Southwest Chief (Train 4) 9 hrs late - help

[buck1108]

I'm seeing and hearing about a 9 hour delay for the SW Chief (Train 4 - Eastbound) that occurred around Needles and Kingman on Wednesday, Aug 13, 2014.

More detail here:

http://dixielandsoftware.net/cgi-bin/gettrain.pl?seltrain=4&selyear=2014&selmonth=08&selday=12

The Amtrak rep said that the cause was listed as "tracks washed out by water."

Does anyone know if this is likely to recur, due to flooding?

I'm thinking I may need to find another way out of Winslow, if the delay recurs to make my reservation in Santa Fe.

Thanks for help.

 

[crew]

Is your trip tomorrow, or next year?

 

[buck1108]

Well, it does say 2014, so tomorrow

 

[NW cannonball]

What day in 2014? (there's 365 of them)

Is that tomorrow from 2014/08/14 (original post time) or today 2014/08/15 ?

Anyhow --

I think your are going Winslow-Santa Fe? Or connecting in Santa Fe? Whatever.

My totally uninformed guess is that there may have been a totally typical washout in the so-called "monsoon season" on the transcon line.

And my totally uninformed advice is == watch train-tracker on Amtrak.com, and JB's presentation of status on dixielandsoftware.net

BUT - if you absolutely have to be somewhere far eastward from Kingman on time -- drive - or try the airlines

I cant find anything online about a track washout on the SW Chief line -- which does not mean it didn't happen.

SWC #4 departed LAX 2014/08/13 seems to be on time so far.

Maybe others here have heard of the delay on the 4(12) - me no clue.

 

[NW cannonball]

see http://discuss.amtraktrains.com/index.php?/topic/60940-what-happened-with-311-and-412-in-azca/

 

[Carrie]

I was on that train with my son and yes, the train was very delayed, the tracks were repaired. It seems that the ballast under the tracks in one bridges over a stream that got inundated with 2' of water was washed away.

I had received a flash flood warning on my phone and there were watches all day, being texted via my weather app. I do find that we and other trains were extremely fortunate not to be on that section of track when it was hit with water.

I know it was frustrating to those who were trying to make connections, but the staff did the best they could with the situation they were in. Having been our first time on the train it was quite an experience! I do have a more zen perspective as we didn't have connections or a deadline to hit.