The return of the second Missouri River Runner roundtrip between St. Louis and Kansas City has been pushed back to Dec. 16.
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said an equipment shortage prompted the move.
He told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that passenger cars have “been sort of rotating around the Midwest.”
Magliari also said Amtrak has encountered labor shortages that have prompted service suspensions on Midwest routes linking Chicago with St. Louis; Detroit (Pontiac); Quincy, Illinois; and Carbondale, Illinois.
The second St. Louis-Kansas City roundtrip has been suspended since Oct. 24. It was to return on Nov. 16, then Dec. 4.
One central issue causing the service suspensions has been mechanical problems with new Venture passenger cars that Amtrak expected to have in service by now on Midwest corridor routes.
The Post-Dispatch story quoted an Illinois Department of Transportation spokesman as saying the Venture car have ongoing problems with water filtration systems and onboard electronic displays.
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.
The last I knew, the new Venture passengers cars built by Siemens for corridor services in the Midwest and on the West Coast had been sidelined due to various mechanical issues.
The cars had begun revenue service in February in the Chicago-St. Louis corridor, but that assignment proved to be brief.
It didn’t take long to discover that some tray table magnets were too strong, that trap-door handles were falling off, that bathroom doors were malfunctioning, and that sliding step extenders were getting jammed with snow.
But last Sunday in Porter, Indiana, I saw evidence that these issues apparently have been resolved and the Venture coaches are back in service.
Shown is above is a three-car Chicago-bound Pere Marquette, which originated in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The consist includes two Venture coaches and an Amfleet food service car. Eventually Venture cafe cars with a business class section are expected to join the fleet.
The train shown above is entering the Chicago Line of Norfolk Southern from the CSX Grands Rapids Subdivision. On the point is an SC-44 Charger locomotive, also built by Siemens.
The Chargers are now the standard motive power for Midwest corridor trains. Note how the Venture coaches have a higher profile than Amfleet equipment.
Two Venture coaches are shown in the consist of Lincoln Service Train 301 in Springfield, Illinois, on March 1.
Amtrak has temporarily withdrawn new Venture cars from operation on Midwest Corridor trains due to technical issues.
Trains magazine reported on its website Friday that magnets in the four-seat work tables in the coaches were disrupting operation of smart phones and laptops computers by causing them to shut down. The magnets are used to lock extensions on the tables.
The Trains report said Amtrak is eyeing a short-term fix of affixing brackets that prevent passengers from extending the outer flaps until correct-strength magnets can be installed.
Illinois Department of Transportation spokesman Scott Speegle said his agency is working with Amtrak and Seimens, which built the Venture cars, to solve the problem.
IDOT was the lead agency involved in the acquisition of the cars, which also will be used on corridor services in Missouri, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Venture cars began revenue service in February on the Chicago-St. Louis corridor.
Thus far only coaches have been delivered from Siemens to Amtrak, although three combination business class and coach class cars are in the process of being accepted.
The combination cars will have 36 business class seats, which is double the number available in existing Horizon and Amfleet equipment used in Midwest corridor service.
Venture cars to be used in California have also arrived in that state but the California Department of Transportation but have not yet been placed into service.
Trains said California officials wouldn’t say why that has been the case..
For decades railroads placed their names in the letter boards of passenger cars. Amtrak has never adopted this practice. It has had an on again, off again practice of even naming passenger cars.
The new Venture cars that entered revenue service on Feb. 1 in the Chicago-St. Louis corridor have sort of brought back the practice of letter board names.
Shown are two Siemens-built Venture coaches in the consist of Lincoln Service No. 301 in Springfield, Illinois, on March 1. Note that the Amtrak herald and the name “Amtrak Midwest” have been applied to the letter board area of the car.
Now the question is how long this practice will continue. Although the traditional Amtrak colors of red, white and blue have been incorporated into the car’s design, the dominant color is gray.
Perhaps it was inevitable that something would go wrong during the first revenue service trip of the new Siemens Venture passenger cars in Amtrak Midwest Corridor service.
As reported by Trains magazine, when conductor Erik Newsom tried to make an announcement over the train’s public address system about the significance of the trip, the PA didn’t work properly.
Newsome was later able to advise the passengers of Lincoln Service No. 303 that they were the first revenue passengers for the new equipment.
And technicians were aboard to resolve any other problems that occurred.
The Trains report indicated that the trip on Tuesday (Feb. 1) from Chicago to St. Louis was a “soft opening” with the Illinois Department of Transportation planning an official “grand opening” in mid February.
Lincoln Service trains will be the first to get the new Venture cars before they are assigned to other Midwest routes.
Jennifer Bastian, IDOT section chief of passenger rolling stock said the cars will be placed into revenue service at the rate of eight cars per month, “if Siemens can support getting the coaches ready.”
There are 42 Venture cars in Chicago now with more yet to be released by Siemens.
Bastian said until all of those cars arrive Midwest corridor trains will have a mix of Venture coaches and Horizon or Amfleet food service cars with a business class section.
The Trains article contained photographs of the interiors of the Venture coaches and descriptions of how the cars to be used in Amtrak service differ from those used by Brightline trains in Florida since 2018.
Amtrak’s new Venture cars made their first Midwest corridor revenue service run on Tuesday on Lincoln Service No. 303 from Chicago to St. Louis.
Equipment from that train turns in St. Louis and returns to Chicago as No. 306.
The Venture cars, built by Siemens, have been in Amtrak’s possession for more than a year, but undergoing testing on various Midwest routes, including corridors extending to Detroit and Carbondale, Illinois.
The first of the Venture cars built for Midwest corridor service were delivered in August 2020.
Siemens also built Venture equipment for California corridor service that has yet to enter revenue service.
As was the case with the development of the Siemens SC-44 Charger locomotives used on Midwest corridor trains, the Venture cars were a collaborative effort involving state departments of transportation in Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Missouri.
An issue with the water supplies in the restrooms has delayed use by Amtrak of new Siemens Venture passenger cars in corridor service in the Midwest and California.
The problem was found during routine testing last November, a California Department of Transportation official said.
A Siemens spokeswoman said the company has found a solution to the problem but further testing is needed before the cars can be delivered.
The spokeswoman said the fix will enable the cars to meet water-quality standards of the Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency.
Caltrans is the lead agency overseeing the $386 million, 137-car order for single-level cars that was awarded to Siemens in 2017.
California will receive 49 of those cars while Midwest corridor trains will use 88 cars.
Contractor Sumitomo Corporation has been paid $28 million for its work on the cars, but the Caltrans spokesman said Sumitomo won’t be paid for the cars themselves until the water issue has been resolved.
California officials had hoped to put the cars into revenue service this fall but now the timeline for their debut is unclear.
Four Venture cars have already been delivered to Amtrak in Chicago for testing on the Chicago-Detroit corridor and on the Chicago-Carbondale, Illinois, corridor.
The cars are based on the design Siemens used to build passenger cars for Florida’s Brightline intercity rail passenger service where they began revenue service in December 2017.
Amtrak made test runs this week of three Siemens Venture coaches pulled by Charger locomotives between Edgewood and Kinmundy, Illinois, on Canadian National tracks.
The test trains evaluated the ability of the new equipment to shunt electric current between rails on CN’s former Illinois Central mainline.
Scheduled Amtrak operations on the CN line between Chicago and New Orleans are required by the host railroad to have a minimum of 30 axles.
Studies conducted by CN, Amtrak, and the Federal Railroad Administration have yet to conclude what track, wheel, or rolling stock issues might cause an interruption of a shunt, which is necessary to activiate signals and highway warning devices.
The test train had three Viewliner II baggage cars, but those were reported to be excluded from the tests, which were to use various locomotive and passenger car combinations.
The problem was found during routine testing last November, a California Department of Transportation official said.
The test trains evaluated the ability of the new equipment to shunt electric current between rails on CN’s former Illinois Central mainline.
Amtrak in the Heartland 