The following news was taken from the Devils Lake Tourist Board Site – January 27 2014.
“The news that we have been receiving about Amtrak service to Devils Lake is not good. This has been a developing situation that we have been dealing with so far this season and is also a situation that in 19 years, we have never had to deal with.
The main problem is all the oil traffic on the BNSF rail line that Amtrak uses to get to Devils Lake, ND. Because of the Oil boom in western North Dakota, the BNSF line that runs through Devils Lake has become congested with freight train traffic causing the Amtrak Empire Builder to pull over and sit in a waiting pattern, in many cases for several hours. The past 2 weeks alone, the train has been running anywhere from 3 to 5 hours late in the mornings. This alone has cost our clients at minimum a half of day of fishing and in some cases the whole first day. The east bound train that runs at night (this would be the train that brings you back home) most of the time doesn’t even come in to Devils Lake. Most of the time this train takes an alternate route from Minot, ND to Fargo, ND leaving Rugby, Devils Lake, and Grand Forks without Amtrak service. At times Amtrak has shown up with buses or vans to transport passengers but other times our customers have been told to rent a car to get to Fargo and this is not an option in Devils Lake, North Dakota. Neither the Perch Patrol Guide Service or Woodland Resort has the time or the staff power to bring our clientele to Fargo, North Dakota at 3:00 am. We have been hoping this would get better but it has been brought to our attention that this situation in no way is going to improve for quite a while if not indefinitely. Therefore we have no choice to discontinue taking reservations from clientèle that requires Amtrak service.”
Note: Having taken that Amtrak more then once, it’ll be sorely missed by those who use it as part of the package. However remember those fish will be waiting, even if the train IS late! Best of Luck Guys