ST. LOUIS — The return date for the second round trip of Amtrak’s Missouri River Runner service between St. Louis and Kansas City, Mo., has been pushed back again, this time to Dec. 16.
The train, which has been suspended since Oct. 24, was previously scheduled to resume Nov. 16 and today (Sunday, Dec. 4). The new return date is listed in an advisory on the Amtrak website.
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that a lack of available cars is the reason for service suspensions that have “been sort of rotating around the Midwest,” as well as labor shortages. Routes out of Chicago serving Quincy, Ill.; Carbondale, Ill.; St. Louis, and Pontiac, Mich., have also seen some trains suspended.
Amtrak’s state-supported Midwest service continue to have issues placing into service 88 new Siemens Venture railcars built in Sacramento, Calif. [see “Siemens equipment delays aggravate Amtrak capacity issues …,” Trains News Wire, April 1, 2022]. The cars have had problems with their tables and retractable steps, among other issues. An Illinois Department of Transportation spokesman told the Post-Dispatch there are ongoing problems with water filtration systems and onboard electronic displays.
At a Dec. 1 board meeting in St. Louis, Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner said Amtrak had expected 60 of the new cars to be operating in 2022, but the problems have meant “35 cars fewer” are available [see “Amtrak’s Gardner asserts mechanical ranks not thinned …,” News Wire, Dec. 3, 2022].
The first of the Siemens cars were delivered in August 2020, and made their initial test run almost two years ago [see “News photos: Testing begins …,” News Wire, Jan. 25, 2021]. It has now been 10 months since the cars made their revenue debut in Chicago-St. Louis service [see “First look: Siemens Venture coaches debut …,” News Wire, Feb. 2, 2022].
The second Missouri River Runner round trip, which had been cut in January because of a lack of state funding, was restored with fanfare on July 18 [see “Missouri, Amtrak relaunch …,” News Wire, July 20, 2022]. It ran for 98 days before being halted because of the equipment issues, and will have been suspended for 53 days if it returns on Dec. 16.
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