NEW ORLEANS — Amtrak has cancelled all service in and out of New Orleans beginning early Saturday in advance of Hurricane Ida, which is expected to make landfall this Sunday. This is necessary so railroad flood gates adjacent to levees can be closed and sealed to prevent any possible storm surge from entering the city.
Amtrak issued an advisory Friday indicating that the New Orleans-New York Crescent is cancelled south of Atlanta in both directions beginning Saturday and the New Orleans-Chicago City of New Orleans will terminate from Chicago and originate at Memphis on Saturday. These truncations are expected to last through Monday.
The last train to depart New Orleans will be Saturday morning’s westbound Sunset Limited at 9 a.m., with its eastbound counterpart leaving Los Angeles Friday terminating at San Antonio Sunday morning. The first eastbound Sunset scheduled to arrive into the Crescent City will be Tuesday, Aug. 31, weather permitting.
The cancellations come 16 years after Hurricane Katrina made landfall near New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2005.
More information on the hurricane forecast is available from The Weather Channel.
It seems like they could turn at Houston instead of San Antonio. If there’s no wye there to turn the train there should at least be a turntable to turn the engine.
There are wyes in downtown Houston for turning whole passenger trains.
I don’t think any trains will be going into New Orleans for awhile. As of 5:00 EDT over 400,000 people are with out power which means on signals or switches working an the flood gates are not going to be open for awhile.