A few disruptions mar Amtrak’s holiday weekend

CHICAGO—Most trains on Amtrak’s capacity-constrained network ran close to on time while handling big passenger loads throughout the Thursday-through-Sunday weekend, although some travelers’ plans were inconvenienced as a result of problems both within and beyond the company’s control.

A number of challenges impacted long-distance trains in addition to those News Wire previously outlined [see “Buses step in …,” News Wire, July 3, 2025]

For instance, the overnight Coast Starlight bus bridge between Sacramento, Calif., and Klamath Falls, Ore., morphed into a daylight trip for southbound passengers because train No. 11 departed Seattle six hours late on July 4 and took its time getting to a rendezvous with buses at Klamath Falls the next morning. Travelers then boarded the same buses that brought customers there for the trip north. The planned schedule adjustment meant passengers headed to California were treated to a daytime ride to the California capital. The bad news for Los Angeles-bound patrons: the rescheduled train arrived there at 2:33 a.m. Unfortunately, both Starlights were delayed more than three hours south of Klamath Falls by “freight interference” early Monday.

The westbound California Zephyr that left Chicago on July 2 lost seven hours after colliding with a truck in Colorado between Glenwood Springs and Grand Junction. With a slower UP relief locomotive leading after the accident, Amtrak truncated the train at Reno, Nev., at 12:01 a.m., almost 15 hours late, on July 5 to become that day’s eastbound Zephyr. Callifornia passengers on both trains were bused to and from Reno. Though Chicago-bound no. 6 departed only a half-hour late, it was already three hours behind schedule at Elko, Nev., “due to speed restrictions and freight congestion.” The delay had ballooned to just over six hours by the time the train departed Osceola, Iowa, today (Monday, July 7).

For the second time in several weeks, a hazardous materials freight derailment on Canadian National’s Yazoo subdivision in Mississippi caused cancellation of the City of New Orleans south of Carbondale, Ill. [see “CN derailment …,” News Wire, July 5, 2025] The northbound train was already en route to Jackson, Miss., when the accident occurred; no bus transportation was available from Jackson, so passengers were returned to New Orleans, where they arrived at 10:27 p.m. The City has now been cancelled through Thursday, Jul 10, on that segment.

In the east, the northbound Palmetto’s Charger locomotive died just south of Florence, S.C., on July 4. A CSX freight engine towed the train into Florence but passengers were bused. The next day, westbound Niagara Falls-bound Empire Service train No. 281 also succumbed to locomotive failure just east of Syracuse. The nearest train in the area, the eastbound Maple Leaf from Toronto, had already left the Syracuse station, but it was used to tow the disabled train back there before heading east again, then four hours late. The Maple Leaf normally waits at Albany-Rensselaer for the Adirondack from Montreal so the two trains can run combined to New York City. Despite the delay to No. 64, the Adirondack was held rather than depart separately. The trains arrived into New York’s Penn Station at 1:51 a.m. Sunday, three hours and 36 minutes late.

There were other lengthy delays over the weekend, including:

— Acela No. 2253 remained stopped two hours at Providence, R.I., on Sunday; No. 2257 was two hours late leaving Boston the same day.

— “Freight congestion and speed restrictions” slowed the July 4 eastbound Sunset Limited by four hours west of El Paso; the connecting Texas Eagle was four and a half hours late at St. Louis today.

— The eastbound Lake Shore Limited departed Chicago one hour, 49 minutes late Saturday night, and the Floridian was two hours, 38 minutes late departing the next evening. Both trains arrived into Chicago from the east nearly on time earlier in the day.

Late Sunday, flooding on CSX’s S-Line south of Raleigh, N.C., forced the southbound Floridian on a belated A-Line detour through Florence, S.C., after making the Cary, N.C. station stop; the train departed Savannah, Ga., at 3:06 p.m. ET today, 11 hours, 10 minutes late. On the other hand, its northbound counterpart got the news in enough time to take the shorter route and thus arrived a half-hour early into Rocky Mount, N.C.  (Weather-related issues have also led to cancellation of North Carolina’s Piedmont service today between Raleigh and Greensboro, N.C., according to the Amtrak Alerts social media feed).

Without those Florida and Carolina delays, the westbound Floridian arriving Pittsburgh Monday evening looks to shorten the wait there for passengers connecting from the Pennsylvanian. Schedules for both trains say the connection time is about four hours, with the Floridian due to depart at 11:59 p.m. On July 4, it left only 17 minutes late, but prior to that date back to June 15, travelers averaged an additional delay at the Pittsburgh station of about three hours into the wee hours. During that period, passengers connecting to the eastbound Pennsylvanian missed it just three times.

A footnote to News Wire columnist Bill Stephens’ comparison between Amtrak and trains in Europe [“European passenger trains …,” News Wire, July 7, 2025] is a cautionary tale from Sunday when a London-bound Eurostar trainset from Brussels, Belgium, became disabled in northern France. As described by passengers to the Daily Mail, with all power out, no air conditioning, no toilets, no food, and no company backup plan to deal with such an occurrence, a trainload of travelers suffered for nine hours during the middle of the day until a rescue train arrived.