California Zephyr discussion 2023 Q4

[Agent]

Amtrak #5(13) left Chicago with a transition dormitory car yesterday. Hopefully it is back full time.

 

[desertflyer]

Yesterday 11/16, train 6 left Emeryville with a couple of P42s on the back. Anyone know how far they went?

 

[Agent]

Yesterday 11/16, train 6 left Emeryville with a couple of P42s on the back. Anyone know how far they went?

View attachment 34633

Those two were sent to pick up the two newest Chargers from the Siemens factory at Sacramento.

 

[justn]

I spotted the #6 in Trukee with 2 Chargers and a Transdorm in the consist today.

 

[alpha3]

Did you include the bus on your reservation? If not, you need to add it. I believe it's only available for those with reservations,

Yeah, I did book the bus. But the bus only goes one place now, the Chase center I think, and won't drop off at Fisherman's Wharf, I asked the driver. That was the confusion, Amtrak's website said there was a bus 99 route that would go to the Wharf area. But, no. Anyway, we called up a Uber, and boy, 'uber' glad we did. The ASEAN conference really screwed up the streets in San Francisco. It was only a 10 mile trip, maybe 20-30min trip under normal circumstances. This day, from Emeryville to our hotel in the wharf area, it took nearly TWO hours to get there. It was pouring rain, CHP had one lane closed on the bay bridge, and traffic was horrendous. Then, street after street was closed in the embarcadero/wharf area. At one point as far as the eye could see up the streets were solid red/blue police lights winking, sirens going constantly. The poor Uber guy was muttering to himself, ''I don't know what else to do'' but he finally got us there. He got a good tip!

 

[AZAmtrakfan]

I'm in the early phases of planning a 2024 CZ trip from Chicago to Emeryville. We'll book in the sleeper. Is there any preference for which car? I'm a bit rusty on this, but it appears from minimal searching that the line numbers will start at 0530 just in front of the diner and progress to 0531, 0532..... Is that correct? Thanks.

 

[AZAmtrakfan]

I answered my own question with a bit more searching. It appears that moving forward from the diner, it is line 0531, line 0532, line 0540 (transition/dormitory). Per advice I received here on the forum, I called AGR this morning and booked Chicago-Emeryville for next September. DW and I are in line 0531, roomettes 5 and 6. The system auto-assigned 2 and 3, which are not directly across from each other. The agent tried changing 2 to 4, but the price jumped $164. Strange. I would have paid that to be across from each other, but I had her check for 5 and 6 instead, and the price dropped back to $2240. Upon reviewing the older CZ thread a bit more, I learned that line 0531 is the least likely to be removed from the consist, so I'm happy about that.