Yes. Normally the host railroad will provide an Engineer to accompany the Amtrak Engineer in the cab. Sometimes the host railroad also may provide a locomotive if any special PTC interfaces are required on the route that is peculiar to the host railroad and not available on an Amtrak loco.
Crews are qualified on a few detours that are relatively common, but those are pretty uncommon. The only one that comes to mind is I understand Amtrak crews may maintain qualification on the former SP between Roseville, CA and Marysville, CA in addition to the Starlight's normal route between Sacramento and Marysville on the former WP.
What site is this where you're pulling the info? I'd love to follow this on my trip in September.
Asm.transitdocs.com. Select the "View on statusmaps.com" at the bottom of the train detail page.
I'm booked in the 2830 sleeper Portland to Sandpoint (0220, oh my!) EB in October, and I plan to hit a deli for some food to take onboard. Not counting on Amtrak much. A couple of days later I get back on at Sandpoint into the 0831 (0220, oh my!) for the rest of the trip back to Chicago, and will hopefully wake up to a traditional breakfast in the diner. This is part of a longer trip (over 10,000 miles/ 24 days) which I will report on in the trip reports.
When you're on the train usually Amtrak will send you the same alerts shown in the photo, the notices that are about your train.
The stations that were bypassed - St. Cloud - Staples - Detroit Lakes
The Amtrak Empire Builder hasn’t used its full former pre-Amtrak regular route since Amtrak took it over.
Thanks so much! I appreciate it.
The Portland section of the Empire Builder serves a cold dinner to sleeper passengers leaving from Portland. I've heard that it's supposed to be actually pretty good, so anything from a deli might not be much better. For the rest of the trip to Chicago, the Builder has traditional dining in the dining car, so you should be fine.
My experience earlier this month is that it’s serviceable if you get something you’re alright with, but I was glad I had something more substantial at Deschutes before getting on the train.
Amtrak changed Suppliers for the Boxed Meals in Portland a few years back, and they are no longer very good.( the Breakfast loaded in Spokane has never been anything to write Home about)
It is also great that existing alternate routes are still available - - -
I can't compare the cold dinner to cold dinners in the past, but when we took the Portland Builder earlier this summer, we both had the steak salad and found it more than acceptable. The steak was cooked medium, and nicely trimmed and tender. The only issue I had was that the lettuce was cut into rather large pieces, and the plastic cutlery used with it was not quite up to cutting it into bite-sized bits. But because we were eating in our room, we had our own, good quality wine to drink with the dinner--quite civilized!
We still have two routes between Spokane and Seattle, not counting the long way around through Vancouver, Washington. But I believe the ex-NP Stampede Pass route is still without block signaling except to indicate switch positions at CTC sidings. It also doesn't have PTC. I'm not sure what the status of the Willmar line is in that regard. I understand BNSF finally restored the Stampede Tunnel's ventilation system, with was designed into the Stampede Pass reopening in 1996 but not completed at the time. I've not seen them detour an Empire Builder over Stampede in many years.
They decommissioned the ABS over Stampede when they rebuilt it and put it back into service. Lack of wayside signals doesn't prevent revenue passenger movements, it just restricts passenger speed to 59 mph.
Eight trains a day is more than enough to require PTC to host passenger trains on the line.
I again state that Amtrak management is at fault for not getting ALL of the equipment in top notch status during Covid. Now we have small trains that are full, prices that are out of sight and overnight trains still not operating with full dining car service.
