Mudslide Cancels Yosemite-In-A-Day Amtrak Tours

[jccollins]

Amtrak can no longer offer its wildly popular Yosemite-In-A-Day Tour Packages from Northern California this summer due to a sever mudslide affecting the route the thruway motorcoaches normally take between the Merced, Calif. train station and Yosemite Nat'l Park.

Thruway motorcoach service from Merced into Yosemite Nat'l Park will still operate with reduced frequencies; motorcoaches will take an average of 3 hours and 30 minutes to travel between Merced and the Park compared to the normal 2 hours and 15 minutes. The following quoted message is from the Amtrak California website.

Landslide forces Cancellation of “Yosemite in a Day” Tours
A series of landslides on State Highway 140 about 20 miles east of Mariposa (near El Portal) which began in early May 2006 have continued through the month, resulting in delays to Amtrak – VIA’s Yosemite in a Day motor coach service from Amtrak Caifornia’s San Joaquin trains in Merced.

A large landslide on June 1, 2006 covered the entire highway for several hundred feet at that same location. The road is expected not to reopen until November, while the rubble is removed and the road rebuilt.

AN ALTERNATE ROUTE FOR THE MOTORCOACH CONNECTION HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED, BUT THAT ROUTE (via State Highways 49 and 41) TAKES MUCH LONGER THAN THE OLD ONE! FOR THAT REASON, THERE

IS NO LONGER SUFFICIENT TIME FOR A “DAY TOUR” OF YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK.

If you wish to visit the park, and stay overnight, it will still be possible to make those trips. If you have scheduled a day trip to Yosemite, please contact Amtrak as soon as possible 1-800-USA-RAIL.

 

[sechs]

The bus on this route is run under contract by a regional transit district (YARTS).

 

[jccollins]

The bus on this route is run under contract by a regional transit district (YARTS).

Right. YARTS is the Yosemite Area Regional Transit System. The YARTS motorcoaches are are operated to haul park employees, rangers, and visitors into and out of the park, with VIA Tours to haul their passengers, and with Amtrak California as a thruway service from the San Joaquin trains at Merced. Amtrak is normally the largest supplier of passengers for the route; ridership will definitely suffer until the regular route and day tours are reestablished.