Freight Railroad’s 10 MPH Speed Limit Forces Amtrak To Suspend Route

Photo: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg (Getty Images)

Amtrak’s Adirondack service returned three months ago after being shuttered for three years. Now, the route between New York City and Montreal, Canada has been suspended north of Albany, the state capital of New York. America’s government-owned railroad company was forced to halt operations due to extremely low-speed limits imposed by freight railroad Canadian National.

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Canadian National has placed a 10-mile-per-hour speed limit on 25 miles of its track outside of Montreal. The Times Union reported that Amtrak believes the speed restrictions are due to high weather temperatures. High heat combined with the weight of trains moving at normal speed would cause the tracks to warp. Again, this is just what Amtrak believes is CN’s rationale.

Amtrak was forced to suspend the Adirondack because the longer trip times would have crews working beyond their federally mandated workday limit. There’s little Amtrak can do but wait because Canadian National owns the track. CN decides what speeds are safe, how its tracks are maintained, and if those tracks should be upgraded. Canadian National decision-making had already meant that the restored Adirondack service was 30 minutes slower than it was before the pandemic.

The suspension is expected to last until at least Sunday and will have the largest impact on the communities along the route between Albany and Montreal. New York State Assemblyman Billy Jones said to the Times Union, “I am disappointed. We were just getting back to normalcy at our borders and now it feels like we are moving backward.”