EMERYVILLE, Calif. — The eastbound California Zephyr is shown above as it pulls into its originating station at Emeryville at 12:13 p.m. Sunday after being serviced at Amtrak’s Oakland Maintenance facility. It departed at 12:31 p.m., more than 3 hours late, after the equipment arrived on its westbound counterpart at 1:57 a.m., 9 hours, 47 minutes late. The westbound train had been delayed by more than 7 hours after hitting a track obstruction east of Glenwood Springs, Colo., one of many significant delays to impact Amtrak’s national network during the past week.
The Empire Builder, one of the hardest-hit trains last week [see “Mudslides, snow threat trigger more Amtrak cancellations …,” Trains News Wire, Jan. 7, 2022] continued to experience woes throughout the weekend. The westbound train that departed Chicago on Friday, Jan. 7, reached Minot, N.D., before being cancelled because of weather, while that day’s eastbound No. 8 originated in Spokane rather than Seattle. The Saturday departure from Chicago was cancelled, as were departures from both endpoints on Sunday. Tthe westbound trains scheduled to depart Seattle and Portland today (Monday, Jan. 10) have also been cancelled. Also, Saturday’s eastbound Cardinal left Chicago more than 7 hours late because of what were variously described as equipment and mechanical issues on the Amtrak Alerts Twitter feed. — Russell Sharp and David Lassen
Too bad Amtrak doesn’t have their own tracks to run their own trains, for decades Amtrak uses the freight railroads tracks to run their trains (except the NEC) yet wonder and complain about their operations? Since having their own tracks won’t be happening, one would think Amtrak would better plan their arrival and departure times that reflect them using the host railroads tracks, I don’t know just asking.
Cancellations because of weather?
It’s a railroad, not an airline.
The westbound train didn’t hit an obstruction. It was stopped while the track was cleared of boulders and the rail repaired. The eastbound train was held in Glenwood Springs.