Amtrak Update: Most L-D Trains Back on Track

As part of our continuing coverage of the effects of the COVID-19 virus on the rail scene since it first struck the world in March 2020, we have been presenting semi-annual updates on the efforts by Amtrak, VIA Rail and local rail transit agencies in the United States and Canada to recover from the effects of the virus on riders and services. Since our most recent report, there have been updates concerning some of Amtrak’s long-distance trains and some state-supported trains, as well. Following is information as of Oct. 11.

Not all Amtrak long-distance trains are running every day yet, despite a Congressional mandate that they return to daily service, and a representation from Amtrak that they would do so by Oct.2 or 3. At the time of our previous report, the City of New Orleans between its namesake city and Chicago and the Crecent between New Orleans and New York have been operating only five days per week. The Silver Meteor between Miami and New York has been suspended since Jan. 27.

On Oct. 7, Amtrak announced that the two New Orleans trains are now returning to daily operation. Media advisories bore the headlines: Amtrak Restores New Orleans Service to Pre-Pandemic Levels and Amtrak Restores Jackson Service to Pre-Pandemic Level. “Effective this weekend, all Amtrak service to and from New Orleans will be back to the level in place prior to the COVID-19 outbreak,” Amtrak said. “For most of this year, Amtrak was unable to support daily operations by our Crescent, Trains 19 and 20, to and from New Orleans and New York City, via Birmingham, Atlanta, Washington, and Philadelphia; and our City of New Orleans, Trains 58 and 59, to and from its namesake city and Chicago, via Jackson and Memphis.”

Amtrak blamed a shortage of employees for the delay in restoring daily service on the New Orleans routes: “The constraint has not been travel demand, which has been recovering all year, but rebuilding the employee headcounts at major terminals such as New Orleans and along many of the routes.” The “background” section of the advisory also noted: “While Amtrak service in New Orleans is being restored to daily on two of our routes that had been five days weekly, service reductions continue elsewhere in the Amtrak network, including in the Chicago-based Amtrak Midwest Network and on both the East and West Coasts. This is largely due to vacant positions.”

The advisory also included an announcement that the railroad is looking to fill more than 4,000 jobs nationally, and a pitch for prospective employees to apply. It also mentioned that “our Sunset Limited, Trains 1 and 2, to and from New Orleans and Los Angeles via Houston, El Paso and Tucson, continued to operate three-days-weekly, its standard service level.”

There was no advisory from Amtrak about the New York – Miami Silver Meteor, which was also supposed to return on Oct. 2 and 3, but the Reservations section of the Amtrak website indicates that it will leave New York for Miami for the first time on Friday, Oct.14, and will leave Miami to go north for the first time on Saturday, Oct. 15, after a suspension of more than eight months. The train is listed on the website as “canceled” until those dates.

At this writing, Amtrak’s Silver Star, the only Florida train that has been running since its sibling train was suspended in January, is operating between Jacksonville and New York, due to Hurricane Ian, which devastated the Sunshine State earlier this month and is considered the deadliest storm to hit the state since the 1935 storm that destroyed the Florida East Coast line to Key West. It has been turning at Jacksonville, rather than its normal terminal at Miami, although the Amtrak site indicates that passengers are being taken from Jacksonville to Kissimmee by chartered bus. There was no mention of a similar northbound bus before full service is slated to return on Oct. 15.

Amtrak has also announced another “temporary suspension” of a state-supported train in the Midwest. This time it will be two of the St. Louis-Kansas City Missouri River Runner: trains 311 and 316, the afternoon departure from Kansas City and the morning departure from St. Louis. They will be suspended from Oct. 24 until Nov. 16 “due to a shortage of available train equipment” and are scheduled to return to the rails on Nov. 17. Those trains were suspended earlier this year due to lack of funding from the State of Missouri, but are currently operating again. The trains that leave Kansas City in the morning and St. Louis in the afternoon will continue to run.