CHICAGO — Beginning today (Wednesday, March 6) Amtrak’s westbound California Zephyr will depart Chicago for California for the first time the Feb. 27 departure encountered freight congestion and weather obstacles that resulted in arrival into Emeryville, Calif., 10 hours, 35 minutes late.
Those cars and locomotives, stranded for more than a week at Amtrak’s Oakland Maintenance Facility by continuous whiteout blizzard conditions making rails and highways impassable around Donner Pass east of Truckee, Calif., will head east tomorrow (Thursday, March 7) for the first time since a train left the Bay Area on Feb. 28.
Zephyrs from Chicago were initially short-turned at Salt Lake City [see “West Coast winter weather affects …,” News Wire, March 1, 2024].
Westbound trains were able to assume on-time eastbound departure schedules overnight at Salt Lake City for three days, but the train arriving from Chicago into Denver on Sunday, March 4, was cancelled west of there after the eastbound encountered delays. As a result, no trains have operated in either direction west of Denver since then.
Although the first eastbound Zephyr is set to depart Emeryville on Thursday, the booking system shows no coach seats available in the train’s lone Superliner coach and coach baggage car to Reno, Nev., until next Monday, March 11, as of midday today. Westbound, the choke point on the route is Denver-Glenwood Springs, Colo., where coach seats are sold out Saturday through Monday.
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