CHICAGO — Amtrak will begin restoring Borealis service between Chicago and St. Paul, Minn., on Thursday, March 27, using Superliner equipment in place of the Horizon cars sidelined because of corrosion issues.
Meanwhile, bus substitution for about half of the trains on the Chicago-Milwaukee Hiawatha route will continue “until further notice.”
Some 70 Horizon coaches and food-service cars were pulled from service as of today (March 26) because of the corrosion concerns, leading to cancellation of the Borealis, some Hiawathas, and most Amtrak Cascades trains in the Pacific Northwest [see “Amtrak sidelines Horizon car fleet …,” Trains News Wire, March 26, 2025].
But in a service advisory released this evening, Amtrak said the westbound Borealis will operate Thursday, with both trains operating on Friday, March 28, and thereafter. Passengers holding Business Class tickets will be receive refunds for the difference between business class and coach fares, the advisory says, “as bilevel railcars now operating on Borealis trains do not support business class.”
Hiawatha frequencies not using Horizon cars will continue to operate, but buses have been chartered for the other trains until further notice, the company says.
An advisory regarding Cascades service on the Amtrak website says bus substitution for most trains will continue until further notice. As with the Borealis, those holding Business Class tickets will be refunded the difference between that and coach fare.
An improvement for Borealis, but bad new for the long distance trains. At least, due to the Floridian, they had some Superliners available. Maybe Minnesota is going to have buy into the Midwest state’s Siemens Venture cars?
I’d say Superliners are an improvement over the Horizon cars. I’ve heard the Horizons cars tend to have a toilet smell to them, I’m surprised they lasted this long (35 yrs)! All this new Siemens equipment definitely will not last that long I’d give them 25 yrs max. Best round up all the stray Superliner coaches from the ski train, the wasted ones running empty on the CN & the few strays including Lounge cars on CA Surfliners.
Just spoke to an Amtrak employee. 1333 has locomotives on each end. Superliner coach, Superliner Coach Baggage and a 35000 coach upper level and snack bar on the lower level.
Accepting the reality of the loss of the Horizon equipment and moving forward instead of backward: What is the status and timeline of equipment on order? (No reporting yet.) What is the status and timeline of equipment moving through Beech Grove? (No reporting yet.) What is the status of forces at Beech Grove? (No reporting yet.) Whither the wasted Superliners assigned to CN axle count duty? (No reporting yet.)
Face it. Amtrak is a disaster.
What kind of Superliner food service will be provided? Will it be a 35000 series coach that provided food service on the lower level? Probably not enough Sightseer Lounges to protect the two sets.
Mike Lustig
What one can say? Better than nothing, of course… On the other hand, Amtrak needs to seriously change its redundant equipment program as soon as possible, taking the major European passenger rail operators (Renfe, Trenitalia, ÖBB, DB, SNCF etc.) as an example.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Amtrak sure went to hell under Amtrak Joe, the corrupt, senile communist dum-dum, and his buddy Mayor Nobody who seems to have spent four years on paternity leave.
Seem to recall massive order of Airo trainsets from Siemens…
The childish name-calling does nothing to enhance your argument.
Let’s see how your buddy king trump treats Amtrak. Biden didn’t do what I’d hoped he would for Amtrak especially when it came to management. But the money was made available for improvements.
Purpose of Amtrak was to provide jobs for the boys and incidental talking points about saving whales or something. Regarding those jobs: Doing What??
Amtrak continues to show why it needs drastic management changes.
Maybe I don’t understand railroading but I would think that an operation that depends on passenger rail cars would have a robust maintenance, repair, and refurbishment program with something always in the pipeline. Perhaps, once the chainsaw and wood chipper gang gets to Amtrak, there will be a surplus of equipment from the long distance trains that can go to regional services.
Ambus. More management cleansing needs to be done. This is just pathetic.
Any chance Amtrak is going to use “surplus” axel count cars?
Would think they could use Horizon cars for axel count cars since no one is riding in them.