News & Reviews News Wire Southwest Chief resumes regular schedule after Missouri derailment

Southwest Chief resumes regular schedule after Missouri derailment

By Bob Johnston | June 30, 2022

| Last updated on February 24, 2024

Superliners in short supply as many remain sidelined at Beech Grove shops

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Locomotive switches passenger cars in foreground as train passes in background
Three coaches, a Sightseer Lounge, and a dining car are pulled from the shop at Amtrak’s Chicago yard after inspection. They were part of the consist for the westbound Southwest Chief departing on Thursday. Lincoln Service Train No. 300 from St. Louis arrives at right. Bob Johnston

CHICAGO — The Southwest Chief that departed Los Angeles Tuesday evening and its westbound counterpart leaving Chicago today (Thursday, June 30) are the first Chiefs to operate over the train’s full route, passing the scene of the fatal derailment in Mendon, Mo., since that accident on Monday.

Monday’s westbound Southwest Chief was cancelled, and the eastbound Chief equipment scheduled to arrive on Tuesday and Wednesday only operated as far as Kansas City, Mo., before flipping back west on those days. Passengers continuing east were given the option to ride the combined Missouri River Runner/Lincoln Service train No. 318 or chartered buses to Chicago.

Monday’s accident exacerbated an existing equipment shortage, sidelining eight more cars in addition to those already out of service at the Beech Grove, Ind., shops. Amtrak did not have enough equipment in Los Angeles for an eastbound departure on Wednesday, June 29, because Monday’s train out of Chicago had been cancelled, so there will be no Chicago arrival on Friday. That day’s No. 318 is sold out from Kansas City to Chicago at the beginning of the holiday weekend.

Shop forces assembled three coaches, a Sightseer Lounge, a dining car, two sleeping cars, a transition sleeper, and baggage car from available Superliner equipment in Chicago for the Thursday westbound train. That train departed Chicago on time, and the first eastbound train into the Windy City was running three hours late

12 thoughts on “Southwest Chief resumes regular schedule after Missouri derailment

  1. Has NTSB allowed Amtrak and BNSF to remove the locos and cars / rerail them, and rebuild the damaged track yet?

    I find it odd that the state never told the railroads that it was planning to do crossing gates there.

  2. Amtrak is short of Superliners, but I can already think of a way to free up some coach cars, at least. The Pere Marquette and Heartland Flyer both run with Superliners, but with Siemens cars in the Midwest coming online, that should free up some Horizon cars, which could be used to reequip those two trains. As for sleepers, dining, and sighteer lounges, it’s a different. They could try shifting some viewliners to work with the dorm/transition car, but that’s a funky setup.

  3. Amtrak is short on mechanical people. So why not farm out the work to third party contractors?

  4. Mr. Bentz that WOULD be the logical plans.. but don’t expect either to happen as it would not fit with Amtrak Mgmts plan to sabotage the national network & to just focus on the NEC & the shake down of state supported routes.

    1. SecTrans Buttigieg and FRA administrator Amit Bose and the Congressional T&I Committee fiddle while Amtrak burns. No one is paying attention.Stephen Gardner and the newly re-nominated for Board Chair Anthony Coscia (that’s another story) are licking their chops. And the pathetic and useless NARP/RPA and their state/regional affiliates continue to prostrate themselves before Amtrak’s top officers…because they have nowhere else to go.

  5. Charles: Do you really think a stop sign will be heeded? We had a situation locally. I am curious and will recon the site you mentioned. Consider my comments about what happened locally. I contacted the FRA, they sent a UP Safety official. To accomplish what he wanted, the suggestion was to change the road system approach. Of course that is a burden on local road departments who are spread thin on other needed work. Especially when the intersection is not perpendicular. No responsibility for RR.
    In my case, the safety official suggested, after seeing the next crossing (same danger) but this one had school bus traffic. He then said, you need to contact the local school since they had a bus traverse an “Unsafe line-of-sight non-perpendicular” grade crossing.

    That sure worked. UP at these two crossings increased the ROW clearance ………double……. the previous “normal” clearance on both very dangerous grade crossings.

    More details of my above comment are listed in comment (#6) of the article, “NTSB investigators gather information at site of Chief derailment”. By | June 29, 2022 endmrw0630221730

  6. Now for the two major questions, both of which we can probably guess the answers to:

    1. Will this crash, the previous Builder crash, and the general shortage of cars/demand for space finally prompt Amtrak to add people back to its maintenance bases so they can put their out-of-service Superliners back in service and keep a safe supply of spare cars ready? (Answer: Probably not)

    2. Will this shortage prompt Amtrak to put out an RFP for new long-distance passenger cars, single or bilevel, to replace the rapidly aging Superliners, and make sure they set aside or request money for them? (Answer: See 1 above).

    1. With current labor shortages it is unlikely they could find enough people to make a difference even if they wanted to do this. Nobody wants to work these jobs anymore. Easier to stay home and collect money from the government.

  7. NEXT UP: Put a crossing signal at the construction company’s private crossing of CNR in Pewaukee, Wisconsin. Used by dump trucks and other heavy construction equipment.

    CNR has a risk management department. The construction company has an insurance carrier. What does these people do for their salaries?

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