CS to EB no longer bookable after April 1

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I'm supposed to use this on my return trip home in late May. Booked it some time ago.
 
With historic flooding from all the snow expected and the Builder schedule already in shambles, Amtrak is likely trying to "isolate" that route as much as possible and not have to worry about dealing with train sets being out of place and constantly compensating or busing connecting pax.
 
OlympianHiawatha said:
With historic flooding from all the snow expected and the Builder schedule already in shambles, Amtrak is likely trying to "isolate" that route as much as possible and not have to worry about dealing with train sets being out of place and constantly compensating or busing connecting pax.
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Where is NOAA expecting flooding? The NOAA forecasters in MT and ND do not expect any significant flooding this year. The snowpack in eastern MT and ND does not appear to be a concern. Perhaps in northern MN there will be issues, but I don't see how that will effect the EB, since the Red River of the North flows north and the Mississippi can usually handle all but the worst conditions.
 
I just went on line to see what Amtrak was allowing me to book on either #8 or #7 and no days have been excluded thru May so far. Given the now daily 4-6 hour delays both ways though, and the very short turn around times in place in both SEA and PDX I would find it not possible to be able to turn the trains for on time departures on ANY day in both of those stations, without that extra train set, which would mean a cascading series of worse delays heading back east, since the eastbound trains would likely start several hours behind before they even got to the bottlenecked areas in MT and ND, meaning arrivals in CHI perhaps 8-12 hours behind on a regular basis.

I am hoping that the extra train set will stay in place to at least preserve both the daily schedule and "only" 4-6 hour arrival delays.........
 
Wait, I'm confused. The EB's problems have absolutely no bearing on whether someone should be able to connect to it.

For instance, on the Chicago end it's only the connections from the EB that are severed. But it's definitely possible to connect

to the EB in Chicago.

If Amtrak is no longer allowing connections from the CS to the EB in PDX, then that's a reflection on the CS, not the EB.
 
fairviewroad said:
Wait, I'm confused. The EB's problems have absolutely no bearing on whether someone should be able to connect to it.
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I wondered about that too. The only scenario I could think of would be that Amtrak is negotiating with BNSF to move the departures from SEA and PDX back a few hours, to maybe noon or so. But that would require keeping the sixth train set permanently, and there doesn't seem to be any trace of that in the schedules. So who knows.
 
yarrow said:
ehbowen said:
I already have this connection booked for late April; will there be a disruption in my planned trip?
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i'm sure you will get a cute little e-mail from amtrak saying that in order to reduce costs they aren't going to run trains anymore. but they will thank you for your understanding and patronage
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You mean an email like this...

Darth_Vader_with_medal.jpg

I am altering the deal. Pray I dont alter it any further.
 
In speaking with the lady at AGR this morning re the connection from #14 to #8. It will not be ticketed without an overnight stay in PDX(requiring another set of points). Had been planning a trip from LAX to Glacier for months. :angry:

She claims "service distruptions" on the EB because from "increased BNSF freight traffic" causing #7 to arrive very late. It doesn't make sense if there is a trainset to protect the #8's schedule departing PDX. But she said to "check back as they are trying to work things out with the freight railroad." :unsure:
 
I don't think this will work with AGR tickets, but for revenue tickets there is a workaround to this that does not require an overnight in PDX.

Let's plan a hypothetical trip from LAX to Whitefish. As noted, starting in April, you can no longer connect in PDX from the CS to the EB.

But....book a trip using the multi-city function. Leg 1 is LAX-EUG. Leg 2 is EUG-WFH. The trick is that in EUG you connect from the CS

to a Thruway bus that's scheduled to leave about 45 minutes after the CS arrives in EUG. The connection from that Thruway bus to

the EB is still guaranteed. So if you're willing to ride a relatively short bus segment from EUG-PDX then you can still effectively connect

from the CS to the EB in PDX.

Not saying this is a good idea, but the possibility does seem to exist.
 
rusty spike said:
In speaking with the lady at AGR this morning re the connection from #14 to #8. It will not be ticketed without an overnight stay in PDX(requiring another set of points). Had been planning a trip from LAX to Glacier for months. :angry:

She claims "service distruptions" on the EB because from "increased BNSF freight traffic" causing #7 to arrive very late. It doesn't make sense if there is a trainset to protect the #8's schedule departing PDX. But she said to "check back as they are trying to work things out with the freight railroad." :unsure:
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Hmmmm, given what she told you it certainly would appear Amtrak is going to pull the extra train set after 3-31 and just let the chaos begin! You are correct, with the current extra train set #28 should leave on time every day, no matter how late the incoming #27 is from CHI.

Sad to see this happen. If it does come to pass, the Empire Builders may quickly degenerate into a three day a week train event......
 
montana mike said:
Hmmmm, given what she told you it certainly would appear Amtrak is going to pull the extra train set after 3-31 and just let the chaos begin!
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Going into the summer season, it's probably revenue-maximizing to(1) isolate the Empire Builder and prohibit connections to it

(2) Put the cars from the "sixth trainset" onto trains which are running more-or-less on time

Because the trains which are running more or less on time can charge a heck of a lot more and fill a lot more seats.

I hope Amtrak is talking to the Governor of Minnesota, the Minnesota legislature, and CP as well as BNSF. MnDOT has already been talking about funding a separate train from the Twin Cities to Chicago so that the eastbound would run more or less on time. Given BNSF's "freeze-up" on the High Line, preserving Minneapolis schedules would be a better use for the extra equipment.
 
rusty spike said:
In speaking with the lady at AGR this morning re the connection from #14 to #8. It will not be ticketed without an overnight stay in PDX(requiring another set of points). Had been planning a trip from LAX to Glacier for months. :angry:

She claims "service distruptions" on the EB because from "increased BNSF freight traffic" causing #7 to arrive very late. It doesn't make sense if there is a trainset to protect the #8's schedule departing PDX. But she said to "check back as they are trying to work things out with the freight railroad." :unsure:
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When Amtrak broke the connections coming off of the EB, AGR published a policy that said they would permit overnights (on the customers dime) on a single award.
You may want to call back and remind them of that and see if they'll accommodate you. Logically they should, but this is the AGR call center we're talking about.
 
I'm wondering if part of the reason for breaking the connection from the Starlight might have to do with the need to reaccommodate people in the event of disruptions that cancel or truncate the train. If the passenger gets to PDX and train 28 isn't running for some reason (track washouts if there are major floods, for example), then Amtrak has to figure out what to do with them. If their origin is Portland, it's not Amtrak's responsibility to find them a hotel or what have you, but if they came from California, now Amtrak has to reroute them back to California or put them up in a hotel for a while.
 
Trogdor said:
I'm wondering if part of the reason for breaking the connection from the Starlight might have to do with the need to reaccommodate people in the event of disruptions that cancel or truncate the train. If the passenger gets to PDX and train 28 isn't running for some reason (track washouts if there are major floods, for example), then Amtrak has to figure out what to do with them. If their origin is Portland, it's not Amtrak's responsibility to find them a hotel or what have you, but if they came from California, now Amtrak has to reroute them back to California or put them up in a hotel for a while.
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That is essentially what AGR told me this morning (only using BNSF freight traffic as the reason). Trying to connect pax off #14 to #8 the same day has been problematic for Amtrak.
 
RyanS said:
rusty spike said:
In speaking with the lady at AGR this morning re the connection from #14 to #8. It will not be ticketed without an overnight stay in PDX(requiring another set of points). Had been planning a trip from LAX to Glacier for months. :angry:

She claims "service distruptions" on the EB because from "increased BNSF freight traffic" causing #7 to arrive very late. It doesn't make sense if there is a trainset to protect the #8's schedule departing PDX. But she said to "check back as they are trying to work things out with the freight railroad." :unsure:
Click to expand...
When Amtrak broke the connections coming off of the EB, AGR published a policy that said they would permit overnights (on the customers dime) on a single award.
You may want to call back and remind them of that and see if they'll accommodate you. Logically they should, but this is the AGR call center we're talking about.
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If you can link me to that policy, I, and others, would appreciate it.

I didn't push it this morning (like requesting to talk to a super) but I will before I give up on the idea, but after a moment of research she was adamant about the fact that it was going to cost me another 40K points or $1128 cash for a BR and a Roomette from PDX to GPK.
 
i wonder who at amtrak made this decision? a lot of us that post in these eb threads live along the route of the eb so it is more important to us than, for example, when the sl was having its problems as most of us didn't often ride that train. we are scheduled to connect 14 to 28 on 3/28 so i guess we are just under the wire. already have to spend a night in pdx on our way south. this is a poor joke for transportation. wouldn't be taking this trip except we have a voucher to use from a 16 hour late builder last september. wouldn't pay money to do this
 
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