Rode the Cali Zephyr this weekend

On Friday, my wife and I took a trip from Denver to Glenwood Springs via Amtrak. I was the first time I had ever riden Amtrak. And it was an experience. One I probably wont repeat.

Not because it was an unpleasurable experience, but because it just took too much time. The train into Denver was only a few minutes late. So that wasn't too bad. But the trip itself took six hours. Had we driven to Glenwood, the trip would have taken about three hours.

We took the train back on Saturday. The eastbound was FOUR hours late coming into Glenwood. We didn't get back to Denver until 10:30 pm. That sucked. I know its not Amtraks fault. The UP is so screwed up coming out of California, its hard for Amtrak to keep their schedule.

Luckily, the station in Glenwood is within walking distance of the downtown shops and some pretty good restuarants. And we knew the train was consistantly late so we took that into consideration.

If someone is traveling to get to a destination quickly - don't count on Amtrak. At least out here. I can understand Amtrak exploring the posibilty of dropping their long distance trains. It doesn't seem very cost effective at all and the competition with the airlines and buses has got to be killing them.

I don't know the future of Amtrak, but this obviously isn't working too well.

Eric

 

I don't know why Amtrak doesn't just make 10:30 PM there scheduled arrival time as this is ALWAYS the case. UP refuses to let them around them. Also Amtrak's Schedule is to take Advantage of the daylight going though Glenwood Canyon. I say open up Tennesse Pass just to Amtrak and they'd get to Denver on time.

 

Ridden Calif Zephyr a number of times, always late. Have ridden just about all of Amtrak's long distance trains except Auto train & Sunset Ltd, usually late but not Usually Amtrak's fault. My family & I enjoy riding Amtrak but like I tell my friends to ride Amtrak you must not be in a hurry (or have to face a time deadline) and you have to be willing to spend more $$$$$$$$$ than if you were to fly (assuming your train ride will be in a sleeper). It's a great way to travel, nice scenery and very relaxing. Parking is far more convient than at an airport and you don't have to arrive at the station 2 hours early!

 

I've visited the U.S. twice, in '92 and '93. Both times I rode Amtrak, for me a great opportunity to see some wonderful scenery roll by and get in touch with other people.

First I went from Ann Arbor to Washington DC, from there to New York and from New York back to AA. Second time I went from San Diego to San Francisco. I had time, I was a tourist, and in my opinion the trains and service aboard are great. But both trips the trains were on time.

I've seen Amtrak trains running through Glenwood Canyon, very slow, seemed to me by that time already it is for those people who are on a holiday.

 

Yes, I would agree that most of the passengers on the long haul trips are on vaction and have the time.

As far as any recourse Amtrak may have against UP - I don't think that they do since UP owns the property and Amtrak runs on their line. I too made the observation that the Zephyr seemed to be on time when it was on BNSF trackage. One of the conductors just rolled his eyes when I brought it up. He wasn't too fond of UP's delays either. He did say that they can usually make up some good time once the get east of Denver. BNSF seems to treat them pretty well.

On somewhat of a political note - I think Amtrak could benefit from some open market competition. I know it probably wont happen because the competition realized a long time ago that passenger service wasn't profitable.

Eric

 

What about rerouting the Zephyr back through the less used Feather River Canyon? They'd loose Truckee and some other stops, but would pick right back up in Reno. I listen to the dispatchers on this line frequently, and there seems to be a lot of dead time. If California is what is killing them, this should be explored.

 

Amtrak worked for me!

My family took Amtrak to the Southwest Chief Labor Day weekend from Mendota IL to Kansas City. We had a wonderful experience. We had leg room enough to put our infant daughter on the floor and still be comfortable. We were on time leaving from Mendota but 45 min late returning to Mendota. This route uses the BNSF which is probably why it's usually on time on this trip.

We would use Amtrak again in the future if need be.

 

Dick Cheney was a director of the UP. I wouldn't doubt that, considering
this current political administrations attitude toward AMTRAK, Mr.Cheney is still influencing some of the UP's policy toward AMTRAK.

Think what you may, but as a retired BNSF railroader, I agree with what
others have posted about AMTRAK operations on BNSF being mostly on
time. I know from personal. 1st person experience that we were REQUIRED to get in the clear well before AMTRAK trains.

I was called to work as conductor on a manifest freight(493) on the Galesburg-Creston pool. My hogger gave me some hints on how to get
the train together and get out of the yard quickly. If we could get the train together quickly, dispatch would run us ahead of #3 and we would have high green all the way unless we had station work enroute.
On the few instances there would be work enroute, we would leave after AMTRAK left Galesburg and be subject to all sorts of delays.
That was an interesting job. But I remember any number of times being
out on "Main Line" and having to duck in the clear for AMTRAK.

Charlie

 

Rerouting the train via Feather River Canyon would still result in UP control plus lower speed limits with more single track to deal with. IF the gov't was concerned at all about Amtrak on time performances on the UP nationwide (Coast Starlight, Sunset Ltd, Texas Eagle as well) the gov't would enforce its fines against the carriers for delaying Amtrak trains. Since it is only money, I doubt if UP would really care.

 

For me as a tourist, and in that time I worked on the dining cars on the Eurocity fasttrains from Amsterdam to Germany, I just loved Amtrak. I was a railroad addict already from my childhood, my uncle used to drive steam engins, I worked on the restaurant cars running from Amsterdam to Braunschweig, Germany, through Cologne. It's not a job for the rest of your life, you should find something more "steady" before you reach 30. (but I loved it...)

Those people on Amtrak were doing a great job, and if I had the money nowadays, I would travel Amtrak again with my family, which I still hope to do in the future.

 

I used the Crescent (#19/20) for regular business travel between New Orleans and Washington until I retired in 1998. For all my trips, the only time I was late into Washington was the Monday after the Super Bowl was played in New Orleans and Amtrak took an extra 45 minutes to add five private cars owned by fans. We were 20 minutes down at the CSX diamond just south of Charlottesville, VA station, when a CSX coalie got to the diamond first and took 15 minutes to cross it at about 5 mph. Other than that, NS did a great job dispatching the Crescent between 1990 and 1998.

 

There's some confusion in this thread.

First, I'm pretty sure that Feather river is actually more congested then Donner. At least it has been. That's why UP hasn't rushed to get the summit track 1 reopened. So rerouting that way won't work. In fact, the only unused route I can think of is the Modoc line. That would take you way out of the way though and through unpopulated desert.

Secondly, BY FEDERAL LAW, Amtrak has priority over EVERYTHING! UP is actually breaking the law. I believe the latest Trains magazine discusses this. There's talk of Amtrak enforcing it and they don't need the administration's help. They go to the judge and UP starts getting fined.

UP is the worst offender against Amtrak, but BNSF is their biggest friend. I can only assume it stems from the Santa Fe Heritage in it's Passenger service, they would never let such a public relationship boondoggle to occur.

 

Not only the SF but how about the Great Northern and the Empire Builder. She runs on time on the BNSF. The only time its late is when something occurs out of dispatching control (accident, a cow runs across the tracks or something like that) But when these trains are near, everthng else moves out of the way...I think that even the CP keeps her moving between Chicago and Minneapolis.

 

While there may be some logic to that, it seems to me that the specific problem with Union Pacific is that they're being a bunch of #$%$^& about it. After all, BNSF has no problems keeping passenger service running, so it's not a function of the size only.

 

CSX also has no respect for the Amtrak contract and schedules. Before Katrina, the westbound Sunset Limited (#1) was as much as 10 hours late into Gulfport, MS after only ~500 miles from Orlando. I NEVER saw/heard it on time.

When the Gulf Wind was running between Mobile and New Orleans in '93, we waited 15 minutes for clearance at the Gentilly Yard entry yard limit to pass on the double-track main that ran outside of all yard tracks.

IIRC, the Amtrak contract has a fine for each train and railroad based on a dispatch caused per-hour late to schedule. All I can assume is that the fine is so low in relation to on-time freight incentives CSX, UP, and others receive from shippers, that they consider the fine just an insignificant cost of doing business.

 

Actually, I don't think Amtrak has been levelling the fines. Again, Trans Nov 06 talks about it.