What happened with Train 7/27?

ParanoidAndroid · Feb 10, 2019

#7 is 15 hours late in clear weather, and #27 is 16 hours late in some snow. It looks like they were delayed while detouring in ND, but what were the other causes of the delays? Most Builders make it through the usual cold weather on time, so that shouldn't be the issue. Also, I'd have thought that they'd turn the train in Spokane, but they didn't do that. Now, the return #8 and #28 will likely leave early in the morning of the 10th. Pretty bad.

AmtrakBlue · Feb 10, 2019

I THINK 7/27 took a detour in ?ND?

jis · Feb 10, 2019

Apparently it was impossible to arrange bussing at Spokane due to snowstorm. So Amtrak decided to run the train through instead of stranding passengers in the middle of inclement weather. Seems like they did the right thing for once.

esmeralda · Feb 10, 2019

7 was late out of the gate in Chicago due to the ice/winter storm on Tuesday and Wednesday. The crew ran out of hours and had to wait for a new crew east of La Crosse which delayed them by several hours in addition. They then had to maneuver through the massive snow drifts from the blizzard on the cutoff between Fargo and Minot. The remainder of delay was most likely gradually added while being stuck in rail traffic in MT and ID. 8 also had to take the cutoff between Minot and Fargo and was stuck for several hours northwest of Fargo due to a Seattle to Chicago Z train collision with a car. Also 8 had to maneuver through the after effects of the blizzard in ND.

oregon pioneer · Feb 10, 2019

I expected they might just cancel yesterday afternoon's 8/28, given that passenger loads are usually light this time of year. But no, the OP guessed correctly. #28 departed PDX at 4:20am, and #8 departed SEA at 6:53am. They are not showing on the status maps, nor listed as a service disruption. Trains 7/27 arriving today are running about 4 hours late, and the following day on time (so far). So I guess they wanted that consist and crew to go back in proper order, another good call IMO.

Glad I wasn't waiting at WIH for *that* one!

ParanoidAndroid · Feb 10, 2019

oregon pioneer said:
I expected they might just cancel yesterday afternoon's 8/28, given that passenger loads are usually light this time of year. But no, the OP guessed correctly. #28 departed PDX at 4:20am, and #8 departed SEA at 6:53am. They are not showing on the status maps, nor listed as a service disruption. Trains 7/27 arriving today are running about 4 hours late, and the following day on time (so far). So I guess they wanted that consist and crew to go back in proper order, another good call IMO.

Glad I wasn't waiting at WIH for *that* one!

How did you figure out those departure times?