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I was going to suggest Southwest into Midway also. Frontier offers flights to Midway as well, but their schedules are iffy, and, as I discovered last year while trying to fly out to visit my uncle, who lives near Champaign, subject to cancellation at the last minute. I live near Spokane and have flown in and out of Midway for several years.
 
As others have said you were wise to allow an extra day in CHI since the EB is so unpredictable and will continue to be probably for the rest of the year!

If Amtrak was to cancel you out in Spokane as was said Southwest Airlines is the way to go and Amtrak would owe you a Refund of Points or Money if they cancel your Train East of Spokane!

I personally think the extra day in CHI will ensure you catching the CONO a Lock, I wouldn't worry, life's too short!
 
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Just got our e-mail about the two hour reschedule. Our trip is for June 28th ish, I could use some advice on how to "combat" my wife's ad version to flying. While looking forward to the journey , we do have plans with the family, everybody is busy after all and I can only schedule so many days off to "ride the rails", this is getting scary .

This obsession with domestic oil production is really harshing my mellow.

The thought of the significant other and I seeing 'Murica via Amtrak is awesome, but I don't want our 5 year vacation back east to be a tale of sorrow and woe.

I'm (we) are willing to spend to keep the economy going, and understand job creation, even spatial relation( just to make the thread cool), imagining the death throws of...wait for it... An Empire, is a bummer.

Trying to keep the glass half full yo!
 
We just changed our trip reservations on the #8 EB train for June for the second time. We were originally hoping to get the connection to the Cardinal back to PHL. Then we noticed the gross lateness of the Empire builder so to have a cushion of three hours we changed the connection reservation to the CL to WAS and the Regional to PHL. Then Amtrak calls this week and says that NO connection guarantees are being made for the EB and that its very unlikely that we will make the connection to the CL so we again change the reservation now to the LSL that leaves at 9:30PM and the Regional at NYP. Although the EB is scheduled to arrive at 3:45 PM and the LSL departs at 9:30, we still do not have a high degree of confidence that we will make the connection AND this is with the new schedule that has the EB leaving Seattle 2 hours early.

The USA really needs the Keystone pipeline or the railroad a second track system to see any change in the Fargo bottleneck. We decide to tear up the railroads years back and then we wonder why there is now no capacity
 
I leave LSE for GPK on August 6th and already built an extra day in. It's 1,914 miles or 29 hours by Google Maps from Jackson,,,, and just 555 miles to get to LSE,,, so plan b is leaving anther day earlier and drive it all,,,, if they cancel i will do this as the Many Glacier reservations can't be changed,,, i have two extra return days already to drive from LSE to Death Moines,, then home.

Not what i wanted, but I still will do it as I will never have the chance. May have to cancel the stop to see the twin sister of my former mother in law by marriage but that is not, in the words of REM, the end of the world as we know it,,,,,
 
Romany16 said:
Keystone XL will not carry Bakken Crude.

It will carry only Canadian Tar Sands oil.

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum
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Not true. The North Dakota Pipeline Authority says that if it's built it will carry 100k barrels of North Dakota crude a day.

I arrived in St. Paul this morning on the last #8 before the hiatus. There was a bus at Minot for passengers going to Rugby, Devils Lake and Grand Forks, because we took the Surrey Cut Off again. Traveling westwards last week we were 6 hours late, bucking eastbound traffic. Heading east, we traveled at 45 mph from Minot to Karlsruhe, where the freight train in front of us took the siding and gave us open track to Fargo. I don't think that we lost an hour between Minot and St. Paul. I was in the Portland sleeper, and when I walked to the dining car, it seemed to me that the coaches were less full than I'd expect for the beginning of summer.
 
pianocat said:
I think I'm going to take the attitude of when I get there I get there If my church service doesn't like it they can lump it Otherwise I will worry needlessly for another two months
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This is the best attitude, by far. Worry is a payment on a debt you may never owe.
 
CHamilton said:
Amending PRIIA 207 was one of the goals we had at last month's NARP Day on Capitol Hill. We asked our elected representatives for a very simple change, which would overcome the objections of the court:

Give the Federal Railroad Administration sole authority to develop performance metrics and standards specified in PRIIA section 207, deleting the words "...and Amtrak shall jointly..."
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The representatives I spoke with were very receptive to making this change. And it's my understanding that the FRA was well along in developing the standards before the court decision, so they could hopefully be implemented quickly.
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Good stuff, CHamilton, and I hope we can do that. I'm not sure whether there's anything I can do to help (we're gerrymandered and my Congressman is simply not responsive to my part of the district). I'm honestly not sure why the FRA was given the responsibility rather than the STB. PRIIA seems to make the STB the arbiter of disputes; did Congress want them to be separate from the standards-setting agency?
 
neroden said:
Good stuff, CHamilton, and I hope we can do that. I'm not sure whether there's anything I can do to help (we're gerrymandered and my Congressman is simply not responsive to my part of the district). I'm honestly not sure why the FRA was given the responsibility rather than the STB. PRIIA seems to make the STB the arbiter of disputes; did Congress want them to be separate from the standards-setting agency?
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You can certainly talk to your Senators, and it never hurts to contact your Congressional representative, even if they aren't too responsive. This is the sort of thing that can appeal to a wide political spectrum, since it requires almost no public funding. Also, if there are other representatives near you who are on the Transportation and Infrastructure committee, you should contact them as well.

I don't know the history of why FRA was tapped for this job rather than the STB. The FRA has seen its responsibilities expanded in recent years, in such areas as managing TIGER grants, so maybe that's related.
 
i don't understand why the connection between 27 and 11 has been reestablished. 27 is operating on the modified(meaning a scheduled later arrival in pdx)schedule. in the past week 27 would have made the connection twice. i am glad connections are being reestablished but if the trains don't make them what is the point?
 
neroden said:
Good stuff, CHamilton, and I hope we can do that. I'm not sure whether there's anything I can do to help (we're gerrymandered and my Congressman is simply not responsive to my part of the district). I'm honestly not sure why the FRA was given the responsibility rather than the STB. PRIIA seems to make the STB the arbiter of disputes; did Congress want them to be separate from the standards-setting agency?
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FRA in general sets the operational standards for railroad operations. I think that may be the reason they got the responsibility to set the standard. STB has a significant role in enforcement of the standard. STB was considerably defanged when ICC was terminated, since at that time ICCs stndard setting role was seen as the villain. So STB really has never been a standard setting agency for operational matters, which running trains on schedule definitely falls into. As expected STB did get a role in enforcement and arbitration.
 
I find it interesting that Amtrak is referring to the cancelled Empire Builders over the next several days as "Service Disruptions" and not cancellations???

I am sure the thousands of folks who got the rug pulled out from under them would be surprised at how Amtrak is characterizing this mess.
 
montana mike said:
I find it interesting that Amtrak is referring to the cancelled Empire Builders over the next several days as "Service Disruptions" and not cancellations???

I am sure the thousands of folks who got the rug pulled out from under them would be surprised at how Amtrak is characterizing this mess.
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I wonder how many of those 1000's of folks will say, "Never again will I ride Amtrak"?

Doesn't Amtrak understand what they are doing?
 
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That's just it Tom, the Amtrak "Managers" that are going along with this Mess and dreaming up the scheme of the day Don't understand! If it was the Military wed call it FUBAR! (G version: fouled up beyond all recognition!)

They're riding their desk, attending meetings and when they do ride Trains (for Free!)ts in Acela FC or on Beech Grove where the Delays, Missed Connections, Cancellations and the Nickel and Dime cuts don't apply! "Let them eat cake!"

The losses on the Empire Builder will be staggering this year! Where's the budget hawks and Hi Line Congress Critters in this mess?
 
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MrFSS said:
I wonder how many of those 1000's of folks will say, "Never again will I ride Amtrak"?
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In reality, some of those folks will say "Never will I ride Amtrak."

The word "again" implies they actually made it onto the train in the first place. :(
 
My brother and I have a trip on the EB from Whitefish to Chicago and then on the LSL to Framingham beginning on Saturday. Amtrak told me (reservation line) me that starting 6/5 the Empire Builder is planned to take its entire route all the way to Chicago. Since we purchased the trip with points she sent me to Guest Rewards who said in the event the EB is cancelled they may refund our points but that's uncertain. We're already being bussed from Albany to Framingham on the LSL and that we won't receive a credit of points but an "accommodation", possibly a voucher. Yeesh. It would be AWFUl to go from a sleeper for a day and a half to being on a bus for a day and a half!!
 
Andy said:
My brother and I have a trip on the EB from Whitefish to Chicago and then on the LSL to Framingham beginning on Saturday. Amtrak told me (reservation line) me that starting 6/5 the Empire Builder is planned to take its entire route all the way to Chicago. Since we purchased the trip with points she sent me to Guest Rewards who said in the event the EB is cancelled they may refund our points but that's uncertain. We're already being bussed from Albany to Framingham on the LSL and that we won't receive a credit of points but an "accommodation", possibly a voucher. Yeesh. It would be AWFUl to go from a sleeper for a day and a half to being on a bus for a day and a half!!
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Welcome to the world of uncertainty that is Amtrak right now. It's a LD system on the edge. Not all their fault of course, but sometimes they don't help passengers out that much during a crisis. I hope your trip comes off as planed on Saturday. The LSL is the only connecting train you have a shot of making btw--good choice! We just did that entire trip (finishing in Rochester, NY vs Mass.) and even with the 5 1/2 hour official connection time in CHI we only had about 40 minutes between when the EB arrived and the LSL departed. Let's think good thoughts for an on time arrival in WFH for you early Saturday morning and a reasonably decent arrival time in CHI to allow you to make the LSL!!
 
After about 40 minutes waiting on Julie'e agent, there may be a stub train MSP-CHI this morning or not. The agent said I could buy a ticket MSP-CHI for $96 but I declined. Yesterday's short-train CHI-MSP was listed as a "service disruption"

I'm just figuring that nobody knows *** is happening on what used to be a reliable cross-country route.

Toobad so sad,
 
EB_OBS said:
There is service MSP-CHI & CHI-MSP every day during the disruption.
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Did 807 run last night and 808 run today? They both were listed as service disruptions and taken off the status map.

EDIT: Now I see 807 is supposed to leave from CHI today. 7 is listed there too.
 
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I have not been following this thread because I did not think that I had any EB related questions or issues. Now, I think I do. My nephew just moved from Maryland to Eugene, Oregon and drove out there Memorial Day weekend. Before he and his wife left MD, my sister shipped a bunch of boxes via Amtrak from WAS to Eugene. The boxes should have arrived in Eugene a while ago and have not arrived. My nephew's wife was told that the delay was due to construction and to check back in a couple of days. I assume that the boxes were on the EB and I assume the "EB Mess" is the reason for the delay.

Has anyone experienced a similar shipping delay?
 
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