WASHINGTON — Amtrak has announced an extensive list of train cancellations as of today (Saturday, Jan. 4), extending into Tuesday, Jan. 7. Operations from coast to coast are affected as a result of the winter storm currently moving through the center of the country.
The cancellations began with Friday’s scheduled departure of the eastbound Southwest Chief from Los Angeles. Its opposite number, westbound No. 3 from Chicago, has been cancelled today (Saturday, Jan. 4). Also cancelled today are No. 22, the northbound San Antonio-Chicago Texas Eagle, and No. 50, the eastbound Chicago-Cincinnati-Washington-New York Cardinal.
Cancellations still to come include:
Sunday, Jan. 5
Long-distance trains:
— No. 21, the southbound Chicago-San Antonio Texas Eagle.
— Nos. 40 and 41, both directions of the Chicago-Miami Floridian.
— No. 51, the westbound New York-Washington-Cincinnati-Chicago Cardinal.
— Nos. 58 and 59, both directions of the City of New Orleans to and from Chicago.
— UPDATE: No. 4, the Southwest Chief that left Los Angeles on Saturday, Jan. 4, is terminating today (Jan. 5) in Albuquerque. After it is serviced there, it will return all passengers to their points of origin between Albuquerque and LA.
Midwest:
— All Lincoln Service trains between Chicago and St. Louis (Nos. 300, 301, 302, 305, 306, 307, 318, and 319), including those extended to Kansas City as Missouri River Runner service.
— Both Missouri River Runner round trips (Nos. 311, 319, 316 and 318), as previous announced.
— Both round trips of the Chicago-Carbondale Saluki/Illini, Nos. 390, 391, 392, and 393.
Northeast:
— Northeast Regional train No. 67 (Boston-Washington); No. 157 between Washington and Norfolk, Va., and No. 195 between Washington and Richmond, Va.
Monday, Jan. 6
Northeast:
— Acela: Nos. 2103, 2107, and 2121 (Boston-Washington) are cancelled entirely, as are Nos. 2108, 2122, and 2124 (Washington-Boston); Nos. 2150, 2154, 2168, 2170, and 2172 are cancelled between Washington and New York, and Nos. 2151, 2153, 2155, 2159, and 2173 are cancelled between New York and Washington.
— Northeast Regional: Cancelled entirely are Washington-New York trains Nos. 112, 130, 182, Washington-Boston trains Nos. 170 and 172; Norfolk-New York trains No. 84 and 138, Richmond-Boston train No. 86, Roanoke-New York train No. 134, Roanoke-Boston train No. 66; New York-Washington trains Nos. 131, 181, 193, 197, Boston-Washington train No. 175, Boston-New York train No. 179, Boston-Richmond train No. 85 New York-Roanoke train No. 151, and New York-Newport News train No. 119. Partial cancellations include Nos. 94, 95, and 141 between Washington and New York; No. 171 between Roanoke and Washington; No. 125 between Washington and Newport News; No. 93 between New York and Norfolk, and No. 174 between Richmond and Washington.
— The Carolinians, Nos. 79 and 80, are cancelled between Charlotte and Raleigh, N.C.
Midwest:
UPDATE: Added to the cancellation list for Monday are the same Lincoln Service and Missouri River Runner trains that were cancelled Sunday: Nos. 300, 301, 302, 305, 306, 307, 311, 316, 318, and 319.
Tuesday, Jan. 7
— Northeast Regional No. 86 is cancelled between Richmond and Washington; No. 84 is cancelled between Norfolk and Washington.
Those affected can contact Amtrak’s reservation center at 1-800-USA-Rail for rebooking. Watch the Amtrak website and its Amtrak Alerts and Amtrak NEC Alerts feeds on X.com for more information, including possible additional service changes.
— Updated Jan. 5 at 4:50 p.m. with Sunday cancellation of Southwest Chief beyond Albuquerque, Monday cancellations of Lincoln Service and Missouri River Runner.
Railways fared better in similar winter conditions a century ago with better staffed passenger departments. Passenger trains and infrastructure were better maintained with pride.
We have had worse storms than this an the all weather transportation system never shut down!!
Let’s just shut the whole system down until spring. I ran train 49 from Buffalo to Toledo on a Christmas night years ago with six and a half feet of snow and more coming down. I had absolutely no problems. The CSX dispatcher made no attempts at crossover moves. Here I sit at home in NW Ohio with barely any snow on the ground and no trains.
I thought Amtrak was funded in part so that we would have alternatives to flying and driving. Trains, if set up correctly, should be able to go when air and
driving are not good. This could be done with intentional planning and adverse operations resources. So in the 2030s when Amtrak has all this new equipment, we should expect way fewer equipment malfunctions then we do now. I agree with others on here. Should we keep funding a fair weather railroad?
Let us talk about freezing rain. 1/4 inch will bring down tree limbs and some power lines. 1/2 inch will bring down many trees. The 1 inch forecast will bring down almost all power lines, power poles & most trees. In places almost 100 % trees. As well 1/4 inch will ground airplanes as deicing wings and tail does not have enough holdover time to allow takeoffs.
So, an Amtrak train gets stopped by trees and / or power lines across the tracks. Before it can even back up more come down trapping the train with no hope for rescue for days. Back many years in my first house an ice storm trapped my cars for seven days, Had to walk out 3/4 mile for supplies. Power out fortunately just 1 – 1/2 days. Neighbor behind me no power for month. Fortunately, was able to run 10 & 12 gauge extension cords from my home to his allowing his gas furnace to operate.
Do not operate vehicles anywhere until the ice starts melting off the wires and trees.
Am I missing “Boring Alice” and Hiawatha cancellations, or does the old Milw. Rd. line run?
No snow forecast in Wisconsin this week. When snow does come, Curtis, the trains will run.
Amtrak is designed to fail. If I recall the mileage, it’s something like 2200 miles from Chicago to LA. Roughly a two-day ride. With just about no Amtrak-employed mechanical staff nor extra equipment en route. Jeffrey Pletcher is right. If a train is annulled in Kansas City or stuck in a snowdrift in SE Colorado, the passengers will sue. Too much bad could happen.
I contemplated, but did not take, a flight on Southwest Airlines to Denver for 2023 Christmas. If I had gone, I would have been stranded (on the return leg) in the Denver airport for 24 or 48 hours. Very unpleasant, but plenty of outlets for food, clean bathrooms, and the basics of shelter. Imagine being stranded on an Amtrak LD train trip.
Oh, sorry, I’m off by a year. The SWA meltdown was Christmastime 2022.
Charles I remember chatting with a station agent in Dallas Union Station where the Texas Eagle stops daily. He told me that he quickly contacted shop forces at Beech Grove upon the Southwest meltdown taking place to ask if more equipment could be deployed. His request of course was turned down. Even frontline Amtrak employees know that management has been missing the ballgame with the slow progress at getting stored equipment back to operations and some in cases of onboard experience.
Many of the trains are being cancelled for factors not in control of Amtrak or other RRs. How can Amtrak predict if crews will be allowed to get to their assignments? All RR employees in the last few major storms are being prevented from traveling to their assignments. How can Amtrak expect to run a train if the T & E persons cannot go to their assignment. As well As well various maintenance personnel will also be eliminated from traveling. Not good for Amtrak or even the freight RRs trying to rescue stranded crew.
The lack of knowledge at Amtrak management is evident daily. Today’s example is that management cant even correctly list the trains being canceled on their website! Among today’s errors, that further confuse passengers and family’s meeting passrngers, are — “Train 3 operating from Los Angeles to Chicago”, “Train 51 operating Chicago to New York”, “Train 21/421 operating San Antonio to Chicago”. The list goes on. How sad that Amtrak’s operations department, middle management, website programmers, etc can’t even show basic info correctly, so that existing passrngers and potential customers can know what’s going on.
I forgot to mention that the Amtrak website is frequently not updated with train status data or explanations of operating problems. Case in point — Train 2 was terminated in San Antonio on Dec 31, due to late operation. Presumably, busses operated SAS-NOL. But the website only showed “TBD” for all stations for 24 hours. No info given for what was happening. The next day, Jan 1, Train 1 was canceled, passengers were bused NOL-SAS, but the website didn’t show this until 12 hours AFTER the buses arrived in SAS! Website users were given no explanation of bus operations or updates.
Separately, the website is not user friendly fir the novice customers or anyone having no knowledge of railroad operations. It needs a complete redesign to dramatically improve user navigation and to provide basic info about services and operations.
I understand the KC chiefs are stranded in KC due the ice storm today to be followed by blizzard conditions tonight. Maybe all you winter weather experts should pile in a car and go down there & show them how it’s done? You’d have no problem getting through…right?
For a moment there I thought you were referring to the Kansas City Chief that ran on the ATSF back before Amtrak.
It does seem rather amazing that there are this many cancellations in what appears to be a fairly normal winter snowstorm. We are not expecting two or three feet in any of these areas, outside of the “lake effect” snows that might hamper trains through Buffalo, NY. I wonder if a part, perhaps large part, of the reason is the number of unattended stations that Amtrak trains stop at. Is there any kind of effective snow removal plan for those stations? Could the concern be for passengers stepping off into 10 or 12 inches of snow, someone slipping and then suing? Any thoughts from readers appreciated.
Or even someone suing because they’ve been inconvenienced in a train struck in a snowdrift, given our litigious culture?
It’s really time to just clean house on management. How can one continue to justify Amtrak’s existence any more?
“How can one continue to justify Amtrak’s existence any more?” James asks. The answer is simple. Because Amtrak is better than VIA Rail Canada.
The fire should be on AMTRAK’s board. They are the ones who should insist on a credible product and replace management as necessary to get there. They seem unable to acquire and operate new locomotives and cars, to maintain what they have, and operate in what used to be standard train weather conditions.
AMTRAK’s new motto: We don’t run in winter.
Or heavy dew?