Zephyr next July - arrival dependability

[penfrydd]

We're headed from east to west next July, and have many connections to make. The Colorado floods not withstanding, how close to on-time does the CZ usually arrive?

penfrydd

 

[gmushial]

Depends on how far west you're going and how much padding in the schedule there is up to that point. My end point tends to be SAC or DAV and nominally it's a half hour to an hour late; sometimes less, sometimes more. You can look at the actual historical data at http://dixielandsoftware.net/Amtrak/status/StatusPages/index.html and get a better sense [with a huge thanks to John B].

 

[the_traveler]

You never know about any train in the future, let alone tomorrow. All I can say is that the times I've taken the CZ, we arrived nearly on time - ot early - into CHI!

 

[Ryan]

Are you going all the way to EMY?

 

[the_traveler]

If you have connections to make, and you're going westbound, that means either SAC to the northbound CS or EMY to the bus to SF.(There mat be other stops with Thruway bus connections too,) in SAC, I think the CZ arrives about 3 pm or so, and the CS departs at midnight, so it would have to be more than 9 hours late to miss it. Besides since it is a guaranteed connection, Amtrak would pay for the hotel cost and get you to your destination.

In EMY (or another stop with dedicated Thruway service), the bus will wait for the train if it's late. Otherwise the bus would leave with -0- passengers aboard and then when the train arrives, they would have to dispatch another bus and driver to the station.

 

[penfrydd]

We're getting off at SAC and hopping on the San Joaquin to get to Hanford and then Amtrak thruway bus to Visalia. I'm glad to hear that the CZ has a history of being reasonably close to on-time.

 

[pianocat]

When I rode the CZ to Salt Lake 2 years ago, we arrived at least 4 hours late due to spring flooding of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers [the water was so high, the switches had to be flipped manually (that's what the tour guide gathered from a Conductor)!!] So, it's unknown until next spring if that might be an issue for your particular route. Keep an eye on those rivers when the weather warms again in March+ ! Have a great trip Edited to add: my trip was in late June of 2011 btw.