Amtrak halts New Orleans service because of storm

Friday evening rail news in brief:

Amtrak suspends service to, from New Orleans because of Cristobal

Amtrak will suspend service to and from New Orleans for several days because of the forecast landfall of Tropical Storm Cristobal along the Gulf Coast, cancelling the City of New Orleans while abbreviating service on the routes of the Crescent and Sunset Limited. The southbound City of New Orleans trains scheduled to depart Chicago Saturday, June 6. and Sunday, June 7, are cancelled, as are the northbound trains scheduled to depart New Orleans Sunday, June 7, and Monday, June 8. The southbound Crescents departing New York on Saturday and Sunday will terminate in Atlanta rather than New Orleans, while the Crescents scheduled to depart New Orleans Sunday and Monday will instead originate in Atlanta. And the Sunset Limited scheduled to depart Los Angeles today, June 5, will terminate in San Antonio rather than New Orleans, while the Sunset scheduled to depart New Orleans on June 8 will instead originate in San Antonio on June 9. See Amtrak.com or Amtrak’s smartphone apps for more information, and contact Amtrak at 1-800-USA-RAIL to address reservations on the trains affected.

DC Metro to open more cars on trains, increasing capacity
DC Metro will reopen the first and last cars on its trains as of Saturday, a move to increase capacity made in part because increased ridership expected for protests this weekend in the District of Columbia. The Washington Post reports that the cars — which had been closed to passengers to provide additional social-distancing protection for train operators — will remain open beyond the week. “Reopening the cars gives [an] instant 33% increase in system capacity,” a Metro spokesman told the paper in a statement. “Once reopened, [it’s] easier from [a] policy perspective to simply keep them open going forward.”