ST. LOUIS – Amtrak has extended to Dec. 4 the suspension of one of the Missouri River Rail Runner round trips between St. Louis and Kansas City. The suspension began Oct. 24 and was scheduled to end Nov. 16.
An Amtrak spokesman told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the suspension is due to continued delays in deploying new equipment. The Missouri River Runner was restored to twice-a-day round trips in July after the state of Missouri found funds to restore full service, only to be cut again in October. Westbound train No. 311 that departs St. Louis at 8:15 a.m. and arrives in Kansas City at 1:55 p.m. and eastbound No. 316 that departs Kansas City at 4 p.m. and arrives at St. Louis at 9:40 p.m. remain suspended.
One daily round trip remains, with eastbound No. 318, a through train to Chicago, departing Kansas City at 8:40 a.m. and arriving in St. Louis at 2:20 p.m., while westbound No. 319, (a through train from Chicago) is scheduled to depart St. Louis at 3:05 p.m. and arrive in Kansas City at 8:45 p.m.
Meanwhile, one of Amtrak’s five daily Lincoln Service round trips between St. Louis and Chicago, which was suspended Sept. 17, is resuming this week. Train No. 305, which departs Chicago at 5:20 p.m. and arrives in St. Louis at 10:36 p.m., is set to resume service today, Nov. 16, while train No. 300 departing St. Louis at 4:30 a.m. and arriving in Chicago at 9:39 a.m. will resume operation on Nov. 17.
Alas, another potential market for Brightline between Chicago, St Louis and Kansas City!
My dad was a signal engineer for Mo-Pac for this very line. He doesn’t understand why they need so many axles. It should work regardless of axles. Why only this line?
The former IC CHI-Carbondale also subjects Amtrak to the axle loading protocol.
According to a retired Carman from Beech Grove who moved back to Delaware this past year, the new cars trucks cause them to ride like bricks. There is a ongoing argument on who is responsible for the trucks and who is going to pay for the redesign/replacements. Just like the 1st ACELA’s that were made with French rail profile wheels and worn out on the USA rail profile in months. (He’s part of our Amtrak retirement group that meets once a month for breakfast. He worked Wilm and Bear shops on wreck repairs)
How much of this might be due to UP’s insistence on extra cars/axles on this route to trip the signals?
I was taking a 40 person church group to Hermann from St. Louis for a fall day trip this fall but I have twice had to cancel since we can’t do the roundtrip in the same day now. Hermann is a great day trip stop that used to see 8-10 extra coaches put on during the fall just to accommodate all the extra sightseers from both KCY and STL to enjoy the area wineries and to enjoy the changing leaves. This decision by Amtrak is directly hurting tourism in our state!
40 people? That’s perfect for a charter bus; you can go directly from your church to the venue.
What a joke Amtrak is. Losing revenue because they don’t have equipment. What is the delay? Figure out the problem and solve it! Can’t repair equipment because they laid off during covid. That would have been an excellent time to get caught up. Maybe instead of executive bonuses they could outsource repairs. Missouri is funding part of the cost of this route and they still can’t deliver
This is the stuff of scandal. But no one of any consequence apparently cares or those bonuses would have been clawed back AND everyone in Amtrak’s C-suite told to clean out their desks and be out in an hour.
“Delays in deploying new equipment” is a corporate euphemism for the new equipment sitting under the Chicago Post Office for several years, never put into service.
A couple of weeks ago, I took the suggestion of another Forum Poster to report this problem to The Wall Street Journal’s news tip line. I never heard back from WSJ and, so far, haven’t seen an article in that paper. I also relayed chatter that the Siemens locos are said to be unreliable. I made it very clear to the news tip line that I was relaying chatter about the locos that I have no direct knowledge of. As for the cars, that much I do directly know, I’m not blind.