(The following story by Casey McNerthney appeared on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer website on January 24.)
SEATTLE — Amtrak has cancelled its daily Coast Starlight service between Seattle and Los Angeles because of massive mudslides that covered tracks in Oregon.
Beginning Thursday, the train from Los Angeles and Seattle was cancelled through Jan. 31 and the train from Seattle to Los Angeles is cancelled Friday through Feb. 1, and both cancellation dates may be extended.
The company is providing no alternate transportation during the cancellation, which came after the Union Pacific Railroad suspended all rail traffic near Chemult, Ore. However, Amtrak spokesman Cliff Cole said the company does provide service on other trains routes and busses between Southern California and the Pacific Northwest.
For travel throughout the Pacific Northwest, passengers can take the Amtrak Cascades service from Eugene, Ore. to Vancouver B.C.
Passengers traveling in California can make bus connections at Los Angeles Union Station to Amtrak’s San Joaquins train service for travel from Bakersfield to Sacramento and Oakland.
The cancellations this week are another setback for a train route that is notorious for late arrivals. In 2006, the Coast Starlight was on time 4 percent of the time.
With freight traffic soaring in recent years, Amtrak’s never-stellar on-time performance declined to an average of 68 percent in 2006, its worst showing since the 1970s. When the routes where Amtrak owns the tracks are excluded, the on-time performance last year fell to 61 percent.
The main reason for delays: In most of the country, the national passenger railroad operates on tracks owned by freight railroads, and the tracks are badly congested.
Neither Cole nor an Amtrak employee at King Street Station had recent Coast Starlight arrival times Thursday night.