CHICAGO — Miles of downed trees and power lines through rural Missouri and Arkansas over the weekend resulted in half-day delays or truncations for two Texas Eagles. Meanwhile, a Los Angeles-bound Southwest Chief sat for 8 hours in New Mexico when a wind-driven brush fire blocked the right-of-way.
Texas Eagle challenges
A Washington Post storm update reports that one of the strongest confirmed tornadoes occurred at Poplar Bluff, Mo., with winds of at least 136 mph. The Eagle that departed Chicago on Friday, March 13, first encountered nasty weather between Alton, Ill., and St. Louis, needing more than three hours to travel less than 30 miles. After being held an additional two hours at St. Louis, the beleaguered train tiptoed across the next 180 miles of signal and power outages to Poplar Bluff, arriving there at 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon. It was 17 hours late leaving the first stop in Arkansas, Walnut Ridge.
By then Amtrak strategists at the Consolidated National Operations Center in Wilmington, Del., decided to terminate this Eagle at Fort Worth, Tex., where it arrived Sunday morning at 7:02 a.m., almost 18 hours late. Buses took passengers the rest of the way to Austin and San Antonio, Tex.; Sunday’s eastbound Eagle passengers would also be bused from those cities back to Fort Worth.
But what to do about the passengers in the through coach and sleeping car that were supposed to be coupled on to the westbound Sunset Limited? It was decided to hold the triweekly train from New Orleans overnight at San Antonio to wait for the buses. Fortunately, the eastbound Sunset arriving Sunday morning had a coach and sleeper that could be cleaned and turned and head west after its passengers departed on buses for Fort Worth. Thus, the westbound Sunset departed San Antonio at 1:15 p.m. Sunday afternoon, 10 hours, 30 minutes late. It is due after midnight tonight (Sunday, March 16) at El Paso and into Los Angeles after noon Monday.
Although Saturday’s eastbound train out of Texas was negatively impacted by a three-hour crew rest delay at Marshall, Tex., it only lost another hour and a half into St. Louis, where it departed seven hours late. It arrived in Chicago today at 8:01 p.m., six hours, 17 minutes late.
Southwest Chiefs encounter fire
BNSF Railway freight congestion continues to delay many Chicago-Los Angeles Southwest Chiefs west of Albuquerque, N.M., but departures for the last week have had to also contend with high wind warnings on the La Junta, Colo.-Lamy, N.M. segment, where the passenger train is the line’s only service. The Superliner-equipped train that departed Thursday, March 13, from Chicago was initially slowed to 50 mph west of Raton, but west of Wagon Mound, N.M., it was stopped by a wind-driven fire that crossed the tracks, according to a passenger on board. The train departed its next station, Las Vegas, N.M., eight hours late, then waited west of Flagstaff, Ariz., for a fresh operating crew “to arrive by freight train,” an Amtrak advisory explained. It arrived at Los Angeles at 8:30 p.m. Saturday night, more than 12 hours late.
The Chief leaving Los Angeles on March 13 endured four hours of delays between Barstow, Calif., and Albuquerque, but then lost another five hours through the fire area into La Junta that included a two-hour precautionary wait at Albuquerque while its counterpart was headed west. The eastbound’s nearly nine-hour-late Chicago arrival Saturday night missed all connections.
With crews from delayed trains requiring mandatory rest, the next day’s westbound Chief arrived into Los Angeles at 2:37 p.m. today, six hours, 40 minutes late, while the eastbound arrived in Chicago at 6:55 p.m., three hours, 28 minutes late.
Week-long Eagle busing through June
Unfortunately, bus bridges will become a periodic Texas Eagle occurrence between March 20 and June 10, when Union Pacific will be doing extensive daytime track maintenance in week-long increments between Marshall, Tex., and Dallas. During that period, trains will terminate at Marshall and Fort Worth, approximately every other week; the complete schedule is listed on Amtrak’s website.
During that period the trains will operate Chicago-Marshall and Fort Worth-San Antonio with full consists, including sleepers, dining cars serving “flexible” meals, and Sightseer lounges. Fort Worth was chosen rather than Dallas because separate operating crews normally work between Fort Worth and Marshall.
A spot check of inventory following the announcement shows a “mixed service” option, with trains 21/421 and 22/422 shown as “cancelled.” However, it appears inventory is still being manipulated as passengers are notified, since itineraries through the bus bridge are often listed as “sold out.”
The service adjustment plan for the Eagle relating to UP track work is far better than the original plan, which was to completely suspend service btw Fort Worth and St. Louis on the work days. Not even a bus btw those two cities.
Not the fault of any railroad, but illustrating the vulnerability of rail traffic in USA. A freight hit a pedestrian at Lake Forest, Illinois, around noon Friday 03/14/2025. (This is tangent track with long visibility in both directions.)
Rail traffic was shut down for about an hour. Once the line was reopened and throughout the rest of the day, METRA and Amtrak trains ran anywhere from on time, to about 45 minutes late, to entirely annulled. Can’t say about delays to CPKC freights, only to say that at least some of them ran.
This shows why WisDOT has been working (it’s still not completed) to build the second platform (and footbridge) at MKA General Mitchell International Airport, which is in on Milwaukee’s south side. Because the station was built with only one platform (and for now remains with only one completed platform), a seeming double-track railroad is actually two adjacent single track railroads in southern Milwaukee County and northern Racine County. When Amtrak runs on schedule, it works. But in the backwash of the delay from Lake Forest, Amtrak wasn’t running on schedule and at least one Amtrak train had to stop and wait for the single track to clear.
And that’s not all!!! Saturday nite/Sunday AM, both Starlights terminated at Sacramento and K Falls, no bus bridge available, problem attributed by Amtrak to a ‘Rail Partner’ (UP) issue, then Sunday nite along the Empire Corridor, 63 delayed at Rochester due to downed power lines to the west, combined with 281 and taking a detour locally. 283 running 2-3 hours late and at this writing not yet at Rochester. In the Surfliner Corridor, 777 had mechanical issues near Chatsworth, pushed back to Van Nuys by 784, where a relief train was to resume the 777 trip. The relief train was likely the Comet cars, which have no business class or food service cars, just straight coaches and snack pack handouts, a long way from LA to San Luis Obispo with no food service!!!
Unexpected bad luck for the two renowned veteran Amtrak trains.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün