ST. LOUIS — After attempting to rectify “ongoing mechanical issues” following the westbound Texas Eagle’s on-time arrival in St. Louis on Saturday evening, Dec. 21, Amtrak decided to cancel the train across the rest of its route to San Antonio, Tex., leaving Texas travelers with a lump of coal.
An advisory at 11:50 p.m., more than four hours after the Eagle’s St. Louis arrival, said, “Bus transportation is being sourced to accommodate customers back to their origin stations. We will provide updates when receiving an estimated arrival time for bus transportation.” The implied message for those still waiting to board anywhere in Missouri, Arkansas, or Texas: make other plans.
As a result of the cancellation Saturday night, the eastbound Texas Eagle leaving San Antonio on Monday morning, Dec. 23, has also been cancelled all the way to the Windy City, disrupting intra-Texas travel and leaving one less St. Louis-to-Chicago train Christmas Eve.
When disruptions like this happen, reservations on the following day’s train are temporarily blocked to make sure all displaced passengers are accommodated to the extent possible.
Tardy Chicago departures continue to be an issue as mechanical forces scramble to keep Amtrak’s long-distance fleet operational. Both Friday’s westbound Empire Builder and Texas Eagle suffered delays totaling more than an hour and a half; the Eagle then apparently encountered Union Pacific congestion in Arkansas and limped into San Antonio at 3:30 a.m. Sunday. This delayed the westbound Sunset Limited, which was running almost 3 hours late across West Texas today (Dec. 22).
Other trains severely hobbled over the weekend included:
— Friday’s eastbound Southwest Chief, which operated under speed restrictions between Lamar, Colo., and Garden City Kan.; it was five hours late departing Kansas City, Mo., Sunday afternoon.
— Today’s eastbound Texas Eagle, delayed almost four hours by an automobile on the tracks near San Marcos, Tex.
— Saturday’s Seattle-Los Angeles Coast Starlights in both directions. The southbound Starlight was delayed three and a half hours at Portland, Ore., while the northbound departed Martinez, Calif., two and a half hours late after being held there for an hour and a half.
— Saturday’s westbound Borealis. WBBM-TV reports the train encountered a lengthy delay in Hastings, Minn., about 20 miles from St. Paul, because of “switch issues;” the train ultimately resumed its trip about 10;15 p.m. and arrived in St. Paul at 10:37 p.m., more than four hours after its scheduled 6:29 p.m.
These problems are in addition to the downed-wire issues that suspended or delayed service most of today on the Northeast Corridor [see “Some Amtrak, NJ Transit service … restored,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 22, 2024].
They really need to do better. I was on the TE in October, it was kind of a mess. They ran extra cars for the big game train, took them all the way to San Antonio and pulled a double switch out maneuver (good luck sleeping through that)
On top of that, our engine #58 had a huge rust hole in the back right corner that you could see through up inside of the compartment.
Still no lounge car, still running the flexible dining. Amtrak really hates this train.
Apologies it was actually #56, not 58
While engine failures are way too common as causes of extended delays both for regional and long distance trains, a significant number of extended delays also come from what is being reported as “disabled freight train” incidents. My guess that the long-distance trains are the “canary in the coal mine”, showing up the many cases where excessively long trains encounter operational failures on single track routes not designed for trains of their length. Does this suggest that the railroads are more attuned to Wall Street’s demands for lower operating ratios than to critical issues of reliability and chronic service failures?
Locals here in St Louis said the HEP failed on the engine and the consist had to be plugged into shore power at the station in the below freezing temps.
Absolutely need a second engine on the Eagle route–especially in the winter.
On a separate note, the Eagle picked up a transition sleeper and a second full coach beginning Thanksgiving week resulting in a 8 car consist on the days trains 421/422 operate. Despite this much heavier consist, Amtrak planners didn’t bother assigning a second P42 to help! That very well could have prevented this. This particular train with two full sleepers, four coaches, and a dorm car has to rely on a single P42, which has millions of miles on it and is over 20 years old to do the work alone of pulling this massive train. Almost all long distance routes use a minimum of two engines to pull the train. Shouldn’t a consist as long as the Eagle’s current warrant need for the same?! One P42 to pull a consist of 8 Superliners over 1300 miles is absolutely unwise! It doesn’t surprise one bit that this happened!
The 4,200 hp Genesis P42 is equivalent to more than two EMD E7 units of 2,000 hp, each. Two E7 units powered long streamliners of 13 cars and more in the middle 20th century.
Penelope. These engines are over 20 years old and have millions on their odometers. In their prime days one P42 could do the work alone easily. But that is well past. They are very worn out, and unreliable. Given their condition a second P42 is needed for a train this heavy!
They were at least able to scrounge additional cars to accommodate the stranded travelers in St. Louis on top of the additional cars the Eagle has been running with since Thanksgiving. Saw the southbound train roll into St. Louis with a transition sleeper, two full sleepers, and six coaches. (No cutoff coach)
Thanks to Bob Johnston for documenting these Amtrak disasters and posting them to the Newswire, and therefore making them searchable in the future.