Empire Builder Bustitution.

[SteveSFL]

I know there is another thread related to this but it was apparently moved out of the Amtrak forum.

I am on the westbound Empire Builder that left Chicago today 7(7). Yesterday's train 7(6) has been severely delayed due to that derailment of an oil train in North Dakota.

My SCA said that 7(6) will be turned at Spokane and Seattle and Portland passengers will be bustituted. As of now we are almost on time and the SCA said it is too early to tell if the same thing will happen to us.

Not looking forward to that. Plus I would probably miss my connection to the Coast Starlight and subsequently miss my LAX connection to the Sunset Limited.

 

[SteveSFL]

Interestingly there are two private cars on the back of our train. The Patrick Henry Pullman cars that are normally based in my home town of Houston.

Supposedly Howie Long is one of the passengers on the private cars.

I wonder what they do with the private cars if Amtrak turns the train at Spokane.

 

[TraneMan]

Ouch, poor #7(6), over 7 hours late. Really must be a mess up there now.

 

[montana mike]

Amtrak has no choice but to turn them in Spokane. With no extra train set anymore in PDX and SEA that was and will be the plan going forward. The derailment was indeed most unfortunate. BNSF had been doing a reasonably decent job of keeping the westbound EB's close to schedule, which allowed Amtrak to turn the departing #8 and #28 on time.

Let's hope this terrible accident isn't repeated anytime soon......

 

[tomfuller]

Several years ago when the northbound CS was not going to make the connection in Portland to the EB, Amtrak ran a bus from KFS north on US97 and the interstate to connect in Pasco.

Perhaps they could do this in reverse for a day or two.

 

[NW cannonball]

Amtrak has no choice but to turn them in Spokane. With no extra train set anymore in PDX and SEA that was and will be the plan going forward. The derailment was indeed most unfortunate. BNSF had been doing a reasonably decent job of keeping the westbound EB's close to schedule, which allowed Amtrak to turn the departing #8 and #28 on time.

Let's hope this terrible accident isn't repeated anytime soon......

Yes - the backup underused trainset in sea pdx is gone.I believe - some don't - that the plan for this summer has a fair chance of providing slow service and limited connections at CHI and SEA and PDX.

But - the summer schedule as it is now, is extremely vulnerable to (I won't say accidents - say "forseeable incidents".

Most years there are several freight derailments on the hi-line and the KO -- but most of them didn't burn for a day or two and totally block the line for more than a day.

Looks like the Bakken fracked crude is so much more volatile and flammable - the feds and ND are working on new regs --

But this crude isn't crude oil as us oldtimers ever knew it.

Lights on fire with a spark? Not what grandad told me.

New crude. will take a few years and explosions to figure it out.

No blame, no shame, let's just get going on this problem.

 

[willem]

It appears that 7(7) did not turn in Spokane, as both 7 and 27 are running west of Spokane (about 2 hours late for 7).

Some North Dakota news outlet touted this derailment as a success story for the new de-volatilization regulations for crude oil being shipped by rail. The statement said something like fewer cars had their oil start burning and the burn was less explosive. The reference point, of course, was the Castleton derailment. One lesson is to compare the current disaster to a monumental disaster and then say, well, at least it's not that bad.