Service disruption on the Southwest Chief

[MikeM]

Read on another site that #3 left Chicago four hours late. While that is not my actual trainset, it is my train and we have to wait in Albuquerque for the buses to arrive. Guess a late departure is likely.

If the train and you are both there together, I wonder if they'd let you board early rather than camp in the station? Are you in a sleeper or coach?

 

[printman2000]

Read on another site that #3 left Chicago four hours late. While that is not my actual trainset, it is my train and we have to wait in Albuquerque for the buses to arrive. Guess a late departure is likely.

If the train and you are both there together, I wonder if they'd let you board early rather than camp in the station? Are you in a sleeper or coach?

We are in sleeper. I wondered the same thing. I doubt they will let us on too early, though.

 

[Doug]

The train is bus-bridged between ABQ and La Junta.

No. 4 was stalled in Las Vegas, NM, south of where the washout is near Onava, N.M., for several hours Wednesday.

That train was reversed to ABQ.

No. 3 made it through earlier in the day without fail.

When I drove through LaJunta, Amtrak was there loading for departure Thurs. eve. No. 4 was no longer stationed at Las Vegas.

The washout looked like several 100 feet of ballast washed out from the tracks along I-25 about 21 miles north of Las Vegas.

 

[The Chief]

This from a friend of mine in New Mexico:

On the BNSF Northern District there have been two extremely serious

washouts in the vicinity of Las Vegas (MP 770.1). The first washout

occurred near Onava (MP 759.5) and washed out trackage between MP 757.5

and 758.0. The second and most destructive washout occurred between

Chapelle (MP 788.8) and Blanchard (MP 793.6.) Trackage in addition to

hillside is washed out between MP 791.1 (near Bernal) and MP 792.0.

For now Amtrak will terminate its trains at Albuquerque and La Junta, CO

and use buses between those stations. This will continue until at least

7-1-10. As far as I know only one eastbound Amtrak #4 was rerouted via

Belen and Amarillo on 6-24-10.

 

[printman2000]

Here is the latest. We are now in Albuquerqe waiting to leave. Got a call from Amtrak while traveling here saying no service at all to Lamy. Had to come here.

Because #3 was delayed leaving Chicago, we are not scheduled to leave here until 7:00.

We got here around 12:00 and #4 was already here and unloaded. It is now getting fueled. I assume they will go wye it sometime soon but I guess they could wait until we depart. That would not be smart since we will already be running late.

 

[printman2000]

Update.

They pulled the train out of the station at 1:15 to go wye it. It did not show back up at the station turned around until 4:00.

They let us board the train at 4:30 and they are serving dinner to people on board at 5:30 & 6:00. The buses from La Junta are way behind and we are not expected to leave until 8:30.

Right now we are the only ones in our sleeper so there must be lots of people coming on the buses. It is liable to be madhouse when they arrive.

 

[printman2000]

Finally pulled out of Albuquerque at 8:02pm.

 

[eee]

Thanks for all the updates. Information seems to be scarce. Amtrak's website seems to show "service disruption" in lieu of any actual details. Like tonight it won't show whether #4 has passed through Garden City or is expected in Newton. Hopefully my trip from Newton to Chicago on Thursday won't be adversely impacted. Guess I'll be calling Amtrak frequently as my trip approaches, since the status tracker on the website is hit or miss.

 

[amtrakwolverine]

the reason amtraks website says service disruption is it gets its info from a computer. if a train let says bypasses a station for some reason and the computer doesn't get a time for that location it forgets where the train is at and puts service disruption.

 

[MikeM]

Just checked this morning, I'm on tonight's #3 to Newton... getting the service disruption message. Be interesting to see if it's another monumental delay like last night, saw yesterday's #3 hit Newton at 7am. Really wouldn't break my heart though, getting a full night's sleep isn't that bad of an option...

 

[printman2000]

Thanks for all the updates. Information seems to be scarce. Amtrak's website seems to show "service disruption" in lieu of any actual details. Like tonight it won't show whether #4 has passed through Garden City or is expected in Newton. Hopefully my trip from Newton to Chicago on Thursday won't be adversely impacted. Guess I'll be calling Amtrak frequently as my trip approaches, since the status tracker on the website is hit or miss.

You should be good to go. The only thing that would effect you is if #4 is late into Albuquerque which would make the buses late.

 

[printman2000]

Our latest problem.

Our Surfliner train is being stopped in Irvine and we will change to a bus. Apparently they are not offering checked baggage like normal. However Albuquerque checked our bags through to San Diego. Not sure what is going to happen with them.

We will be at LA Union Station from 10:30 till 12:25 if anyone is going to be around.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Our latest problem.

Our Surfliner train is being stopped in Irvine and we will change to a bus. Apparently they are not offering checked baggage like normal. However Albuquerque checked our bags through to San Diego. Not sure what is going to happen with them.

We will be at LA Union Station from 10:30 till 12:25 if anyone is going to be around.

Craig: They might take the bags off in LAX,(Irvine doesnt have checked baggage) check with Amtrak and the baggage room in LAX! Wouldnt hurt to visit the Info booth there in LAX if noone has any answers! :help: Perhaps theyll have the luggage by the busses like they do on other thruway/bustitution situations??Good luck, let us know what happens! :unsure: Jim

 

[printman2000]

Our latest problem.

Our Surfliner train is being stopped in Irvine and we will change to a bus. Apparently they are not offering checked baggage like normal. However Albuquerque checked our bags through to San Diego. Not sure what is going to happen with them.

We will be at LA Union Station from 10:30 till 12:25 if anyone is going to be around.

Craig: They might take the bags off in LAX,(Irvine doesnt have checked baggage) check with Amtrak and the baggage room in LAX! Wouldnt hurt to visit the Info booth there in LAX if noone has any answers! :help: Perhaps theyll have the luggage by the busses like they do on other thruway/bustitution situations??Good luck, let us know what happens! :unsure: Jim

When we were trading out tickets for a later Surfliner, I told them about my bags being checked through to San Diego. The made some calls and they showed up in baggage claim for us to haul.

 

[eee]

#4 arrived into Chicago 4:32 late yesterday, at 7:42pm. The #4 train scheduled for arrival into Chicago today still shows a service disruption. Anybody know if/how late the train is running today?

 

[MikeM]

Yesterday's #3 left Chicago on time, but was about 30 minutes late into KC and Newton. Train crews are being flown into Chicago from LA to staff the train, they're staying with it when it turns at LaJunta. The sleeper attendant I was with told me that they had one washout fixed, but another section washed out, this time west of Las Vegas, so that was the delay in service now. Crews seem to be taking it in stride, our sleeper attendant did a nice job of going room to room explaining what was happening, how Amtrak was handling it, etc. Much better than the 1-800 number seems to be managing information.

 

[Kim]

Just confirmed that they are busing folks on the #4 from Albuquerque to Lamy today. They said passengers will arrive at the scheduled time, just on a bus.

 

[eee]

the reason amtraks website says service disruption is it gets its info from a computer. if a train let says bypasses a station for some reason and the computer doesn't get a time for that location it forgets where the train is at and puts service disruption.

I guess someone at Amtrak has to manually override this service disruption message at some point when the train resumes making stops on the other side of the washed out area???

I've been able to track #4 on previous days, but today, 35 minutes before its scheduled arrival into Chicago, it's still showing service disruption.

 

[Tony]

I was scheduled to take No.3 to Raton next week, but the washout helped me to change my mind, am now booked on train 5 into Glenwood Springs.

The question I have is whether its possible to take a bike to Raton during the summer months. I understand the station is staffed, yet no checked baggage? Huh? Someone please explain to me what the heck is someone to do if they want to bring a bike to Raton.

Thank you for your time.

 

[RTOlson]

You may be out of luck taking the bike on Amtrak because of the lack of baggage service. BTW, the Raton station is only staffed during the summer. I'm guessing that the seasonal nature of staffing makes checking baggage unlikely, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

I don't know if anyone here has done it (I haven't), but Greyhound offers Package Express to its Raton station (575-445-9071). It is at Greyhound's main station instead of Greyhound's bus stop at the Amtrak station. They are 1.6 miles away (about a 32-minute walk as Google Maps flies).

I've done pricing before for Package Express, and it doesn't seem like a horribly expensive way to ship items. In the best-case scenario, your bike arrives on a bus, but you get to take the train!

 

[Tony]

RTOlson, thank you for the reply. At this time we switched our itinerary to GSprings instead. I am going to miss Raton, but that's just the way it goes.

I will try package express per your suggestion next time, my only worry is that the bike will be a bit large to put underneath the bus.

Further adding to this, I wanted originally take the SW CHief to Raton, then get the Motorcoach Thruway service to DEnver to catch number 5, but I wasn't able to get a definitive answer on whether the bus would take a bike or not.

Thanks again for your quick reply, it is appreciated.

 

[gwbischoff]

I was on #3 on Saturday. All ran pretty smoothly. Detrained in Raton. Bussed to Albuquerque. Made it into LAX about 10 min early Monday morning.

The bus ride was a little hairy due to the torrential thunderstorms coming through the mountains near Lamy/Santa Fe. Including enough hail to make the ground look like it was snowing!

I'm guessing the rough weather has something to do with the disruptions today. It was ugly. The train ride itself was pretty uneventful, thankfully.

 

[MikefromCrete]

I wonder if this bus bridge, instead of rerouting the SWC over the Transcon, is BNSF's way of saying they want the SWC to stay on its present route and off the Transcon.

 

[Guest]

I wonder if this bus bridge, instead of rerouting the SWC over the Transcon, is BNSF's way of saying they want the SWC to stay on its present route and off the Transcon.

Excellent post, I know BNSF treats Amtrak lots better than UP but if New mexico actually has bought the raton area trackage who is going to pay to run only 2 trains a day, I dont think New Mexico or Amtrak has the money to maintain/improve this route! :unsure:

 

[MikeM]

I wonder if this bus bridge, instead of rerouting the SWC over the Transcon, is BNSF's way of saying they want the SWC to stay on its present route and off the Transcon.

Excellent post, I know BNSF treats Amtrak lots better than UP but if New mexico actually has bought the raton area trackage who is going to pay to run only 2 trains a day, I dont think New Mexico or Amtrak has the money to maintain/improve this route! :unsure:

Trains magazine newswire now reporting Amtrak and BNSF are planning to have the Raton route reopened by Thursday. The article also mentions that BNSF has "offered to negotiate with Amtrak to reroute the Chief over what's currently the freight route via Clovis, N.M., an offer Amtrak hasn't accepted yet.", which reads like an opening to Amtrak off this route and abandon / downgrade it. Yikes!