Track work near St. Louis - Texas Eagle Route?

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inspiration100

Lead Service Attendant
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Seattle, WA
Just got the Amtrak call and text saying I need to disembark at St. Louis (heading to Chicago) due to track repair in two weeks.

Anybody know anything about this? Sounds like I'll be taking a direct bus from St. Louis to Gailsburg to catch the Zephyr. Eats about 2-3 hours of train time for me.
 
This is the endless sinkhole of money being mailed by Illinois and the federal government to Union Pacific, purportedly for "improvements" to the line from St. Louis to Chicago. It's not clear when the "improvements" will actually translate to more or faster trains; possibly sometime after hell freezes over, but hopefully sooner.
 
What is the schedule for this round of re-routing since it causes the TE to be delayed. Didn't see anything on the Amtrak site about track work and rerouting between STL/CHI. Since I am traveling in June on the TE, I am concerned about delays.
 
What is the schedule for this round of re-routing since it causes the TE to be delayed. Didn't see anything on the Amtrak site about track work and rerouting between STL/CHI. Since I am traveling in June on the TE, I am concerned about delays.
Amtrak tends to take its time to post service alerts on the website for scheduled track work disruptions. People with tickets get notified by Amtrak first, then eventually an alert shows up on the website.

Checking the news links and info center on the Illinois DOT Chicago-St. Louis website, it appears much of the work to be done this summer are grade crossing projects, bridge work, and track sidings. The March 2016 newsletter (2 page PDF) summarizes the 2016 work on page 2. Looking at some of the recent Kankakee River Bridge and track improvement documents, the 2nd track and upgrades for the Dwight to Joliet section which are funded by a FY2010 grant (not subject to the Sept, 2017 deadline) are scheduled to be completed by late 2017. So more track work disruptions this summer and probably more on the Dwight to Joliet section, if not elsewhere during the 2017 construction season. Would be helpful if the state and Amtrak could implement trip time reductions in the fall of 2016, so they can show some gain for the years of pain.
 
I'm booked on the 21 CHI-FTW in about 2 weeks, haven't gotten any word from Amtrak. The status says service disruption for 21 yesterday and today. Track a Train shows it moving albeit very late, gives no details ("service disruption").
 
...

Checking the news links and info center on the Illinois DOT Chicago-St. Louis website, it appears much of the work to be done this summer are grade crossing projects, bridge work, and track sidings. The March 2016 newsletter (2 page PDF) summarizes the 2016 work on page 2. ...
Thanks for these links with lots of info.

Hope Neroden checks them out. The summary of what's been accomplished, and future work timetables, should improve his peace of mind about this key project. ^_^
 
Whatever is going on, now my entire portion on the Texas Eagle North on June 1st was cancelled and I'm routed South towards LA instead of Chicago a day earlier. Very disappointed,.

Now I'm out a non-refundable hotel day and everything. Do I contact customer relations or Amtrak Guest Rewards?
 
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Whatever is going on, now my entire portion on the Texas Eagle North on June 1st was cancelled and I'm routed South towards LA instead of Chicago a day earlier. Very disappointed,.

Now I'm out a non-refundable hotel day and everything. Do I contact customer relations or Amtrak Guest Rewards?
Never been in a situation where I needed to; but from reading here I'd say you're going to get more out of calling customer relations.
 
I'm booked on the 21 CHI-FTW in about 2 weeks, haven't gotten any word from Amtrak. The status says service disruption for 21 yesterday and today. Track a Train shows it moving albeit very late, gives no details ("service disruption").
I was on 21 (19) and we had engine problems before Carlinville which delayed us about 3 hours. They put a UP engine on and we made it to St. Louis where there was another 2 hour delay for engine problems. I assume they then put an Amtrak engine on because we were traveling faster after that than the freight engines can go. The 21 is also being rerouted for a while between Texarkana and Mineola due to some track work so that's why you see the service disruption notice. That didn't seem to cause any delays except for those who would be getting off in Marshall or Longview. The 22 is not being rerouted. Finally made it to Austin at midnight.

For some reason, Amtrak must not be providing status updates for the 21 until it gets past Mineola and then the status updates completely, showing all the times from Chicago on. Very frustrating!
 
For some reason, Amtrak must not be providing status updates for the 21 until it gets past Mineola and then the status updates completely, showing all the times from Chicago on. Very frustrating!
Yes, it is frustrating, my ride likes to check the ETA before leaving the house. I would have hated for him to leave on time and then wait 6 hours at the station! Since the house is 300 miles from the station he can't exactly go back home and wait.
 
I'm booked on the 21 CHI-FTW in about 2 weeks, haven't gotten any word from Amtrak. The status says service disruption for 21 yesterday and today. Track a Train shows it moving albeit very late, gives no details ("service disruption").
The current service disruptions are due to trackwork-related detours in Texas.
 
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