It seems to depend a bit on the routes--could you post which route your son is traveling?

For example, since last summer, the Coast Starlight route up and down the West Coast has been delayed up to 12 hours (!) due at least partly to freight congestion. I understand that the California Zephyr (Chicago - Oakland through Denver) has been experiencing delays for the same reason, and of course there were some service interruptions due to Hurricane Katrina. It seems that the Coast Starlight and California Zephyr delays are likely to continue indefinitely, as there is an advisory about delays on Amtrak's web site.

Today, there were brief afternoon delays (~20 min) for Capitol Corridor (Sacramento - Oakland) trains due to Union Pacific's track work on the viaduct at the (flooded) Yolo Bypass outside Sacramento.

You can check train status on the Amtrak web site. I've found it to be fairly up-to-date. Just enter the train's information under "train status" at the bottom of their home page.

Overall, I've found the shorter routes to be pretty reliable--the ones I have experience with are the intra-California trains, the Hiawatha service (Chicago - Milwaukee), and some of the intra-Illinois service. Re: connecting buses, I haven't missed a connection in Bakersfield or Emeryville/Oakland--usually the buses have been coordinated even for late trains. As the routes get longer (e.g., up to several days for the trans-con routes), delays of up to several hours don't seem unusual at all.

-Hayden