SANFORD, Fla. — Both Amtrak Auto Trains scheduled to run later today (Wednesday, Feb. 8) have been cancelled after the Monday southbound departure from Lorton, Va., arrived at its destination in Sanford some 12 hours late on Tuesday.
The cancellations reflect the domino effect of significantly delayed arrivals, and come at the end of a series of cascading delays. With the Tuesday train arriving at 10 p.m. rather than 9:59 a.m., Tuesday’s northbound departure, scheduled for 5 p.m., did not leave Sanford until 3:37 a.m. this (Wednesday) morning, necessitating the cancellations to get the equipment back on schedule for Thursday. The problems had been building for at least one previous round trip. Monday’s northbound arrival in Lorton was at 2:52 p.m., 4 hours, 53 minutes behind schedule; the southbound departure that day was at 7:58 p.m. instead of the scheduled 5 p.m.
The southbound trip that ended Tuesday night, meanwhile, experienced an extended delay in Callahan, Fla. — about 15 miles north of Jacksonville — according to WJXT-TV. Passengers told the station there were engine problems, leading to power and other issues.
Amtrak, in a statement to WJXT, said the train was “was temporarily disrupted due to mechanical issues. The train stopped in Callahan, Fla., while crews repaired the leak. There are no reported injuries to the 382 passengers or crew members. Passengers were served food and beverages.”
It is the second major delay for a southbound Auto Train in less than a month. Following a detour because of a freight derailment and hours-of-service issues for its crew, the train scheduled to arrive in Sanford on Jan. 10 arrived more than 20 hours late on Jan. 11 [see “Slide threat cancels Pacific Surfliners …,” Trains News Wire, Jan. 11, 2023]. That incident led a group of U.S. Senators to write Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner to ask about the passenger carrier’s procedures for customer care and compensation.
Why isn’t Amtrak facing Congressional investigations and hearings?
In 2020-21 the long-distance trains had a combined operating loss of approximately $1.1 billion. The NEC had a combined operating loss of $341 million while the state supported trains had a combined operating loss of $175 million before state subsidies.
Beginning in FY22, Amtrak began reporting the fully allocated cost (depreciation, interest, and miscellaneous capital charges) for each of its three operating segments. The long-distance trains lost $563 million compared to $185 million for the state supported trains. The NEC had $1 million profit.
Those who claim that Amtrak’s accounting is incorrect don’t have access to Amtrak’s books and, therefore, don’t have independently verifiable evidence to support their claim.
Every accounting system is subject to errors. Most of them are detected and fixed. It may be that Amtrak mistakenly classified an activity in Florida as “snow shoveling”. If it did, it would be akin to detecting a typo on Page 128 of my Toyota’s handbook.
I can see the freight railroads jumping and having celebrations over Amtrak’s latest fiasco and meltdown. It seems like no one train or line iescapes the endless parade of equipment shortages, breakdowns, mechanical failures and above all the bumbling and clueless managers and executives who are driving Amtrak or should I say rolling the railroad over the cliff or into the river. What’s next? Maybe we will be hearing that there is a severe shortage of Acela trainsets and service will have to be canceled and that includes the entire Northeast Corridor as well. If the ultimate goal is to kill off Amtrak and the passenger train, then just pull the plug on the entire operation and do it quickly and painlessly instead of a slow and agonizing death and putting thousands of riders in limbo and making them undergo the endless torture of cacellations and delays and misery of being stuck for hours in some forsaken town or location. What a shame and a disgrace for a country who once prided itself on having some of the best passenger trains and railroads and it is now a mockery to the great railroaders who did everything and the utmost to provide great service to the riding public. A shame and disgrace indeed
Joseph C. Markfelder
Th e fuel outages were an entirely different issue; it was later found to be a scam by the fueling contractor. He would put in the loco what he assumed would be enough fuel for the trip, then put the delivery nozzle back into the fill hole at the top of his truck, “recycle” a few hundred gallons, and bill Amtrak for the total. He got caught very quickly.
Why do so many contributors use “it’s” (it is) instead of “its” (possessive)? Would you say “hi’s”, her’s, etc.? Very juvenile.
I would guess most of the general public doesn’t know the difference between it’s and its. It’s something I would expect Trains Magazine writers and editors to know but it’s too much to expect from mere readers. One of my personal pet peeves is less vs fewer. Drives me crazy but many people don’t know or care about the difference.
I gave up using the Auto Train 2 years ago. Last time I showed up to head back to Fl and was told the train was “late”. I took close to a forced interrigation to find out it was 7-9 hours late.
Went in the station, got a refund, drove home; sadly my Amtrak appetite is ruined.
It was spotty before but this was my last straw.
You have some good managers on the front lines that try to do the right thing but are often over ruled by higher ups more concerned with bonuses and their own places in the ivory tower. The really good ones get tired of the constant battle and go back to their crafts. There seems to be little accountability up the chain. But we know the old saying about what runs down hill.
With that said, the article stated a leak, so I am assuming the train wasn’t maintaining air. If it’s in the body of the train someone is going to have to take a walk and find the problem. That could take a it of time. If it’s on the locomotive that can be an entirely more difficult issue.
As far as Amtrak and it’s new equipment. I found interesting the recent article in Trains about Via’s Siemens equipment. They built mock ups, brought in anyone they thought could even be remotely impacted by the design of the equipment. Listened, made adjustments and testing ONE set of equipment to work out the bugs. Compare that to Amtrak. $44.5 mill to redesign the food service cars because you didn’t bother to bring ANYONE in who needed to be consulted about the design before signing off. Add the sign off on the too short platform at Miami Airport and all the other boondoggles. No one survives long in the private business world operating this way. Not to mention my personal pet peeve of the Cap currently not running at all. Bus bridge Cleveland-Pittsburgh. Why isn’t there one?
Or why not detour on the former B&O from Pittsburgh to Fostoria, OH, to Toledo then the regular route? The former B&O from Pittsburgh to Chicago was once an Amtrak route.
For the four years ended September 30, 2022, Amtrak’s long-distance trains had an operating loss of approximately $1.9 billion. That ought to be a clue to a major issue of running long-distance trains that are used by less than 1% of intercity commercial travelers.
Paul, you have to remember two of those years were pandemic related in which the ld trains outperformed the corridor trains. Also, what about Amtrak’s questionable accounting? I remember the infamous budget item Trains found with Miami being held accountable for snow removal costs.
Amtrak is in total chaos! It’s equipment is falling apart. New equipment doesn’t work and breaks down more than the old equipment. Management has lost complete control of the company.
I can understand a derailment delay; but not equipment failure.
Amtrak is disfunctional. Twice I was on 97. The engine ran out of fuel 30 miles north of Richmond. Now how the hell can the engine not be fueled when added to the train in DC? Secondly, 30 miles north of Jax, no fuel. Both times had to wait a couple hours for the fuel truck to arrive.
The constantly late trains, lack of overall support employees remind me of the conditions of passenger services on the Penn-Central in the late 60’s when the railroad was determined to discontinue as many passenger trains as possible: make service and reliability so terrible that no one in their right minds would ride and therefore empty trains will justify discontinuance. Just pathetic, and no doubt Amtrak’s plan.