RAILforum: What Has Happened to Coast Starlight Schedule?

This is topic What Has Happened to Coast Starlight Schedule? in forum Amtrak at RAILforum.

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Posted by Konstantin (Member # 18) on :

I have just been on Amtrak's website looking at the Coast Starlight's performance. One of the northbound trains is running 25 hours late. The other northbound, and the two southbound are all about 8 hours late. Typically, these trains have been running close to on time when I have checked it recently. Does anybody know what happened?

Posted by Mr. Toy (Member # 311) on :

UP is doing some major trackwork and has shut down the regular route. The Starlight is being detoured, hence the delays. Here's a link for more info. http://www.trainweb.com/cgi-bin/top/tw_do.cgi?news/2003/2003c16a.html

The Amtrak website does not mention the detours. I sent an e-mail to Amtrak suggesting they post an advisory. Certainly I would be upset if I booked a ticket without knowing about the delays beforehand.

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Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth.
-Mr. Toy

The Del Monte Club Car

Posted by daniel3197 (Member # 27) on :

Yes, That VERY VERY late train was Amtrak Train 14 that departed LA on Tuesday (3-18).
Here is more of the story of that poor VERY late train.
Here is a posting from another board on the current status of some of these detours:

Date: 03-20-03 16:55
14(18): 26 hours, 36 min late in Eugene
Author: reindeerflame

Train 14(18) to end in Eugene.

Meanwhile, southbound train today (11(19)) over 9 hours late departing Sacramento.

-------------- -------

TUESDAY'S Amtrak 14 is running about 26 HOURS late, that is correct 26 HOURS down. Trainorders discussion posts today (3-20 thurs) confirm this is a correct figure for this train.
Pardon the length of this posting, I feel as if I have chronicled some of the history of a VERY late Amtrak train here.

I was VERY surprised when I tuned in the GATEWAY radio stream(railroadradio dot net) and heard this poor train in the Lake Almanor, CA area at about 11pm wednesday night. The Train was about 15 hours late at that time.
The Gateway sub DS then had some trouble hearing the radio on Train 14 when it got to Lodgepole, CA. This radio trouble lasted for about 10 minutes when Train 14 found a radio that would work.
I went to bed after the 2nd warrant so I do not know if the Gateway stream would pick up the next warrant for (hopefully) Bieber,CA

Here is the 1st of 2 track warrant that the BNSF Gateway DS gave to the AMTK 115 east last night:
Warrant 280 to AMTK 115 E
Box 1 warrant 271 VOID
Box 2 West Westwood TO Lodgepole
Box 10 SIDING at last named
Box 20 stop and normal switches: E Westwood
Box 21 leave switches reversed: W Lodgepole
TOTAL 5 Boxes
Warrant OK 2342 DS (CMA) (11:42pm)

Warrant 287 to AMTK 115 E at Lodgepole
Box 2 East Lodgepole TO West Halls Flat
Box 7 after arrival of BNSF 7306 W at Lodgepole
Box 20 STOP and LINE: West Halls Flat
Warrant OK 0053 DS (CMA) (1253am on thrus 3-20)

Here is an Amtrak train status I just ran at 3:30pm Pacific on this train from Oxnard to Salem.
This is the VERY VERY LATEST Amtrak train that I know of:

Status

Departure/Arrival Information
Departing Oxnard, CA and Arriving Salem, OR
ServiceStationScheduledActual (Estimated)Status
ArrivalDepartureArrivalDeparture
14Oxnard, CA
11:55 AM
3/18/03 7:35 PMDeparted 7 hours and 40 minutes late.

Salem, OR
2:03 PM
3/19/03
(4:45 PM) Estimated arrival: 26 hours and 42 minutes late.
As of the last report at 2:33 PM, at Eugene, OR, it was
running 26 hours and 46 minutes late.

I will leave your railfan spotting report in here because it is a good record of the progress of this poor train up to Keddie.
--Daniel

drewj1946te wrote:

>
> The "official" Amtrak plan is to expect a four hour delay from the detour. The #14 of Tuesday left LA at least four hours late and did not arrive in Sacramento until 7:45AM on Tuesday, after fueling, departed Sac at 8:30 (prox). I met it at James at 10:45, where it passed #11. It took over 2.5hours for them to cover the distance of 27 miles to Rock Creek. They were behind a BNSF freight and had to wait for two South trains. Finally arrived at Keddie around 2:30 PM, departing well after 3PM after trading their UP Pilot for a BNSF man. Upon leaving Keddie they got less than 5 miles before the dispatcher put them in the siding at Moccasin behind the same freight they followed up the canyon. From that time unitl at least 5:30 #14 did not move. Part of the confusion, as I was able to hear, was the crew telling the BNSF dispatcher they were dead at 7PM which was translated to "17:00Hrs". It had gotten to dark for photography and started to rain, so I went back down the canyon and retured to San Jose. At that point, I figured they were at least 14 hours late. Does anyone know what time it actually arrived in Portland with its cargo of thoroughly pleased patrons?

[This message has been edited by daniel3197 (edited 03-20-2003).]

Posted by Mr. Toy (Member # 311) on :

How close behind was the next day's train? I looked up the status of both at Salem. The first was 27:33 late, while the next day's was 10:36 late. If I did my math correctly, the train scheduled for Salem on the 19th was about seven hours ahead of the train on the 20th.

I'm sure there's a lot of very unhappy ex-customers right now. The fallout from this could be interesting.

And I'm sure glad we took our trip last week and not this week.

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Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth.
-Mr. Toy

The Del Monte Club Car

[This message has been edited by Mr. Toy (edited 03-20-2003).]

Posted by UncleBuck44 (Member # 2049) on :

Saw that the #14 departing LA on the 18th to SEA was 26 hours and 40 minutes late. It left LA 7hrs 41min late. Thats a drag.

The #11 leaving SEA on the 19th was 10 hours and 43 minutes late into Simi Valley, CA.
Dont worry though, it is supposed to arrive in LA only 10hrs and 3min late. So it makes up 40 minutes.

Posted by Konstantin (Member # 18) on :

I hope this improves soon. It looks like there are a lot of very late trains, which have a lot of unhappy customers.

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Elias Valley Railroad (N-scale)
www.geocities.com/evrr

Posted by OutOfOffice (Member # 2447) on :

Hi,

I just checked the update on the track work but was wondering if anyone knew if it is still on schedule to end on May 7th?. I am scheduled to travel with a friend connecting from the Coast Starlight to the Empire Builder on May 23rd with only a 55 minute connection time. I know they will hold the connection for minor delays, but I was told if the track work was still going on, they will not hold the Empire Builder.

Hoping I won't have to depart a day earlier and hoping for a fairly hassle-free trip .

Thanks

Posted by reggierail (Member # 26) on :

Less than an hour is not a guaranteed connection. If I were you I would call Amtrak or your travel agent and get a clarification. If you are late, plan on a possibly very long bus ride from Klamath Falls to who knows where, possibly even Spokane.
My advice, spend the night in Portland or if you're traveling on the Empire Builder to a point east of Spokane, consider spending the night in Seattle.

Reggie

Posted by rmiller (Member # 341) on :

errr, no, Starlight to Builder at Portland is and has been a guaranteed conntection.

Posted by Konstantin (Member # 18) on :

The last time I rode the northbound Coast Starlight, we were running a few hours late. People transferring to the Empire Builder had to ride busses from Klamath Falls all the way to Spokane to meet the Empire Builder.

------------------
Elias Valley Railroad (N-scale)
www.geocities.com/evrr

Posted by OutOfOffice (Member # 2447) on :

As an update to my earlier question and post. I just finished speaking to a very helpful Amtrak reservationist who confirmed:

-Connections between the Coast Starlight and Empire Builder are guaranteed
-They do hold the Empire Builder for a "limited" period of time if the Coast Starlight is delayed (she was not sure of the maximum time)
-She checked with customer service, they currently show no delays due to track work, but she did show additional work/delays scheduled for June 1 though 10.

Due to work constraints, I cannot leave a day earlier and I will have to take the risk of missing the connection. Thanks for your help.

Posted by azrailer (Member # 2429) on :

My wife and rode the 14 to portland 3-20 and 21. We were about 5 hours late as the train was not rerouted due to the construction.What an interesting site at the construction area, could not beleive all the equipment that was there. Don't understand why people get so upset at time delays.We just set back and enjoy the extra free time.Train travel should be enyojed, if you can't relax and enjoy your life take the plane.