CZ detour dates
Jun 8, 2007, 5:38 pm
#1
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CZ detour dates
Amtrak has press released the CZ detours this summer for the transcontinental Overland route through Wyoming while work is performed on the Glenwood Springs to Salt Lake City route. Here is the News Release :
National Railroad Passenger Corporation
60 Massachusetts Avenue NE
Washington, DC 20002
www.amtrak.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ATK-07-063
Contact: Contact: Marc Magliari (312) 880-5390
June 8, 2007
Detour of California Zephyr to Track Historic TranscontInental Railroad Route
Some Colorado and Utah Stops Affected Until August 8
CHICAGO – Scheduled track improvements on the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) in Colorado will require Amtrak to use an alternate route for the California Zephyr between Denver and Salt Lake City during five periods in July and August. The detour will follow the historic transcontinental railroad route through Wyoming and Utah.
On the following dates Amtrak will be unable to use the UP route between Granby and Glenwood Springs.
July 10 & 11
July 15-18
July 22-25
July 29-Aug. 1
July 5-8
On those days, the California Zephyr will detour between Denver and Salt Lake City via a northern route through Wyoming, making no intermediate station stops.
On the days the train detours, Amtrak will provide alternate motorcoach transportation at Denver for westbound passengers to Glenwood Springs or Grand Junction and for eastbound passengers from Grand Junction or Glenwood Springs. Service to and from Fraser-Winter Park and Granby, Colo.; Green River, Helper and Provo, Utah, will be suspended on the days the trains are detoured.
Motorcoach from Westbound California Zephyr (Train 5)
Station Arrive Depart
Denver 8:05 a.m.
Glenwood Springs 11:05 a.m. 11:15 a.m.
Grand Junction 12:45 p.m.
Motorcoach to Eastbound California Zephyr (Train 6)
Station Arrive Depart
Grand Junction 1:30 p.m.
Glenwood Springs 3:00 p.m. 3:10 p.m.
Denver 6:10 p.m.
Passengers traveling between Chicago and Denver or between Salt Lake City and Emeryville in San Francisco Bay Area will be unaffected. Amtrak has informed passengers between Denver and Salt Lake City who were ticketed during the 18 days of the detour and is offering the alternate transportation (schedule attached). Passengers have also been offered travel on alternate days or refunds.
The detour route will follow a portion of the original transcontinental UP route that was completed in 1869. While the scenery is less mountainous than the California Zephyr's regular routing, it offers broad vistas of the high plains and an opportunity to see a route that passenger trains have not regularly traversed since 1997.
Amtrak regrets the service disruption and has notified the affected communities. However, the UP has said the nearly 21 miles of rail improvement is needed to maintain safe and timely operation of all trains over the regular route.
The dates of these detours are correct as of the above date. If these plans are changed, Amtrak will notify passengers who have included personal contact telephone numbers with their reservations.
National Railroad Passenger Corporation
60 Massachusetts Avenue NE
Washington, DC 20002
www.amtrak.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ATK-07-063
Contact: Contact: Marc Magliari (312) 880-5390
June 8, 2007
Detour of California Zephyr to Track Historic TranscontInental Railroad Route
Some Colorado and Utah Stops Affected Until August 8
CHICAGO – Scheduled track improvements on the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) in Colorado will require Amtrak to use an alternate route for the California Zephyr between Denver and Salt Lake City during five periods in July and August. The detour will follow the historic transcontinental railroad route through Wyoming and Utah.
On the following dates Amtrak will be unable to use the UP route between Granby and Glenwood Springs.
July 10 & 11
July 15-18
July 22-25
July 29-Aug. 1
July 5-8
On those days, the California Zephyr will detour between Denver and Salt Lake City via a northern route through Wyoming, making no intermediate station stops.
On the days the train detours, Amtrak will provide alternate motorcoach transportation at Denver for westbound passengers to Glenwood Springs or Grand Junction and for eastbound passengers from Grand Junction or Glenwood Springs. Service to and from Fraser-Winter Park and Granby, Colo.; Green River, Helper and Provo, Utah, will be suspended on the days the trains are detoured.
Motorcoach from Westbound California Zephyr (Train 5)
Station Arrive Depart
Denver 8:05 a.m.
Glenwood Springs 11:05 a.m. 11:15 a.m.
Grand Junction 12:45 p.m.
Motorcoach to Eastbound California Zephyr (Train 6)
Station Arrive Depart
Grand Junction 1:30 p.m.
Glenwood Springs 3:00 p.m. 3:10 p.m.
Denver 6:10 p.m.
Passengers traveling between Chicago and Denver or between Salt Lake City and Emeryville in San Francisco Bay Area will be unaffected. Amtrak has informed passengers between Denver and Salt Lake City who were ticketed during the 18 days of the detour and is offering the alternate transportation (schedule attached). Passengers have also been offered travel on alternate days or refunds.
The detour route will follow a portion of the original transcontinental UP route that was completed in 1869. While the scenery is less mountainous than the California Zephyr's regular routing, it offers broad vistas of the high plains and an opportunity to see a route that passenger trains have not regularly traversed since 1997.
Amtrak regrets the service disruption and has notified the affected communities. However, the UP has said the nearly 21 miles of rail improvement is needed to maintain safe and timely operation of all trains over the regular route.
The dates of these detours are correct as of the above date. If these plans are changed, Amtrak will notify passengers who have included personal contact telephone numbers with their reservations.
Jun 9, 2007, 1:08 am
#2
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The railfan within me would like to book this route, since it would probably be a long time before I'd get a chance to see this set of rails again. Unfortunately, I can't really get any time off, and airfares to get to one of the starting cities are kind of high.
Oh well...
Oh well...
Jun 9, 2007, 4:55 pm
#4
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What's new for this year is the spin doctoring of the detour route. Sure it's "historic", but southern Wyoming is a snooze fest for scenery. I can see a railfan or mileage collector wanting to ride this line, but for any other passenger and Amtrak this detour remains a catastrophe. Just another example of Union Pacific's wanton contempt for Amtrak.
Jun 11, 2007, 8:57 am
#5
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This detour may actually improve the on time rate of the CZ! 
It will run N/S between DEN and SLC, and not have to make 7 stops. By going via WY, it will pass many stations - including many that were stops on the original CZ route before Amtrak started using the Moffet Route!
Maybe some good will come from it! (I know that most of the slow orders are west of SLC.)
It will run N/S between DEN and SLC, and not have to make 7 stops. By going via WY, it will pass many stations - including many that were stops on the original CZ route before Amtrak started using the Moffet Route!
Maybe some good will come from it!
(I know that most of the slow orders are west of SLC.)
Jun 11, 2007, 9:42 pm
#6
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The CZ on time performance should improve with the new schedule that is to be introduced on June 21, according to the NARP hotline. The CZ will have THREE HOURS added by making the scheduled arrival in Emeryville about three hours later and the eastbound departure from Emeryville three hours earlier, so the Chicago times will be similar to what they are now, but with three more hours on UP, the slow orders caused by bad ties will be absorbed, and, in theory, the train will run on time. Even though Amtrak and UP have "agreed" that this additional time is to be temporary until UP takes care of the bad track in Nevada, my pessimistic view is that this time will become a permanent part of the schedule, with UP inventing some other excuse to keep these slow times. I'd like to be wrong, but......
When the UP across Wyoming was the regular route for 5 and 6 due to the D&RGW not being part of Amtrak, I rode 26-6 from LA to Denver, and the highlight of the non-scenic trip across Wyoming was 90 MPH running between Rock Springs and Laramie. Even with a lower top speed now, they should be able to make better time, but I'm sure Union Pacific gives the detouring CZ no priority over freights, so they probably wouldn't do any better than a priority intermodal train.
In any event, the CZ will soon run "on time" more. And delivering passengers at the time promised, even if it is ridiculously slow, will help Amtrak's reputation and maybe sell the few seats that aren't already sold.
When the UP across Wyoming was the regular route for 5 and 6 due to the D&RGW not being part of Amtrak, I rode 26-6 from LA to Denver, and the highlight of the non-scenic trip across Wyoming was 90 MPH running between Rock Springs and Laramie. Even with a lower top speed now, they should be able to make better time, but I'm sure Union Pacific gives the detouring CZ no priority over freights, so they probably wouldn't do any better than a priority intermodal train.
In any event, the CZ will soon run "on time" more. And delivering passengers at the time promised, even if it is ridiculously slow, will help Amtrak's reputation and maybe sell the few seats that aren't already sold.
Jun 12, 2007, 12:19 am
#7
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When the UP across Wyoming was the regular route for 5 and 6 due to the D&RGW not being part of Amtrak, I rode 26-6 from LA to Denver, and the highlight of the non-scenic trip across Wyoming was 90 MPH running between Rock Springs and Laramie. Even with a lower top speed now, they should be able to make better time, but I'm sure Union Pacific gives the detouring CZ no priority over freights, so they probably wouldn't do any better than a priority intermodal train.
Assuming the track conditions are similar now to then, can they still maintain 79mph that whole way? How are the tracks? Is that UP's main transcon route, or is the Moffat route UP's main east-west route (north of the Sunset Route, that is)? Is the route that Amtrak is going to detour over nice, big, straight, heavy rail/double track, or is it kinda out in the sticks like, say, the Raton Pass route that the SWC uses?
Jun 12, 2007, 11:19 am
#8
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So did they remove ATS, or was that just in the good ol' days when speed limits were very, uh, generous?
Assuming the track conditions are similar now to then, can they still maintain 79mph that whole way? How are the tracks? Is that UP's main transcon route, or is the Moffat route UP's main east-west route (north of the Sunset Route, that is)? Is the route that Amtrak is going to detour over nice, big, straight, heavy rail/double track, or is it kinda out in the sticks like, say, the Raton Pass route that the SWC uses?
Assuming the track conditions are similar now to then, can they still maintain 79mph that whole way? How are the tracks? Is that UP's main transcon route, or is the Moffat route UP's main east-west route (north of the Sunset Route, that is)? Is the route that Amtrak is going to detour over nice, big, straight, heavy rail/double track, or is it kinda out in the sticks like, say, the Raton Pass route that the SWC uses?
Jun 12, 2007, 5:15 pm
#9
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So did they remove ATS, or was that just in the good ol' days when speed limits were very, uh, generous?
Assuming the track conditions are similar now to then, can they still maintain 79mph that whole way? How are the tracks? Is that UP's main transcon route, or is the Moffat route UP's main east-west route (north of the Sunset Route, that is)? Is the route that Amtrak is going to detour over nice, big, straight, heavy rail/double track, or is it kinda out in the sticks like, say, the Raton Pass route that the SWC uses?
Assuming the track conditions are similar now to then, can they still maintain 79mph that whole way? How are the tracks? Is that UP's main transcon route, or is the Moffat route UP's main east-west route (north of the Sunset Route, that is)? Is the route that Amtrak is going to detour over nice, big, straight, heavy rail/double track, or is it kinda out in the sticks like, say, the Raton Pass route that the SWC uses?
Jul 16, 2007, 5:44 pm
#10
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Bump
I planned to be on the CZ during the detour, but my plans changed and I had to cancel!
Just to see, I checked the ontime status of #5 before and during the detour. It was very interesting!
Prior to the detour, the CZ was 132 to 580 minutes late - but during the detour, the CZ was only -0- minutes (in fact - early) to 45 minutes late to SAC!
I planned to be on the CZ during the detour, but my plans changed and I had to cancel!
Just to see, I checked the ontime status of #5 before and during the detour. It was very interesting!
Prior to the detour, the CZ was 132 to 580 minutes late - but during the detour, the CZ was only -0- minutes (in fact - early
) to 45 minutes late to SAC!
Jul 16, 2007, 10:23 pm
#11
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When did the new timetable take effect (the one where Amtrak was going to add something like three hours so the CZ wouldn't be "late")? Would that affect your figures?
Sounds like the nice double track and high speed limits on the detour helped...
Sounds like the nice double track and high speed limits on the detour helped...
Jul 16, 2007, 10:33 pm
#12
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Those ontime figures I gave were for the past 2 weeks - which was after the schedule change!
Jul 17, 2007, 7:53 am
#13
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I just stepped off the CZ yesterday in EMY. Not only were we on time, we were early. Almost a half an hour early.
We were basically on time the whole way, worst case scenario, I think that at any given time we were no more than a hour behind schedule at any one point.
The detour helps only if the train is already late, as some time can be made up, if UP allows it. The real help has been the "agreement" between UP and Amtrak, whereby Amtrak added three hours to the running time and UP promised to not only start fixing all of the slow orders on the route, but to do a better job overall of running the train.
So far, at least, they are doing better at that. For the first 9 months of this fiscal year, the CZ was not on time once to my knowledge. Since the schedule change, it has been on time at least 8 time or more now.
PS. June 21st was indeed the date of the schedule change.
Almost a half an hour early. We were basically on time the whole way, worst case scenario, I think that at any given time we were no more than a hour behind schedule at any one point.
The detour helps only if the train is already late, as some time can be made up, if UP allows it. The real help has been the "agreement" between UP and Amtrak, whereby Amtrak added three hours to the running time and UP promised to not only start fixing all of the slow orders on the route, but to do a better job overall of running the train.
So far, at least, they are doing better at that. For the first 9 months of this fiscal year, the CZ was not on time once to my knowledge. Since the schedule change, it has been on time at least 8 time or more now.
PS. June 21st was indeed the date of the schedule change.