Those of us working as advocates for passenger trains often argue—and with valid reason—that bad weather has less impact on train travel than on travel by highway or by plane. However, passenger trains do run into weather related problems—heavy rains in the northwest trigger mudslides that cover the tracks and “service interruptions” in the midwest…
Amtrak’s Empire Builder has had a miserable winter. The polar vortex, heavy snow, and a huge increase in freight traffic has resulted in many delays of many hours. The worst area has proven to be in North Dakota, specifically the 120-mile stretch between Devils Lake and Minot. Things got so completely hopeless a couple of…
During the night, the Empire Builder angles across Minnesota, crosses into North Dakota for a wee-hours stop in Fargo, then swings due west. When I awaken, we’ve just left Devil’s Lake and are rolling along at a steady pace. We’re passing through grasslands now, with the terrain mostly flat, but rising and falling occasionally in…
The Chicago-to-Seattle segment of the trip did not start out well. Because of flooding somewhere in Wisconsin, we were treated by Amtrak to an 8½-hour bus ride from Chicago to Minneapolis. And I hate buses! However – and amazingly – the time passed almost enjoyably, thanks to an excellent paperback book (The Innocent Man by…