CHICAGO — Amtrak has canceled plans to offer Polar Express holiday rides from Chicago Union Station in 2022, citing ongoing staff shortages.
A message on the Polar Express Union Station Facebook page cites “a system-wide shortage of railroad personnel” that means there are not enough crews to operate the trains.
“We have enjoyed operating the Polar Express trains in Chicago the last few years,” Amtrak said in a statement, “and Amtrak would look forward to operating them again in the future. However, until we have sufficient train crews to operate this private charter service in addition to our scheduled trains, we must give staffing priority to our public services, particularly during the holiday season.”
Amtrak launched Polar Express rides from Union Station in 2015, but COVID-related issues cancelled all trips in 2020 and led to cancellation of the final week of scheduled excursions in 2021.
4 months out and not enough crews? Haven’t seen the hiring notices that Amtrak sgold have issuesd call for more T&E in CHI. That is an artifical shortage Now if the trans were going on non Amtrak tracks then knowing the Class 1s problems definitely go ahead and cancel. Another thought/. Maybe Amtrak does not anticipate having enough cars to operate the trains with assigned cars for only the time of the Polar express?
Another casulty of Amtrak’s so called “crew and staffing shortages”. Whether this is
real or another hidden agenda to slowly kill off passenger train service, we will never really know. Any wonder why the train and railroads in general are losing relevance in this country especially among young people and kids ? Most of the younger generation never even rode on a train or worse yet even seen one. Not being able to enjoy this holiday experience just leaves the impression that a train is something from the” Stone Age”and not to be considered as such in this age of technology and space travel. They might read or learn what the railroad or a train is in a history book or program or on Google if they are intersted in finding out Joseph Markfelder
There are plenty of other rail museums performing Polar Express trips in the midwest. They just might not originate in Chicago unfortunately.
The Illinois Railroad Museum in Union (about 45 miles NW of Chicago) has them along with the Meet Thomas the Tank Engine days. Also the Monticello Railroad museum has a very popular Polar Express train during the holiday. (Granted that is 2 hours away from the Chicago metro)
Once in a blue moon, a group of organizations to help kids used to sponsor a Metra special of gallery cars to bring kids out from Chicago to Union to the museum to get the rail experience, but I don’t think Metra does it anymore for insurance reasons. I wish they would bring that back. Many of those kids had never seen a farm let alone a steam engine. It was a great sight to see watching them disembark.
BS, it’s not until December. Guessing they’re just using staffing issue as a way to not do it anymore. That’s a shame, how many of those kids grow up remembering that ride then becoming railfans and riders on Amtrak.