Downeaster’s Rockland branch experiment encounters equipment snag, Amtrak involvement delays (updated)

RDCs parked next to building

BRUNSWICK, Maine — A proposal to use a Rail Diesel Car to offer year-round connections on a former Maine Central branch line from Rockland, Maine to a rendezvous with Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority’s Amtrak-operated Downeaster at Brunswick, Maine, is being re-evaluated after the RDC suffered a debilitating breakdown last fall. Midcoast Railservice, the carrier with […]

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Senate confirms three nominees for Amtrak board

Man speaking at hearing

WASHINGTON — For the first time in more than eight years, the Amtrak board of directors has new members. The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed the nominations of Christopher Koos, Anthony Coscia, and Joel Szabat to serve on the board, the first time the Senate has confirmed board members since 2015. Koos, the mayor of […]

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Mudslide closes Cascades route as Midwest cancellations near end

Passenger train at sunset. Amtrak cancellations mudslide snow

PORTLAND, Ore. — The latest in Amtrak’s series of weather-related operating cancellations in the Pacific Northwest and Midwest — caused by a mudslide, cold, and snow — will extend until at least Tuesday morning, based on information available as of Sunday evening, Jan. 21. A mudslide south of Kelso, Wash., on BNSF Railway’s Amtrak Cascades […]

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Amtrak Midwest routes see three days of cancellations

Diesel with front caked with snow crosses diamond

CHICAGO — Amtrak Midwest state-supported services have taken another weather-related hit, with cancellations today through Monday for a trains on a number of routes. In an update posted at 9 a.m. today (Saturday, Jan. 20), Amtrak announced these trains have been cancelled in their entirety: Lincoln Service (Chicago-St. Louis) — Today, Sunday, and Monday: Trains […]

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STB seeks answers for delay on Gulf Coast settlement: Analysis

aerial view of land along railroad tracks near water

WASHINGTON —The Surface Transportation Board has called for Amtrak, CSX, Norfolk Southern, and the Port of Mobile, Ala., to provide “detailed information regarding the status of the implementation of the settlement agreement” agreed to in November 2022 to allow Amtrak service to begin between New Orleans and Mobile, Ala. — and scheduled a February hearing […]

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Amtrak cancellations expand to Acela    

High speed train passing through station

WASHINGTON — With the first significant snow of the season sweeping into the East Coast on Thursday, Amtrak cancelled 12 Acela Northeast Corridor departures, although no Northeast Regional trains were dropped. Three of the cancelled round-trips were scheduled Boston-Washington, and three were New York-Washington, plus an additional departure of the Washington-New York portion of Acela […]

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New Amtrak station to be built in Vermont (updated)

Amtrak logo.

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. – Construction on a new Amtrak station in Brattleboro is set to begin March, the Commons News reported. The station, which will be served by Amtrak’s Vermonter, will cost $10 million and take 18 months to complete. It will include the first high-level passenger platform in Vermont. In November 2020, Amtrak announced it […]

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Amtrak cancellations start shifting east and west (updated)

Passenger cars in yard with snow on ground

CHICAGO — With daytime Midwest temperatures expected to push above zero beginning Wednesday, Amtrak today (Tuesday, Jan. 16) began resuming departures on some long-distance routes west of Chicago, although trains serving western New York and the Pacific Northwest were cancelled today and Wednesday, Jan. 17. A cancellation advisory posted this afternoon indicated alternate bus transportation […]

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Amtrak Midwest winter shutdown continues

Workers attending to locomotives in snow.

CHICAGO — Amtrak continues to assess efforts to operate in subzero Midwest temperatures and make cancellation decisions less than 24 hours before departures. In a remarkably candid email addressed this morning to “Supporter of Passenger Rail” and obtained by Trains News Wire, Amtrak’s veteran Chicago-based government affairs director, Derrick James, outlined the latest cancellations through […]

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Three passenger corridor revivals I’d love to see

Streamlined steam locomotive on passenger train among many wires

I’m not holding my breath, but the Federal Railroad Administration late last year released a long list of routes chosen for what it calls its Corridor Identification and Development Program, which the Trains News Wire describes as “a catch-all group of 69 potential future Amtrak routes, possible extensions to existing routes, efforts to increase service […]

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Ride aboard a private train

Private cars, also called “private varnish”, represent a mode of passenger railroading that’s intriguing and seemingly elusive to most viewing trackside. Who’s in that car? Where is it going? How are they able to do that? All questions that Trains.com staffer Bryson Sleppy has also pondered…and can now help us answer! Follow video highlights of […]

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