WASHINGTON — Amtrak has begun another round of weather-related train cancellations, announcing three cancellations for Tuesday, Feb. 11, and seven for Wednesday, Feb. 12, because of a pair of winter storm forecasts.
According to an advisory posted today (Feb. 10, 2025) at 4:20 p.m., cancelled on Tuesday are:
— The eastbound Empire Builder scheduled to depart Seattle/Portland for Chicago.
— The Washington-Roanoke, Va., portion of Northeast Regional train No. 171, which originates in Boston at 8:12 a.m.
— Train No. 85 (Boston-Richmond, Va.), a 10:20 a.m. departure from Boston, in its entirety.
Also cancelled Tuesday, but attributed to equipment unavailability, are four Acela trips on the Northeast Corridor: New York-Washington train 2103, a scheduled 5:30 a.m departure; Boston-Washington train No. 2155, a scheduled 7:15 a.m. departure; Washington-New York train No. 2018, a scheduled 10:30 a.m. departure, and Washington-Boston train 2172, a scheduled 4 p.m. departure.
Cancelled on Wednesday are:
— The westbound Empire Builder departing from Chicago.
— Richmond-New York train No. 86, a scheduled 5:35 a.m. departure.
— Washington-New York trains No. 130, a 6:30 a.m. departure, and No. 112, a 7:45 a.m. departure
— New York-Washington trains No. 119, an 11:13 a.m. departure, and No. 131, a 12:10 p.m. departure.
— Train No. 134 between Roanoke (departing at 6:15 a.m.) and Washington; the Washington-New York portion is still scheduled to operate.
Amtrak’s service advisory says the cancellations are “for the safety of Amtrak customers and employees,” and that “no alterantive transportation [is] being offered despite our efforts.” The company does note that the Chicago-Twin Cities Borealis is currently still scheduled to operate on that portion of the Empire Builder route.
Non-weather cancellations today, according to the Amtrak Alerts feed on X.com, include one round trip of the Piedmont between Charlotte and Raleigh, N.C., and Vancouver-Seattle Amtrak Cascades train No. 519, all for mechanical/equipment issues. Also, the Amtrak website reports that today’s westbound departure of the Sunset Limited is currently stopped west of Lafayette, La., awaiting a new crew — apparently after being involved in a grade-crossing accident earlier today, according to images on the KMDL Radio website. Amtrak says “BNSF crews have completed the engine swap.” The train is currently estimated to reach Lake Charles, La., at 7:30 p.m., five hours, 35 minutes late.
Watch the Amtrak website, or the Amtrak Alerts and Amtrak Northeast feeds on X.com, for further updates.
— Updated at 6:15 p.m. and 6:25 p.m. with Sunset Limited information; updated Feb. 11 at 7:30 a.m. with Acela cancellations.
Did not Amtrak build large sheds to thaw out equipment for just such an event? And rails used to be resilient against normal winter weather. I cannot see how this is so terrible as to cause pre emptive cancellations.
REMEMBER — All of Amtrak’s top executives are former AIRLINE executives! They have no interest in, nor experience with, railroad operations. They are only in office for the huge bonuses they receive by cutting costs to the bone, by whatever means necessary. They’ve proven this by: (1)their overwhelming focus on only corridor and regional trains, (2)refusing to add on-board services on long-distance trains, like full-service dining cars and lounge cars, (3)refusing to add more coaches and sleepers to long-distance trains so as to keep staffing to a minimum, thereby keeping ridership and revenue low and show a loss so that long-distance trains can be discontinued. Amtrak could be a huge success and a long-distance network can effectively compete in the transportation marketplace, but only if you have dedicated executives who believe in, and who have experience with, railroad operations. Sadly, AIRLINE executives should not be in charge of Amtrak!
Can’t speak for other cancellations but the temps across MT & ND are near -20 below could it just be due to lack of staff & dealing with their own weather problems BNSF says if anything happens we don’t have capacity to help so Amtrak cancels the Emp Bldr in response. Although there appears to be a #7 today on Amtrak’s train tracker.
ATTENTION: If you have any unused Amtrak Guest Rewards points, I suggest that you use them A.S.A.P. Amtrak is on a death spiral and our current administration is NOT very receptive/responsive towards passenger rail.
Expect a sickening thud when it’s finally put out of it’s misery.
I just don’t understand how 4in of predicted snow justifies train cancellations. And temps hovering around freezing. This has really got to stop.
I dare say Elon Musk is going to look at this and wonder why the govt is paying for any of this nonsense. I don’t think a “fair weather” Amtrak is what we have in mind.
There is a very simple principle in governance — keep the show going, keep the house of cards standing, until your term ends and your successor is sworn in. When the house of cards collapses, the successor will be blamed. As for example the Reagan Recession after four years of misgovernance by Jimmy Carter. Or with the parties reversed, Bush the Younger gifted his foreign-policy and military foul-ups to his successor Barack Obama.
And so it will be with Amtrak. Buttigieg and Biden have stood there with a thumb in each armpit while Amtrak has stunk up America. Meaning Donald Trump and Sean Duffy and Elon Musk must either fix Amtrak or dump it. If the latter, Elon, Sean, and The Donald will be blamed, rather than Amtrak Joe and Mayor Pete.
With the higher Wednesday snow totals expected to the south and east of Chicago, and with there being no Hiawatha or Borealis cancelations on the same rails used by the Empire Builder, the EB cancelations seem to be related more to recovery from last week’s tardiness than to avoid issues from the upcoming storm.