCA on a late Empire Builder about to be bustituted from Spokane), all that Amtrak "owes" you is to get you from point A to point B by any means possible. But they can be quite generous (or have been in the past, at least) with offering vouchers for future travel as a token of goodwill when your trip isn't what you were expecting. My only experience with this is when the accommodations provided (roomette versus coach seat versus seat on a bus) weren't the ones you paid for, but it could be worth arguing that a change in routing should qualify too, especially when they only bothered to tell you about it on short notice.

Don't frame it as asking for a "refund" - that'll get you shut down - but rather a voucher for future travel as compensation for the inconvenience and disappointment. And as jebr said, wait until the trip is over before you call them and ask.

On the bright side, the scenery from Reno to Sacramento is pretty spectacular too. So you're not missing all of it.
 
Amtrak doesn't own the tracks the CZ uses.

Consequently there's not much if anything Amtrak can do when BNSF and/or UP need to re-route the CZ so they can complete track work.

It's actually good news that the track work gets done and the route is being maintained in good working order

The UP Overland route is quite scenic, but in a different way than the route up the Front Range and thru the Moffat tunnel.

I'm trying to reschedule some personal stuff so I can ride the CZ on the detour.

The Tehachapi reroute of the Coast Starlight is another detour I hope I get a chance to do someday.
 
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Thanks folks! Maybe that's a lucky bounce for us, getting indeed some of those harder-to-get miles from the get-go ^_^

It's not like we plan on taking the CZ only once in our lives, though we'll definitely call after the train and report back if our argument works.
 
Since Amtrak is not changing your accommodations, or changing other aspects of the train's consist, or suggesting the arrival will be delayed, it is hard to justify any compensation since Amtrak is only obligated to get you from your boarding point to your departure point. Of course it never hurts to ask. Once the trip has been completed, you could make the call, but before you do, I suggest writing down some points justifying why Amtrak owes you compensation.
 
Does the Overland Route head south on the historic transcon from Evanston before turning east? If it does that's a very scenic area adjacent to the Uintah Mountains.
 
We too are affected by the reroute, but from Emeryville to Chicago. I have looked on this forum and can't find any other reference to the reroute (search does not work) Probably my bad!

Please may I ask what we will be missing and a rough idea of what we WILL see and/or any links to a map of the "Overland" route? Would rather it had not changed, but repairs have to be done sometime!

As an aside, Amtrak (who have been brilliant!) have been kind enough to arrange an accessible bedroom and toilet for us as my wife's health changed after booking - any comments on the rooms? They look pretty spacious

Many thanks - we are sooooo excited!

Steve & Sue
 
Maglev said:
While Amtrak might owe you compensation in principle, in fact I think you will get nothing from them.

If you followed Amtrak Unlimited posts, you would have known about the detour in advance.
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That's a rude way to reply to a guest looking for answers. Its even a rude way to reply to members as not all members follow all threads.
 
Metra Electric Rider said:
Does the Overland Route head south on the historic transcon from Evanston before turning east? If it does that's a very scenic area adjacent to the Uintah Mountains.
Click to expand...
It goes about 8 miles southeast from Evanston and then turns to a northeast heading. I don't believe it goes into Uintah Mountains which are mostly in Utah. It mostly heads northeast and then east to Green River WY.

AFAIR the beautiful part there is between Ogden and Evanston through the Echo Canyon and across the Wasatch Range. East of Evanston it is mostly high plateau through Green River, Rock Springs and such
 
One thing to note - if anyone in your traveling party uses tobacco products, there is usually no fresh air/smoking break on the reroute. This can result in 12-16 hours (or more) with no chance for a smoke, so they might want to bring with nicotine patches or something similar to get through that period, as Amtrak does not allow smoking (including e-cigarettes) to be used on board.
 
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In some sense this is similar to say 5 or 6 running late enough so that the beautiful Rockies are passed at night. It is possible they might cough up a few AGR points as compensation. I would be surprised if any money changes hands as a result of a complaint on this one. Actually since this has bee notified well in advance the case is weaker than for a majorly delayed train.
 
Steve said:
AmtrakBlue said:
http://discuss.amtraktrains.com/index.php?/topic/71326-zephyr-5-6-schedule-changes-septoct-2017/
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Thanks - cannot view the PDF though

Anybody else have any information and/or comments please re my post above
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It's not a PDF. It's a link to the thread here on AU.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overland_Route_(Union_Pacific_Railroad)

https://www.up.com/aboutup/reference/maps/system_map/index.htm

Or, use one of these these maps:

http://www.openrailwaymap.org/

http://fragis.fra.dot.gov/GISFRASafety/

http://www.mytopo.com/maps/index.cfm?

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9456351,-92.9612268,16z(Use Satellite View)

At Salt Lake City the train leaves the normal route heading towards Ogden.

Near Ogden the train turns east and roughly follows the route of I-80.

Until it approaches Cheyenne, WY where the train turns south towards Denver.

You'll see a lot of lovely high prairie, lots of antelope, isolated mountain ranges, but won't be much above 8000 feet or so instead of topping out at some 9250 feet (the Moffat tunnel under the Continental Divide) on the normal route.

You won't see the Colorado River, nor the towns/sites along the regular route - like Helper/Price, UT, Green River, UT, Grand Junction, CO Glenwood Springs, Glenwood Canyon, Gore Canyon, Byer's Canyon, South Boulder Creek, the Big Ten curve.
 
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I've done the reroute a couple times and was delayed about 5 hours due to heavy freight traffic on this route. I did not ask for any compensation on that trip: how ever Amtrak did provide $75 evoucher for a completely different trip on the CZ in 2016 when our sleeper in October had no heat and the Utah and Nevada temps were below freezing. SCA said they had not turned the heating system on and he could not do anything other than provide extra blankets. I did fill out the contact us form on Amtrak.com and they did apologize and issued the $75 evoucher. Still I don't think they will give you compensation for the reroute.
 
KmH said:
Steve said:
AmtrakBlue said:
http://discuss.amtraktrains.com/index.php?/topic/71326-zephyr-5-6-schedule-changes-septoct-2017/
Click to expand...
Thanks - cannot view the PDF though

Anybody else have any information and/or comments please re my post above
Click to expand...
It's not a PDF. It's a link to the thread here on AU.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overland_Route_(Union_Pacific_Railroad)

https://www.up.com/aboutup/reference/maps/system_map/index.htm

Or, use one of these these maps:

http://www.openrailwaymap.org/

http://fragis.fra.dot.gov/GISFRASafety/

http://www.mytopo.com/maps/index.cfm?

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9456351,-92.9612268,16z(Use Satellite View)

At Salt Lake City the train leaves the normal route heading towards Ogden.

Near Ogden the train turns east and roughly follows the route of I-80.

Until it approaches Cheyenne, WY where the train turns south towards Denver.

You'll see a lot of lovely high prairie, lots of antelope, isolated mountain ranges, but won't be much above 8000 feet or so instead of topping out at some 9250 feet (the Moffat tunnel under the Continental Divide) on the normal route.

You won't see the Colorado River, nor the towns/sites along the regular route - like Helper/Price, UT, Green River, UT, Grand Junction, CO Glenwood Springs, Glenwood Canyon, Gore Canyon, Byer's Canyon, South Boulder Creek, the Big Ten curve.
Click to expand...
Many, many thanks
 
The area around Evanston is very pretty, if not dramatic, and you'll get views of the north slope of the Uintah mountains which run east-west.
 
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