ALBANY, N.Y. — Amtrak and Canadian National Railway have reached agreement on track maintenance in Canada to avoid a repeat of the issues that sidelined Adirondack service last summer, U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) announced today (Friday, May 17).
Trackwork on the CN portion of the Adirondack route in Canada will be performed during the upcoming suspension of service north of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., which begins May 20 [see “Adirondack to be cancelled in northern New York state, Canada …,” Trains News Wire, May 9, 2024]. This should address the heat-related track problems that caused service to Montreal to be suspended for 79 days beginning last June 24 after CN imposed a 10-mph slow order in Canada [see “CN, Amtrak disagree on payments, heat orders …,” News Wire, June 29, 2024].
“This result will allow tourism to flourish through the summer months, strengthening economic development in the region and our partnership with our Canadian neighbors,” Stefanik said in a press release.
Garry Douglas, president of the North Country Chamber of Commerce, said the agreement will allow “the heat-related challenges … north of the border to be fully resolved so that, when service resumes at the end of June, we should see no more rail-condition interruptions for hopefully years to come.”
The Sun Community Newspaper of Plattsburgh, N.Y., quotes a joint statement from Amtrak and CN saying they are “pleased to have resolved the service issues associated with the Adrondack line between Rouses Point, N.Y., and Montreal’s Central Station. In an agreement signed today, Amtrak will make a payment to CN and CN has agreed to use the settlement payment to undertake track work on its Rouses Point Subdivision for Amtrak’s benefit. This track work will help mitigate, but not eliminate, heat slow-order speed limits going forward. CN has been planning the work for several months and will endeavor to make the necessary work expeditiously and safely in 2024.
“Adirondack service may be modified on a short-term basis in the coming weeks to ensure completion of the track work, which will help increase reliability of the service during summer months this year, and in the future.”
There are those who have no idea what socialism might be…wait, might it involve building multi-billion dollar interchanges to comfy usher Milw. metro suburbanites into or thru town. Make that trip to Trader Joes 5 minutes less.
Those multibillion dollar interchanges are: (1) safer for drivers; and (2) aren’t in a state of near-collapse like the former interchanges they replaced.
And as I posted a day or so back, there’s plenty of people in Milwaukee who own cars. So give it up dumping on us suburbanites.
Finally, traditionally highways were paid for by user fees. Now, there is subsidy out of the general funds, which I don’t endorse.
What Charles doesn’t mention is that those interchanges also carry far more people than the comparatively few who ride on Amtrak into and out of Milwaukee.
Good for CN and Amtrak working on a solution TOGETHER for a problem that has gone on for too long. A good example for the OTHER Canadian railroad, I think…
Interesting how a MAGA supporter like Stefanik is willing to support a socialist enterprise like Amtrak when it helps her district, not to mention spending US taxpayer money outside the country.
I can see your point, John, but your point is easy to answer. We have a socialist government in Washington, for which we are heavily taxed. People in Republican districts (I live in the solidly Republican 5th Wisconsin CD) pay those taxes just as much as poeple living in the socialist districts (such as the 4th Wisconsin CD east of me or the 2nd Wisconsin CD west of me). If these taxes exist and if the programs exist, then we Republicans are due our share.
Furthermore, if I had to make a list of socialist or social-fascist programs from our government in Washington, it would be a very long time before I got to Amtrak.
What is the complete money trail? What exactly is CN doing to improve the track speeds if it will increase the speeds?
And why won’t the work eliminate the heat-related slow orders? Shouldn’t AMTRAK have negotiated complete elimination?
Because you can not ELIMINATE heat related slow orders, that’s just a fact that Western carriers have had to deal with for decades upon decades. It is impossible to eliminate but you can mitigate, which means the slow orders should not have to be 10 mph. Sun kinks are real but they can be minimized…if you allowed enough gap in the welded rail for extreme heat expansion, you create another issue with damage to the rail head from pounding during extreme cold. Pick your poison, either way there will be issues.