Amtrak # 2 Service Disruption Today 7/18 in Texas

Does anyone know what the service disruption is today for the Sunset Limited? According to Amtrak's Train Tracker the train is traveling 21mph heading toward Austin from San Marcos which is not the route to Houston. Is the train detouring for some reason?

Someone said on TO it is a reroute due to flooding. Not sure exactly where it will reroute.

We've had very heavy rain in Texas the past few days, lots of flooding, washouts, power outages etc. West Texas and the area from San Antonio to Houston were especially hard hit and its still raining in Central and South Texas!

Even the Red Line in Austin was shutdown this morning due to flooding in Austin and the vicinity! Where I live (Central Austin) it rained 5 inches in 4 hours!

We are heading out on #2 this evening from LAX to HOS. Hope things are in better shape by the time we get to SAS. Brought the scanner just in case things go awry.

The Rain is now ending in South, North and West Texas but still heavy in South Texas and around Houston to NOL!

According to a pax aboard #2 who posted on train orders, they were re-routed on the UP Main (ex-Mopac and MKT) from SAS to SMC to AUS to TAY, then on the old Katy Route to Rosenburg to Houston where they will resume the Up(ex SP) Route to NOL!

The reason given for not taking the Regular route SAS- HOS or the KatyRoute from San Marcos to Smithville to Houston was flooding and washed out tracks!

Heavy freight traffic is being encountered due to UP re-routes and delays!

#21 and #22 are being bustituted until Sept between SAS and FTW due to trackwork @ Tower 55 and were delayed due to flooding on I-35 in the DFW Area!

The cause was a bridge fire on UP east of San Antonio. It has been cleared up and my understanding traffic is being allowed back over the bridge.

Looks like Amtrak 2 arrived in New Orleans this morning around 9am 12 hours late. Amtrak #1, of course, was delayed and departed around 3pm 6 hours late. Of course, Amtrak.com reports Amtrak #1 in "service disruption". My source of information is the train router maps on Amtrak.com.

We just left Deming, NM on #2. Had a late start last night as we had to wait for the CS connection and remain about 2 hours late. No word yet on any detours, but it sounds like things should be cleared up.

Oh dear..taking this route on Saturday....

I'm taking the Sunset Limited from LA #2 this Sunday night(7/27). Looks like #2 is being held for late arriving #11 before departing when#11 is late and their are connecting passengers.

We came through on Sunday just fine. It took a really long time to make it from SAS to HOS just because of all the UP freights that were coming the other way we had to stop for.

It was strange we stopped in Tucson for 50 min even though we were 2 hours behind. When we got to El Paso we were only there 15 min. I don't understand why they would hold so long in one major stop but not the other when both were behind schedule.

Tucson is a stop for refueling and watering. Those things take time. Also lots of people get on and off at Tucson and that takes time as well. The boarding procedures could be changed to be faster, but I suspect they do the way they do since they know the train will be stopped that long anyway.

From what I've seen, no matter how late the train, the stop in Tucson is always at least 40 minutes.