Flooding halts 'City of New Orleans' route
The train they call the City of New Orleans won't be going 500 miles when the day is done — at least through the end of the week.
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said service on the Chicago-to-New Orleans passenger train, which makes a stop in Champaign, has been suspended since April 26 because of flooding between Cairo, Ill., and Memphis.
"The fact is, the route is closed and we don't expect to operate through the weekend," Magliari said.
Magliari said passengers from Champaign can go as far south as Carbondale on the Illini and the Saluki.
"Those two routes are unaffected by this, and both of them have been picking up business because of this," he said.
Magliari said people with tickets for the City of New Orleans can get refunds. For more information, call 800 USA-RAIL.
CN spokesman Patrick Waldron said water from the Ohio River flooded over the tracks, which are owned by CN, in the area on the Kentucky side across the river from Cairo.
"The tracks have been out of service due to flooding," Waldron said. "It's a waiting game for us. We're waiting for the waters to recede."
Waldron said freight traffic has been able to move on an alternative route unaffected by the flooding to the east of Cairo.
"There's a parallel route that freight traffic is able to use," Waldron said.
Waldron said CN officials will continue to watch the tracks and will reopen them when it is safe to do so.
Magliari said the City of New Orleans will resume operations after CN tells Amtrak the route is usable and after the right-of-way has been inspected.
I was on the last City of New Orleans train running from NOLA on the 26th. Let me tell you it took 30 hours to get back to Champaign because we got up to Kentucky and then they realized the track was flooded and turned around back to Memphis. We then got on buses that took us to Carbondale, then got back on the train to resume as usual. It was a mess, we did not get back into Memphis until 7 am (we were suppose to arrive in Champaign at 6am) then we sat on the buses in Memphis for 2.5 hours before finally getting on the highway. Thank goodness for wonderful Amtrak staff in Carbondale for making the transition back onto the train smooth and super quick! It was a journey to say the least. But we made it home safe.. ..
Comments
News-Gazette.com embraces discussion of both community and world issues. We welcome you to contribute your ideas, opinions and comments, but we ask that you avoid personal attacks, vulgarity and hate speech. We reserve the right to remove any comment at our discretion, and we will block repeat offenders' accounts. To post comments, you must first be a registered user, and your username will appear with any comment you post. Happy posting.