I heard that today the Southwest Chief is being detoured from Chicago to Kansas City via St. Louis because of floods in Missouri. An Amtrak rep mentioned to me that this may be for a few days - not really sure.
Regarding the California Zephyr, my local Amtrak agent told me today that it might...
I remember about 10 years ago, when there was flooding in Iowa (not as serious), they actually did turn the train around in Omaha. I am not sure if they just switched the locomotives or if the entire train was turned around. This only lasted about a week as the tracks were not out of service...
A couple of tips to help you out - on a Superliner, the lights are very bright in the center of the car near the stairwell so you may want to avoid that area if you can. But you also probably don't want to be right near the doors on the ends either because they can be loud when people pass...
Thanks everyone for the helpful information! I have tickets to go out on the California Zephyr from Denver this weekend but last week also made reservations on the Southwest Chief in case the CZ did not pan out. It looks like I will be heading on the Southwest Chief instead, which will be fun...
Thanks for the info on the bus! I will be heading to Boston on 448 next week so this is good to know. Acutually the bus might help me out because it would be nice to arrive into Boston earlier than the 9:45 arrival on the train.