Storms force Amtrak to hold up Zephyr service

Amtrak passenger service through Salt Lake City already is inconvenient, with trains on the California Zephyr route between Chicago and the Bay Area departing in the early morning hours.

This week, however, that service is even more inconvenient — trains won't be running at all, at least through next Thursday, Jan. 20.

Amtrak announced late Thursday it would temporarily discontinue service on the Zephyr, the only interstate passenger train that stops in Salt Lake City and Provo.

The reason for the stoppage, according to Amtrak, is "a series of weather-related service impacts in the Rocky and Sierra mountain ranges" along the Zephyr's route.

Two incidents in particular prompted the decision:

On Tuesday, an Amtrak train struck a pickup truck-size boulder west of Grand Junction, Colo., and derailed, causing six people to suffer minor injuries. How the 12-foot-by-12-foot rock ended up on the tracks was undetermined, but officials said a series of storms bringing snow and rain to the area may have caused the boulder to become dislodged and roll onto the tracks.

Last weekend, heavy snow in the Sierra Nevada was to blame for the partial derailment of one car on a Zephyr train. The problem caused a five-hour delay in service.

The affected portion of the Zephyr's route is owned and maintained by Union Pacific Railroad. Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said it was a mutual decision to temporarily suspend operations of the Zephyr west of Denver. Service between Chicago and Denver will continue without disruption.

"We conversed with (Union Pacific) about what we could do together to make the service work, and the answer was for us both to take a step back for a week on the California Zephyr line to give us a chance to see what that produces," Magliari said Friday.

"We acknowledge and we regret the inconvenience, but it needs to be done in order for us to go forward, we think."

Union Pacific spokesman John Bromley said the Zephyr's normal route through Reno is now heavy with freight traffic because Union Pacific has had to detour many of its freight trains to avoid flooding problems on the route to Las Vegas.

There was some delay in the Grand Junction area this week, he said, but a side track was quickly built to bypass the Amtrak derailment site and freight trains continued service with only minor delays.