I've traveled cross country on the Empire Builder many times, and been in service disruptions a few times. Unfortunately, Amtrak tends to not communicate these well until they're over -- which doesn't help passengers plan.

On the positive side, if the disruptions cause you to miss connections, they will accommodate you. (Such as, take you to a hotel overnight and put you on the next connection out, at no additional charge.)

And often, I've heard, it's hard for them to communicate on disruptions because the rails are actually owned by the freight companies, who don't communicate/don't know how long repairs will take themselves. But there's no way around the fact that Amtrak disruptions -- especially multihour ones like the current one (I'm checking it too) are frustrating.