Starting Monday, Amtrak is cutting its Northeast Corridor service to Saturday schedules; there just aren't as many people riding Acela these days.
Amtrak
WTOP in Washington reports an audit has found a good chance that the 28 new trains Amtrak was planning to begin rolling out next year could arrive late due to both manufacturing and management issues; delays could mean significant losses because the new trains can carry more passengers.
Amtrak has released some video of one of its next-generation Acela trains outside the Alstom factory in Hornell, NY. It's scheduled for a trip out to a federal train-testing facility in Colorado next month. Read more.
A downed power line in Canton is causing major havoc for Northeast Corridor and Providence and Stoughton Line train service.
An Amtrak police officer had probable cause to arrest an Amtrak worker at South Station in an argument turned shoving match over whether a woman with young children could board a train early, but the worker has the right to try to convince a jury the cop used excessive force once the worker was down on the ground and being cuffed, a federal judge ruled today. Read more.
Alon Levy ponders the oddity that is the Providence Line: Completely set up for more reliable electric trains, yet the T - which owns the tracks from South Station to the Rhode Island line - continues to run diesel locomotives on it.
Ezra Freedman reports this Amtrak inspection car pulled in at South Station this morning next to a more mundane Needham Line train.
Bridge chunks on tracks. Photo by KMV.
Granite blocks covering a retaining wall under the bridge that carries Albany Street over the Amtrak and commuter-rail tracks between South Station and Back Bay collapsed on the tracks around 6:30 p.m. WHDH reports no injuries.
Jed Hresko spotted this unhappy Amtrak baggage car at South Station yesterday.
About 18 hours after somebody was hit and killed by a commuter-rail train in Chelsea, somebody has been hit and killed by another train, this time by an Amtrak train in downtown Ashland. Transit Police report a man, 62, was hit and killed by the train at Front Street around 1:50 p.m..
Photo by Mansfield Police.
A freight car full of construction debris on the Northeast Corridor tracks in Mansfield erupted into flames around 4:30 a.m., Mansfield Police report.
Crews were able to maneuver the flaming car from the area of the Rte. 140 crossing to tracks off County Street, where the thing was still on fire as of 6:30 a.m.
Proposed expanded South Station.
A MassDOT environmental report details plans to expand South Station over nine years that would hinge on getting the Postal Service to finally abandon its giant facility along Fort Point Channel and moving the food-distribution companies of Widett Circle someplace else. Read more.
State officials announced today they'll be shutting Commonwealth Avenue near the BU Bridge July 26 to Aug. 14 as they work to replace the increasingly creaky bridge where the street crosses over the turnpike and the tracks used by the Worcester Line and Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited service.
Paths will be kept open for pedestrians and bike riders, MassDOT announced today. Read more.
NBC New York reports on the incident involving Acela Express 2151, which derailed as it was pulling into Penn Station around 9 a.m., then hit a New Jersey Transit train.
David Yamada ponders the sort of people who think the first rule of Acela Quiet Car (namely, "Be quiet!") doesn't apply to them and what to do about that.
This morning's switch problems at 128 have morphed into signal problems at Canton Junction and so Keolis is warning of Trump-level (you know, yuuge) delays on the Providence and Stoughton lines.
Keolis was blaming Amtrak signal problems for the major delays and cancellations on the Providence and Stoughton lines this morning, but Amtrak says, no, not signal problems - switch problems, near the 128 station in Westwood:
Due to a switch outage near Route 128 Station, Amtrak and commuter trains are experiencing delays moving through the area. Amtrak engineering forces are on the scene and are working to resolve the issue as quickly and safely as possible.
WBZ reports an overnight train from Washington to Boston stopped in the Bronx around 3 a.m. and then just sat there for nearly four hours, with passengers trapped inside without any heat.
![Subscribe to Amtrak](https://www.universalhub.com/misc/feed.png)