Winter Puts the Brakes on Amtrak (Updated Jan. 26)

Wednesday’s snow across Union Station in Washington, D.C., region. Unlike the aging Acela equipment, Siemens ACS-64-hauled Regional trains were generally unaffected by the cold snap. Amtrak photo.

Jan. 18 was not a good day for Amtrak, on either end of the Lakes Shore Limited route, and in other places, too. Many Amtrak trains in the Midwest did not operate, and half of the Acela trains on the Northeast Corridor (NEC) were canceled, as well. Some trains elsewhere, like the Empire Builder, did not run, either. The delays continued for several days.

Midwest service ran normally on Jan. 25; there was no Service Alert on the Amtrak site that mentioned the region. Instead, weather-related problems struck on the West Coast. Service between Los Angeles and San Diego was disrupted due to debris on the tracks at San Clemente. Due to track conditions near Kelso, Wash., Cascades service between Seattle and Portland was also disrupted.

Amtrak’s tracking map looked sparse around Chicago last week. More than half the trains that normally run in the Midwest were canceled. On the Wolverine route, Train 350 (morning departure from Chicago and 355 (afternoon return from Michigan) were running, with the other two daily round trips on the Chicago-Detroit-Pontiac route canceled. Three Lincoln Service round trips between the Windy City and St. Louis were canceled, with Trains 303 (mid-morning from Chicago) and Train 304 (mid-afternoon from St. Louis) running. The Texas Eagle was not running in the region, either. The Jan. 17 departure from Chicago terminatied at Fort Worth, with a bus going further on the route. The Jan. 19 departure originated at Fort Worth and alternate transportation was provided.

On Midwest routes with two state-sponsored round trips on the normal schedule, only one round trip was running until Jan. 25. The morning departure from Chicago to Quincy and afternoon return were canceled, while the train that makes a schedule for an afternoon in Chicago was running. The situation was reversed on the line to Carbondale. Trains 311 (morning departure from St. Louis for Kansas City) and 316 (afternoon return) were canceled, while Trains 314 and 313, which connect with the Southwest Chief at Kansas City, were running. The Hiawatha route between Chicago and Milwaukee performed the best of the Chicago-based corridors. Four trains were running in one direction and three in the other Jan. 18-19. The normal schedule calls for seven round trips, so half of scheduled frequencies were running. 

Amtrak’s Chicago spokesperson Marc Magliari blamed the cancellations on “equipment issues and host railroad conditions.” He also told Railway Age, “It’s counterintuitive for us to be providing full service when public officials are telling people to stay home.” The Chicago cancellations were in effect Jan. 18-19, but Amtrak provided alternate bus service for Thursday’s schedules and not for those on Friday. Magliari attributed that to lack of available coaches and operators for the Friday runs.

The situation has been worse for the Empire Builder, Trains 7 and 8 between Chicago and its western endpoints of Seattle and Portland. The last time it ran was last Thursday, Jan. 11. A cold snap has kept much of the West in its grip during the past week, and advocates have heated up the blogging lists with complaints that Amtrak should have been running the trains. Magliari noted that the situation now is different from the 1960s, when railroads had more employees in the field to support the passenger trains. He added that “help is not instantly available, but hours away” under today’s conditions. He said that the Builder is scheduled to run on Saturday, and advised riders to check the Amtrak website. 

The advisory can be found by going to the site, www.amtrak.com, scrolling down the page, and clicking on “Service Alerts and Notices.” The relevant Alert bears the headline “Modifications Due to Winter Storms and Extreme Cold Across the Country.” The other cancellation mentioned in the West was that Train 517, the evening train from Vancouver to Seattle, was canceled on Thursday.

There were problems on the NEC, not with the Northeast Regional trains, but with the Acelas. Service was cut in half Jan. 18, with six trains running in each direction and the other six canceled. There was another cancellation as well: Acela 2150 ran only from New York to Boston. That train normally leaves Washington, D.C. at 5:00 AM.

The reason? Bloomberg News reported that Amtrak canceled most Acela service because the aging trainsets are “too old to handle the cold.”* “The cold weather we have been experiencing this week has been a problem,” said Amtrak President Roger Harris in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s Wall Street Week with David Westin. “Especially with the older Acelas, which we’re hoping to replace with new ones coming later this year.”

A check with the Reservations section of the Amtrak website on Jan. 19 revealed that it is possible to purchase a ticket to ride an Acela train later in the day, although there was also a link to the now-superseded Service Alert from Jan. 18. That updated alert brought better news for Midwest riders: “Alternate transportation” by bus will be provided to substitute for most of the canceled trains.

Current forecasts predict that it will be a cold weekend, and riders will be checking on the trains.

*Editor’s Commentary: The “Fast Pig” turned into frozen pork? – William C. Vantuono