CHICAGO — More evidence of how Amtrak’s equipment is stretched thin surfaced over the weekend when the company was forced to cancel Saturday’s northbound Floridian out of Miami because no locomotive was available to fill in for ailing motive power, according to Amtrak. As a result, the Chicago-Washington, D.C.-Miami through substitute for the Capitol Limited and Silver Star is cancelled out of Chicago today (Aug. 25, 2025) as well, because that train’s equipment never left Miami.
The cancellation adds to lengthy delays experienced by passengers aboard the eastbound Empire Builder, Sunset Limited, California Zephyr, and Southwest Chief, plus two City of New Orleans trains in rural Louisiana, but the tardiness was generally the product of circumstances beyond Amtrak’s control.
— The Empire Builder departing Seattle on-time Thursday afternoon, Aug. 21, encountered “rail congestion and speed restrictions” starting with a four-hour delay through Glacier Park in Montana. The delay doubled by the time the train reached the Twin Cities. It arrived Sunday morning at 1:49 a.m. Friday’s Builder left Seattle 3 hours, 40 minutes late after a tardy westbound arrival in the morning; that train arrived in Chicago on Sunday night just before the scheduled departure of the Lake Shore Limited, which was held 15 minutes for connections.
— After a 90-minute mechanical delay leaving Los Angeles, Friday’s eastbound Sunset Limited lost more than two hours across west Texas. Both the Sunset and the Texas Eagle were thus delayed almost four hours leaving San Antonio. Recovery time into New Orleans and St. Louis, respectively, trimmed the deficit to less than 3 hours for each train
— Flash flood warnings and a blinding dust storm east of Reno, Nev. that affected concertgoers at the nearby Burning Man festival contributed to a four-and-a-half-hour delay to the eastbound California Zephyr. It lost additional time in eastern Colorado Sunday night and was running more than five hours late across Iowa on Monday.
—“Heavy freight train interference” was blamed for delays to the eastbound Southwest Chiefs out of Los Angeles on Friday and Saturday evening; this tends to usually occur on BNSF Railway’s Transcon east Barstow, Calif., Saturday’s train, however, was also challenged by weather-related speed restrictions affecting performance along the passenger-only route from Lamy through Raton, N.M., as well as through eastern Kansas.
— Explosions and a fire Friday afternoon at a factory in Arcola, La., next to tracks used by the City of New Orleans forced Canadian National to shut down the line for an extended period. The passenger trains were annulled at McComb, Miss., southbound and Hammond, La., northbound; passengers of both trains were apparently bused to New Orleans and that day’s southbound City out of Chicago was short-turned at Carbondale, Ill. Service operated normally the next day.
Disruptions in Canada
Meanwhile, both of VIA Rail Canada’s twice-weekly westbound Canadians encountered challenges at both ends of their route on Sunday. The train that departed Toronto on Wednesday, Aug. 20. had whittled hours-long delays to 20 minutes off the advertised leaving Kamloops, B.C., but an out-of-control brush fire east of Yale, B.C., in Canadian National/Canadian Pacific directional running territory closed CN tracks Saturday used by westbound passenger and freight trains. The online news source Castanet reported that fires had jumped to both sides of the Fraser River by Saturday evening.
The Canadian was delayed by more than 8 hours waiting for a slot against eastbound traffic to head west over Canadian Pacific. Thanks to three hours of scheduled recovery time, tardiness into Vancouver B.C. was reduced to five hours, 27 minutes late. As of midday Monday, it is not known what the situation will be for the eastbound Canadian scheduled to leave at 3 p.m. No Rocky Mountaineer disruptions have been reported on that company’s website.
In the east, a CN freight derailment on the Canadian’s regular route necessitated a lengthy move to a wye long enough to reverse the direction of the 20-plus-car consist. Sunday’s westbound Canadian thus departed Toronto more than five hours late.
Amtrak isn’t even putting a good faith effort into replacing LD equipment. They’re not working with equipment builders on what can be done but are demanding what Amtrak wants. There’s a readily available platform in the Viewliner. All that needs to be done is come up with a viable design for coaches and lounges. Shouldn’t take so long but upper Amtrak management is clueless.
I imagine the crossover between Trains editors and Burners is somewhere between minimal and nonexistent – but if for some reason the festival ever comes up in future coverage, calling Burners “concertgoers” completely misapprehends what goes on at That Thing In The Desert.
I would also note that the nearby ex-WP line has been featured in past art installations on the playa. The imagined Black Rock City station was fantastic and I have framed my California Zephyr ticket someone who was there that year saved for me…
Time to USE UP YOUR GUEST REWARDS POINTS on Amtrak travel, if you dare. Amtrak is in a manufactured death spiral.
Look at a system map of Amtrak in the early 70’s then compare it to today….It’s smaller, why because of constant budget cuts which have slowly shaved it down to what it is today. Did they cut the hwy funding? No. Did they raise the gas tax according to inflation? No. The Federal Govt has never been anywhere near as generous supporting passenger as it has hwys & aviation. That’s why so many areas are unserved by rail today slowly starving it little by little slowly trying to push it into oblivion. Yet they’ll siphon $100’s of billions from the Treasury to make up the enormous shortfalls of the Hwy Trust Fund adding to the deficit they conveniently refer to when cutting Amtrak funding. Let’s not forget the memorable references to Hwys & aviation funding as “Investments” but Amtrak is a “Subsidy”. Pretty much says it all right there that’s why you can’t get there from here by passenger rail!
In the early 1970’s there were still lots of people that were used to traveling longer distance by train.
They are all gone and few have been replaced. The arrival of the discount airlines, the growth of the interstate highway system, and the airlines switch to using only jets have also played a role in having people forget about trains, especially long distance ones.
The 4′ delay to the Builder at Glacier was because an axle issue on the 2nd charger and had to be set out. A BNSF locomotive was commadeered from a near by freight. Im told the axle was fi e but the computer said it wasn’t.
I suspect the money that was allocated for new LD Superliner replacement equipment has been rescinded in which case this will only get worse as this equipment won’t last forever eventually they’ll have to eliminate routes until there is none. Half the country will have service & the other half won’t!
Most of the country doesn’t have service now. Does Phoenix? Does Columbus? BTW one train a day going in one direction isn’t service, it’s nonsense.
I’m a HUGE believer in corridor trains and suburban commuter trains. Anyone who signs up for a VIA Rail or Amtrak LD is in for a big disappointment.
Shouldn’t be that way. But it is.