Think twice if you were planning to buy a ticket, specifically to ride
            Amtrak's Coast Starlight on a rare-mileage detour on the Feather
            River Canyon and Inside Gateway routes. Or buy a refundable ticket.

            The detour was planned due to a major tie project on Union Pacific's
            line south of Dunsmuir, CA at roughly MP286 to MP322 (over 70,000
            concrete ties), that is closing the railroad beginning at 7am during
            specified work periods.

            After the incredible snafu involving one detoured Coast Starlight
            earlier this week, the detour plan is being drastically modified.

            The doomed trip was Train 14(18MAR). Its equipment had arrived very
            late in Los Angeles, after 8am on 18MAR as Train 11(16). It had
            encountered mudslides south of Santa Barbara and was severely
            delayed.  The normal five hours needed to turn and service the equipment
            was extended because the train had hit fallen trees at Seacliff, causing
            damage to stirrup steps and grab irons on the Lounge car and Kiddie
            Coach; these had to be repaired before the train was allowed out.

            Due to all this, Train 14(18) left Los Angeles at about 6pm, about 8
            hours late. It remained about 7-8 hours late to the Bay Area, Sacramento,
            and Roseville on its regular route.

            More delays hit once it moved off the normal, ex-Southern Pacific
            route, and onto the ex-Western Pacific line in the Feather River Canyon. At
            one point the train took almost three hours to go thirty miles after
            meeting Amtrak #11.

            Then the fun started. Off the UP Feather River Canyon line and on
            BNSF tracks, Train 14(18) was ordered into siding at Moccasin, MP 196.8
            by the BNSF dispatcher, account the train's pilot engineer released a
            track warrant before the train had cleared the limits of that warrant.
            Another warrant had been acknowledged even though its limits conflicted with
            yet another track warrant. A relief pilot was requested, but since there
            is no road access to Moccasin, a BNSF engineer was used to move the
            train to Greenville, MP 188.3, where the new pilot and a relief Amtrak
            crew boarded the train. Departure from Greenville, still 190 miles from
            Klamath Falls, was at 10pm.

            In all, 2hr 50m were lost at Moccasin, and 3h 50m at Greenville:
            total delay 6h40m, just sitting and waiting for a pilot. There were more
            delays on BNSF as the train proceeded onwards, because it was stuck
            behind two freight trains which had gone past it while stopped at
            Moccasin and Greenville. Then it got held up over an hour after
            re-entering its regular route and UP track at Beiber Line Jct., due
            to congestion at the Klamath Falls yard. Ultimately, nearly 27 hours
            late, the Starlight's equipment was turned at Eugene, and onward
            passengers were taken north using the Talgo set of Train 504(20), which was
            annulled.

            Even not considering this embarrassing trip, the detours were a
            mess. And Union Pacific found that due to light traffic and their own use
            of an Ogden detour route for freight, congestion due to the tie and
            track work wasn't as bad as they feared. They relented and agreed to allow
            the Starlight back on its regular route if it could clear the 7am
            work window for the tie gang.

            Effective March 20, southbound Train #11 was to operate via the regular
            route, but #14 was to possibly continue detouring, depending on how
            late it was running. This applies to #14 originating 3/16-3/24, 3/31-4/9,
            4/15-4/22 and 4/26-5/7.

            The plan is that if #14 is close to schedule at Sacramento, it would
            run the regular route.

            #14(20) ran the regular route, arriving EUG 2hr late.

            #14(21) originated in Emeryville instead of Los Angeles. It was the
            equipment from the northbound that was 27 hours late and turned at
            Eugene, and itself, as #11(20) arrived Emeryville so late it was
            annulled there, and passengers bused to onward destinations or taken
            on the San Joaquins. It also ran the regular route, its consist
            reversed (baggage car rear) because it would have taken too much time to take
            it several miles north on the UP main line to Stege (Richmond) to turn it.

            -Gene Poon

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