CHICAGO – The Coast Starlight isn’t the only Amtrak train making news this week.
On Sunday afternoon, a Canadian Pacific freight train derailed east of Tomah, Wis., The eastbound Empire Builder had been running more than seven hours late, but would have passed the scene of the derailment had it been on time. Consequently, it was held another seven hours at La Crosse, Wis., until after midnight. It arrived into Chicago just after 9 a.m. Monday.
Meanwhile, Sunday’s westbound Builder was held at Wisconsin Dells, Wis., but wasn’t moved through the accident scene until early Monday morning, by then 11 hours late. It arrived at Spokane, Wash., at 11:27 a.m. Pacific Time Tuesday and was set to continue on to Seattle and Portland about 10 hours late. Amtrak cancelled Monday Empire Builders departing both the West Coast and Chicago because the westbound train due to make a same-day turn that day at Seattle and Portland, Ore., was also running 11 hours late across North Dakota and Montana. The company could have sent a trainset east from the day’s cancelled southbound Coast Starlight but did not have any standby equipment at Portland, Ore., for that section.
Heavy snow also blanketed the Southwest Chief’s BNSF Railway route beginning last Thursday, when more than three feet hit Flagstaff, Ariz., the most recorded there in a single day, according to the Arizona Sun. No trains were cancelled during the multi-day ordeal, with Chiefs suffering no more than 2.5-hour delays into their endpoint terminals; some westbounds were early or less than an hour late into Los Angeles.
However, mechanical issues delayed westbound train No. 3 set to depart Chicago on Sunday at 2:50 p.m. until 8:23 p.m. Monday’s westbound Chief departed more than an hour and a half late, facilitating a connection with inbound Capitol Limited travelers who arrived more than six hours late into the Windy City after their train suffered three hour delays each on CSX Transportation out of Washington, D.C., and on Norfolk Southern in Indiana.
Curtis “Back in the day” to use your term, PRR had secondaries all across Pennsylvania. NYC had secondaries across Ohio or could send trains across Michigan and through southern Ontario. (This last mentioned was a main, not a secondary.) Of course none of that still exists and hasn’t for two generations.
All that was fine as far as it went. But I never understood how fast some of these routes were, or how much capacity, or how crews could be conjured up, or fuel or services to the train as needed. It seems to me that some of these detours “back in the day” weren’t any better than waiting for the main line to be cleared.
Other than the Burlington if CP Rail is blocked in Wisconsin, I’m not aware of any detours that Amtrak has up its sleeves.
Forgot to mention that 7 hadn’t left Chicago when the derailment happened.
Mike Lustig
From what I understand, the CP grain train derailed in the 1PM hour. 8 was late coming into St. Paul arriving there in the 2PM hour. So what I’m wondering is why didn’t both trains detour on BNSF from St. Paul to Chicago and vice versa? The Builder has detoured on BNSF and BN numerous times as a Amtrak train.
Mike Lustig
Back in the day the Milw. Rd. had several options to deal with mainline derailments on the hi-speed ROW across central Wisc….several secondary lines or moves on the Burlington or Northwestern.