The inbound Texas Eagle passes Amtrak’s Chicago coach yard on May 25, 2021, with three coaches, a sleeping car, and a diner-lounge. The train’s capacity hasn’t changed since then despite regular coach sellouts into and out of Chicago, which prevent passengers from booking travel for longer distances. Bob Johnston
CHICAGO — With the threat of a national railroad work stoppage prompting travelers to make alternate plans, many long-distance trains that are normally sold out for at least a portion of their journeys had space available as service resumed.
Trains that had been suspended Tuesday through Thursday, Sept. 13-15, all returned as scheduled Friday [see “Amtrak long-distance trains set to resume,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 16, 2022]. Iinitial trips for some were marred by long delays, such as Friday’s eastbound California Zephyr, which lost 3 hours between Colfax, Calf., and Reno, Nev. The eastbound Texas Eagle that left San Antonio Sept. 17 lost 7 hours between Arkadelphia and Malvern, Ark., while its westbound counterpart was held for 3 hours at Little Rock. With a few exceptions, sellouts were rare in coaches but common for longer journeys in sleeping cars.
As usual, no one could ride the Eagle into or out of Chicago on Saturday or Sunday because its three Superliner coaches were at capacity to and from Normal, Ill. However, overnighters such as the Empire Builder, California Zephyr, and Southwest Chief that usually experience sell-outs entering or leaving the Windy City were all showing limited coach availability, though most sleeping car space was sold out.
An exception: On Saturday, both the Seattle and Portland, Oregon-bound Builder sleeping cars had a Chicago-Spokane bedroom available for $2,263, but the Seattle section offered a $630 price for at least one roomette. The train has operated this year with only one Chicago-Seattle and one Chicago-Portland sleeper (both sections had two Superliner sleeping cars during the summers of 2019 and 2020), but the transition sleeper in the Seattle section offers roomettes and no bedrooms.
Slow return for Midwest Corridor round trips
Meanwhile, a shortage of serviceable equipment or personnel continues to delay the return of key frequencies on three regional routes. While firm return-to-service dates have not been publicized, Amtrak’s website is not accepting reservations for certain trains for weeks:
Lincoln Service: Reservations become available for the 5:20 p.m. Chicago departure for St. Louis (No. 305) on Sunday, Oct. 23; its 10:00 a.m. Chicago arrival (No, 300) is first showing availability the following morning. All-day sellouts around or during weekends have regularly occurred even before this round trip was dropped.
Michigan Wolverines: Morning eastbound Train 350 and evening westbound Train 355 also show availabilities on Oct. 24.
Illini-Saluki: The morning southbound-afternoon northbound Chicago-Carbondale, Ill., trains (Nos. 391 and 392) aren’t accepting bookings until Dec. 5. The route’s patronage has been further weakened by Amtrak’s decision to keep the City of New Orleans on a Monday through Friday-only schedule until Oct. 8, given the fact that Saturday through Monday are the train’s busiest travel days. The City and the New York-New Orleans Crescent are the only long-distance trains yet to be restored to daily operation after being reduced to five days a week earlier this year; other such trains returned to seven-day operation in May.
Another challenge complicating the return of this second Illini-Saluki round trip is that Canadian National continues to insist the trains use Superliners, which are in short supply, and that all trains must have 32 axles to insure proper signal shunting. This is a route-specific concern Amtrak, CN, the Federal Railroad Administration and the Illinois Department of Transportation have been attempting to resolve since 2006.
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