Amtrak extends Coast Starlight shutdown

Amtrak’s Coast Starlight train, which runs between Los Angeles and Seattle, will be out of service for at least two more weeks because of a mudslide in western Oregon, Amtrak said Thursday.

The closure is expected to affect more than 10,000 passengers on the route, which serves Santa Barbara, Oakland, Sacramento and many other stations along the way.

As posted earlier here, Amtrak shut down the line after the Jan. 19, 2008 mudslide, more than 3,000 feet across, buried tracks about eight miles southeast of Oakridge, Oregon [Google map, opens in a new window].

The tracks are still blocked. At first, Amtrak arranged alternate transportation around the slide. But it stopped doing that after a few days because of the expense and because Coast Starllght ridership at this time of year, while totaling several hundred per day, is relatively low, said spokeswoman Vernae Graham.

Amtrak is contacting customers about the new cancellations and offering refunds, Graham said. Train riders have some alternatives, she added. For instance, they can take a bus from Los Angeles to Bakersfield, then board trains on the San Joaquin line to Oakland and Sacramento.

Zoe Richmond, spokeswoman for Union Pacific, which owns the blocked track, told me this afternoon that she does not know when it will be open again. She said snowstorms have hampered crews’ efforts to clear the mudslide and evaluate the situation.

—Jane Engle, Assistant Los Angeles Times Travel Editor

[Photo: Union Pacific]

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 10:02 pm by Jane Engle and is filed under Business Travel, California, Los Angeles, News, Tips & Advice, Pacific Northwest, Rail Travel, Santa Barbara. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.