Zephyr Delay

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travelingson

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My son is on the California Zephyr that left Chicago on Mon the 18th and was supposed to get to Sacramento, Wed, the 20th by 2:00pm. The status shows that it is 21 hours late, not getting there until today at 11:05.

Why almost a full day delay? He was supposed to catch the midnight train from Sacramento to Seattle last night... will he have problems getting on the train to Seattle tonight?
 
Since it is a guaranteed connection on Sacramento, Amtrak is responsible for getting him to his destination. Depending on how late they are arriving and how many are transferring, they may hold the Coast Starlite in Sacramento. Or they may bus the connecting passengers further up the line to connect with the train. Or they may put him up in Sacramento (on Amtrak's dime
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), providing food and cab vouchers, and send him on the next day's train,
 
the_traveler said:
Since it is a guaranteed connection on Sacramento, Amtrak is responsible for getting him to his destination. Depending on how late they are arriving and how many are transferring, they may hold the Coast Starlite in Sacramento.
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The train is 21 hours late, there is absolutely no way Amtrak would hold the Starlight (or any train) 11 hours for a connection.

Hotel vouchers and a ticket on tonight's train is the only realistic compensation here. Then again, a hotel may not even be provided, given that the connecting time is only three hours longer than originally planned.
 
Thanks for all of your feedback. Unfortunately, I have not heard from my son yet, but Amtrak website says the train did finally arrive. I will let you all know when I hear how it was handled.

I still don't quite understand how a train could be delayed for 21 hours. The service alerts indicated a possibility of 3-5 hours, not 21 hours! I'm hoping they didn't run out of food!
 
Apparently there was an engine failure on your son's train and it had to be towed by a BNSF freight engine. Having to wait for that to arrive, crews timing out, the fact that freight engines aren't equipped to run as fast as the ones Amtrak uses, and various and sundry other reasons associated with this all most likely contributed to the Zephyr being as late as it was.
 
JayPea - Thanks for the info on why the train was probably so late!

I did finally hear from my son tonight... He also mentioned the engine failure and said they were there for about 10 hours... luckily the air conditioning was still working! Amtrak actually gave a refund on some of their reservation fees, and provided a hotel room for the night in Sacramento. They're not actually going to stay the night but at least they had a place to go and shower and change after being on the train for 3 days. They're taking another train to Seattle and then a bus on to Vancouver which is actually their final destination.

Although they were frustrated when on the train, he said the scenery was awesome and he is still really excited about his train adventure.
 
Glad to hear your son is still in high spirits. Personally, I am glad I found this forum and am aware in advance of all the probable delays on our upcoming trip and how they might be handled. That will greatly reduce the shock factor and stress during the actual trip.

I was talking to my husband about this issue and I said something like, "What if we hadn't found out about this in advance? All the official Amtrak info makes it seem like delays are possible but that a three hour delay would be unusual." My husband said, "Well, a three hour delay *is* unusual." I looked at him, confused, and then smiled and said, "Ah! So true!" :)
 

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