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It certainly remains frustrating to see how little the cross-country service alerts are issued. I'm doing a short weekend trip on the California Zephyr just from Utah to Colorado and took a look at the map today to see how things are going. There's a westbound Zephyr currently way behind and...

There's an interactive map of the fires. The tracks follow US-6 for much of the trip through Spanish Fork canyon, and as of today (Wed, Sep 19), it appears US-6 is still closed. If it's closed to car traffic, I imagine it's closed to rail traffic. At least intermittently. Edit to add quote from...

Sounds like quite the adventure for sure. I wouldn't mind seeing that route someday out of curiosity but yikes. Are the engines just struggling in the heat? Something similar happened last year when I was coming home to Salt Lake on the Zephyr. We crawled slowly across the Utah desert and had...

I've got a short hop planned for tomorrow (Sat, Jul 7) from SLC to Grand Junction. So when just checking to see how things were moving today, I saw the California Zephyr is way off schedule in Salt Lake City. On Amtrak's "track your train" map, the 6 is shown off route and is near a town called...

If the Zephyr's running on time, it's set up so that you get to experience the mountains (in both California and Utah/Colorado) at the best times - a bit frustrating for us who live in Salt Lake as the train times are in the middle of the night, but it's for a good reason. And the sun tends to...

Double and triple check with your attendant / conductor about the length of station stops, especially if the train is behind schedule. There aren't many chances to explore past the station itself so stay as close to the train as possible. I saw one woman nearly get left behind twice - "I thought...

I've got a trip coming up next week that includes a red-eye from Salt Lake to DC (DCA airport) via Charlotte, then I get on the Cardinal (coach) to Staunton VA for two days and then back on the Cardinal (roomette) to Chicago for another couple of days before taking the Zephyr home (sleeper)...

For me, all that counts is: can I walk around and be entertained between trains? Chicago easily fits that definition. On my two transfers from the Capitol Limited to the westbound California Zephyr, there was more than enough time to walk to millennium park and the chrome bean/sky...

Richmond Virginia's way-out-in-nowhere RVR station is the one I remember being most disappointed by. I've only been there once, around 1999/2000, when I was transferring to a sleeper since the sleepers don't stop in Fredericksburg VA where I was living at the time. I was excited to have a little...

I was wondering what happened to that Cardinal. I'm taking the 51 in a couple of weeks and have been keeping an eye on its performance and saw its big 8 hour delay between Thurmond and Montgomery.

Just like how the $7 beers and hot dogs and burgers at a ballpark/arena are all superb first class experiences... Ha!

I was keeping an eye on the #6 that passed through Salt Lake this morning and realized it didn't even leave here until about 4 hours late and it's not even supposed to be on the temporary schedule yet. It looks like it's made up a little bit of time but this is a reminder of why I fly to DEN for...

Just wanted to grumble a little bit, as I love the Zephyr and am glad that it provides a modicum of long distance service to my city (Salt Lake). But: "Denver Noise Fest" is this weekend and I got a hankering to take the #6 Zephyr to Denver on Saturday to catch the second night of it and see...

You mean Green River WY. The Green River UT stop is on the normal California Zephyr route. (Confusing, I know).

As mentioned, the Amtrak App should be available for whatever smart phone you get. There's no status map (but there should be!). Instead you can check the status of an individual train's expected arrival/departure time at the station. "ABQ, Train NN, Departing Today" kind of updates. For the...

The DCA-ALX plan was my initial plan before I thought of stopping somewhere along the Cardinal route. Hm. I may still do it. I have a bit of a tighter window to get from plane to train in the DCA/ALX setup; but then a coach ticket to Staunton from ALX costs about the same as just the taxi from...

I might get a chance to see at least a little bit of Charlottesville myself in about a month. Thinking of changing my Cardinal trip plans to fly in to Charlottesville to take the Cardinal to Staunton for a couple of days before doing the full Cardinal to Chicago. Should net me about 2.5-3 hours...

I have a trip scheduled for May 22 on the Cardinal (51) from Alexandria to Chicago with a Roomette. I'm thinking of modifying the trip plans to: Fly in to Charlottesville on Wed, May 20 Take the Cardinal from Charlottesville to Staunton, VA Spending a couple of days in Staunton Getting on my...

I can testify to the 'remember forever'. I was about 6-7 when I did a long distance train with my Grandmother (SLC to Portland on a line that's not around any more). I remember the Columbia river gorge; a retiring conductor throwing his hat out of the window; old (heritage?) cars with...

A couple of quick recommendations: Since the Zephyr gets in here around 10:30-Midnight, you'll want a hotel. I agree with trying to find a hotel that will pick you up from the train station. Or get a couple of cab company numbers ahead of time. Yellow Cab 801-521-2100 has their dispatch about a...