Potential Amtrak Cascades Schedule Change?

I've heard from another railfan friend that all Amtrak Cascades trains will be reverting back to the old schedules and numbers pre December 18th, beginning Tuesday January 2nd.

This includes Oregon's segment where southbound trains had no connections north of Portland for their morning trains. Does anyone know if this is true? I know the old route is being used, but it seems odd that everything will be completely reverted all over the corridor.

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Here is the temporary schedule they are running on

http://www.amtrakcascades.com/sites/default/files/December%2020%20Schedule%20KF%20%28003%29.pdf

Not sure if anything newer has been posted/released

I've seen this, but not what I was referring to. It would essentially reset all the trains and schedules before the December 18th change was made. This includes eliminating the 2 added round trips.

GiantsFan said:

Here is the temporary schedule they are running on

http://www.amtrakcascades.com/sites/default/files/December%2020%20Schedule%20KF%20%28003%29.pdf

Not sure if anything newer has been posted/released

Click to expand...

What was your railfan friend's source of knowledge? Seems if they're going to make a schedule change on Jan. 2, it should be announced somewhere.

That they'd do that makes sense. BNSF would not want the extra trains as long as they are running on the Point Defiance line, since the bypass was a condition of them agreeing to add the extra trains. The old schedule would have all the timing, meets, etc down, and it would probably easier to roll back to it than make up a new one. BNSF is probably insisting they do something as a condition of remaining on Point Defiance and they can't get back on the Bypass until PTC is operational per WashDOT requirements (which seems a stupid, media-driven over-reaction, considering that Amtrak isn't using PTC on the Point Defiance line or the rest of the route, which has plenty of slow from 79 curves on it, but that is another issue).

Plus there is a little matter of being down two equipment sets (from the Chambers Bay derailment and this one).

The "new" timetables effective January 2 have been posted, and they show reduced frequencies and lengthened scheduled (pretty much the same as before December 18).

Maglev said:

The "new" timetables effective January 2 have been posted, and they show reduced frequencies and lengthened scheduled (pretty much the same as before December 18).

Click to expand...

Here's the link:

https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/public/documents/timetables/Amtrak-Cascades-Schedule-010218.pdf

It's worth noting that south of PDX, the new schedules remain in effect. Specifically, the major change of eliminating the 0600 southbound departure and replacing it with a mid-morning departure.

I would imagine this will mean the end of the Amfleet equipment south of PDX, as they should now be able to run the Talgo sets up and down the entire corridor.