On Track OnLine (OTOL) Rockies RailFest 2014: Salt Lake City & Denver, July 12-19, 2014
It is time to officially announce what will hopefully be another memorable summer RailFest. The OTOL Rockies RailFest 2014 (RRF) will feature visits to Salt Lake City and Denver, two cities that have been quite active in recent years in opening new transit lines.
Salt Lake has the Utah Transit Authority (UTA), whose light rail is known as TRAX. The UTA also runs the FrontRunner commuter rail north to Ogden and Pleasant View, and south to Provo. The segment between Ogden and Pleasant View runs during rush hours only, and it would be impossible to cover it without entirely missing a reasonable dinnertime. UTA also recently added a modern streetcar to its fold.
Denver has its Regional Transit District (RTD). So far the only active RTD rail lines are light rail, but we should see the construction projects in effect for lines that will be open in a few years. And unassociated with RTD is a short tourist trolley on the west bank of the Platte River which we hopefully can do; its summer schedule should come out during the Spring.
RRF will contain several overnight Amtrak segments, including getting back and forth to, from, and between the above host cities. In addition, due to the poor calling times at Salt Lake City eastbound, we will ride further west to Reno to make a same-day turnaround to head east. This Fest, like recent trips to the West in the past few years, is written only for travel from Chicago west. Those who live on the East Coast need to get to Chicago to assemble with the group before the Chicago start date. With the Fest starting in Chicago on Saturday, July 12th, one would need to leave their origin points to allow enough time to arrive by that morning in order to make the westbound California Zephyr. One should also allot time to travel home from Chicago after arrival back from Denver.
A homepage for RRF can be found at http://www.kevinkore...ockies/home.htm . It has links to our itinerary, hotels and restaurants in the two destination cities, lists of transportation lines in these cities, and in the future there will also be pages for transit costs and scanner frequencies. A direct link to the tentative itinerary is at http://kevinkorell.c...itinrockies.htm . Our itinerary remains tentative until we execute it, as conditions can change and last minute decisions can alter our plans. For example in Salt Lake City we could swap some of the light rail route segments based on where we decide to have dinner.
There will also be a participant list once one is created. At this time please begin e-mailing me with your intentions to participate in this Fest, including which of the days, if not all of them. Please also include your hometown if I don’t know it, or if it has changed since you last attended a Fest. You must e-mail me or you will not be on the list. It is otherwise impossible to remember everyone’s plans, and it helps me keep things in one place.
Here are the specific details you would need to know for this journey:
Hotels
- Salt Lake City: Arriving Sunday, July 13 late night, departing Tuesday, July 15th (2 nights). Note that we don’t leave Salt Lake City until Tuesday night, so you may wish to make arrangements at check-out to have your luggage held until that evening.
- Denver: Arriving Thursday, July 17th evening, departing Friday, July 18th (1 night). We don’t leave Denver until Friday evening, so you may wish to make arrangements to have your luggage held until the evening.
- Plus any others as you travel on your own to the Fest start in Chicago and home from the Fest end in Chicago a week later.
Amtrak
- Leave Chicago afternoon of Saturday, July 12th, arriving in Salt Lake City late night of Sunday, July 13th on westbound Train #5, California Zephyr.
- Leave Salt Lake City late night of Tuesday, July 15th, arriving in Reno morning of Wednesday, July 16th on westbound Train #5, California Zephyr.
- Leave Reno afternoon of Wednesday, July 16th, arriving Denver evening of Thursday, July 17th on eastbound Train #6, California Zephyr.
- Leave Denver evening of Friday, July 18th, arriving Chicago afternoon of Saturday, July 19th on eastbound Train #6, California Zephyr.
- Plus any other trips you need to take to get to Chicago before the departure of Train #5 on July 12th, and after the arrival in Chicago of Train #6 on July 19th.
As with all of our Fests, you are welcome to attend as your personal time and costs may permit. Thus you can join us later in the journey or leave us before our week is completed. On the California Zephyr most if not all of us will do sleepers. It is possible to participate with the group by going in coach, although you will need to pay for your meals. You might also save some money by bypassing the Reno segment; however this would require extra time in hotels in Salt Lake City in order to remain with the group as we visit Denver. You also would have to board the eastbound California Zephyr that departs at 3:30 AM in the wee hours of Thursday, July 17th.
Your hotel and travel plans could no doubt change before the trip, but once you have them secured please let me know in a separate e-mail. Amtrak accommodation assignments will go on a chart so we can see where we will be travelling relative to one another. Hotel plans are only shared with fellow participants closer to the event for emergency contact purposes.
Please keep watching this board for further updates. Rockies RailFest 2014 promises to be another interesting and educational time on the rails!
Edited by KevinKorell, 14 March 2014 - 12:57 PM.