CHICAGO — Amtrak’s stretched-thin and aging fleet is encountering significant challenges to reliability across the entire system this week as national network trains remain sold out for many segments.
Sunset cancelled
With Tropical Storm Beryl causing widespread flooding in the Houston area early in the week, Amtrak truncated the eastbound Sunset Limited at San Antonio, Tex., on Tuesday, July 9. Widespread power outages continued to plague the Houston area through the week. Eastbound and westbound Sunset departures from both New Orleans and Los Angeles were cancelled on Wednesday, July 10, leaving no service across west Texas and southern New Mexico and Arizona since last weekend. The triweekly train is set to resume today (Friday, July 12) from California and Saturday from New Orleans.
En-route delays
Though Amtrak does not always explain the exact reason trains are delayed, host railroad congestion, track problems, and mechanical issues are likely culprits. Particularly noticeable this week are the number of trains affected by delays that are so extensive that trains miss connections at endpoints.
Trains delayed en route include:
California Zephyr:
— July 6 departure from Emeryville, Calif.: 6 hours, 32 minutes late into Chicago. Lost 3 hours between Reno, Nev., and Salt Lake City, another 3 hours waiting for a rock slide to be cleared west of Glenwood Springs, Colo.
— July 9 departure from Emeryville: Lost 7 hours between Elko, Nev., and Salt Lake City on UP. Scheduled to arrive at 2:39 pm. On Thursday, July 11, it actually arrived at 2:31 a.m. today (July 12), 11 hours, 52 minutes late.
— July 11 departure from Emeryville: Lost 4 hours between Reno and Winnemucca, Nev. on UP. Arrived in Omaha, Neb., this morning at 10:39 a.m., 4 hours, 45 minutes late.
Empire Builder:
— July 6 departure from Seattle: Lost 2 hours between Everett and Ephrata, Wash., and another 2 hours Spokane to Whitefish, Mont., all on BNSF due to “track maintenance and mechanical issues.” More than 4 hours late into Chicago.
— July 8 departure from Seattle: Lost 4 hours from Havre to Wolf Point, Mont. Arrived Chicago more than 6 hours late at 10:54 p.m.
— July 9 departure from Seattle: Lost 3 hours from Havre to Wolf Point. Arrived in Chicago at 9:25 p.m., 4 hours, 40 minutes late.
— July 9 departure from Chicago: Lost 1 hour waiting for a rested crew at Minot, N.D. and another 3 hours Wolf Point to Havre. Arrived in Seattle 4 hours, 9 minutes late, which meant departure of eastbound No. 8 of July 11 was delayed.
— July 10 departure from Seattle: Late departure because westbound train was late. Lost about 3 hours from Havre to Wolf Point. At this writing, 5 hours, 29 minutes late as of its most recent stop in Staples, Minn.
The eastbound Builder, which is supposed to leave St. Paul three hours ahead of the Borealis, has departed several hours after the new state-supported train four of the last five days.
Southwest Chief:
July 7 departure from Los Angeles: Lost 4 hours between Barstow and Needles, Calif.; another 2 hours into Albuquerque; was around 8 hours late from LaJunta, Colo., to Chicago, where it arrived at 10:45 p.m. on July 9 instead of 2:50 p.m. The delay was attributed by Amtrak’s “train status” to “mechanical issues.”
July 9 departure from Chicago: Lost 4 hours between Garden City, Kan., and Lamar, Colo. Arrived Los Angeles at 12:53 p.m. Thursday, nearly 5 hours late.
Coast Starlight
July 7 departure from Seattle: Lost 3 hours between Eugene and Chemult, Ore,. and another 2 hours south of Salinas, Calif., on UP. Arrived into Los Angeles at 12:50 a.m., almost 4 hours late.
Other delays
The following trains were either delayed more than an hour departing or hours late at the first stop. Trains News Wire has not been able to confirm reasons for all of the delays and this is not an all-inclusive list:
July 7:
Capitol Limited: Chicago, 3 hours, 5 minutes late (9:45 p.m.)
City of New Orleans: Chicago, 1:44 late (9:49 p.m.)
July 8:
Northeast Regional No. 134: Roanoke, 2:43 late (9:03 a.m.)
Borealis: Chicago, 3:04 late (2:09 p.m.)
Hiawatha No. 329: Chicago, cancelled (scheduled 6:10 a.m.)
July 9:
Cardinal: Chicago, 1:39 late (7:34 p.m.)
July 10:
Capitol Limited: South Bend, Ind., 5:10 late (2:19 a.m.)
Also on July 10, Amtrak says both the westbound California Zephyr and Southwest Chief were delayed 6 hours after being combined to operate over a detour route following a temporary track closure (because of a derailment) on the regular route west of Plano, Ill. The Zephyr was running 7 hours late at Salt Lake City and the Chief was 8 hours late at Kingman, Ariz., on July 12
There have also been a variety of Northeast Corridor cancellations over the past few weeks in addition to disruptions caused by power outages. On Wednesday, July 10, one Acela and two Northeast Regional early-morning round trips were annulled “due to crew shortages and high shop counts,” according to an advisory obtained by News Wire.
Amtrak provides indispensable mobility to rural markets, many of which are served overnight. Extensive delays are especially impactful to travelers who arrange their schedules to board once-per-day (or less) trains in the wee hours.
