Amtrak winter delays disrupt Midwest routes and the Zephyr

Amtrak winter delays hit as temperatures hovered around zero over the weekend of Dec. 12–14. This is reported by the railway transport news portal Railway Supply.

Most trains still left Chicago on time, but a number were delayed more than two hours at their points of origin, while others had to contend with disabled freight trains, as reported by Trains.com. Meanwhile, service resumed in parts of Washington state that had been disrupted earlier in the week by flooding.

Chicago terminal delays and Midwest knock-on effects

The first signs of trouble showed up Thursday, Dec. 11, when the westbound Blue Water was nearly two hours late at its first stop. The next day, the same train departed Port Huron about three and a half hours late. The Blue Water normally operates push-pull with a Charger locomotive at each end.

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On Sunday, Dec. 14, with temperatures below zero, another Michigan train ran into problems. The Pere Marquette was stopped for two hours after leaving Grand Rapids for what Amtrak called a “mechanical assessment,” before the issue was resolved.

Terminal delays also affected trains at Chicago or shortly after departure. Friday’s California Zephyr left two hours and 22 minutes late, and the Floridian departed one hour and 41 minutes behind schedule. Saturday’s Southwest Chief started out one hour and 16 minutes late. On Sunday morning, Lincoln Service train No. 301 departed two hours and 35 minutes late following what Amtrak described as a “mandatory locomotive adjustment.”

Freight interference for the Chief and Missouri River Runner

Saturday’s westbound Chief was later delayed more than two additional hours by a BNSF disabled freight west of Galesburg, Ill. The nearly four-hour delay led to a four-hour layover for the eastbound Chief at Kansas City, Mo., on Sunday to allow engineers and conductors from the Saturday westbound train to get mandatory crew rest.

A stalled Union Pacific freight also blocked the westbound Missouri River Runner No. 311 on Sunday, causing it to be held at Jefferson City, Mo., for more than two hours. The eastbound Chief arriving in Chicago on Saturday was nearly six hours late, also impacted by the disabled freight and what Amtrak described as “an intermittent communication outage on the route ahead.” Alerts had attributed two hours of earlier delay between Lamy, N.M., and La Junta, Colo., to “heavy freight train interference” on a segment of BNSF where the two Chiefs are the only trains on the line.

California Zephyr derailment and service resumption in Washington

Farther west, a Union Pacific derailment near Colfax, Calif., resulted in the westbound California Zephyr short-turning in Reno, Nev., on Saturday to become the eastbound train, as described by the San Francisco Chronicle. Chartered buses provided connections for passengers at Reno, while passengers from both trains were also accommodated on Capitol Corridor service west of Sacramento.

Also on Saturday, service resumed in Washington state that had been halted because of severe flooding north and east of Seattle; earlier disruptions to Cascades and Empire Builder service were also covered by Railway Supply. The westbound Empire Builder was the first through the flood area. Its eastbound counterpart departed Seattle following a locomotive swap, then lost an hour east of Everett, Wash., through previously flooded areas.

Saturday afternoon’s Amtrak Cascades round trips to and from Vancouver, British Columbia, also resumed operation through Mount Vernon, Wash., which suffered severe Skagit River flooding. Few delays were reported for those trains, and the Empire Builders were able to manage four days of below-zero North Dakota temperatures through Saturday with minimal disruption.

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