Empire Builder 12-17/12-18, accomodations

[PennCentralFan]

There was a bad derailment in the twin cities shutting and or rerouting BNSF traffic on Dec. 17 and Dec. 18. Was anybody on the Empire Builder those days? What did Amtrak do for the passageners? Was the train just really, really late or did they get buses? I imagine that would have been quite a few busses. I see the EB is due a few minutes early today.

 

[haolerider]

There was a bad derailment in the twin cities shutting and or rerouting BNSF traffic on Dec. 17 and Dec. 18. Was anybody on the Empire Builder those days? What did Amtrak do for the passageners? Was the train just really, really late or did they get buses? I imagine that would have been quite a few busses. I see the EB is due a few minutes early today.

I understand they were re-routed with a resulting 5 hour delay.

 

[Steve4031]

What was the detour? Anybody know?

 

[WICT106]

They detoured through Wilmar, on the original Empire builder line. Bustitution for St. Cloud, Staples, and Detroit Lakes. The derailment was in Coon Rapids, which is just on the Northern outskirts of the suburbs for the Twin Cities, about 53 miles SW of St. Cloud. This was quite the reroute, as much of the prevously 79 mph rails have now deteriorated to 40 mph, with some sections as low as 25 mph. No wonder the detour added something like 5 + hours to the trip.

 

[dan72]

I very well could be wrong, but wasn't the route through Wilmar also the route for North Coast Hiawatha under Amtrak?