I got a phone call from a friend who attended Winterail and took Amtrak to and from Albany. He was booked from the Inland Empire (not the one near Spokane, WA) on the SAN JOAQUIN train/buses via Bakersfield, connecting with 14/11 at Martinez. After Winterail he caught 11 (20) and received a text message somewhere near Redding from Amtrak advising him that the SAN JOAQUINS were cancelled due to flooding north of Bakersfield. So he had to take the STARLIGHT all the way to L.A. (it must have been the first one through the mess near Watsonville Jct.) and he was on his own as soon as Amtrak delivered him to L.A. He got there after the last Metrolink 300 series train departed for the Inland Empire. I'm not sure whether he grabbed a room at a hotel or spent several hours on the seats in the waiting room at LAUPT until Metrolink started operating several hours later. I also heard some horror stories about some really rude on-board service people. Apparently "The Railway Baron" was victimized in this department as well as my friend.

I flew Southwest Airlines to and from Eugene and had no problems.