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9/14/2022
Amtrak today is canceling trips over another seven long-distance routes as part of the railroad's plan to avoid possible disruptions should a freight-rail strike occur as early as Friday.
Amtrak is monitoring the ongoing labor contract negotiations between the nation's freight railroads and unions that have not yet reached tentative settlements, Amtrak officials said in a prepared statement. Although Amtrak is not part of the negotiations, its long-distance trains operate over 21,000 miles of track owned, maintained and dispatched by the freight railroads.
"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. Friday," they said.
Yesterday, Amtrak suspended service on its Southwest Chief, Empire Builder, California Zephyr and part of the Texas Eagle routes. Starting today, it is suspending service on its City of New Orleans, Coast Starlight, Crescent, Lake Shore Limited, Silver Star, Sunset Limited and more of the Texas Eagle routes.
Other passenger railroads that use freight railroads' track for service also are alerting their riders of potential service interruptions. In a message to its riders, Chicago commuter railroad Metra today warned that a strike would affect its ability to operate most of its service. Four of Metra's lines — the BNSF, Union Pacific North, Union Pacific Northwest and Union Pacific West — are owned by and directly operated by the freight railroads.
Metra expects to be able to operate scheduled service on Friday on the Metra Electric, Rock Island Southwest Service, Milwaukee District North and Milwaukee District West lines. If a work stoppage occurs, there will be no service on the BNSF or UP lines on Friday. Both Class Is have communicated they will begin curtailing service after evening rush hour on Thursday, Metra's customer message stated.
"We are continuing to communicate with our freight partners regarding our ability to run trains on the Heritage Corridor and North Central Service lines," Metra officials said.