Salt Lake City - How to handle delays

[TiggerPU88]

Hi all! On our booked trip from Chicago on the Zephyr, we are stopping for 2 days in Salt Lake City, staying at the downtown Residence Inn. We know we should take an Uber from the train station and back to our hotel but are worried about delays like we are seeing this week. A 4-5 delay world be really hard, especially when we are boarding. We are also concerned about safety. If you have traveled there or live there, do you have any advice/suggestions?

 

[neroden]

The station itself is perfectly safe. There's a small station buildng, etc., staff, lighting, etc. It stays staffed the whole night, because the train in the other direction departs at 3:30 AM.

I wouldn't walk between there and the hotel at night -- there are safe routes to do so, but it's also possible to walk into really sketchy areas if you don't know the layout of the city. But you're already getting an Uber or taxi.

 

[Amtrakfflyer]

I’d stay at the hotel until an hour or so from the current ETA that day. At that point the train won’t make up time and unlike an airline you don’t have to worry about them swapping a new plane in to get the plane out earlier.

 

[Amtrak25]

The way I got around the 3am bit in 2012 was to take the Dog the prior day to Grand Junction, stayed overnight there, then picked up #6 during the day.

 

[user 29398]

SLC resident here, just confirming what's already been said. The station is in a more or less abandoned, industrial part of town - there won't be anyone there except your fellow passengers and at most one or two homeless guys just passing through. Lights will be on, station will be staffed, nothing sketchy. The areas immediately to the east of it have a reputation as being hotbeds of crime and drug use, though, so plan to take an uber from downtown since public transit won't be running that late at night.

Only cure to the delay problem is to check the live tracker. SLC is usually a long stop so even if (and I'm not recommending you try this, just illustrating that the station is quite close to downtown) you don't leave the hotel until the train is already at the station you'd probably still make it.