Amtrak cancellations in advance of Hurricane Wilma

[Superliner Diner]

Service Alert: Silver Service, Auto Train - Approach of Hurricane Wilma forces some train cancellations to and from Florida locations

Silver Service Trains and Auto Train Affected

As Hurricane Wilma threatens Central and Southern Florida, Amtrak has been working with CSX Transportation to adjust train service in the affected area. In order to ensure personal safety and avoid potentially massive delays to en-route passengers, Amtrak has canceled two trains and truncated the routes of several others, starting Thursday, October 20. Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach Connections associated with these trains are also affected.

Trains and dates not listed below are currently scheduled to operate normally. However, it is expected that additional service adjustments will be necessary as the hurricane track becomes better defined. Amtrak will update this bulletin before Friday, October 21.

Amtrak service adjustments by date:

Thursday, October 20

Trains 91 & 97, the southbound New York-Miami Silver Star and Silver Meteor will terminate at Orlando, with no alternate transportation provided south of Orlando.

Friday, October 21

Trains 52 & 53, the northbound and southbound Lorton, Va.-Sanford, Fla., Auto Train are canceled.

Tentative: Trains 91 & 97, the southbound New York-Miami Silver Star and Silver Meteor will terminate at Orlando, with no alternate transportation provided south of Orlando. Amtrak and CSX Transportation will evaluate the latest storm track on Thursday for possible entire cancellation of both of these trains.

Saturday, October 22

Trains 92 & 98, the northbound Miami-New York Silver Star and Silver Meteor are canceled between Miami and Orlando, with no alternate transportation provided between Miami and Orlando. Amtrak and CSX Transportation will evaluate the latest storm track on Thursday for possible entire cancellation of both of these trains.

Sunday, October 23

Trains 92 & 98, the northbound Miami-New York Silver Star and Silver Meteor are canceled between Miami and Orlando, with no alternate transportation provided between Miami and Orlando. Amtrak and CSX Transportation will evaluate the latest storm track on Thursday for possible entire cancellation of both of these trains.

 

[Viewliner]

Update:

Service Alert: Hurricane Wilma - Florida Service Disruptions
Silver Service Trains and Auto Train Affected

As Hurricane Wilma threatens Central and Southern Florida, Amtrak has been working with CSX Transportation to adjust train service in the affected area. In order to ensure personal safety and avoid potentially massive delays to en-route passengers, Amtrak has canceled trains and truncated the routes of others. Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach Connections associated with these trains are also affected.

Passengers are encouraged to call 800-USA-RAIL or visit Amtrak.com for updated information on this service disruption. Amtrak will update this bulletin on or before Saturday, October 22.

Amtrak service adjustments by date:

Friday, October 21

Trains 52 & 53, the northbound and southbound Lorton, Va.,-Sanford, Fla., Auto Train are canceled, with no alternate transportation available.

Trains 91 & 97, the southbound New York-Miami Silver Star and Silver Meteor are canceled, with no alternate transportation available.

Trains 92 & 98, the northbound Miami-New York Silver Star and Silver Meteor will operate with additional capacity to accommodate those wishing to leave the area threatened by Hurricane Wilma.

Saturday, October 22

Trains 52 & 53, the northbound and southbound Lorton, Va.,-Sanford, Fla., Auto Train are canceled, with no alternate transportation available.

Trains 91 & 97, the southbound New York-Miami Silver Star and Silver Meteor are canceled, with no alternate transportation available.

Trains 92 & 98, the northbound Miami-New York Silver Star and Silver Meteor are canceled, with no alternate transportation available.

Sunday, October 23

Trains 92 & 98, the northbound Miami-New York Silver Star and Silver Meteor are canceled, with no alternate transportation available.

Monday, October 24

Trains 92 & 98, the northbound Miami-New York Silver Star and Silver Meteor are canceled, with no alternate transportation available.

NOTE: Trains and dates not listed above are currently scheduled to operate normally. Amtrak is monitoring the situation and is working closely with CSX Transportation, which owns, maintains and operates most of the infrastructure used on these routes.

NOTE: Amtrak service between the northeast and the Carolinas and Georgia continues to be provided by the New York-Raleigh-Charlotte Carolinian (Trains 79 & 80), the New York-Charleston-Savannah Palmetto (Trains 89 & 90) and the New York-Atlanta-New Orleans Crescent (Trains 19 & 20).

 

[AlanB]

IMHO someone's being a bit too over cautious or CSX just see an easy way out to not deal with Amtrak for a few days. The storm is not scheduled to hit Florida until Monday afternoon at the earliest and it may well be later than that.

So cancelling trains for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday is overkill. At the very least, service should have been maintained to Orlando, even if they wanted to stop serving Miami as of today, since the current projected storm tracks have the storm hitting southern Florida.

But cancelling trains 5 days before the arrival of the hurricane is a bit extreme.

 

[MrFSS]

IMHO someone's being a bit too over cautious or CSX just see an easy way out to not deal with Amtrak for a few days. The storm is not scheduled to hit Florida until Monday afternoon at the earliest and it may well be later than that.
So cancelling trains for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday is overkill. At the very least, service should have been maintained to Orlando, even if they wanted to stop serving Miami as of today, since the current projected storm tracks have the storm hitting southern Florida.

But cancelling trains 5 days before the arrival of the hurricane is a bit extreme.

Do we know if CSX is canceling its own freight trains on those same routes?

 

[GG-1]

IMHO someone's being a bit too over cautious or CSX just see an easy way out to not deal with Amtrak for a few days. The storm is not scheduled to hit Florida until Monday afternoon at the earliest and it may well be later than that.
So cancelling trains for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday is overkill. At the very least, service should have been maintained to Orlando, even if they wanted to stop serving Miami as of today, since the current projected storm tracks have the storm hitting southern Florida.

But cancelling trains 5 days before the arrival of the hurricane is a bit extreme.

Do we know if CSX is canceling its own freight trains on those same routes?

Aloha

you are both making good points but could either amtrak or CSX be using this to save money?

 

[AmtrakFan]

IMHO someone's being a bit too over cautious or CSX just see an easy way out to not deal with Amtrak for a few days. The storm is not scheduled to hit Florida until Monday afternoon at the earliest and it may well be later than that.
So cancelling trains for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday is overkill. At the very least, service should have been maintained to Orlando, even if they wanted to stop serving Miami as of today, since the current projected storm tracks have the storm hitting southern Florida.

But cancelling trains 5 days before the arrival of the hurricane is a bit extreme.

Do we know if CSX is canceling its own freight trains on those same routes?

Aloha

you are both making good points but could either amtrak or CSX be using this to save money?

From what I hear yes CSX is pulled everything out.

 

[Miami Joe]

Hialeah abolished all jobs effective at 11:00am today. We worked until 3:30pm and all equipment in the yard was used to protect the buildings.

When I left, I noticed that all the locos for CSX were gone from the yard! I saw 2 locos coupled and moving into the switchyard.

Amtrak has left its employees in the dark! :angry:

The memo says that all work will be abolished until Monday, the 24th. There are no plans to re-open until the hurricane passes. They should let the PM line work until the storm approaches.

Guess our paychecks are going to suck 2 weeks from now!!!!! :angry:

MJ B)

 

[trainboy325]

Good luck to everyone in South Florida in the next few days. Be well and stay safe. For those wanting to ride and watch trains this weekend in Florida, find an new hobby for a couple of days. :lol:

 

[Guest_Amtrak OBS Employee]

Well, it looks like we're fixin to be up and running. At least btween ORL and NYP. This is good as I hope to be called for a job real soon. OBS...

(This is taken off our company's website!)

Hurricane Wilma - Initial Service Restoration

Updated October 24, 2005, 6:00 p.m. EDT

Business Hours Media Contact: 202-906-3860

After Hours Media Contact: 800-562-1904

Auto Train: Service Resumes

Silver Star & Silver Meteor: Service Suspended South of Orlando

Following the passage of Hurricane Wilma over Central and Southern Florida, Amtrak has been working with CSX Transportation to restore passenger train service in the affected area.

The daily Auto Train (Trains 52 & 53) has resumed its service in both directions from Lorton, Va., (south of Washington, D.C.) and Sanford, Fla. (north of Orlando), effective Tuesday, October 25.

Nevertheless, rail service south of Orlando is not yet possible, pending inspection and repair of infrastructure largely owned, maintained and controlled by CSX. Florida Amtrak stations south of Orlando will remain closed, with the exceptions of Tampa, St. Petersburg-Pinellas Park and Lakeland, effective Wednesday, October 26.

Passengers are encouraged to call 800-USA-RAIL or visit Amtrak.com for updated information on this service disruption. Amtrak will update this bulletin on or before Wednesday, October 26.

Amtrak Service Adjustments by Date:

Tuesday, October 25

Trains 91 & 97, the southbound New York-Miami Silver Star and Silver Meteor will operate to Orlando, with no alternate transportation available south to Miami.

Trains 92 & 98, the northbound Miami-New York Silver Star and Silver Meteor are canceled, with no alternate transportation available.

Amtrak Thruway Motorcoaches connecting with Trains 91 & 97 and Trains 92 & 98 will not operate.

Wednesday, October 26

Trains 91 & 97, the southbound New York-Miami Silver Star and Silver Meteor will operate to Orlando, with no alternate transportation available to points between Orlando and Miami.

Trains 92 & 98, the northbound Miami-New York Silver Star and Silver Meteor will originate in Orlando, with no alternate transportation available to points between Miami and Orlando.

Amtrak Thruway Motorcoaches connecting with Trains 91 & 97 and with Trains 92 & 98 will operate, with additional service from Tampa and Lakeland to connect with Trains 91 and 92. ###

 

[AlanB]

Just as an FYI, here's the CSX press release regarding Wilma. Thanks to OTOL for posting this first.

Service Bulletin - Hurricane Wilma #2 Released: Oct 21, 2005

Because of the storm activity in the Caribbean and projections for landfall in Florida, CSXT has plans in place to discontinue service on its Clearwater Subdivision, on Florida's west coast south of Tampa, after 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21, as signal crews proceed along the route to secure signals and rail crossing gates. Service in the Miami and Homestead areas will be suspended late Friday, Oct. 21. All train operations will be discontinued from Jacksonville south through Central and South Florida on Sunday evening, Oct. 23, as crews secure signals and crossing gates in advance of the storm.

Tri-Rail service will not be available the weekend of Oct. 22 and 23 after the end of the regular Friday night schedule. Amtrak has also curtailed service from Orlando south for the weekend.

CSXT is currently staging equipment and supplies, including ballast and generators, outside the immediate storm area to aid in restoration of its network after the storm passes. Inspections of the network will begin as soon as weather conditions permit.

All precautions are being taken to ensure the safety of our employees, customers, and the public with minimum delay to shipments as we continue to monitor the progress of Wilma.

Note the line that I made bold in the second paragraph where even CSX thought that Amtrak would be running to Orlando till the weekend.

Based upon the dates laid out by CSX, it would appear that Amtrak cancelled things way too soon. Then made it worse by not running through to at least ORL while they still could and then further shortening things to JAX when the ORL option was finally closed to them.

 

[Miami Joe]

Heard on local TV station that a yacht or large ship hit the rail bridge crossing in Ft. Lauderdale!

MJ B)

 

[AlanB]

I guess that you're not one of those 6 million people without power down there in Florida Joe? :unsure:

Glad to know that you are safe and healthy.