MIAMI — No Floridian arrived or departed Chicago today (Sunday, July 19) because Amtrak lacked equipment to assemble a train in Miami on Friday, the company said. Meanwhile, extreme weather continues to lead to delays, missed connections, and inconvenience for long-distance passengers.
Floridian sidelined
The southbound Floridian and Silver Meteor, which have similar consists, arrived in Miami on Thursday, July 16, about an hour behind their scheduled 6:09 p.m. and 6:59 p.m. arrivals. The trains are normally serviced and restocked overnight at Hialeah, the Amtrak yard and station several miles north of downtown Miami. This is where most spare Viewliner diners and sleepers, as well as long-distance Amfleet II coaches, are stored.
But Friday morning’s northbound Meteor departed at 8:20 a.m., an hour and 15 minutes late, and the Floridian, due out at 11:05 a.m., never left at all.
What happened? In a statement to Trains, Amtrak said “Equipment issues prevented the origin of train 40, leading to the cancellation train 41 Sunday, July 19, from Chicago.” The cascading effect of this cancellation forced passengers scheduled on either train between Savannah, Ga., and Raleigh, N.C., or Washington, D.C., and Cleveland, to abruptly make other arrangements…