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I'm scheduled for train 5 from CHI to EMY on JULY 25th...should i be worried?
 
Thanks for letting me know. What time did the train pull into Kansas City and roughly what time did the bus depart Chicago bound? Was it direct also?

Found this updated article as of June 20th:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs...200370/0/NEWS04

AMTRAK TO RESUME
Amtrak said Thursday it will resume service Saturday to Fort Madison on its Southwest Chief passenger train, operating between Chicago and Los Angeles.

Service was suspended Tuesday.

Amtrak service remains halted between Chicago and Denver on the long-distance California Zephyr train. The shutdown means there is no passenger service at Iowa stops in Burlington, Mount Pleasant, Ottumwa, Osceola and Creston. The Zephyr's service was suspended June 13 because of flooding on the BNSF Railway route in Iowa.
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I presume the SWC resume was last Saturday, which I don't believe happened. Fingers crossed for this Thursday... one way or the other I will get to Chicago!
 
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drbabbers said:
Thanks for letting me know. What time did the train pull into Kansas City and roughly what time did the bus depart Chicago bound? Was it direct also?
Found this updated article as of June 20th:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs...200370/0/NEWS04

AMTRAK TO RESUME
Amtrak said Thursday it will resume service Saturday to Fort Madison on its Southwest Chief passenger train, operating between Chicago and Los Angeles.

Service was suspended Tuesday.

Amtrak service remains halted between Chicago and Denver on the long-distance California Zephyr train. The shutdown means there is no passenger service at Iowa stops in Burlington, Mount Pleasant, Ottumwa, Osceola and Creston. The Zephyr's service was suspended June 13 because of flooding on the BNSF Railway route in Iowa.
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I presume the SWC resume was last Saturday, which I don't believe happened. Fingers crossed for this Thursday... one way or the other I will get to Chicago!
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We arrived into KC just about on time. There were several busses that left around 8:00 AM. Our did not get away until 9:30 because we were waiting for all the checked luggage. We arrived in Boston around 7:00 pm. We made only one stop which was for dinner at McDonalds. We stopped maybe 45 minutes.

As far as I have seen, the busses are still running. From what I have read tomorrow (24th) may be the first day of train service. We shall see.
 
May I ask where you read about travel being resumed on Wednesday?

I just been down to Union Station, Los Angeles and asked the information desk if there was an update to the situation. The guy didn't really seem to care what I said to be honest, he made a call that lasted about 5 seconds and then he said to me buses are running between Kansas City and Chicago today and he doesn't know anything else. I will go down there again tomorrow and see if I can get another update to the situation.

Ok I just found this on Amtraks site:

Southwest Chief, Empire Builder and California Zephyr Midwest Flooding Disruption Update
June 24, 2008

8:00 am CDT

Amtrak has been notified by BNSF Railway it has restored service through the affected areas on the Los Angeles-Chicago route of the Amtrak Southwest Chief, effective June 24. However, BNSF and Canadian Pacific (CP) railways are still working to restore passenger train service on two other routes disrupted due to flooding on the Mississippi River and its tributaries in Iowa and Wisconsin.

BNSF and CP host these trains on tracks they own, maintain and dispatch. Amtrak is planning to operate limited alternate transportation through the affected areas for these trains until further notice, while hoping to restore rail service soon.

Through June 27, passengers are urged to call Amtrak at 800-USA-RAIL if they have travel plans through the affected areas of the San Francisco Bay-Chicago route of the Amtrak California Zephyr and the Seattle/Portland-Chicago route of the Amtrak Empire Builder.

Those passengers with telephone contact information in their reservations are being called by Amtrak and offered options including future travel dates.

Southwest Chief, Trains 3 & 4

Service by the Southwest Chief between Kansas City and Chicago, suspended since June 17 due to flooding on the BNSF Railway route in Iowa, is restored, with the exception of the Fort Madison, Iowa, station.

Passengers ticketed at that stop are being offered travel at other Amtrak stations in LaPlata, Mo., or Galesburg, Ill., or on other Amtrak trains, until the station can reopen following the flooding.
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This is good news for anyone using the SWC from LA to Chicago.
 
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AlanB said:
I have AT&T and other than on the EB, I've had pretty good results with getting on the internet while on Amtrak. I can't stay on all the time, but always around most cities and even sometimes in the rural areas. I was online for well over an hour last night on the Auto Train while running through North Carolina.
So I've got no complaints about AT&T.
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I was using AT&T's Edge network when I was posting updates from the Empire Builder. It was a bit dodgy, and completely unavailable for much of Montana, North Dakota, and (the detour through) western Illinois, which is to say for most of the run it was either not there at all or extreeeeeeeeeeeemely slow. East of the Mississippi it seems to work great. I've used it on the NEC between NYP and WAS, the CL from WAS to CHI, and the LSL from CHI to NYP. Likewise great on the Cascades between PDX and SEA and on the EB PDX to SPK.

However, I do observe what seems to be a poorer-quality voice connection on AT&T/iPhone than with my Verizon/LG or Verizon/Motorola previous cellphones. I can't say whether that's more AT&T's fault or Apple's, but given the reputation AT&T has for having poorer-quality voice connections, I'd say it's them.
 
This is great news for me personally, we have had a recent family tragedy and I need to get back to New York City asap, train from LA to Chicago, then Chicago to New York. Unfortunately I have a phobia of flying, so this is the alternate. I really didn't want the hassles of getting on a 7 hour or so bus ride, on top of the LA to KC journey. Well done to all the workers and staff who has made this happen!
 
In regards to the CZ, I just got this information from a gentleman at BNSF

"Trackage just east of Burlington, Iowa, is still under water; we won’t be able to estimate a re-opening time until the water recedes and we’re able to assess the damage. Wish I could be more definite, but that’s just not possible given present conditions"

Sounds to me Amtrak is being very optomistic to think things will be back to normal by next week
 
is the Empire Builder running now on the BNSF Detour Route?
 
iowa train fan said:
In regards to the CZ, I just got this information from a gentleman at BNSF
"Trackage just east of Burlington, Iowa, is still under water; we won’t be able to estimate a re-opening time until the water recedes and we’re able to assess the damage. Wish I could be more definite, but that’s just not possible given present conditions"

Sounds to me Amtrak is being very optomistic to think things will be back to normal by next week
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And beware:

Heavy rain is predicted for the next few days throughout the entire region that got drenched recently!!! :(
 
Thanks everyone for the helpful information! I have tickets to go out on the California Zephyr from Denver this weekend but last week also made reservations on the Southwest Chief in case the CZ did not pan out. It looks like I will be heading on the Southwest Chief instead, which will be fun because I have never been on that route before! I just hope the Zephyr is back open in two weeks when I head back.
 
Another nail in my coffin, this is a reply I got from someone in Burlington

I'm in Burlington. The tracks are slowly being restored here on the Iowa side, but the bigger problem is the Illinois side. If you have seen any pictures of the flooding, the entire town of Gulport, IL is under water and the tracks run through that area. Highway 34 has been closed from Biggsville to Burlington for a couple of weeks and will probably be closed until around the 4th of July. The tracks run almost parrallel to the highway all the way to Galesburg. The Fort Madison area is in better shape. Some roads on the IL side reopened today.

Still hopefull, but not very optomistic.
 
Sorry, me again, this is an artical from The Hawk Eye in Burlington. Sounds like I am so screwed for the CZ early July

Excerpt:

As heavy vehicles roared in the background Wednesday, workers from R.J. Corman Railroad Group unloaded tons of rock and large sections of railroad wood ties and readied equipment at a staging area at the BNSF Railway railyard in Burlington.
Since last week, about 50 employees from Corman have camped out in Burlington as they worked to repair railroad tracks damaged by flooding from a Mississippi River that reached record high levels.
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http://www.thehawkeye.com/Story/flood-railroad-062608

Edited by AmtrakWPK - NOTE - Due to copyright we CANNOT quote entire stories unless you have the explicit permission of the copyright holder to do that. Short excerpts are acceptable, and you can leave a link to the complete article, as I have now done.
 
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I'm scheduled to arrive in CHI on the Lake Shore Limited on Sunday 6/29 and will be leaving for Montana on that same day via the Empire Builder. Should I have any hope that the line (or at least the BNSF detour) will be open by Sunday?
 
I heard that today the Southwest Chief is being detoured from Chicago to Kansas City via St. Louis because of floods in Missouri. An Amtrak rep mentioned to me that this may be for a few days - not really sure.

Regarding the California Zephyr, my local Amtrak agent told me today that it might be running again by July 3... but also mentioned it's more likely to be at least 2 weeks out. I wonder why they can't detour it over the Union Pacific since their line has been active now for a week?
 
Zephyr Rocket said:
...Regarding the California Zephyr, my local Amtrak agent told me today that it might be running again by July 3... but also mentioned it's more likely to be at least 2 weeks out. I wonder why they can't detour it over the Union Pacific since their line has been active now for a week?
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Most likely because of freight traffic congestion. With the BNSF line closed, the UP line is probably grid-locked.
 
Seems like no new notice on Amtrak.com yet. Anyone have first-hand thoughts about whether the Empire Builder will be running (at least over the detour) by Sunday 6/29?
 
quadrock said:
I'm scheduled to arrive in CHI on the Lake Shore Limited on Sunday 6/29 and will be leaving for Montana on that same day via the Empire Builder. Should I have any hope that the line (or at least the BNSF detour) will be open by Sunday?
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The weather forecast here in southern Wisconsin is for more rain later today (Friday 6/27/2008) and again on Saturday. I very much doubt that the normal route will be open by Sunday.
 
This is so frustrating. We're scheduled to be on the CZ from CHI to DEN on July 2nd and I've all but given up hope that it will be running by then. It doesn't seem that Amtrak has an option for getting us there if it doesn't so we'd be pretty much on our own. We're looking at Greyhound as a backup, but this was going to be our first train trip(w/ a sleeper) and the bus is a poor subsitute. Or we might be able to take the SWC into Colorado, but then a relative will have to drive 2-3 hours each way to pick us up and I'd hate to ask them to do that and now it seems that the SWC is suspended again anyways.

Are they running buses to KS and then you pick up the train there? We can't even book on the SWC without cancelling our reservation on the CF and even though it's not looking great I hate to take away any options. I'm hoping they'd be more likely to resume service on the SWC since it's already been restored once, but who knows. There's such a lack of information and even though I know the future can't be predicted it makes for very stressful travel planning. On top of that I worry if the CZ will be back by July 7th for our return trip or we could be going through this watching/waiting/calling process again during our vacation.

On the other hand, information searching has allowed me to see the devastation that the flooding has caused for so many communities and I hope the rivers recede even more for them to be able to get back to their lives as normal as possible.
 
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