I have a question. How was the OTP for the trains on UP track like the Desert Wind before the Southern Pacific merger? Was the UP always this hostile? Or was is a result of the Southern Pacific merger? I know the SP was always hostile to passenger trains.
Maybe this is another one of these "turn off the sound and watch the action moments."
Let's just say that there is NO Amtrak service on the original (pre merger-mania) Union Pacific. All passenger service currently on UP is on lines that were either Missouri Pacific, Denver and Rio Grande Western, or Southern Pacific. Anybody please correct me if I am wrong.
The
Desert Wind (between Los Angeles area and Salt Lake City area) and
Pioneer (between Denver area and Portland area) did run on UP lines, right?
But, as far as current Amtrak service, yeah, I cannot think of any on pre-1980s/1990s mergers Union Pacific trackage.
But remember that Amtrak had nothing on D&RGW initially, and the
San Francisco Zephyr (not
California Zephyr which started when Amtrak moved to D&RGW) ran on the
Overland Route between Denver and Ogden, and that was always UP. So strictly speaking NO Amtrak service on UP pre-merger is incorrect. Any of the trains that are running today AFAICT did not run on UP back then unless you consider the
California Zephyr to be a latter day incarnation of the
San Francisco Zephyr.