CHICAGO — The Chicago-Seattle/Portland, Ore., Empire Builder is finally on the road to recovery after incurring significant challenges during the past week following a late October High Plains snowstorm and related issues.
A series of delays throughout the week culminated in eastbound train No. 8 departing Seattle more than 5 hours late on Saturday, Oct. 28, after its westbound counterpart, hobbled between Glasgow and Malta, Mont., arrived 3½ hours late earlier in the day. The eastbound that left late on Saturday departed St. Paul, Minn., 5 hours, 20 minutes late today (Monday, Oct. 30) en route to Chicago.
The problems each Builder encountered due to bad weather east of Spokane, Wash., were exacerbated by extensive delays to the Portland section near Pasco, Wash. Because the westbound train makes a same-day equipment turn at Portland, tardiness accumulated.
Trouble began to cascade with a 6-hour-late eastbound departure from Spokane on Wednesday morning; the train lost another 5 hours across North Dakota and arrived into Chicago more than 14 hours late at 7:11 a.m. Friday. Delays to eastbound Empire Builders leaving Spokane Thursday through Saturday ranged from 3½ to 4½ hours.
“Each train has experienced a unique delay, including track work near Pasco, mechanical issues, freight train interference, late bridge closing, and late departures from the terminal,” Amtrak spokesman W. Kyle Anderson told Trains News Wire in an email over the weekend.
BNSF Railway’s Lena Kent says last week’s winter storm across the Hi Line “caused several challenges impacting on-time performance.” Among those were Amtrak mechanical issues which caused BNSF to “lease Amtrak a locomotive for recovery. BNSF continues to work closely with Amtrak operating leaders to mitigate delays for passengers,” she reports.
The good news: the westbound Empire Builder arriving today was 5 minutes early into Seattle and only 11 minutes late into Portland, Ore. Amtrak had short-turned the previous day’s delayed westbound at Spokane, with bus substitutions to and from those West Coast cities Sunday, so the eastbound train operating across Montana Monday was also running on time.
Getting accurate delay data
Dramatically overdue trains that periodically plague long-distance routes with many nocturnal rural stops, like the Builder, California Zephyr, and Sunset Limited, seriously upend travel plans for anyone without other options who book these once-per-day (or less) trains.
Amtrak no longer routinely posts extensive delays to trains outside the Northeast Corridor on its “Amtrak Alerts” feed on the social media site X (formerly Twitter). It still maintains “AmtrakNECAlerts” and passengers can sign up for delay alert notifications here.
The “Amtrak Alerts” posts now occur only where two or more trains are affected on a particular service line. Thus, there was no mention of the northbound City of New Orleans’ 3 hour-plus overnight delay into Carbondale, Ill., on Oct. 30.
However, the company has used modern technology to significantly improve communication with ticketed passengers.
Here’s an example. Heavy rains in Florida last month played havoc with CSX’s aging signal system south of Jacksonville. By the morning of Sept. 27, the northbound Silver Star had gobbled up all of its scheduled recovery time and was more than 3 hours late leaving Columbia, S.C.
Anyone ticketed that day to ride No. 92 — including those onboard — received a series of text messages each time the train’s status changed significantly. The text provided a link to a constantly updated schedule displaying revised estimated arrival and departure times for that train’s upcoming stations. Once the Star departed each stop, the display showed what time it was originally scheduled and when it actually departed.
The information allowed the author to avoid conflict between a dining-car breakfast and a rare daylight photo opportunity of the rambling Seaboard station at Hamlet, N.C. (see below).
“Amtrak is now able to communicate directly to virtually all of our ticketed customers via text (SMS), email, and with notifications through both our iOS (Apple) and Android apps,” spokesman Marc Magliari tells News Wire. “With this improvement, we are now able to shield Amtrak and its state partners from unforeseen changes and potential volatility from external platforms such as Twitter/X.”
Even the Milwaukee, back in the good old days, could substitute a heavyweight obs if a skytop was down on the Olympian Hi, or for a 2nd section.
Or another option would be to have the Builder leave Chicago earlier arriving SEA/PDX around 8A. St. Paul, Whitefish and Spokane would have better times and a connection at Everett to the northbound Vancouver train would be possible.
Yes some connection would be lost in Chicago but with the Builder schedule change over a year ago several connections in Chicago were lost so does Amtrak really care about connections?
Amtrak should add a 6th set of equipment to the Empire Builder pool so if the westbound is super late the eastbound can leave SEA/PDX on time. Especially with the short turn around in SEA/PDX. The Builder has been annulled more often than any other train.
Especially last Christmas season for over a week yet the Canadian continued to run.
I’m old enough to remember that back in the day (pre Amtrak), Railroads had excess equipment to operate a passenger train. Part of the reason why was because they had equipment from discontinued service. Other part of the reason was because of a surge fleet.
In the off season a train (say the Champion) may have needed only one set of cars from New York to Florida. In prime season the operating railroads ran 2, sometimes 3, sections of the train, to accommodate all the passengers
Now, Amtrak has an equipment shortage. All long distance trains are using shorter consists. Trains that now run with 8 or 10 cars, had 10 or 12 cars 5 years ago, and were even longer 12 to 15 years ago.
With NO extra cars, Amtrak has to wait till the train arrives; clean, restock, and service those cars and locomotives, before sending them back out. Now you know why trains leave late or get canceled.
Delays have always happened & always will especially now with barebones staffing the RR’s have adopted with the people who keep things fluid in the field all to maximize profits for investors. I’ve seen & read of many times of pre Amtrak trains covered with ice running way behind schedule. Try taking a road trip into a snow storm & see what happens!
Bad weather reliability was always one of train travel advantages. Amtrak and the freight railroads should be prepared for bad weather and do what is possible to get the trains through to their terminal stations. Most passengers will understand that the train may be late but they do expect to get where they want to go. Cold or hot weather should not be a major problem if the engines and cars are properly maintained and prepared for bad weather. Snow especially in mountain areas can always be a problem but again this should be able to be kept to minimal delays with proper manpower and equipment staged to keep the line open. Major delays or cancelations only hurt their business long term.
A big difference in winter weather here and in Europe. Wanna bet the mechanical issues involved a Siemens locomotive not liking the snow?
Most intercity trains in Europe are electric. Major electrification in the U.S. is an economic impossibility without the Federal government doing it to the exclusion of significant social or defense spending.
In Scotland most if not all trains, both electric and diesel powered have been cancelled the last three weekends due to excessive rain, causing flooding of the lines and land slips.
Was there in February 2018 and a massive winter storm also shut down parts of the system for days.
Europe faces issues as well, maybe not winter but it does happen.
It always amazes me that there seems to be “weather delays” affecting Amtrak and their equipment. Trains are expected to run year round, in good weather and in bad weather. While I agree, track issues aside; the equipment is supposed to function in good and in bad weather. Why isn’t North America the same as “Europe”? Is the weather different in Europe?
Doug Johnson
Not true as Amtrak does cancel trains due to weather issues.
Not a lot but it does happen.
Uh, not “always”, Gunny. This isn’t Europe.
With or without delay, in all weathers Amtrak trains run!
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Weathers?