Hello i was curious if anyone had any good insight or info for riding Amtrak for the first time. Will be going from Wolf Point MT to Seattle WA with a roomette on the Empire Builder, then down to Portland OR from Seattle on the Cascades in the buisness class. The return trip will be a straight shot from Portland to Wolf Point on the Empire Builder again with the roomette. thanks.
The Amtrak website has lots of good info for first time riders. Also, try Googling trip reports for the Empire Builder.
That's such a great route you're taking, being late might actually be a plus. More time on the train!
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
If you are about on time westbound, you will want to get up early to see the Cascades crossing on your way into Seattle. You should not be late leaving Portland, and you will have a beautiful ride up the north bank of the Columbia (also, as you go down to Portland, you will run along beside the Columbia from Kelso to Vancouver), and you will probably see UP trains running along the south bank. It's beautiful country.
If you want to, you can check on recent arrival times at all your stations, using the Amtrak website.
Johnny
Unless you have weather related delays, the Empire Builder should have reasonable time keeping. Cascade service to Portland should be fine unless there are delays due to the recent flooding. The railroad and Interstate were out of service for some time. I would be most concerned if you were riding the Coat Starlight to California. Delays are normal on that route. Last week #7's delays were from 2 minutes to 110 minutes into Seattle. I am not sure how the weather is in Montana, but it was very cold on the northern plains this past week. Eastbound, #8 averaged 58 minutes late in to Mpls/St Paul. Much of that was due to a 231 minute arrival delay on the 27th of January.
Your scheduled arrival in Seattle is 10:20 AM. The next Portland train departs at 11:20 AM. If you miss that connection, there is an afternoon departure(about 2:30 PM) you can catch.
This web site has pretty good historic info on Amtrak performance:
http://www.amtrakdelays.com/
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
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