smontanaro 

My son Chris was here for about a month and had to decide how to get back to Portland during Omicron. He decided to take Amtrak and paid for a "roomette" so he didn't have to mingle too much. The trip was supposed to take two days. It departed Chicago Tuesday afternoon. Everything was fine until Spokane. Chris was supposed to switch to a Portland-bound train, but there was a derailment on that line, so they continued toward Everett with the intention that Portland-bound passengers would head south from there.

They got as far as Wenatchee Thursday mid-morning, then were held there all day because of (I think) another derailment. Eventually they got off and made it to hotels for the night. Back on the train Friday morning and off they went, only to get stuck in the Cascades. They had to wait for a second engine to extricate the train, then it was back to Wenatchee for a second night. Today they backed out to Spokane (mudslide between Seattle and Portland took out that track, so going via Everett and Seattle wasn't really an option). Last I heard around 5pm Central Time, he was going to stick it out on the train to Portland.