The Montreal-New York train, which has been on hold since the end of June due to heat restrictions, is not expected to resume service until mid-September. Its manager, Amtrak, says it has not found a “workable solution” with Canadian National (CN) that would have avoided major delays during the summer.
Posted at 10:56 a.m.
“Unfortunately, Amtrak, CN and the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) have not found a workable solution for this summer,” said rail company spokesman Jason Abrams, via email.
He argues that continuing to deliver the service would result for most users in “significant delays of up to four hours”, or even potentially “blocked routes halfway through”. Right now, the average duration of a train journey between the Big Apple and Montreal is already just over 11 hours, if all goes well.
Last April, Amtrak announced with great fanfare the return of its Montreal-New York route, the Adirondack, which had been put on hold due to the pandemic. In 2019, the train carried 117,490 passengers.
But since the end of June, the train has been at a standstill again since Canadian National, which owns the tracks on which Amtrak trains run, imposed “heat restrictions” which limit speeds to a range of 10 to 40 miles per hour; in other words the equivalent of 16 to 64 km/h approximately. Result: the journey is considered too long and expensive to proceed.
The whole thing actually stems from a regulation adopted last year by Transport Canada, which requires railway organizations “to establish temperature thresholds which, when reached, result in the application of speed limits and additional track inspection requirements”. Everything was implemented to “ensure rail safety and protect infrastructure during periods of extreme heat,” says the federal government.
Not for two months
Since then, Amtrak claims to have “explored different solutions”, but to no avail. Thus, the Adirondack will continue for the moment to operate only between New York and Albany, then from July 24, it will offer connections only between New York and Saratoga Springs.
Mr Abrams says the company now plans to restore service between New York and Montreal “in mid-September, when CN is expected to lift its heat restrictions”. “Heat restrictions may be lifted sooner if the local temperature drops, and Amtrak, with the support of our partners, could then restore service sooner than expected,” the spokesperson said.
The latter maintains that discussions are nevertheless continuing “to develop a long-term solution so that Amtrak trains can run to and from Montreal over the coming summers”. In other words, we want to avoid reproducing the situation in 2024. “We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience,” concludes Jason Abrams.
CN, on the other hand, strongly blames Amtrak for this situation, judging that the latter refuses to pay the necessary costs that would allow a reopening. “Amtrak is responsible and has not paid for the maintenance necessary to maintain the track at a level that will ensure the fluidity of its service,” maintains its spokesperson, Mathieu Gaudreault.
According to him, the reality is that Amtrak “refuses to invest in the maintenance and improvement of this section in order to reduce the impact of extreme weather conditions”, and that it “does not affect a sufficient number of ’employees on this route in order to ensure continuous service’.
2023-07-11 14:56:06
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