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Heads up for those who have not seen this OFFICIAL Amtrak notice here it is. This is supposed to begin with train 14 Los Angeles departure of Jan 24th (thursday) and train 11 scheduled Seattle departure on Jan 25th (friday). I myself fear that this may follow the pattern of the Sunset Limited east of New Orleans with a de facto discontinued service. We shall see what happens. I really hope I can be proven wrong about my fears. Strangely the official advisory wrong about the location of the slide closure. The slide is actually located NORTH of Chemult and SOUTH of Eugene in Oregon. This info courtesy of Gene Poon from the "All Aboard" Yahoo Group TUes Jan 22, 2008 at 8:09AM PST : ---- Daniel
This is the advisory about cancellation of all Coast Starlight service after Friday. All the misspellings and the geographical faux pas are included for your reading pleasure:
AMTRAK WESTERN REGION SPECIAL ADVISORY=21ST JANUARY 2008 5:10PM
FOLLOWING A MUDSLIDE SOUTH (SIC) OF CMO, AND SUBSEQUENT LINE CLOSURE TRAIN 11 & 14 WILL BE SEVERELY DISRUPTED OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS. BELOW IS A SUMMARY OF THE PLAN AGREED BY AMTRAK AND UPRR.
TRAIN 14 CANCELLED BETWEEN LAX-SEA, 24TH JAN TO 31ST JAN INCLUSIVE TRAIN 11 CANCELLED BETWEEN SEA-LAX, 25TH JAN TO 1ST FEB INCLUSIVE
** NO ALTERNATE TRANSPORTATION IS OFFERED IN LEIU OF CANCELLED TRAINS**
TRAIN 14(21) TERMINATES KFS, BUS KFS-PDX, TRAIN PDX-SEA TRAIN 14(22) TERMINATES KFS, BUS KFS-PDX, TRAIN PDX-SEA TRAIN 14(23) TERMINATES KFS, BUS KFS-EUG, TRAIN EUG-SEA TRAIN 14 BETWEEN LAX-SEA WILL NOT OPERATE UNTIL 1ST FEBRUARY TRAIN 11(21) TRAIN SEA-PDX, BUS PDX-KFS, TRAIN KFS-LAX TRAIN 11(22) TRAIN SEA-PDX, BUS PDX-KFS, TRAIN KFS-LAX TRAIN 11(23) TRAIN SEA-EUG, BUS EUG-KFS, TRAIN KFS-LAX TRAIN 11(24) TRAIN SEA-EUG, BUS EUG-KFS, TRAIN KFS-LAX TRAIN 11 BETWEEN SEA-LAX, WILL NOT OPERATE UNTIL 2ND FEBRUARY
**NO ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORTATION IS BEING OFFERED FOR CANCELLED TRAINS**
THESE ALTERATIONS ARE SUJECT TO CHANGE, AND TRAVEL TIMES WILL BE LONGER
smitty195 Member # 5102
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The Coast Starlight will not be cancelled permanently. This is just my opinion, but in my opinion, I guarantee it. This train will stick around as long as Amtrak is around.......
amtraxmaniac Member # 2251
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The Coast Starlight isn't going anywhere. I will go out on a limb and say this is somewhere between my opinion and actual fact (HA HA). The Starlight is one of Amtrak's breadwinners. If I'm not mistaken, its one of the top money making LDT's. Also keep in mind that it is a much shorter trip than the Sunset Limited, thus I would think, less equipment intensive. The Coast Starlight also has a better service record than the Sunset. Comparing The Coast Starlight to the Sunset Limited is like comparing first class on a major airline to riding Greyhound.
timefortrains Member # 5603
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I have a reservation on the Cost Starlight LAX-EUG leaving Jan. 28. Spoke with an agent this morning. Asked only about my travel dates and destination. Word is the train will run LAX-Klamath Falls and a "bus bridge" will be provided from Klamath Falls to Eugene.
Gilbert B Norman Member # 1541
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Even Mr. "less-than-estatic yours truly" about LD trains is confident that Amtrak is not about to play a "Sunset East" game with the Starlight.
The Union Pacific obviously wants to restore the line ASAP; they need every "ounce' of track capacity they have, and I'm sure a routing via Ogden adds at least a day to shipping time Seattle-LA - maybe even more to allow for the alt-routed traffic (somehow I think UP would just as soon avoid paying $100 a train mile or whatever GMA rates specifiy nowadays to detour traffic on BNSF via Wishram and Bieber).
smitty195 Member # 5102
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quote:Originally posted by timefortrains: I have a reservation on the Cost Starlight LAX-EUG leaving Jan. 28. Spoke with an agent this morning. Asked only about my travel dates and destination. Word is the train will run LAX-Klamath Falls and a "bus bridge" will be provided from Klamath Falls to Eugene.
I think the agent you spoke to did not have the correct information. As of the time of this posting, your train #14 departing Los Angeles on January 28th will NOT happen. There is no bus bridge. There is no train. There is no alternate service being provided by Amtrak. You're on your own for re-booking your travel arrangements (translation: Buy your plane ticket NOW, before the fares go up any higher).
Mr. Toy Member # 311
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It seems unlikely that Railforum members would have better information than Amtrak agents. But it is a strange world, so we'll see what is fact and what is rumor soon enough.
smitty195 Member # 5102
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quote:Originally posted by Mr. Toy: It seems unlikely that Railforum members would have better information than Amtrak agents. But it is a strange world, so we'll see what is fact and what is rumor soon enough.
Unfortunately, in this case, the Amtrak reservation agent was wrong. The train is not running on the dates specified.
Amtrak207 Member # 1307
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No, the train isn't running ***unless superceded by another bulletin.*** These bulletins are issued pretty frequently.
Don't feel too bad. Half of the Empire Corridor wasn't running today for the usual excuse, just for the hell of it.
Just because the Starlight isn't going anywhere right now doesn't mean it will be permanently canceled. If they were going to cancel trains, and they are NOT for now, there would be others first, probably the Cardinal, the rest of the Sunset, the Texas Eagle, and maybe even the Lakeshore would all vanish before the Starlight.
Be happy. I had one of the worst travel experiences ever a year ago when, once again, the Empire Corridor shut down because it was cold out and somebody sneezed, CSX imploded as if they were waiting for the opportunity, and no bus substitution was even offered for three days. After taking an unscheduled day off from work in the vain hope that they could find a way to park all the outlawed trains on the SAME TRACK and leave the one with not quite as many broken rails open for traffic, I bought my own bus ticket, barely made it onboard without being bumped because they always oversell their space, saw three of the most disgusting situations I've ever seen, and held on for dear life as the bus slid down the Thruway for four and a half hours and got home about six hours after I'd left.
Underinvestment in our transportation infrastructure has finally come full circle with rare occasions where we get what we pay for.
Can I blame someone? I can't blame Amtrak that much because CSX flat-out refused to accept their trains, but some sort of bus would have been nice. They also seem to take very, very little persuasion to blanket-cancel entire trains. This is what happens when people who don't want to run trains run the company. Can I blame CSX? Why not? Apathetic dispatching when one little thing goes wrong (50 miles away from the Empire Corridor tracks, no less) on top of having every other block out of service or marked down to 10 miles an hour and nobody wanted to (stop watching the STUPID football game and) go out in the cold and fix something.
TwinStarRocket Member # 2142
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By contrast, BNSF seems to get the Empire Builder from the West Coast to Minnesota through all kinds of winter misery in a very reliable manner. I never heard of "frozen switches" up here in 30 below zero country, but they turn up in the Carolinas?
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