Urgent help needed

[ALC Rail Writer]

Its now over 7 hours late... oops.

 

[amtrakwolverine]

the OP is not going to have any friends left after this trip. they were already saying amtrak sucks before they even got on the train.

 

[Trainmans daughter]

Wow! It took 6 hours to go less than 60 miles (Truckee to Colfax)! The weather has been pretty interesting in Northern California today. I'd love nothing better than to be creeping through the Sierras on a train during a blizzard, but I understand that not everyone shares my enthusiasm for this type of entertainment.

I REALLY want to see a trip report from the OP. I've been thinking of him a lot today, and hope that he survives the wrath of his misguided "friends".

 

[sunchaser]

the OP is not going to have any friends left after this trip. they were already saying amtrak sucks before they even got on the train.

If it is weather related & snow is dumping on them, would they have been able to fly in?

Probably not. Hopefully they won't be too hard on him & realize that.

Weren't they co-workers?

Correction-went back & checked-friends & co-workers.

 

[tp49]

Another railfan discussion group reports that on the morning of December 12th, both the eastbound and westbound editions of the CZ were at Denver Union Station at the same time! The eastbound train was the one that should have arrived there the evening before ... but it was running over 14 hours late.
That must not have been an encouraging sight for these folks ...

Ya, it looks like the westbound CZ departing Denver on Dec 12th really got into trouble somewhere in California. It went from 3 hours late leaving Reno, NV to over 7 hours late leaving Roseville, CA. And the eastbound CZ went from 45 minutes late leaving Colfax, CA to over 3 hours late leaving Reno, NV on Dec 13th.

Delays like that can be frustrating for those not used to long-distance train travel. I wonder if it was just the weather or some sort of track/signal problem on the route?

Places in the Sierra received 55 inches of snow which is just around four and a half feet of the white stuff and there were white out conditions on I-80 Saturday night into Sunday the 13th. I'm figuring it was the weather plain and simple.

 

[PRR 60]

the OP is not going to have any friends left after this trip. they were already saying amtrak sucks before they even got on the train.

If it is weather related & snow is dumping on them, would they have been able to fly in?

Probably not. Hopefully they won't be too hard on him & realize that.

Weren't they co-workers?

Correction-went back & checked-friends & co-workers.

Flights DEN-SFO were fine. The problem was in the mountains, not at the airports. This time the planes won (it works both ways).

As for the delays in California, my bet is that the UP was in snow removal mode and was operating spreaders (large plows) on the single track line over the pass. When that is going on, all traffic is subject to the spreaders location and direction. If the spreaders are heading east, then westbound traffic sits. It's the nature of the wintertime beast in the Sierra Nevada's. Getting through during or immediately after a storm can be a challenge.

 

[rrdude]

the OP is not going to have any friends left after this trip. they were already saying amtrak sucks before they even got on the train.

Nah, he'll just have a "better class of friends..........."

 

[user 1215]

the OP is not going to have any friends left after this trip. they were already saying amtrak sucks before they even got on the train.

Nah, he'll just have a "better class of friends..........."

Well, at least they'll all be at the conference on time, albeit with a bit of lack of sleep, but if they were in a sleeper, then I suppose they are probably well off. Well, maybe depends on if the crew could pick up KFC somewhere in Northern CA for the last 6 hours...

Sorry to the friends and co workers that had hot dates and family to see on Sunday night. Look forward to seeing what Darien has to say about all this! I'm sure they are still all sleeping right now...

 

[Montanan]

Six hours and 22 minutes late into EMY.

I doubt they would agree with my assessment ... but I would have actually been happy. Six more hours on a train is a good thing, and a free dinner, to boot!

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

I hope his friends will be understanding. All they have to do is look out the window and see the cause of the delay.

If they live in Denver, this weather should not be so shocking to them. The airports were operating this time, but they surely know that sometimes they are not.

 

[darien-l]

Hi all,

Just a quick update: Our train rolled into Emeryville at 10:32 pm, 6 hours 22 minutes late. There were positives and negatives on the trip. Getting stuck in the Sierras was extremely frustrating. Probably the worst part of the trip was arriving into Emeryville: for some reason, instead of the #5 train getting a dedicated bus, we had to sit on the bus for 40 minutes waiting for some Capitol Corridor train to arrive. Given that the passengers on our train were already 6.5 hours delayed, this really pissed a lot of folks off. In addition, a bunch of lanes on Bay Bridge were closed for repair, traffic stretched for miles, and we didn't roll into San Francisco until after midnight. The bus was packed, made lots of stops, and by the time we finally got to our hotel, it was really darn late.

I think if nothing else, this has been an educational experience for my friends. Their attitude went from "Amtrak sucks" to "Amtrak has the potential to be great, but there are things about it that suck." I'll try to write a full trip report about this rather interesting experience later.

 

[Cascadia]

Hey Darien, thanks for coming back to report on the trip, I came on here tonight wondering how things had gone for you.

Would look forward to a longer trip report if you get a chance.

 

[darien-l]

Hey Darien, thanks for coming back to report on the trip, I came on here tonight wondering how things had gone for you.
Would look forward to a longer trip report if you get a chance.

Well, I finally got around to writing up a full trip report: http://discuss.amtraktrains.com/index.php?showtopic=31090

Sorry it took so long!