All long-distance passenger trains will be canceled on Thursday due to a possible work strike on freight railroads.
The rail freight industry and two unions were at an impasse in contract negotiations. There is a 30-day cooling off period that ends at midnight on Friday. The negotiations don't involve employees.
Outside the Northeast Corridor, where it connects Boston, New York and Washington, most of its service runs on freight railroads. Only trains that are able to reach their final destination by the Friday deadline are still operating.
Most travel in the Northeast Corridor and on related branch lines to Albany, N.Y., Harrisburg, Pa., and Springfield, Mass., will not be affected, since those rails are controlled by Amtrak.
The Southwest Chief between Los Angeles and Chicago and the California Zephyr between Chicago and San Francisco were two of the longest routes that were suspended on Tuesday.
If passengers change their reservation to another travel date, they will not have to pay the difference in fares for departures through October.
The freight rail industry and its unions are being pressured by the Biden administration to reach a deal. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the SMART Transportation Division, which represent engineers and conductors, are holding out for improvements to working conditions despite the recommendation of an emergency board.
Half the workers covered by the negotiations are represented by those unions.
The union leadership agreed to the emergency board's recommendation after the members of District 19 rejected the contract proposal.
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