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CHICAGO — Amtrak has revised its plans for the return of California Zephyr service along the train’s full route, now aiming for April 4 as the date for the restablishment of service. The train has not been operating east of Denver because of flooding in the Midwest. The passenger carrier had originally set today (April […]
WASHINGTON—In addition to its “Equipment Asset Line Plan” [see “Amtrak fleet plan would replace Amfleet I cars, prepare for replacement Superliners,” Trains News Wire, March 25, 2019], Amtrak this week released companion five-year plans dealing with the following categories (click on each for the documents): Infrastructure Stations Transportation assets Service lines (Northeast Corridor, state-supported, and […]
The rerouted Californiz Zephyr passes through Nelson, Ill., on Union Pacific’s Geneva Subdivision on March 23, 2019. Initially rerouted because of flooding, the train has not operated east of Denver since March 26, but service is being restored as of April 1. John Troxler OMAHA, Neb. — Beginning with trips originating in Emeryville, Calif., on […]
NEW YORK — An Amtrak employee shot his supervisor and later killed himself in New York on Thursday morning, police report. NBC News reports that the shooting occurred at Sunnyside Yard in Queens. The 53-year-old supervisor was wounded in the leg, and is expected to recover. Officers chased the 48-year-old suspect to the parking lot […]
SEATTLE — Positive train control is now fully operational on the route of the Amtrak Cascades, the Washington state Department of Transportation has announced. However, there is still no date for returning Cascades trains to the Point Defiance bypass south of Tacoma, Wash. Seattle TV station KIRO reports PTC equipment is now in place from […]
WASHINGTON — While it is less than a definitive document, Amtrak has outlined its five-year plan for its equipment fleet, indicating the locomotives and cars it aims to replace or refurbish, as well as indications of how it would use that fleet. Amtrak’s “Five Year Equipment Asset Line Plan,” issued last week, is presented as […]
Passengers board the southbound City of New Orleans at Greenwood, Miss., on Sept. 10, 2015. Rural and mid-sized communites could lose intercity passenger service under the corridor-focused plans put forward by the Trump administration and Amtrak. Bob Johnston WASHINGTON — More details have emerged from President Donald Trump’s proposed Amtrak cuts in the 2020 federal […]
CHICAGO – Metra’s longstanding displeasure with Amtrak over problems at Chicago Union Station blew up into heated criticism – complete with some coarse language – as a result of a “human error” which shut down train operations last month. One by one, most of Metra’s board of directors took aim Wednesday at Amtrak, accusing the […]
Amtrak’s California Zephyr calls at Omaha in September 2018. Trains: Jim Wrinn OMAHA, Neb. — Faced with uncertain restoration dates on the California Zephyr’s regular BNSF Railway route owing to extensive flooding in Iowa, beginning Thursday, March 21, Amtrak is rerouting the train over the Union Pacific’s former Chicago & North Western main line between […]
Joe Boardman gets the engineer’s perspective of a Siemens ACS-64 electric on a test track at the Transportation Technolgy Center in Pueblo, Colo., on July 29, 2013. A significant number of Amtrak employees were on hand for Boardman’s funeral Friday in Rome, N.Y. Bob Johnston ROME, N.Y. — More than a hundred current Amtrak employees, […]
WASHINGTON — Twitter wars are common enough between people of opposing political views, some celebrities, or various social-media influencers. But between Amtrak and one of its host railroads? A Wall Street Journal report (behind a paywall) notes that Amtrak and Norfolk Southern have been trading letters about an Amtrak tweet last month in which the […]
CHICAGO—Flooding in eastern Nebraska, western Iowa, and northwest Missouri has caused delays, truncations and outright cancellations to the Chicago-Emeryville, Calif., California Zephyr and two state-sponsored Missouri River Runner round-trips between St. Louis and Kansas City, Mo. Today’s eastbound Zephyr is cancelled entirely out of California; Amtrak has blocked sales east of Denver until at least […]
