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 would be arranged for some Chicago-Pontiac, Mich., and Chicago-St. Louis trains today and Wednesday. Presumably this would accommodate passengers who were already ticketed.
Among the Midwest routes where buses won’t substitute Tuesday and Wednesday are seven Chicago-Milwaukee departures each day and one Chicago-Quincy, Ill., round trip.
The Empire Builder is now canceled in both directions through Friday, Jan. 19, which means it will not have operated over even a portion of its route for 9 days.
The Maple Leaf to and from Toronto, all Empire Service trains operating west of Albany-Rensselaer, and the Chicago-New York/Boston Lake Shore Limited were canceled Wednesday as frigid temperatures moved east.
Another winter storm that began pounding the Pacific Northwest forced cancellation today and Wednesday of all Amtrak Cascades south of Portland, Ore., and north of Seattle, as well as several round trips between those two cities. The southbound Coast Starlight was expected to make its first trip in a week from Seattle to Los Angeles on Wednesday.
Back in Chicago, virtually all scheduled Amtrak trains wound up departing late this afternoon and evening, or passengers were being told to expect delays. These included:
Train Scheduled Departed
Texas Eagle 1:55 p.m 4:24 p.m.
California Zephyr 2:00 p.m. 5:05 p.m.
Southwest Chief 2:50 p.m. 3:25 p.m.
Lincoln Service 319 9:50 a.m. 11:05 a.m
Blue Water 4:00 p.m. 4:39 p.m
This story was updated Wednesday afternoon with additional information from Amtrak.
James J Hill is rolling over in his grave. 9 days of no Empire Builder’s? Disgraceful.
I’ve lost hope that Congress will call this clown show running Amtrak on the carpet over theses train anullments.
What Amtrak is doing is a shame. If the pre-Amtrak passenger carriers did this there would be hell to pay. I remember taking the train from New York to Villanova PA back in February of 1971. It was cold with about a foot of snow on the ground and the ancient PRR MP-54 cars got me out to Villanova with no problem. After I got off the train an express to Pittsburgh came flying by pulled by a GG-1. And this was a company that was bankrupt. So much for 50 years of progress.
My daughter rode the Eagle Southbound Chi to Stl on Friday and 318 Northbound Stl to Chi on Monday and despite frigid temps, arrival was early both days.
Perhaps Amtrak has canceled some runs so they can double up on engines as an HEP failure out on the road with these temps could be dangerous, therefore the need to eliminate some runs.
I am confused, Amtrak can’t run the train to St. Louis or Pontiac due to the cold and snow but they can charter buses? Did the host railroads completely shutdown? Did Amtrak shutdown the locomotives and unplug the coaches from HEP between runs to reduce greenhouse gases and carbon footprint and now they are all frozen and inoperable until the spring thaw?
I wonder if we ever find out the true reasons for all the cancellations. I have been wondering if at least part of this is Amtrak having crew problems. Something like the airlines problem if delays trap employees in places where they can’t be readily replaced if they time out.
People younger than age 70 probably won’t hear the phrase that rail is the “all-weather mode”. If they do hear such, they’ll think it’s one of those old fairy tales. Highways and airports close in bad weather but the train used to get through, or so it was said. Not any more.
Not surprising given 55 years of disinvestmentvin passenger rail, an increasing focus of the business world and society on efficiency, which means cutting redundancies that could be useful in weather extremes. Others say what you will about current Amtrak management, but lets at least acknowledge they are dealing with a not very good hand
Well, trains did seem “all-weather” when the freight railroads were “dis-investing” in them in the 1960s. I think Amtrak today is more risk adverse to bad publicity if a train gets stranded, as Mr. Landey has written before, sometimes decades ago the trains got through with no problems, sometimes bad things did occur. Crew and equipment issues are also likely contributing factors.