StarLATE

[maltbird]

My family and I will be on the southbound Starlate this Saturday (6/6) from Seattle to LA, I've been looking at the on time performance, and needless to say I'm VERY worried. We have 4 days at Disneyland, and I'm not excited to see that time get eaten up by being 13 hours late into LA (like today)

Are the delays recently been due to dead freight , or something else ?

Anybody want to venture a guess how late we will be ????

Cheers

John

 

[engine999]

I would guestimate about 4 to 6 hours late. The main problem AFAIK is UP backing up the tracks with stopped freight trains.

 

[GG-1]

My family and I will be on the southbound Starlate this Saturday (6/6) from Seattle to LA, I've been looking at the on time performance, and needless to say I'm VERY worried. We have 4 days at Disneyland, and I'm not excited to see that time get eaten up by being 13 hours late into LA (like today)

Aloha

Isn't the Starlight scheduled into LA around 8:00pm and wouldn't your visit to the park be the next day? Disneyland Is the best place to go, and getting there on a train is even better

I used to work there in the mid sixty's, now I visit for a week or so with my daughter and granddaughter every year. I find It worth It to buy an Annual pass. Same cost as a four day admission to both parks and a nice souviner.

My next visit will be in September and then I will ride the Starlight, California Zepher, and City of New Orleans.

 

[tp49]

Recent problems (UP dispatching and freights dying on the law aside) are due to a freight derailment north of Redding, CA a couple of days ago. However the Starlate (or the Starverylate) has had problems with OTP going on for at least a year now.

 

[AMTRAK-P42]

I also think we cannot overlook the fact that the Coast Starlate runs in an area where it is easily affected by natural disasters. I’m talking more specifically about forest fires and earthquakes. The latest train I have ever been on was coincidentally #14 about 7 years ago because of a bridge that burnt down and we were forced to re-route, arriving about 8 hours late. I 100% agree that 90% of the time it is UP, im just saying that there are other factors as well.

 

[tp49]

Most of the Starlate's problems for the past year have been on the northern end of the route in Oregon and Washington State than on the Southern end in California.

 

[steve_relei]

I've given up on the idea of the Starlight being on time--at least northbound into Seattle. It seems the primary problem is between Sacramento and Eugene. Southbound, the train is usually on time (or close to it) in and out of Portland Union Station and stays pretty much on time through the valley. Northbound, the train seems to do all right as far as Sacramento.

Although lately, there have been quite a few late southbound Starlights out of PDX. The Talgo trains are also frequently late--in both directions.

As nice as it would be to have the trains always on time, I usually don't worry too much as long the the northbound Starlight is in PDX by 6 pm. After that! Of course, it hasn't gotten in before 8pm several days this week; it didn't get into PDX until 7:30 the other morning!

The latest Starlight I've been on was in 1980, there had been a freight train derailment and the train was detoured and was more than 7 hours late getting into San Jose, I was on my way to LA. We finally got there about 2 am, later than most public transportation ran, and I had considerable trouble getting to my hotel in Long Beach. I finally got there at about 6 am. I went to sleep, and the maid wanted to come in and clean the room. I just got there!

Since there, I have been on a lot of late trains, but none as bad as that. Most of the time, I just take the lateness in stride. I must admit, though, even I can get pretty antsy toward the end of a LONG trip.

 

[BerkeleyBear]

I took the Coast Starlight from Oakland to Los Angeles on January 5th this year when there was a snowstorm in the Pacific Northwest. The train got into Jack London Square about 2:30 pm, and we got into Union Station between 2 and 2:30 am. Public transportation wasn't running at that hour, so I just waited in the station until the subway started running around 4 am or so.

You know, you meet an interesting group of people at 3 am in a train station in L.A.