CHICAGO —Amtrak’s City of New Orleans has not operated since Saturday, June 27, for reasons the company’s website has not publicly explained to potential travelers.
Meanwhile, an eastern heat wave has led to bus substitutions for at least three round trips of the Raleigh-Charlotte, N.C., Piedmont because of host-railroad speed restrictions, as well as numerous cancellations on the Amtrak-owned Northeast Corridor.
City of New Orleans stopped mid-route
Following inquiries by Trains, Amtrak released a statement late on Thursday, July 2, acknowledging that the Chicago-New Orleans service “has been curtailed while inspections have been conducted.” Asked for more detail, the company acknowledged that “some trains have recently experienced wheel defects and all parties agreed inspections were necessary.”
The trains departed their terminals on Friday, June 26, on the “late” version of a schedule that has shifted between multiple departure times for the past month [see “City of New Orleans schedule changes …,” Trains.com, June 18, 2026]. The northbound City arrived into Chicago by late morning, but southbound train No. 59 was terminated at Jackson, Miss., because of what Amtrak then called a “service disruption.”…