Update from ESPA which clarifies the reasons for the pending ADIRONDACK suspension.
Amtrak confirmed in a Press Statement issued May 9, 2024, that Adirondack Route service between Saratoga Springs, NY & Montreal, QC is being suspended from Monday, May 20 through Sunday, June 30 to accommodate necessary trackwork.
It is ESPA's understanding that the trackwork to be completed is on an approximately 25-mile segment of the Canadian National-owned line north of the US-Canada border used by the Adirondack to reach Montreal.
In the summer of 2023 CN imposed 10mph speed restrictions on this segment which forced Amtrak to institute an unplanned service suspension from late June through early September. The upcoming trackwork should prevent future widespread CN speed restrictions and Amtrak service suspensions.
While ESPA appreciates that the required trackwork will be completed before the start of the peak mid-summer travel season, we are concerned that alternative transportation is not being provided between Saratoga Springs & Montreal during the planned suspension period. We urge Amtrak & NYSDOT to explore all available options to accommodate passengers wishing to travel north of Saratoga Springs during the six-week outage.
The Adirondack will continue to operate on a daily basis between New York City & Saratoga Springs, including for the running of the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, June 8th at the Saratoga Race Track.
And also from the Montreal La Presse:
Here (with Google translation) is the text from an article in the Montreal La Presse newspaper on the ADIRONDACK suspension. Track-work is indeed the cause and as all the discussion is about the situation with CN hopefully that is where the work will take place, but that is not clearly stated. The translation is a bit stilted, but clear enough.
"The Amtrak rail carrier will not offer any replacement for the service, which will only connect New York to the city of Saratoga Springs, “until July”.
“The service was cancelled due to rail maintenance work,” Amtrak said in response to a customer service request. “We apologize for any impact. We have taken this decision to offer more pleasant and safe journeys to our customers. ”
The cancellation “turns into force on 21 May” and “there is no alternative transport”, continued Amtrak’s customer service. The media relations department, for its part, did not recall La Presse.
Saratoga Springs is halfway along the usual route of the Adirondack – the name of the route. The train usually takes about 11 hours to connect Montreal to New York. Some 117,000 passengers used it in 2019.
The situation “rehas a clear indication of the importance attached to intercity services,” said Sarah V. Doyon, spokesperson for the public transport users' defence organization Trajectoire Québec. “This lack of interest in offering alternatives speaks for itself. ”
“It doesn’t give much hope for other rail transport projects,” she said.
“Long-term solution”
The Adirondack has gone through extremely difficult years since 2020.
Its service was interrupted with the start of the pandemic and resumed only three years later, in 2023.
Two months later, however, the train was immobilized for weeks: the arrival of the hot weather created difficulties on part of the railway. Canadian legislation required a significant reduction in speed for trains due to the state of the rail.
“Unfortunately, Amtrak, CN and the New York State Department of Transportation have not found a feasible solution for this summer,” Amtrak said last July. The company stated that continuing to operate the line during the summer could lead to “significant delays of up to four hours.”
Amtrak claimed that discussions were continuing "to develop a long-term solution so that Amtrak trains can run to and from Montreal in the coming summers".
Without an answer from Amtrak, it was not possible to know whether it was the “long-term solution” that caused the cancellation of the service from 21 May.
The service resumed last autumn.
With Henri Ouellette-Vézina, La Presse
L'argent et le bonheur"