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RALEIGH, N.C. — A ceremony Friday (May 30) marking the 30th anniversary of the North Carolina’s Piedmont passenger rail service between Raleigh and Charlotte, repainting a locomotive into the original Piedmont paint scheme to mark the event. Piedmont service was launched on May 26, 1995, with state-owned equipment. It has grown from a single daily […]
NEWARK, N.J. — Five Amtrak employees have recently pleaded guilty to charges relating to a health care scheme that resulted in more than $11 million in fraudulent claims to the company’s health care plan. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey announced this week that Kevin Frink, 53, of Willingboro, N.J., pleaded […]
NEW YORK — Lost in the debate between Amtrak, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, and transportation advocates over the plans to close Amtrak’s East River tunnel for repairs — and the resulting service reductions, especially for Empire Service trains to and from Albany-Rensselaer, N. Y. — are the limited track routing options that exist between […]
SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. — Amtrak and Metrolink service through San Clemente will resume on Saturday, June 7, the Orange County Transportation Authority announced today (Thursday, May 29). The Surf Line route through San Clemente — an area where landslides have frequently disrupted train traffic in recent years — has been closed since April 28 to […]
MOBILE, Ala. — The launch of Amtrak’s Mardi Gras Service between Mobile and New Orleans has been pushed back further, likely to the end of July or beginning of August. WALA-TV reports that Southern Rail Commission chairman Knox Ross told the station that “construction issues” are responsible for the latest delays. “We know the train’s […]
CHICAGO — Sellouts in coach and high prices in sleeping cars, if space is available at all, are the rule rather than exception in a News Wire survey of Amtrak long-distance trains as summer arrives. Travelers will often face limited inventory for the rest of the summer despite marginal increases in equipment deployment. In a […]
NEW YORK — A name both familiar to and well-regarded by New Yorkers will be placed in charge of the remodeling of Penn Station. Andy Byford, who oversaw the city’s subways to positive reviews as president of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s New York City Transit from 2018 to 2020, has been chosen to oversee the […]
NEW YORK — Amtrak will shut down one tube of the East River Tunnel for major rehabilitation as planned on Friday night, but has agreed to some measures sought by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul during the project, Hochul said in a statement following a meeting today (May 22, 2025) with Amtrak and Metropolitan Transportation […]
WASHINGTON — Overall revenue is up, costs are being contained, expansion plans remain on track, and Amtrak is taking detailed steps to ensure summer 2024 problems on the Northeast Corridor in New Jersey won’t happen again. That’s a summary of issues covered in the live-streamed public portion of an Amtrak board meeting held today (May […]
WASHINGTON — Amtrak’s overall customer on-time performance improved in the first quarter of 2025, compared to the previous quarter, according to the latest report from the Federal Railroad Administration. But the 72% overall figure is down from 77% in the same quarter a year ago, and none of the company’s three business segments (long distance, […]
CHICAGO — Amtrak says ridership on the St. Paul-Chicago route is up 227% since the introduction of the Borealis, which made its debut one year ago today, on May 21, 2024. Preliminary figures through the first 11 months of service show more than 205,800 riders on the Borealis, funded by the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, […]
ORLANDO — Amtrak’s decision last fall to create the Chicago-Miami Floridian out of the Capitol Limited and Silver Star — ostensibly to reduce equipment moves during East River tunnel reconstruction in New York — is facing additional timekeeping obstacles over its 2,076-mile, 44-intermediate-stop route this summer. A cell phone text message dinged Sunday (May 18) […]
