Cal. Zephyer summer re-routing ?????

[Joe]

I am considering taking a summer trip on the California Zephyer roundtrip from Chicago to Grand Junction, Colorado. The only purpose of this trip is to see the Rockies by rail. I have noticed in the past years the CZ is re-routed through Wyoming from Denver and does not go over the Rockies. This is due to UP track work in the summer. I really don't want to schedule this trip and then have the CZ re-routed. Does anyone know this early if there will be track work this summer? Thanks in advance for all your help.

Joe

 

[railiner]

I am considering taking a summer trip on the California Zephyer roundtrip from Chicago to Grand Junction, Colorado. The only purpose of this trip is to see the Rockies by rail. I have noticed in the past years the CZ is re-routed through Wyoming from Denver and does not go over the Rockies. This is due to UP track work in the summer. I really don't want to schedule this trip and then have the CZ re-routed. Does anyone know this early if there will be track work this summer? Thanks in advance for all your help.
Joe

I don't know the answer but perhaps you could try asking Amtrak directly.

 

[saxman]

Seems like I saw something somewhere that UP was NOT doing trackwork this summer to make the CZ detour. But that is just speculation and rumor. They only did the detour on certain days so you should be ok. But I would ask Amtrak, and see if they know.

 

[the_traveler]

Also, with the rock slide, I-70 is closed to Grand Junction. (I don't know which side of town it is on.) But Amtrak is not affected at all! And they say that it may take weeks or months to repair!

 

[RailFanLNK]

I may be wrong about this but today's 6 (9) through LNK was fairly late. The CZ has been running mostly on time so I don't know if this had anything to do with the rockslide.

 

[Cristobal]

I don't know about this year but last summer the weekend (Sat & Sun) runs went through the Rockies but the weekday runs detoured through Wyoming (I was on one of those )

 

[sunchaser]

Also, with the rock slide, I-70 is closed to Grand Junction. (I don't know which side of town it is on.) But Amtrak is not affected at all! And they say that it may take weeks or months to repair!

There are delays that are only mentioned through March, listed here.

According to the articles I read about the rockslide, the tracks are fine. It's supposed to be near Hanging Lakes Tunnel, which I think is near Glenwood Springs. The Hanging Lake is about 5 miles from Glenwood Springs.

 

[PRR 60]

Also, with the rock slide, I-70 is closed to Grand Junction. (I don't know which side of town it is on.) But Amtrak is not affected at all! And they say that it may take weeks or months to repair!

It may take that long to get the repairs completed, but expect the highway to be reopened with lane restrictions within the week.

 

[MikeM]

Also, with the rock slide, I-70 is closed to Grand Junction. (I don't know which side of town it is on.) But Amtrak is not affected at all! And they say that it may take weeks or months to repair!

There are delays that are only mentioned through March, listed here.

According to the articles I read about the rockslide, the tracks are fine. It's supposed to be near Hanging Lakes Tunnel, which I think is near Glenwood Springs. The Hanging Lake is about 5 miles from Glenwood Springs.

The section where the rock fall hit, the railroad is on the south side of the canyon, and the interstate is stacked on the north side. I think things happened just before the freeway crosses over the river and goes into Hanging Lake tunnel.

 

[GAT]

I'm wondering if I'm missing something here. I've looked at the map on Amtak's "routes" tab. and I can't for the life of me figure out how a train can go from SF to Chicago through Wyoming without crossing over the Rockies. They do, after all, stretch from northern Canada to Southern USA. :unsure: Or are we simply talkling about a less "scenic" route over the Rockies? :lol:

 

[Cristobal]

I'm wondering if I'm missing something here. I've looked at the map on Amtak's "routes" tab. and I can't for the life of me figure out how a train can go from SF to Chicago through Wyoming without crossing over the Rockies. They do, after all, stretch from northern Canada to Southern USA. :unsure: Or are we simply talkling about a less "scenic" route over the Rockies? :lol:

Smart-a$$...

Yes, a less scenic route through a lower altitude cut of the great Rocky Mountains.

 

[pebbleworm]

The route through Wyoming is still pretty scenic, with a lot of wildlife visible out the windows. And it shaves about 4 hours plus off the travel time, almost 10%. The 35 MPH crawl through the canyons is nice, but I preferred a speedier trip through the wild west.

 

[Trainmans daughter]

I loved the detour through Wyoming last summer. It was beautiful! However, like the OP there was a group of passengers who had planned the CZ trip specifically to ride the train through the Colorado Rockies. They were pretty disappointed, and I didn't blame them.