California Zephyr Status (1/11/17)

Is there a problem with the California Zephyr? Many of the statuses in Chicago, Sacramento, and Emeryville are not available for the past few days.

I found the answer. It seems Donner Pass is closed due to snow.

Blizzard conditions in the Sierra Nevada mountains, I imagine. I-80 is closed going across Donner Pass, I imagine the UP is also shut down.

It looks like the Zephyr runs between Chicago and Reno for now. What happens to westbound passengers with pre-purchased tickets to California stations? Buses are not the solution, for sure.

They either have to fly them or keep them in a hotel until it clears. It seems clear now with no rain for a while. By tomorrow they should allow buses.

With I-80 closed for 3 days, I doubt that Amtrak paid for 3 nights lodging. One, probably; I got that myself several years ago when our westbound train was annulled at Reno due to a snowslide near Yuba Pass. That time, the eastbound train on the west side of the slide returned to Emeryville. The Reno Fun Train was also stopped west of the slide. It returned to Emeryville and psgrs were given refunds. And Reno hotels lost out on several hundred room-nights of bookings for that weekend.

No #5 or #6 operating west of Reno on 11 January. Maybe tomorrow ...

Chas said:

It looks like the Zephyr runs between Chicago and Reno for now. What happens to westbound passengers with pre-purchased tickets to California stations? Buses are not the solution, for sure.

Click to expand...

This will be one of the options being offered:

I don't think using buses is an option, as I-80 is still closed, and is expected to be so for a while. The heavy rains have caused erosion taking the roadway of I-80 with it. As for the Donner Pass that the Zephyr normally uses, it is either washed out, or covered with earth flows. Feather River Route, regardless of whether or not it is open, would be impractical, as I believe that routing bypasses Reno Amtrak station, and a longer route to Sacramento, as it might require using the Keddie Wye. Feather River Route would be considered a too long of a way around, even if it was open.

Its worse than we thought UP's service bulletin

http://www.up.com/customers/announcements/customernews/generalannouncements/CN2017-3.html

As well Amtrak shut down SEA <> PDX

west point said:

Its worse than we thought UP's service bulletin

http://www.up.com/customers/announcements/customernews/generalannouncements/CN2017-3.html

As well Amtrak shut down SEA <> PDX

Click to expand...

Partly correct on the SEA-PDX shutdown (excessive freight traffic due to tie-ups), but according to a Facebook post, it is also due to a mudslide near Tacoma, which means that the BNSF stepped in with a 48-hour Stoppage Order. So basically it was a joint effort by Amtrak and BNSF.

Why would this affect #5 between Chicago and Denver? The status shows it arriving in Denver 11 hours later today. But yesterday, November 13, it arrived in Denver 26 minutes EARLY. We are taking #5 from Chicago to Denver on Saturday. I hope we don't have to sit in the train for many extra hours.

I just noticed the quote about Donner Pass being closed is from 2017. But still why the huge delay today, I wonder.

#6 did arrive in Chicago tonight 4-1/2 hours late according to "Status."

There was a significant coal train derailment on the BNSF somewhere between Omaha and Galesburg. This caused both this 5 and the day before’s 6 to detour on the UP between Omaha and Chicago. This arrangement always seems to add a lot of delay to the train and it did for this train also.