# What exactly is a "service disruption"?



## northnorthwest (Mar 17, 2014)

When I check the status for the EB 7 getting into FAR for 3/15 and 3/16 it says:

*Information Unavailable: Sorry, due to a service disruption, we are unable to provide estimated departure and arrival times. For additional assistance, please contact us at 1-800-USA-RAIL (1-800-872-7245).*
What is a service disruption and does it relate to how late a train will be? Does it mean the train is/was REALLY late? Or is it some kind of equipment/technical issue that simply means the status function can't connect with the train info?


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## amamba (Mar 17, 2014)

A service disruption can occur for any number of reasons, but it generally means that the train is late.  Sometimes it can be a technical issues, sometimes it means that the train is annulled, sometimes it means that there is a bustitution, etc.

Maybe someone here knows specifically what happened that day.


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## jebr (Mar 18, 2014)

I believe there was a bustitution out in Washington (between Seattle and Everett) those two days due to landslides in the area. That would trigger the service disruption error.


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## Trogdor (Mar 18, 2014)

There's no official or consistent definition of "service disruption" at Amtrak. It's often dependent on who's at the operations desk what counts as a disruption.

The basic theory is that something happened to the train's operation that prevents it from operating as planned (just being late doesn't count), and this _something _can't be communicated by the automated system. The problem is that there's no way to distinguish between something truly major, such as a train being terminated or annulled, and something fairly minor, such as the Empire Builder originating in Everett instead of Seattle due to mudslides. They have added cancellation notices to Arrow, which has helped somewhat, and some of the apps can give you station times even if the train has a disruption (but is still running its normal route). But there's still no consistent rule for when a train should be listed as having a disruption or not.


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## JoeBas (Mar 18, 2014)

"What exactly is a "service disruption"?"

On Amtrak? Tuesday.


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## jannie (Mar 21, 2014)

I've been watching the empire builder since discovering they tend to be "late". We'll be riding in late May. Went to a website to check on status -- it says service disruption for several different dates, but no explanation. I understand we may be 'bussed" to our maybe end point, or perhaps where the train can pick us up? I paid for a sleeper (roommette), do I get a refund/voucher if I can't use the sleeper? If I wanted a bus ride I would have book Grayhound.

We had been looking forward to travelling the Empire builder from Chicago to Seattle & back.


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## D.P. Roberts (Mar 21, 2014)

JoeBas said:


> "What exactly is a "service disruption"?"
> 
> On Amtrak? Tuesday.


That was my thought too. "Service disruptions" are "What happens on Amtrak on the days that end in a Y."


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## FriskyFL (Mar 21, 2014)

Some service distributions can last for years - Sunset Limited east of NOL has been in a "service disruption" since August 2005.


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