Willamette Valley Amtrak Service Disruptions

[steve_relei]

Beginning May 31 and going until August 1, Amtrak service will be disrupted through the Willamette Valley between Portland and Eugene.

Basically there will be a one-week work window, take a week off, then go (work) for another week, and so on. During the work week windows:

There will be no Cascades trains #504 (northbound) from Eugene-Portland (that arrives at 11:35am) and no #509 (southbound) from Portland-Eugene (the one that leaves PDX at 9:00pm). There will only be the morning train--#500 (that leaves Eugene at 5:45am and arrives in Portland at 8:20 and continues on to Seattle)--and #507 (from Seattle and leaving Portland at 5:30pm and arriving at Eugene at 9:00pm). Regular service continues between Portland and Seattle. Buses are provided instead of the trains when they are not running.

The Coast Starlights are still running. Basically what is going on: southbound, the train arrives more-or-less on time at the station (2:05PM) but sits at the station for about 2 1/2 hours (until about 4:30pm or 5) and then continues its journey. At Eugene, #14 arrives at the station but has to wait until 4:30 or 5pm to depart and continue its journey northward.

People might want to keep this in mind both for railfanning and for planning a trip of their own on the either Starlight or Cascades trains.

The work windows:

Tue May 1 - Wed Jun 8

Wed Jun 15-Thu Jun 23

Fri Jul 1- Thu Jul 6

Sat Jul 31- Sun Aug 2

 

[steve_relei]

The track work is proceding, and there seems to be few problems. It should be noted that while the train is at Union Station for the 2 hours or so, people can get off and walk around, go in the station, etc, while waiting for the time for the train to leave. The train leaves PDX, it's about 3 hours to Eugene, and so there should still be enough light to see the passage of the train through Willamette Pass (at least much of it). The situation is similar for #14 as it holds at Eugene until about 4:30pm. #14 seems to be arriving PDX about 8:30pm, sometimes a bit after 9. Then its 3 1/2 hours or so to Seattle. I really don't like seeing the trains this late, but it is preferable to not having them run at all. There is a verifiable reason--fixing the tracks. Hopefully when the trackwork is completed, the ride will be smoother, though I don't expect Amtrak schedules to go any faster.

As #11 is 2 hours os so late out of PDX, it may become even later as it procedes along its route to the south. So, keep this in mind. Also, Amtrak is supposed to have priority, but UP freights are also halted by this trackwork, and there can be quite a backup of freights.