PORTLAND, Ore. — Amtrak Cascades and Coast Starlight service has been halted between Portland and Seattle for 48 hours because of a landslide earlier today, Amtrak announced shortly before noon PT today (Friday, Feb. 16). It is the fourth slide disruption on the route in less than a month. For both today and Saturday, Feb. […]
Nearly three years after Amtrak said it would launch Gulf Coast service with or without host railroad cooperation, its passenger trains still are not running between Mobile, Ala., and New Orleans. And as the saga drags on you have to wonder if they ever will. After years of frustration with CSX, Amtrak in 2021 took […]
SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. — Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner service will introduce a revised timetable on Saturday, Feb. 17, as it continues to deal with the effects of a line closure caused by a landslide in San Clemente. The revisions affect two northbound trains. Train 765, normally a 6:01 a.m. depart from San Diego to Goleta, Calif., […]
SACRAMENTO — A California state senator is introducing a bill to address projects to prevent interruptions to passenger rail service on the LOSSAN Rail Corridor between San Luis Obispo and San Diego, such as the current slide near San Clemente, Calif., that has disrupted Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner and Metrolink commuter rail service. The San Diego […]
WASHINGTON — Surface Transportation Board Chairman Martin Oberman was so disappointed in the lack of information provided at Wednesday’s board hearing into the status of Amtrak Gulf Coast service that he ordered the parties to come back in 30 days with a detailed report to address the board’s unanswered questions. “I’ve negotiated a lot of […]
DENVER — Amtrak and BNSF Railway have sued the driver of a semi-truck of milk, as well as the truck’s owner, over the Jan. 29 grade-crossing collision that derailed the eastbound California Zephyr near Keenesburg, Colo. The suit, filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, says Dairy Farmers of […]
WASHINGTON — In the latest step in its ongoing investigation into on-time performance for Amtrak’s Sunset Limited, the Surface Transportation Board has asked the passenger operator and the train’s host railroads to answer a series of detailed questions on delays encountered during specific runs by the train and other operational details along the train’s route. […]
MAGNOLIA, W.Va. — A Monday afternoon CSX derailment in a remote area of West Virginia has disrupted operations of Amtrak’s Capitol Limited. The Monday derailment in Morgan County, W.Va., near the community of Magnolia, involved nine cars, four of which were carrying sodium hydroxide, a corrosive material that can cause severe skin burns and eye […]
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio legislators are preparing to introduce bills to rejoin the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission, an organization the state left in 2013, Statehouse News Bureau reports. State Rep. Mike Skindell (D-Lakewood) said the House version of the bill will be introduced in the next month or so, and several Republican legislators will sign […]
NEW YORK — Amtrak and transit agencies in the Northeast have begun making schedule adjustments for Tuesday, Feb. 13, based on forecasts of a major winter storm expected to hit the area. As of 5:10 p.m. Eastern Time, Amtrak has announced these changes for Tuesday: — Acela trains Nos. 2163 and 2167 will not operate […]
WASHINGTON — After the U.S. Senate confirmed two new members for the Amtrak board of directors and reconfirmed Chairman Anthony Coscia last month, President Joe Biden has renominated a previous candidate without advancing anyone based outside the Northeast Corridor for the four remaining term-expired or vacant voting board positions. Nominated is Delaware River and Bay […]
It always bothered me that I couldn’t identify the engineer in this picture of Amtrak train No. 98, departing Main Street Station in Richmond, Va., on Sept. 14, 1974. He wasn’t the regular throttle jockey, whom I knew. Still, it’s one of my favorite images and was used to promote my first book, From the […]
