What's wrong with California Zephyr OTP?

[Texan Eagle]

I have a trip on the CZ coming up next month from DEN to SLC and just noticed the #5 has been having terrible terrible delays every single day.. worse than the (infamous) EB Mess. Can someone please fill me what's going on to cause this?

SLC 2 1105P 2 1130P 550A 622A Departed: 6 hours and 52 minutes late.

SLC 2 1105P 2 1130P 259A 346A Departed: 4 hours and 16 minutes late.

SLC 2 1105P 2 1130P 804A 847A Departed: 9 hours and 17 minutes late.

SLC 2 1105P 2 1130P 102A 132A Departed: 2 hours and 2 minutes late

SLC 2 1105P 2 1130P 431A 456A Departed: 5 hours and 26 minutes late

SLC 2 1105P 2 1130P 408A 459A Departed: 5 hours and 29 minutes late.

SLC 2 1105P 2 1130P 1257A 141A Departed: 2 hours and 11 minutes late.

 

[chakk]

Lots of bad weather east of Denver has contributed delays on many days. I believe there have also been some track closures due to freight train breakdowns, grain silos falling on tracks, you name it.

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum

 

[daleratliff]

My wife & I are leaving tonight, Omaha to Glenwood Springs for our anniversary. I've also kept a close eye on the schedule each day & it's looks like the major slow down is somewhere in Iowa. 11:00 pm is our scheduled departure (I can stay awake that late), but with all the delays it looks like I'll need a little shut eye before we leave

 

[gmushial]

The wife and myself were on the CZ from DAV to LNK last month #6(28)... were kind of grateful for the CZ being late: instead of getting off in LNK at 3am, got to watch the sun rise over western Nebraska and got off at a civilized just before 7am. Part of the slow was very sadly a death on the train, which left us sitting in the middle of nowhere about an hour east of Reno for almost two hours; and then we had to wait for freights to pass us on single track sections; followed by (super) slow-orders through the Gore Canyons, and all the way down the grade into Denver. I know people around us were on their cells rearranging their connections out of Chicago - some were able to change to different outgoing trains, others were going to be put up overnight in Chicago. ... I suspect there were many on the train that were unhappy about the 4, 5, 6 hrs late into Chicago; I know we were rather happy about the delayed arrival... but have always taken the approach to riding LD trains: we'll get there when we get there... one can sweat it, or one can roll with the punches, either way isn't going to change anything, other than how one feels about it.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

The problem with CZ OTP is it's nonexistance.

 

[Texan Eagle]

I asked @Amtrak on Twitter if they can tell any details on why #5 is running so late every day, and got these canned responses-

"Freight delays, signal issues, may account for delays on this train."

"Amtrak travels in some areas owned by various host freight railroads which may cause delays. We make the best efforts to be on time."

Well, d'oh! :wacko:

 

[neroden]

This really does seem to be a perfect storm of random events, rather than a couple of big things.

 

[Tennessee Traveler]

Plus when you leave Chicago 1 hour plus late most days as it's running now, you expect to be delayed! FROM THE BEGINNING!

 

[afigg]

This really does seem to be a perfect storm of random events, rather than a couple of big things.

I would not call it a set of "random events", as that implies no connection or relationship between them. it is combination of problems: increased freight traffic from the Bakken and Eagle Ford Shale oil booms and more goods & raw materials being shipped which appears to be overloading freight lines over much of the central US, start of track construction season, deteriorating infrastructure especially on the NEC, weather (which is mostly random but not quite if there are more severe weather events than in earlier times due to climate change), problems maintaining the aging locomotives and rolling stock, and perhaps the Class I freight railroads realizing they can jam up Amtrak trains with minimal consequences.

When will it get better? Many of the corridor trains should see improvements as the backlog of track projects are worked on, but those projects will be underway for the next 3 years. Some of the LD trains, especially the EB, are going to be a mess until the Bakken oil boom peaks and production goes into decline or until capacity expansion projects catch up. It may be a couple of long years.

 

[chakk]

The #5 transiting Colorado today is having engine problems, and continues to lose time (until it gets some helper locomotives from the Union Pacific, after which it will continue to lose time for the rest of the journey west, but perhaps not as much as it would without the helper locomotives).

 

[choochoodood]

Last week on #5 I had a two-hour delay out of CHI waiting for a 5-hour late LSL to make connections.