Passenger Trains > Zephyr's Schedule change

Can anyone tell me where I can locate the California Zephyr's updated timetable as of April 8.

Amtrak website

They haven't updated there website yet but I suspect the Rail Passengers Association might soon. Amtrak no longer seems to post complete schedules although some state agencies do for the trains they subsidize (i.e. Amtrak San Joaquins). You can act as if you are traveling from one station to the next and repeat the process but that is quite time-consuming. The Amtrak booking system will list times for departure and scheduled arrival at destination (and, when applicable, connecting trains). Only the Rail Passenger Association maintains complete timetables in the classic format.
You could try contacting the association during business hours Eastern Time at (202) 408-8362. They might have a time frame for updating their copy of the schedule (something they don't have to do but I applaud their efforts). It may be hard for them to get the correct updated times from Amtrak for each station, other than using the booking tool to determine the times for each station (which would take quite a while to do for both directions of travel). Good luck!

jeffgeldner Wrote:
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> Amtrak no longer seems to post complete
> schedules 

They sort of do again. It's kind of messy and doesn't fit on one page but it does provide the latest info. Go to Amtrak site, click schedules, click search by route, click California Zephyr. On the page that comes up click the little printer icon to get it in timetable form. Here's a direct link to the Zephyr's timetable. https://content.amtrak.com/content/timetable/California%20Zephyr.pdf

It's a lot of keystrokes and not particularly discoverable. The novice will never figure it out. Why does the potential passenger have to do Amtrak's work ? 

I hope this schedule "change" - doesn't actually mean a schedule "slowdown",---which is 
often the case.

Can any "schedule nerds" (I used to be one) analyze this "change" for us.

I have taken a brief look at it. The new schedule appears to add time between Emeryville and Denver. After Denver, the schedule is the same.  

steve4031

How much time (padding) was added?

(Hope it's not 3 hours -- like that added to the Crescent a while back).

Amtrak makes travel by train a hassle for the elderly.
It reminds me of the late 1960's when  some railroads intentually made it hard to buy a ticket or to make connections. 

You've raised a good point - website information is buried in sub menus making internet search trip planning difficult.  Newcomers to travel websites - good luck-!

UP951West Wrote:
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> Amtrak makes travel by train a hassle for the elderly.

No. It's like the airlines. Input two points and get the schedule. Simple for travelers.  Ans I'm old-83. 

NormSchultze Wrote:
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> No. It's like the airlines. Input two points and
> get the schedule. Simple for travelers.  Ans I'm
> old-83. 

That's a quick reference schedule, not a timetable. 

This antiquated, non user friendly 1990s website is just another of many means to discourage passengers from riding. The list is unreasonably long, extremely high sleeper fares, lack of maintenance on equipment, ongoing toilet issues on Superliners, sub-standard and non-existent meal service, under-stocked diner inventory for passenger load, refusal to run Sightseer lounges, on board crews occupying many seats in Cafe cars and Sightseer Lounges, on board crew members fabricating their own personal set of rules schedules and  standards  not in line with the Amtrak employee guide, Non existent Sleeping car attendants, up until recently no sense of urgency in returning bad order cars to service, filthy car exteriors. No privately run business could possibly break even with service and attitude such as Amtrak's

Again I will  ask -- anybody know how much time was added to the schedule?

In my view, if it's more than 1 hour -- it can be considered downgrading this train.

When I compared the schedule on the RPA  website (effective through 3/7/24) to the schedule on the Amtrak website, I saw that the Amtrak schedule is six minutes faster Emeryville to Chicago.  Not a world of difference!!  But not worse.

Thanks, Megritte55

You allayed my fears.  thanks, again



 

ronald321 Wrote:
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> Again I will  ask -- anybody know how much time
> was added to the schedule?
>
> In my view, if it's more than 1 hour -- it can be
> considered downgrading this train.

I agree, look at 19 and 20s schedule!

Posted from Android

The original schedule has the CZ departing EMY at 9:10 a.m. IIRC.  It arrived in Chicago at 2:50 p.m.   The new schedule has an 8:25 a.m. departure from EMY and a 2:39 p.m. arrival into Chicago.    Thus, it leaves EMY 45 minutes earlier and arrives in Chicago 11 minutes earlier than before.  So IMHO, the schedule is lengthened by 34 minutes.  Not that big of a change.