Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited returned to service on Wednesday and no Midwest Corridor trains have been cancelled for Thursday.
Some services remain suspended in New York State and a handful of Midwest trains were cancelled on Wednesday.
Trains that did not operate on Wednesday included Woverine Service Nos. 351 and 353 between Chicago and Detroit (Pontiac); Lincoln Service No. 300 from St. Louis to Chicago; Blue Water No. 365 from Port Huron, Michigan, to Chicago; and Illinois Zephyr No. 382 from Quincy, Illinois, to Chicago.
In New York State, cancellations for Thursday include the New York-Toronto Maple Leaf between Toronto and Rochester; Empire Service No. 250 between Niagara Falls and Albany -Rensselaer; and Empire Service Trains 281, 281 and 284 between Niagara Falls and Syracuse.
The Empire Service trains will operate to and from New York City east of Rochester and Syracuse.
Amtrak’s Empire Builder has resumed operating between Chicago and St. Paul, Minnesota, for remains suspended west of St. Paul.
The Chicago-bound Illinois Zephyr (left) meets the Quincy-bound Carl Sandburg in Mendota, Illinois, on Aug. 6, 2008.
More service suspensions are coming to Amtrak’s Midwest corridor network.
The passenger carrier said this week that it will suspend through mid-January Illinois Zephyr No. 380 from Quincy, Illinois, to Chicago, and Carl Sandburg No. 381, a Chicago to Quincy train.
Both trains operate during morning hours. The suspension will last through Jan. 16, 2023.
It is the latest in a series of service suspensions that have occurred this year on nearly every Midwest corridor route.
Amtrak has cited equipment shortages for most of those service suspensions, but the suspensions of the Chicago-Quincy trains was attributed to a shortage of operating personnel.
To pick up the slack on the route, Amtrak said substitute bus service will be provided as an alternative to the suspended trains.
Passengers who held reservations for travel on the suspended trains will be offered full refunds or re-booked without penalty on other trains or at a later travel date.
An Amtrak official said the carrier lacks qualified crew members at its Quincy crew base.
The official said the morning trains were cancelled because they would need to be staffed with personnel from the Chicago crew base.
Unaffected by the service suspensions are No. 382, the Carl Sandburg operating from Quincy to Chicago, and No. 383, the Illinois Zephyr from Chicago to Quincy.
Both of those trains operate during afternoon and evening hours.
This year’s Midwest corridor service suspensions have all occurred on routes with multiple train frequencies, including Chicago-St. Louis; Chicago-Carbondale, Illinois; St. Louis-Kansas City; and Chicago-Detroit (Pontiac).
In most cases, the suspensions lasted for several to a few weeks. However, a pair of Chicago-Carbondale trains, the southbound Saluki and northbound Illini, were suspended last January and no date has been announced for when those trains will be reinstated.
Some Chicago-Quincy service was suspended in late summer for a short time, but those suspensions were attributed by Amtrak to equipment shortages.
Amtrak was expected to restore this week one Lincoln Service roundtrip that had been suspended since mid-September.
No. 300 departs St. Louis at 4:30 a.m. and is scheduled to arrive at Chicago Union Station at 9:39 a.m. No. 305 departs Chicago at 5:20 p.m. and is scheduled to arrive in St. Louis at 10:36 p.m.
Both trains were suspended on Sept. 17. No. 305 was to return today (Nov. 17) while No. 300 would make its first trip on Friday from St. Louis.
At the time of their suspension, Amtrak has cited equipment shortages.
The Chicago-St. Louis corridor was the first Midwest route to be assigned new Venture coaches back in February.
But those assignments proved to be short lived due to a series of mechanical issues involving the cars.
Those issues are slowly being resolved and Venture cars have returned to revenue service on various routes, including the Chicago-Grand Rapids Pere Marquette, where two of the three cars assigned to the train are Venture coaches.
Equipment shortages continue to plague Amtrak’s Midwest Corridor services.
The passenger carrier said this week that suspension of one of the Missouri River Rail Runner round trips between St. Louis and Kansas City will last through Dec. 4, ensuring the service will not be restored in time for the busy Thanksgiving holiday travel period.
Trains 311 and 316 were suspended on Oct. 24 and were to have been restored on Nov. 16.
No. 311 departs St. Louis in the morning and then turns back in Kansas City in late afternoon.
The ongoing suspensions mean that the only service between Missouri’s two largest cities is No. 318, which departs Kansas City in the morning and runs through St. Louis to Chicago.
It’s counterpart, No. 319 originates in Chicago and departs St. Louis for Kansas City in mid-afternoon.
An Amtrak spokesman told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the continued suspension of Nos. 311 and 319 is due to delays in deploying new equipment, an apparent reference to the Venture equipment Amtrak has assigned to Midwest corridor service in fits and starts due to ongoing mechanical issues with the cars.
Two Lincoln Service trains between Chicago and St. Louis that were suspended in September due to equipment shortages will not resume operation until mid-November.
The suspensions affect Trains 300 and 305. They have been suspended since Sept. 17.
In a service advisory, Amtrak said no alternative transportation is being provided for those trains although passengers may ride other trains in the corridor that continue to operate.
The advisory said Train 305 is planned to resume operations on Nov, 17 while Train 300 is planned to resume operating on Nov. 18.
Suspension of one roundtrip of Amtrak’s Missouri River Runner has been extended to Nov. 16.
The route between St. Louis and Kansas City only regain double-daily service in July with the second roundtrip having been suspended due to lack of state funding.
Amtrak cited an equipment shortage for the suspension of Nos. 311 and 316 starting Oct. 24.
Those trains are scheduled to depart St. Louis westbound at 8:15 a.m. and depart Kansas City eastbound at 1:55 p.m.
Still operating are Nos. 318 and 319, which operate between Chicago and Kansas City via St. Louis and the Lincoln Service route.
The suspensions of the River Runner service comes on the same day that currently suspended trains on the Chicago-Detroit (Pontiac) and Chicago-St. Louis routes are set to resume.
Amtrak has begun reinstating its New York-Miami Silver Meteor and resuming operations of the Silver Star between Miami and Jacksonville, Florida.
The Star has been suspended south of Jacksonville due to damage caused by flooding during Hurricane Ian in the vicinity of Kissimmee, Florida. That track has since been repaired by host railroad CSX.
The first departure of the Silver Star from New York that will operate to Miami was Oct. 14 while the first departure from Miami of the Star for New York will be on Oct. 15.
The Silver Meteor was suspended last January with Amtrak citing a shortage of workers and serviceable equipment.
Trains magazine reported on its website that reinstatement of the Meteor will result in a net loss of one Viewliner sleeping car on the New York-Miami route.
The magazine reported that the Silver Meteor and Silver Star will each carry two sleepers. Since January the Silver Star has carried five sleepers along with four or five Amfleet coaches.
The Star and Meteor will each be assigned three sleepers apiece.
Before it was suspended earlier this year the Silver Meteor was assigned three sleeping cars while the Silver Star had two.
The first departures from New York and Miami for the Silver Meteor will be Oct. 15 and 16 respectively.
The reduction in sleeper capacity between New York and Miami with the reinstatement of the Meteor has resulted in some passengers who had booked sleeping car space being notified by Amtrak that the space they had reserved was no longer available, Trains reported.
One such passenger told Trains he received an automated voice mail advising him to contact Amtrak reservations about a “service disruption.”
He then learned that the car in which he had reserved space back in April would not be operating on his December dates of travel aboard the Meteor and no alternative sleeping car space was available for those dates or any nearby dates on the Meteor or the Silver Star.
The Trains report also said Amtrak plans to operate nine Superliner sleeping cars on the Auto Train starting Nov. 1.
When it comes to Midwest corridor trains, Amtrak appears to be robbing Peter to pay Paul.
The passenger carrier said this week that Missouri River Runner Trains 311 and 316 between St. Louis and Kansas City will be suspended between Oct. 24 and Nov. 16 due to an equipment shortage.
On the same date those trains are being suspended, Amtrak plans to restore service on two Chicago-Detroit (Pontiac) and Chicago-St. Louis trains that had been suspended since late summer for equipment shortages.
Amtrak has said it lacks enough mechanical workers to keep enough equipment in service to cover all of its trains.
The service advisory about suspension of the Missouri River Runner trains said no alternative transportation will be provided for those who had tickets to ride Nos. 311 and 316 during the affected time period.
Amtrak will operate Missouri River Runner Nos. 318 and 319 as scheduled during the time period when Nos. 311 and 316 are suspended.
Amtrak has suspended operations of the New-York Savannah, Georgia, Palmetto due to Hurricane Ian.
In a service advisory, Amtrak said No. 89 did not operate south of Washington on Thursday and will do so again today. Service south of Washington is suspended.
Earlier in the week, Amtrak had announced that the Auto Train and Silver Star would be suspended through Friday over the entirety of their routes.
The service advisory, which was posted on Thursday morning, did not indicated which of these trains might resume operating on Saturday.
In a service advisory posted on Tuesday, Amtrak has extended the suspension of its Auto Train and Silver Star through Saturday.
The suspensions began Tuesday in advance of Hurricane Ian, which was expected to make landfall on the west coast of Florida.
The latest advisory said the New York-Miami Silver Star is cancelled over the entirety of its route through Saturday.
The Auto Train, which operates between Lorton, Virginia, and Sanford, Florida, is cancelled in its entirety through Friday.
Amtrak said passengers affected by the service cancellations will be accommodated on other trains and the carrier will waive any fees for reservation changes.
Amtrak in the Heartland 