(The following appeared on the Journal Star website on January 8, 2010.)
LINCOLN, Neb. — Amtrak train traffic between Chicago and Denver through Nebraska continues to be disrupted by drifting snow, especially between Hastings and Holdrege.
“There are heavy drifts as tall as the train,” said spokesman Marc Magliari of Amtrak’s Chicago office.
“When we go through areas where there’s a cut through a hill and it fills with snow, a train is not going to punch through that.”
Amtrak didn’t send a westbound train from Chicago Thursday or Friday and will continue to suspend westbound service through Sunday, the rail line announced Friday. Amtrak said it plans to resume eastbound service on Sunday.
Eastbound from the West Coast on Friday, the Amtrak train has been stopping at Denver. Passengers bound for Nebraska were being bused to their destinations by chartered bus, Magliari said.
Passengers eastbound to Iowa and Illinois were being taken to La Junta, Colo., where they would board the Southwest Chief on its regular route, Magliari said.
Eastbound and westbound Amtrak passenger trains were delayed several hours Thursday, the Hastings Tribune reported.
Magliari told the Tribune that Amtrak’s Train No. 5 westbound from Chicago encountered an area just west of Sutton where the cut was packed with snow.
The train stopped about 3 a.m. Thursday. The Clay County Sheriff’s Office reported crews from BNSF Railway — which owns the track Amtrak uses in Nebraska — pulled the train back east to Fairmont at 9:42 a.m.
Magliari said the train always had power, light, heat and a functioning water system.
BNSF Railway said cold weather and snow was delaying its freight trains 24 to 72 hours in Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Mark Davis, a spokesman for Union Pacific in Omaha, said the weather also prompted Union Pacific to warn customers to expect similar delays on shipments.
Trains simply can’t move as fast through the nation’s northern tier of states because of the cold, snow and ice.
The braking systems don’t work as well, Davis said, so trains must be shorter. The diesel locomotives are more prone to mechanical problems, and repairs can cause delays.
Snow and ice can clog switches, which must be cleared and tested before trains can continue on their routes through them.
BNSF Railway spokesman Steve Forsberg said trains have been able to plow through drifts of snow as deep as 6 feet in Nebraska, but crews have to stop to clear snow from windshields.