ST. LOUIS — After attempting to rectify “ongoing mechanical issues” following the westbound Texas Eagle’s on-time arrival in St. Louis on Saturday evening, Dec. 21, Amtrak decided to cancel the train across the rest of its route to San Antonio, Tex., leaving Texas travelers with a lump of coal.
An advisory at 11:50 p.m., more than four hours after the Eagle’s St. Louis arrival, said, “Bus transportation is being sourced to accommodate customers back to their origin stations. We will provide updates when receiving an estimated arrival time for bus transportation.” The implied message for those still waiting to board anywhere in Missouri, Arkansas, or Texas: make other plans.
As a result of the cancellation Saturday night, the eastbound Texas Eagle leaving San Antonio on Monday morning, Dec. 23, has also been cancelled all the way to the Windy City, disrupting intra-Texas travel and leaving one less St. Louis-to-Chicago train Christmas Eve.
When disruptions like this happen, reservations on the following day’s train are temporarily blocked to make sure all displaced passengers are accommodated to the extent possible.
Tardy Chicago departures continue to be an issue as mechanical forces scramble to keep Amtrak’s long-distance fleet operational. Both Friday’s westbound Empire Builder and Texas Eagle suffered delays totaling more than an hour and a half; the Eagle then apparently encountered Union Pacific congestion in Arkansas and limped into San Antonio at 3:30 a.m. Sunday. This delayed the westbound Sunset Limited, which was running almost 3 hours late across West Texas today (Dec. 22).
Other trains severely hobbled over the weekend included:
— Friday’s eastbound Southwest Chief, which operated under speed restrictions between Lamar, Colo., and Garden City Kan.; it was five hours late departing Kansas City, Mo., Sunday afternoon.
— Today’s eastbound Texas Eagle, delayed almost four hours by an automobile on the tracks near San Marcos, Tex.
— Saturday’s Seattle-Los Angeles Coast Starlights in both directions. The southbound Starlight was delayed three and a half hours at Portland, Ore., while the northbound departed Martinez, Calif., two and a half hours late after being held there for an hour and a half.
— Saturday’s westbound Borealis. WBBM-TV reports the train encountered a lengthy delay in Hastings, Minn., about 20 miles from St. Paul, because of “switch issues;” the train ultimately resumed its trip about 10;15 p.m. and arrived in St. Paul at 10:37 p.m., more than four hours after its scheduled 6:29 p.m.
These problems are in addition to the downed-wire issues that suspended or delayed service most of today on the Northeast Corridor [see “Some Amtrak, NJ Transit service … restored,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 22, 2024].
On a separate note, the Eagle picked up a transition sleeper and a second full coach beginning Thanksgiving week resulting in a 8 car consist on the days trains 421/422 operate. Despite this much heavier consist, Amtrak planners didn’t bother assigning a second P42 to help! That very well could have prevented this. This particular train with two full sleepers, four coaches, and a dorm car has to rely on a single P42, which has millions of miles on it and is over 20 years old to do the work alone of pulling this massive train. Almost all long distance routes use a minimum of two engines to pull the train. Shouldn’t a consist as long as the Eagle’s current warrant need for the same?! One P42 to pull a consist of 8 Superliners over 1300 miles is absolutely unwise! It doesn’t surprise one bit that this happened!
They were at least able to scrounge additional cars to accommodate the stranded travelers in St. Louis on top of the additional cars the Eagle has been running with since Thanksgiving. Saw the southbound train roll into St. Louis with a transition sleeper, two full sleepers, and six coaches. (No cutoff coach)
Thanks to Bob Johnston for documenting these Amtrak disasters and posting them to the Newswire, and therefore making them searchable in the future.