Sunset Ltd Schedules March 2019

I've got a booking on the westbound Sunset in early March (boarding in Alpine) and just got an automated email from Amtrak reissuing the ticket on a schedule about an hour and a half later than the current schedule. The running time between Alpine and El Paso is also increased considerably, despite it being a short distance. Looking at their site, I also see the eastbound (LA to Alpine) is scheduled for earlier than ticketed (7:26 PM departure from LA rather than 10:30 PM), though I have not received an email notice of that change.
The new schedule westbound is certainly a welcome change, with LA ETA of 8:40 AM far better than the god-awful 5:35 AM on the current schedule. (Looks like they've lengthened the overall running time, since departure from New Orleans is unchanged from the current 9:00 AM. The additional running time seems to have been added between Houston and El Paso, from what I can tell.)
Do we think this is a permanent change, or one of those seasonal adjustments they do for U.P. track work?

Based on my currently ticketed trip from #11 to #2 in early April, and that I have NOT received any communication from Amtrak that the connection is broken, I must assume it is a temporary track maintenance project somewhere along the way. Or else, Amtrak's email-generator system is quite slow to send out messages.

This is one of the feeder lines on UP's southern transconn to LA, must be planned trackwork during that time period.