Amtrak California Zephyr westbound #5 left Chicago 1/20 @10:57 PM, 8:57 late, and is currently not even in Nebraska yet, running nearly 15 hours late! What gives? Amtrak's twitter says mechanical issues, but 15 hours is ridiculous! Previous day's 5 was about 4:25 late arriving Chicago.
Amtrak #5(20) nearly 15 hours late
- Thread starter daybeers
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Someone on the Friends of the California Zephyr Facebook Group said that there was a mechanical issue with one of the engines and the sightseer lounge that was discovered before the train left the yard. It sounds like they swapped the engine and tried to repair the lounge, since there are no spare SSLs in Chicago right now, and after hours of attempting a repair, they had to pull the lounge out of the consist. A diner-lite was then subbed in for the SSL and the train departed Chicago almost 9 hours late. From there, it's just lost more and more time. It almost sounded like one of the crews timed out too.
Why the hell aren't there spare SSLs?!? I would want all my money back and maybe a voucher extra for no SSL and being 15 hours late.
I'm so tired of the government not enforcing passenger train priority. It happens every day. Sure, it started as Amtrak's fault, but no need to lose more time between stations due to freight interference in Iowa.
I'm so tired of the government not enforcing passenger train priority. It happens every day. Sure, it started as Amtrak's fault, but no need to lose more time between stations due to freight interference in Iowa.
There is at least one SSL running on the Pacific Surfliner...saw it last week on my trip up the coast and back.
As noted, the train left 9 hours late due to mechanical problems. There were no rested, qualified crews available so they had to dispatch the original crew for whatever time they had left while bringing in a crew from Lincoln to meet the train at Princeton with a BNSF pilot (since Lincoln crews aren’t qualified east of Ottumwa).
(This is an example of the “why don’t they just have another crew ready when the original crew dies?” question that pops up every so often on here)
(This is an example of the “why don’t they just have another crew ready when the original crew dies?” question that pops up every so often on here)
I think one of the usual spares is in Denver for the Winter Park Express? Who knows. Seems like a high number of the SSLs have fallen out of working order over the last couple of years.
west point
Engineer
Is these out of working order another way for Amtrak to reduce demand for passenger travel?
