CHICAGO — Amtrak is canceling the Southwest Chief and many other long-distance routes as the rail carrier continues to assess the ongoing freight rail management - labor contract negotiations. Railroad workers are prepared to go on strike later this week, which would cripple the nation's movement of freight and goods. The strike would also cause the disruption of long-distance trains, including the Southwest Chief.
Amtrak canceled Tuesday departures for its Western U.S.-focused Empire Builder, California Zephyr and the Southwest Chief routes. That means the train coming into Hutchinson on Thursday is canceled. On Tuesday afternoon, the railroad said it was suspending all service for the Chief.
If your train is canceled, Amtrak will attempt to notify you at least 24 hours in advance. If you need information, contact 1-800-USA-Rail.
On Tuesday afternoon, Amtrak released this statement:
Amtrak will be pre-emptively canceling trips over an additional seven Long Distance routes to avoid possible passenger disruptions while enroute on Wednesday, September 14, 2022.
Information:
Amtrak is closely monitoring the ongoing freight rail – rail labor contract negotiations. The negotiations do not involve Amtrak or the Amtrak workforce. While we are hopeful that parties will reach a resolution, Amtrak has now begun phased adjustments to our service in preparation for a possible freight rail service interruption later this week. Such an interruption could significantly impact intercity passenger rail service, as Amtrak operates almost all of our 21,000 route miles outside the Northeast Corridor (NEC) on track owned, maintained, and dispatched by freight railroads. These initial adjustments include canceling some Long Distance routes starting on Tuesday, September 13, 2022, and could be followed by impacts to all Long Distance and most State-Supported routes. These adjustments are necessary to ensure trains can reach their terminals before freight railroad service interruption if a resolution in negotiations is not reached.
Most travel within the Amtrak-owned Northeast Corridor (Boston - New York - Washington) and related branch lines to Albany, NY, Harrisburg, PA, and Springfield, MA would not be affected: Acela would operate a full schedule, and only a small number of Northeast Regional departures would be impacted. Amtrak will reach out to impacted and potentially impacted customers, informing them of the potential situation, offering to change their reservation to another travel date, waiving any difference in fare for departures through October 31, or receiving a full refund without cancelation fees.
Customer Impact:
- Amtrak will only operate trains this week that we can ensure will have enough time to reach their final destinations by 12:01 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 16.
- Suspended services starting Tuesday, Sept. 13:
- Southwest Chief
- Empire Builder
- California Zephyr
- Train #421 portion of the Texas Eagle (Los Angeles-San Antonio)
- Suspended services starting Wednesday, Sept. 14:
- City of New Orleans
- Coast Starlight
- Crescent
- Lake Shore Limited
- Silver Star
- Sunset Limited
- Texas Eagle
- Amtrak will notify additional customers scheduled to be on upcoming trains about the possibility of disruptions.
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