CHICAGO — Amtrak has revised its plans for the return of California Zephyr service along the train’s full route, now aiming for April 4 as the date for the restablishment of service. The train has not been operating east of Denver because of flooding in the Midwest.
The passenger carrier had originally set today (April 1) as the date to restore full service between Chicago and Emeryville, Calif. [see “’California Zephyr’ to resume regular route, but miss Omaha,” Trains News Wire, March 29, 2019]. But it was informed that “the route was not ready as planned,” according to Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari.
Through April 3, westbound train No. 5 will originate in Denver. Eastbound train No. 6 departing from Emeryville on Sunday, March 31, and today will terminate at Denver; passengers on those trains can detrain in Denver or intermediate points, and may choose to return to their origination point on train No. 5, since no alternate transportation is provided from Denver.
Watch Amtrak.com for further updates.
Please explain what is going on with BNSF through their flooded territories in Nebraska, Missouri, etc. – reroutes? detours? Is there an updated map of outages? And how about other railroads? News Wire seems to focus on the impact to passenger railroading when most of use want to hear about ALL railroading.