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 No. 2150 to Boston.
An employee advisory obtained by Trains attributed the cancellations “Due to six HSR trainsets currently shopped (40% of the active fleet).” Amtrak has 20 Acela trainsets, but four had already been removed from service.
The advisory posted late Thursday afternoon made no mention of any Friday Acela cancellations. It did note that half of the Chicago-Milwaukee Hiawathas would be cancelled, along with two Wolverine round-trips and two Chicago-St. Louis Lincoln Service round-trips. One departure in each direction remains cancelled Friday on the Chicago-Quincy, Ill.; Chicago-Carbondale, Ill.; and St. Louis-Kansas City, Mo., corridors.
Full service was restored to western New York State including the Lake Shore Limited beginning with Thursday departures, as were the Blue Water and Pere Marquette in Michigan.
The latest email from Amtrak to a “passenger train supporter” explained that the company is “doubling-up locomotives [so] trains can make it safely over the road; dispatching trains with two locomotives rather than one … limits the number of engines we have to dispatch all trains.”
Here is the latest statement from Amtrak: Amtrak Advisory | Modifications Due to Winter Storms and Extreme Cold Across the Country
Honestly I wonder how much longer these current acelas will last, I feel like at some point they going to have to start running non-stop regionals to make up for the small fleet still working
Anyone have details of the “alternative transportation” the advisory says is being provided” for so many of these state-supported trains? Why is it this alternative transportation can operate but the trains cannot?
Can’t run if it is too hot and can’t run if it is too cold and can’t run if it is to wet, can’t run if freight trains are in the way; just who is running this circus?
Randal: “Who is running this circus?” Anthony Coscia, Stephen Gardner, and Roger Harris with the apparent support of POTUS, SecTrans Buttigieg, FRA administrator Amit Bose, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, and all the state legislators and DOT officers in the states that pay Amtrak per the PRIIA209.
If Amtrak curtailed NEC service on Thursday 1-18-2014, you should know the snow didn’t start in Washington until between 2.00 and 3.00 AM FRIDAY Jan 19, 2024, moving from Southwest to Northeast.
So if they curtailed service it was “just because,” and not due to weather. Temps were in the 30’s. Siemens diesels do not pull NEC trains.
Just got in on the one Eastbound Wolverine running today after missing the bus-replaced one last evening due to a late arrival on the California Zephyr. Everything went fine, full speed and on time all the way.
The train was unusually running an SC-44 on each end, I suspect to make sure there’s mobility (and HEP) in the event of a failure. I suspect some (but not all) of the Midwest regional cancellations are due to not being able to schedule sufficient power to do that everywhere.
Hiawathas still being cancelled? Here in the Milwaukee area, we had a couple of days of a rare combination of zero-ish temperatures and heavy snow. But that was a week ago.
The temperature never got colder than about -4 F. Now it’s up in the teens, day and night both. We’ve had gorgeous weather since Monday four days ago. Five straight days of the prettiest winter weather you could imagine.
Cold is 15-below F daytime high. This year, we have gotten nowhere near that nighttime low.
To reply to my own post, I have to wonder if Hiawatha patronage is there to support the current schedules. I realize that my own personal story isn’t the whole of the ridership, but maybe it’s of some interest. My own patronage of the Hiawatha has dropped from several times each year, to a couple of times each year, to last year (2023) zero. I can’t be the only one.
Some commuters now work from home at least a few days each week. Chicago is no longer worth visiting due to the crime. We won’t go there any more on a spare day to seek out a museum or to fill up a goof-off day, like we used to do.