Amtrak announced Monday that the holidays will begin Tuesday on its national network. The commuter rail said it was pulling trains on three long-distance routes “to avoid potential passenger disruptions en route”. “These initial adjustments … could be followed by impacts on all long-haul routes and most state-supported routes,” Amtrak said in a statement. “These adjustments are necessary to ensure that trains can reach their terminals before freight rail service is disrupted if a negotiated solution is not reached.” Amtrak owns and operates much of its own track on the busy Northeast Corridor between Washington and Boston, but elsewhere it crosses the country on lines owned by freight lines. Commuter lines that run between major cities and suburbs often operate on a similar model. These freight lines would likely be unavailable to passenger trains in the event of a widespread strike. Any disruption would affect a passenger rail industry already weakened by the 2 1/2 years of the pandemic, which has hit commuter rail lines particularly hard. Amtrak said it is closely monitoring labor negotiations and is “hopeful that the parties will reach a resolution,” citing potential impacts on passenger operations. Amtrak said it has begun making gradual adjustments to service in preparation for a possible outage of freight rail services later this week, adding that “such an outage could significantly affect long-distance passenger rail service.” Amtrak announced Monday train cancellations with Tuesday departures on the Empire Builder, California Zephyr and Southwest Chief routes. Most trips within the Northeast Corridor will not be affected, Amtrak said. However, minor schedule changes are expected on a small number of Northeast Region trains serving destinations from Virginia to Boston. The airline will allow passengers to change their booking for free for departures scheduled until October 31 Jim Matthews, president and chief executive of the Rail Passengers Association, said canceling trains early in the week makes sense to avoid a scenario in which train passengers could be stranded. “It’s better to cancel some trains now than to send some people on the road and then have them stranded in the middle of nowhere because the strike has hit and the train can’t run anymore,” he said. “In the meantime we’re all keeping our fingers crossed eventually [the railroads and labor unions] come to a settlement.” Freight railroads and the unions that represent their workers have been locked in a long dispute over wages and working conditions. After a presidential council recommended a compromise, 10 of the 12 unions involved in the talks have signed the agreement, but the two largest have not. A cooling-off period ends Thursday night, after which workers could strike or railroads could lock out rail passenger agencies. As US railroad strike looms, White House aides scramble to avert crisis Officials at several regional rail agencies said Monday they were holding internal meetings to determine the potential impact and develop contingency plans. The strike is not certain and the extent of any disruption to passenger services was unclear. A key question would be whether freight rail dispatchers — whose job it is to run trains — would continue to work. Without them, passenger trains would likely not be able to operate on freight lines. Metrolink, a network of seven lines serving Los Angeles and other Southern California communities, warned customers last week of the possibility of disruptions. Scott Johnson, a spokesman for the agency, said five of its seven lines use lines owned by freight railroads, meaning 70 percent of its customers could be affected. But Johnson said Metrolink had little information Monday about what the exact impact might be. “We’re working very much from a position of darkness,” he said. Normally when Metrolink cancels trains, Johnson said she arranges buses as a replacement. But in the event of a strike, the agency does not expect to be able to provide an alternative means of transportation. “Because of the potentially expansive nature and the large number of trains, there simply aren’t enough buses to provide alternative service,” Johnson said. The Maryland Department of Transportation said Monday that freight railroad company CSX had notified it of a possible strike starting Friday. The state said a strike would result in the “immediate suspension” of all service on two of the three MARC commuter lines serving the District — one to Baltimore and another to Martinsburg, W.Va. Virginia Railway Express officials did not respond to a request for comment Monday. DJ Stadtler, executive director of the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority, which oversees passenger service in the state, said the authority is working with Amtrak and freight railroads to ensure passengers receive the “most up-to-date information available” in the event of a strike. . Not all rail services will be affected. RTD, the transit agency that serves Denver, said it did not expect its lines to suffer in the event of a strike. The nation’s largest transit agency, New York’s MTA, said its two commuter rail services are also not expected to be affected. The impending strike by rail workers could further rattle a national rail network that has been slowing for months, Railroad Passengers Union officials said, hurting Amtrak passengers in particular. A freight line battle that will determine the future of American passenger rail Interruptions to intercity train services are increasing and more are likely as uncertainty remains amid staff shortages and increased demand. Amtrak travel has been hampered by worsening problems on the freight lines, which often share tracks with Amtrak trains. A third of Amtrak customers experienced delays in July, according to on-time performance data, with an average delay of 71 minutes. The share of late customers is growing, Amtrak data shows, and delays are getting longer. The disruption is more pronounced for travelers on long-haul routes — which take more than half the time — and in parts of the country outside the Northeast Corridor. Rail union officials said the dispute could lead to more extensive train delays or cancellations. Rail transport operators have been hit hard by the change in work patterns caused by the pandemic. In many cases, they offer more limited service at peak times, which no longer suits workers with more flexible schedules. In Los Angeles, for example, Johnson said Metrolink had about 40,000 weekday ridership before the pandemic, which now stands at about 17,000.
