(The Mercury-Register posted the following article by Mary Weston on its website on March 20.)
OROVILLE, Calif. — Amtrak’s Coast Starlight has not been traveling through Chico lately, detouring instead through Oroville and up the Feather River Canyon, due to repairs on the main line through the Sacramento Valley.
The passenger train that runs between Los Angeles and Seattle has been temporarily rerouted through Oroville and up the east side of the mountains to Klamath Falls, bypassing cities on the regular route, said Sarah Swain, spokeswoman for Amtrak.Swain said normally, the train stops in Sacramento, Chico and Redding before going to Klamath Falls.
“What they’re doing now is skipping Chico, Dunsmuir and Redding and going directly to Klamath Falls,” Swain said.
Union Pacific railroad owns the tracks through the Sacramento Valley and has been replacing 34-miles of wooden ties with concrete ties between Lakeland, north of Lake Shasta, and Dunsmuir, said Mike Furtney a Union Pacific spokesman.
Furtney said the railroad isn’t replacing tracks in this area. Typically, concrete track is used in curvy terrain. He said the line had done some repairs to the Chico track before increasing speed limits though the town. Nationwide, he said trains can travel up to 79 mph.
However, Furtney said the Coast Starlight stops in Chico, so it travels through town slower. The train has been slowing down to 30 mph when traveling through Oroville, he said, because it is a congested area.
During repairs, Amtrak is using tracks owned by Santa Fe Railroad and Burlington Northern. The repairs are expected to be finished in early May.
Meanwhile, residents of small towns like Oroville and Keddie can watch the train, once going north and again going south. It also gives passengers a view of the canyon, the Feather River and the forests in the mountains of Plumas, Lassen and Modoc counties, a route called “the highline.”
Typically, the train goes north through Chico at 1:55 a.m. and south through Chico at 3:50 a.m., Swain said. The detour can add as much as three hours to the trip.