CHICAGO — A major, slow-moving storm has led to a flurry of Amtrak cancellations today (Friday, April 4) in the Midwest.
Cancellations today, according to the Amtrak Alerts social media feed, include:
— Both directions of the Texas Eagle between St. Louis and Marshall, Texas;
— Both directions of the City of New Orleans;
— The southbound Illini between Champaign-Urbana and Carbondale, Ill.
All are due to “inclement weather conditions,” according to the Amtrak Alerts feed. No alternate transportation is being provided for any of the cancelled trains.
On Saturday, April 5, weather again led to the cancellation of the City of New Orleans in both directions; the Texas Eagle in both directions between St. Louis and Marshall, and the Saluki between Carbondale and Champaign-Urbana.
Amtrak Alerts also has announced that the Floridian that departed Miami on Friday has been cancelled between Toledo, Ohio, and Chicago because of lengthy delays. That train was reported to be 13 hours, 48 minutes late as of its stop in Martinsburg, W.Va., at 7:33 a.m. ET on Sunday, April 6, and is currently projected to arrive in Toledo — where it is scheduled to stop at 5:08 a.m. — after 6 p.m. Because of the delay to that trainset, the southbound Floridian scheduled to leave Chicago on Sunday, April 6, has been cancelled between Chicago and Toledo, with bus transportation provided.
— Updated April 5 at 8:08 p.m. CT with Saturday cancellations; updated April 6 at 7:50 a.m. CT with latest information on Floridian.
One wonders why the Floridian was so late. I frequently used the Capitol to go to Chicago to fly out of O’Hare, But this monstrosity called The Floridian is a disaster and I won’t use it.
https://www.amtrak.com/track-your-train.html indicates the southbound Texas Eagle 1021 originated from Fort Worth this afternoon at 3:20, 48 minutes late.
Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown’s locomotive engine “Old Ironsides” would not be run in rainy weather. This was in 1832.
PG&N is now part of SEPTA.
We must remind the good doctor that this is spring weather. Rain, flooding and tornadoes. CSX had a double stack blown over about 40 miles from my home.
The stubborn winter that refuses to leave is preventing the committed Amtrak trains that want to hit the rails…
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Nice poetry, Dr. Ustun, but I don’t quite follow.
We have always had winter. I can’t recall a milder one. I literally went through an entire Wisconsin winter 2024 – 2025 without once wearing a heavy coat or even a pair of gloves.
There may be weather events that would stop a train — flooding obviously, but also tornados, hurricanes, and the most extreme of cold weather. Winter, however, isn’t one of them. We have had winter every year since trains were invented.
Charles,after more than fifty years of doing my best to see the glass as half full, advocating for Amtrak whenever I could, I have, as 2025 ripens into Spring, given up. Too much disaster, in too many places, to keep whistling past the graveyard. Let the feeble patient be euthanized, fine with me, just save a few parts that still have a semblance of a pulse. “Inclement weather” my ass.
And how did train 40 that originated in Miami on Friday April 4 manage to lose almost eleven hours between Lakeland and Tampa?
DAVID — First I knew that there’s a train from Miami to Tampa. I looked it up. No. 40, the Floridian. Scheduled time 5:26 per the web site. The amount of time you say it lost was about twice the schedule for entire route.