ORLANDO, Fla. – Amtrak is reversing the route after announcing its plans to cancel all long-distance trains.
07:10 Monday update:
Amtrak is canceling a move to stop long-distance trains, after the Biden administration announced earlier on Thursday that it had reached a temporary rail business deal.
“Amtrak is working to quickly reinstate canceled trains and reach affected customers to accommodate the first available departures,” a company spokesperson said.
Read: Biden says railroad companies, unions reach tentative deal and thwart strike
Channel 9 is following these last minute developments and will continue with Eyewitness News.
Original report:
The company announced on Wednesday that all long-distance Amtrak trains have been canceled from Thursday to avoid potential passenger disruptions on the road, including the automatic train leaving Sanford.
The cancellations were made in response to ongoing rail contract negotiations.
“Amtrak is closely monitoring the ongoing freight rail to rail contract negotiations,” the company said in an email. “The negotiations do not involve Amtrak or the Amtrak workforce. While we are hopeful that the parties will reach a resolution, Amtrak has begun phasing out adjustments to our service this week in preparation for a possible freight rail service disruption.”
Amtrak said it only operates trains this week that can definitively reach their final destinations by 12:01 a.m. Friday.
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Services suspended as of Tuesday include Southwest Chief, Empire Builder, California Zephyr and parts of Train #421 and Texas Eagle.
Services suspended as of Wednesday are City of New Orleans, Coast Starlight, Crescent, Lake Shore Limited, Silver Star, Sunset Limited and Texas Eagle.
Suspended services from Thursday are Auto Train, Capitol Limited, Cardinal and Palmetto (south of Washington).
Amtrak said the outage could “significantly affect” intercity passenger rail service. Additional customers scheduled to be on upcoming trains will be informed of the possibility of disruption.
“These initial adjustments include the cancellation of all Long Distance trains, and this could have implications for most Government Subsidized routes,” Amtrak said. These adjustments are necessary to ensure that trains can reach their terminals before freight rail service is interrupted if a settlement cannot be reached in negotiations.
Amtrak said it operates nearly all of its 21,000 route miles outside the Northeast Corridor as rail-owned, maintained and shipped by freight railroads.
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Sunrail, operated by the Florida Department of Transportation, said in an emailed statement to WFTV, “The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is aware of the ongoing negotiations between rail carriers and rail associations. The Department continues to monitor the situation as a workers’ strike could affect SunRail service. Developments. More information will be provided as it happens.”
The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is aware of the ongoing negotiations between rail carriers and rail associations. The Ministry continues to monitor the situation as a workers’ strike could affect SunRail service. More information will be provided as developments occur.
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