California Zephyr Extremely Late into Chicago 6/12/15

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Im interested to know the answer as well.

They had some severe weather in Iowa yesterday, which was remnants from Hurricane Andres out of the Pacific, that might be a reason.
 
Thanks for the update on the California Zephyr and information on the service disruption. I am going on the Zephyr next Wed from San Francisco and have a connection to the Lake Shore Limited on Friday. With the resumption of service through Colorado this week I was hoping the California Zephyr service would be back to normal by next week. Amtrak still contacted me and let me know that the arrival time into Chicago has still been pushed to 3:50pm from 2:50pm. Amtrak did not give me a reason for this. Of course, severe weather can impact any trip, The last four years I have taken this trip we have arrived into Chicago anywhere from 1 and 1/2 to 2 and 1/2 hours late. I am glad I am not trying to connect to the Cardinal on this trip.

Does anyone know if the California Zephyr is operating along its typical route as of now? Any ideas about the Chicago arrival time schedule change? Many Thanks!
 
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I was on CZ (9) yesterday, it went the regular route AFAIK, including through Colorado. I think we got through Nebraska before the derailment.
 
mycalpal said:
Thanks for the update on the California Zephyr and information on the service disruption. I am going on the Zephyr next Wed from San Francisco and have a connection to the Lake Shore Limited on Friday. With the resumption of service through Colorado this week I was hoping the California Zephyr service would be back to normal by next week. Amtrak still contacted me and let me know that the arrival time into Chicago has still been pushed to 3:50pm from 2:50pm. Amtrak did not give me a reason for this. Of course, severe weather can impact any trip, The last four years I have taken this trip we have arrived into Chicago anywhere from 1 and 1/2 to 2 and 1/2 hours late. I am glad I am not trying to connect to the Cardinal on this trip.

Does anyone know if the California Zephyr is operating along its typical route as of now? Any ideas about the Chicago arrival time schedule change? Many Thanks!
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I've been keeping an eye out for these things out of interest because I'm taking the CZ both ways in August. They're back to the normal route now (other than the Nebraska detour that messed up both trains yesterday). According to the service alert page on Amtrak's website, UP is doing track work from 6/16 to 6/23, so #6 is departing Grand Junction one hour later than normal. Hence, everything east of there is scheduled for a 1 hour later arrival. Everything from Emeryville to Grand Junction remains the same.
 
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I am on the eastbound CZ now -- Satuday, June 13 -- running an estimated 5 hours late to Chicago due to snowballing delays: waiting for a rumored 20-hour-late No. 5 westbound CZ to pass us Friday before we could pulll into one station, adding a freight engine to pulll us into the mountains, random "mechanical problems" this morning. We did go through what I assume is the standard route, seeing the scenic crags of the Rocky Moutains and the soggy fields of Nebraska and Iowa (where the train is as I write this).

Many of the passengers will miss connections in Chicago -- the conductor has come on the PA repeatedly to say we won't know more about connections until reaching Illinois, finally saying something like, "Getting upset won't make the train get there any faster" in a resigned voice.

The crew's doing a good job, and I respect their efforts to reduce further delays.
 
Does anyone know what Amtrak did concerning CZ #6 for today 6/13? Both it and the CZ #5 (now in Reno) are stated as Service Disruptions while CZ #5 due in 6/12 arrived almost 20 hours late at 12:04 PM in Emeryville. Are they busing the CZ #6 to Reno and today's CZ #5 being bused to Emeryville? No information on Track a Train or Amtrak Status Report just simply "Service Disruption" although you can see on Track a Train that CZ # 5 never departed Reno.
 
If you zoom in on "Track A Train", it appears to be heading east so I would also guess they terminated it at Reno and are taking it back to Sparks to turn and service before becoming 6-6/13.

Unfortunate that Amtrak just says "service disruption" rather than putting up some useful information about what's happening.
 
lstone19 said:
If you zoom in on "Track A Train", it appears to be heading east so I would also guess they terminated it at Reno and are taking it back to Sparks to turn and service before becoming 6-6/13.

Unfortunate that Amtrak just says "service disruption" rather than putting up some useful information about what's happening.
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I'm sure they've notified the people who have already booked the train. I don't see a need to notify rail fans. And anyone who might be planning to book a last minute ticket can call and find out what the situation is.
 
"Track A Train" now shows 6 making its way east across Nevada (so apparently 5-11 was turned to 6-13 at Reno) but still with the "service disruption" tag. I very much doubt Amtrak is calling every downline passenger to advise as to ETA so if ture, maintaining the "service disruption" tag is affecting customers and not just railfans.
 
Thanks for the updates on the California Zephyr. I am taking it on 6/17 and have a connection in Chicago. Its really stressful to plan a cross country trip so far in advance and have it up in the air at the last minute. Amtrak contacted me last Tues to let me know that the arrival time in Chicago has already been pushed an hour from 2:50pm to 3:50pm. Well, the usual arriaval time is 1 and 1/2 to 2 and 1/2 hours late so I figure I am already adding an hour to that. I don't think I can cancel my sleeper service this late, but I don't see the point of getting on the Zephyr if there is no way i can make my connection and could easily be arriving a day or more late. If anyone has a suggestion please hit me up. Thanks!
 
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The CZ lateness into CHI will effect those making connections in Chicago. AFAIK those connections are also not guaranteed. I have concerns with our August trip. If we book a hotel as a backup we will not be able to comply with the 24 or 48 hour cancellation requirement. If the CZ is excessively late, we are screwed.
 
Thanks for the updates on the California Zephyr. I am taking it on 6/17 and have a connection in Chicago. Its really stressful to plan a cross country trip so far in advance and have it up in the air at the last minute. Amtrak contacted me last Tues to let me know that the arrival time in Chicago has already been pushed an hour from 2:50pm to 3:50pm. Well, the usual arriaval time is 1 and 1/2 to 2 and 1/2 hours late so I figure I am already adding an hour to that. I don't think I can cancel my sleeper service this late, but I don't see the point of getting on the Zephyr if there is no way i can make my connection and could easily be arriving a day or more late. If anyone has a suggestion please hit me up. Thanks!

I am leaving on the Zephyr from San Francisco/Emeryville on 6/17 and connecting the Lake Shore Limited on 6/19 headed to Albany, NY and continuing on the Lake Shore to Boston on 6/23. Thank you.
 
mycalpal said:
Thanks for the updates on the California Zephyr. I am taking it on 6/17 and have a connection in Chicago. Its really stressful to plan a cross country trip so far in advance and have it up in the air at the last minute. Amtrak contacted me last Tues to let me know that the arrival time in Chicago has already been pushed an hour from 2:50pm to 3:50pm. Well, the usual arriaval time is 1 and 1/2 to 2 and 1/2 hours late so I figure I am already adding an hour to that. I don't think I can cancel my sleeper service this late, but I don't see the point of getting on the Zephyr if there is no way i can make my connection and could easily be arriving a day or more late. If anyone has a suggestion please hit me up. Thanks!

I am leaving on the Zephyr from San Francisco/Emeryville on 6/17 and connecting the Lake Shore Limited on 6/19 headed to Albany, NY and continuing on the Lake Shore to Boston on 6/23. Thank you.
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We'll be on the same train. Already flew out to the west coast so hoping things go smoothly!
 
I'm leaving SAC on 6/28, connecting with the Cardnial and then 66 to PVD. So far the long range weather forcast looks good at least. I'm just worried about being stuck in coach on the CL the next day and missing my BC seat on 66. I will see how things are doing as the date gets closer. Trip is on points so I can always cancel if things do not improve. Worst case I can always fly, I just hate to.
 
Mycalpal- You have a 5.5 hour window in Chi to make your connection. They may even hold 448 a little longer if you are close to missing it but within a reasonable time frame. I would say your odds are fairly good...
 
I happened to be hanging out in Union Station in Denver last Friday evening - no travel, but just enjoying the new surroundings and a terrific micro-brew from the Terminal Bar. I knew from the forum that the 6 was running at least a couple hours late that evening, so went over to the new spiffy AmTrak electronic train status board to see exactly what the latest update on the delay was. Instead of an estimated arrival time, it just said "delayed". What a cop-out. It isn't as if they had to go out with a piece of chalk and manually update the info each time. I think travelers deserve better information than this - especially in a spanking-new station where AmTrak has a golden opportunity to make a great impression.

My experience has been that AmTrak has recently been doing a decent job with sending people with reservations timely email updates, but I'd like to see it extend to the information displays in the stations.
 
Hi OBS, Thank you so very much for hitting me up. I was concerned as Amtrak already contacted me to let me know that the arrival into Chicago has already been delayed an hour. This puts me into Chicago at 3:50 versus 2:50. I only found out from folks here on the forum about the track work/longer stop at Grand Junction, Co.

You are absolutely correct, even with the 3:50pm arrival I still technically have 5 hours and 40 minutes till the Lake Shore departs, but that assumes no other delays and an on-time arrival, I have taken this trip the last four years in a row and with the regular scheduled arrive time of 2:50pm we usually arrive into to Chicago 2 plus hours late so the real layover time is much shorter so I am hoping the trip goes smoothly. Last year, we were on-time all the way to Denver and even departed Denver on-time, but we got held up in Nebraska and were late into Chicago. Beyond just making the connection, I also don't want to have to jump from one train to another as I really enjoy having a few hours between trains. Thanks again.
 
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