With Tropical Storm Francine approaching the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast – and expected to make landfall tomorrow afternoon – Amtrak has canceled or modified service on its trains that serve New Orleans.
Union Pacific, meanwhile, today told customers that it’s preparing for the storm, which is expected to strike as a Category 2 hurricane.
“We are currently monitoring Tropical Storm Francine as it approaches the western Gulf of Mexico coast. The storm is expected to curve northward, impacting the south coast of Texas and Louisiana mid-week,” UP said in a customer advisory. “We are making preparations along our network to respond quickly to potential outages.”
UP is staging generators, ballast, track panels, and diesel fuel in the area. It’s also aiming to provide supplemental transportation and lodging for its train crews in the area. Signal teams are securing grade crossing gates.
Norfolk Southern and CSX, in separate customer alerts, said the closing of flood gates at the Port of New Orleans would affect service through the gateway.
“Currently, there are no impacted service areas and Norfolk Southern is operating as scheduled,” the railroad said. “However, the Port of New Orleans is planning to close the flood gates between 1800 – 2000 this evening. This will impact local as well as interchange traffic in New Orleans. Norfolk Southern will work with connecting carriers to utilize alternative gateways where possible. We will provide updates as needed.”
In a customer announcement posted this morning, Amtrak canceled today’s train 59, the City of New Orleans, between Chicago and New Orleans. It also canceled trains 19 and 20, the Crescent, for their entire route between New York and New Orleans.
For Wednesday, Amtrak has canceled train No. 1, the Sunset Limited, between New Orleans and San Antonio, Texas. The northbound City of New Orleans, train 58, also is canceled between New Orleans and Chicago. Train 20, the Crescent, is canceled between New Orleans and Atlanta.
Note: Updated at 3:28 p.m. Central with service advisories from CSX and NS.
Amtrak’s company charter needs to be changed so as to make Amtrak a corridor and short-distance regional passenger train operator. That what it’s management choses to focus on anyway! Set up a new company, tasked with exclusively operating ALL current long-distance Amtrak passenger trains and headquarter the company somewhere in the Midwest (Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, etc), anywhere but in Washington, DC. Take the several hundred million dollars Amtrak currently allocates to operate the long-distance trains and give it to the new long-distance company. Hire a headquarters staff, experienced in REAL passenger rail service (i.e. similar to folks working for Rocky Mountaineer or Brightline) and tasked the new company to develop, modify and drastically improve the existing long-distance network. Sadly, the current Amtrak management doesn’t have the interest, nor the knowledge base, to truly operate quality, long-distance passenger train service.
They could run Sunset to Houston and turn it there instead of San Antonio. Could turn City Of New Orleans in Memphis, TN or Jackson, MS. Could turn Crescent in Atlanta or Birmingham. Amtrak management is so PISS POOR, I wouldn’t hire them to manage a port-a- potty.
Amtrak management apparently doesn’t want to think about turning the Crescent at Atlanta or the Sunset at San Antonio. Too much trouble. Much easier to shut everything down. Service be damned.
I misread the San Antonio portion of the above. San Antonio will apparently retain service to the west.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. If AMTRAK thinks New Orleans is too dangerous, they should be able to run trains short of that city — say Atlanta for the Crescent, and San Antonio for the Sunset.