Westbound Wolverine No. 353 is running 45 minutes late on Sunday, Aug. 28, as it passes downtown Porter, Ind., before tiptoeing onto Norfolk Southern’s main for the trip to Chicago. Beginning today, Amtrak is eliminating one of the two other Chicago-Detroit area round-trips due to “a lack of manpower and available train equipment.” (Bob Johnston)
CHICAGO — Lack of serviceable equipment and qualified staff have again caused a series of Amtrak state-supported service cancellations out of Chicago.
Late last week, the company announced morning eastbound Wolverine service train No. 350 to Pontiac, Mich., and its evening return counterpart, No. 355, would be cancelled today (Monday, Aug. 29) through Friday, Sept. 16, due to a combination of, “a lack of manpower and available train equipment.”
On Sunday, Aug. 28, no extra-board engineer was available to take the Blue Water east from Chicago to Battle Creek, Mich. The regularly-assigned operator had been scheduled to miss the run after involvement in a grade crossing incident, according to Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari.
He tells Trains News Wire that buses were called to expedite travelers to their destinations, but the equipment was combined with Wolverine No. 354 as far as Battle Creek. The crew based in that city then took the Blue Water to Port Huron, Mich., where it arrived at 1:03 a.m., about an hour and a half late. The two trains had been combined on the Wolverine’s schedule earlier in August without the bus option.
Elimination of the 350/355 round trip from Chicago to the Detroit area severely limits travel options for intra-Michigan travel from the western part of the state; this round-trip was the last to be restored after Covid-19 reductions.
The lack of qualified engineers and conductors operating out of Chicago has caused cancellations on other Midwest routes [see “Operating issues continue …,” Trains News Wire, Aug. 22, 2022], but lack of staff also precipitated a months-long schedule reductions on the Sacramento-San Jose, Calif., Capitol Corridor through September [See “Crew shortages force Amtrak cancellations …,” News Wire, Aug. 5, 2022].
Meanwhile, sellouts continue for long-distance and regional trains throughout the country, especially on or adjacent to weekends. In the Northeast on Sunday, Aug., 21, for instance, every Empire Service train operating between New York City and Albany-Rensselaer, N.Y., was sold out in both directions after 10 a.m. Those trains’ standard consist is four Amfleet I coaches and a cafe car providing business-class seating.
Passengers descend on New York-bound Empire Service train 238 at Hudson, N.Y., on Aug. 21. Virtually every train was sold out between New York City and Albany-Rensselaer, N.Y. that day. (Bob Johnston)