Six hour delay on the Westbound Empire Builder out of MSP!

[NW cannonball]

About the knock-on effects of this disruption - I checked status at amtrak.com for #8 for today at Seattle, Everett, Leavenworth, Spokane, Whitefish, and MSP - only get Information Unavailable: Sorry, due to a service disruption, we are unable to provide estimated departure and arrival times. For additional assistance, please contact us at 1-800-USA-RAIL
Since I'm not scheduled on this train #8(15) I won't bother Julie - but looks like Seattle didn't have enough spare equipment to let #8 (15) depart SEA .

Where the set that failed on #7 in MSP are now, or whether in-service - who knows?

Looks like the problem is cascading (no pun).

It just means that 8(15) is starting from Spokane, not Seattle.

Good. I expect the Spokane people have some experience dealing with such disruptions, like the endpoint folks deal with from time to time also.

They (amtrak folks) have practical experience and logistic skills.

I remember about 18 months ago on the westbound 7 where the eastbound had engine problems, we on (7) gave engines to eastbound (8) and got a BNSF unit to go on to SEA. All done in the middle of night at Spokane while I walked up and down the long platform there trying to understand all the engine moves -- and #7 was less than an hour late at Everett (where my daughter was at first surprised that the big orange oncoming engine was actually the train that dada was on) Long ago incident.

Hope this current one works out as well.

 

[chakk]

Question- what happens if I have a connecting reservation on Coast Starlight from PDX going south in case such a scenario happens and westbound EB ends up being 8-10 hours late? Do they get me off somewhere and put me in a bus/van to catch the Starlight somewhere down the line? This is assuming the delay is so bad that even after bustitution from Spokane to PDX and the 4 hour layover between EB and CS, it is still too late to catch the Starlight? If I end up missing the Starlight, I guess they will put me up overnight in a hotel in PDX and put me on the next day's Starlight, right? If I do not want that (don't have an extra day) would they pay any compensation so that I can skip wasting a day and instead take a flight to wherever I am supposed to be going? Tricky case- if the trip is an AGR redemption, I have not "paid" any amount as such, so in that case how does compensation work for such insanely long delays?

I don't think you will be paid compensation per se. If you wish to cancel a portion of your trip to fly (or use other alternatives) they will cheerfully refund your money. Othwise all I would expect is some type of voucher for future travel due to inconvenience of delays.

I doubt that Amtrak ever pays any more for airplane flights to replace service disruptions of their trains. Although, they used to do so in the past. In the mid 90's, the eastbound SWC that I was riding with my 4 children and one of their Colorado friends was annulled in Albuquerque due to flooding of the Missouri River near Kansas City blocking all tracks. Our itinerary at the time was the SWC to Chicago, overnight there, then the EB to Minneapolis (our end point of a two-week circle trip that we were on). The Amtrak agent in Albuquerque booked all 6 of us on United Airlines from ABQ to MSP with a connection in DEN. The Colorado friend left our party there (met by a relative), and the rest of us flew on to MSP, arriving about 48 hours ahead of our original date. Amtrak paid for all of the airfares, which I estimate to have been more than our entire original train fares.

 

[montana mike]

I am presently on 8(15), which was #7 turned in SPK last night. We are right on schedule heading eastbound thru the plains of MT this AM. Frustrating that the Amtrak system can't adjust to recognize this--since it still shows a Service Disruption. I guess this will stay like this all the way to Chicago?

Hoping that the Eastbound trek goes much more smoothly and on time than #7.