A
AudenHoggart
Guest
The BNSF website now indicates that service has been restored through Burlington on their Chicago-Denver route. This should be CZ's route, so it looks like the trackage is now open. So presumably CZ service should start up again once trainsets are properly positioned.
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To: All BNSF Customers
07/03/2008
Flood Update - A message to BNSF customers about the effects of Midwest flooding on BNSF
To our valued customers:
All of BNSF’s crossings of the Mississippi River are now open, as crews completed work late yesterday to re-open trackage just east of Burlington, Iowa. Trains between Chicago and Denver immediately began operating via our main line across southern Iowa, and the last of the trains detoured around the Burlington area are completing their runs today.
As those trains return to their regular routes, train flows on our Chicago-Kansas City main lines – one via Fort Madison, Iowa, the other via Quincy, Ill. – are returning to normal. We continue to work through the backlog of east-west shipments that developed during the flooding, but we expect to make good headway on that process during the upcoming holiday weekend.
Trackage along the west bank of the Mississippi between Burlington and Quincy and between Quincy and St. Louis, and between St. Louis and Memphis, remains out of service. The river is dropping north of St. Louis, and is expected to crest south of St. Louis over this coming weekend. As work is completed on the main lines that cross the Mississippi, crews are poised to begin work on the west-bank lines as soon as the waters recede.
Although the flooding and the resulting re-routes continue to affect the overall velocity of our network, we expect velocity to improve in coming days as trains are able to resume normal speeds over their normal routes as rebuilt track structure settles into place.
We appreciate your patience, and your many words of thanks for the extraordinary efforts our people have made to restore flood-damaged track to service. And as always, we appreciate your business. Please contact your BNSF representative if you have questions.
John Lanigan
Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
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To: All BNSF Customers
07/03/2008
Flood Update - A message to BNSF customers about the effects of Midwest flooding on BNSF
To our valued customers:
All of BNSF’s crossings of the Mississippi River are now open, as crews completed work late yesterday to re-open trackage just east of Burlington, Iowa. Trains between Chicago and Denver immediately began operating via our main line across southern Iowa, and the last of the trains detoured around the Burlington area are completing their runs today.
As those trains return to their regular routes, train flows on our Chicago-Kansas City main lines – one via Fort Madison, Iowa, the other via Quincy, Ill. – are returning to normal. We continue to work through the backlog of east-west shipments that developed during the flooding, but we expect to make good headway on that process during the upcoming holiday weekend.
Trackage along the west bank of the Mississippi between Burlington and Quincy and between Quincy and St. Louis, and between St. Louis and Memphis, remains out of service. The river is dropping north of St. Louis, and is expected to crest south of St. Louis over this coming weekend. As work is completed on the main lines that cross the Mississippi, crews are poised to begin work on the west-bank lines as soon as the waters recede.
Although the flooding and the resulting re-routes continue to affect the overall velocity of our network, we expect velocity to improve in coming days as trains are able to resume normal speeds over their normal routes as rebuilt track structure settles into place.
We appreciate your patience, and your many words of thanks for the extraordinary efforts our people have made to restore flood-damaged track to service. And as always, we appreciate your business. Please contact your BNSF representative if you have questions.
John Lanigan
Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
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From the Amtrak Website:July 2, 2008
3:00 p.m. CDT
Normal service has now resumed on two of three Amtrak routes between the West Coast and Chicago that were disrupted by flooding in the Midwest.
Although the Amtrak Empire Builder and Amtrak Southwest Chief are again operating on their routes in Wisconsin, Missouri and Iowa, service is still disrupted on the route of the Amtrak California Zephyr owned, maintained and dispatched by BNSF Railway in Iowa.
Through July 5, passengers are urged to call Amtrak at 800-USA-RAIL if they have travel plans through the affected areas of the San Francisco Bay-Chicago route of the California Zephyr.
Those passengers with telephone contact information in their reservations are being called by Amtrak and offered options including future travel dates, if needed.
I'm still hopeful for next weekend!
Wendy